The Best Team in the Tournament Nobody Seems to Care About

I know, I know, “men’s basketball is more exciting to watch because they dunk” or whatever other silly excuse is used to justify not paying ANY attention to the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.

Lavar Ball, who is exploiting his sons’ basketball talents to compensate for his insecurity about his own basketball abilities by spouting off through a microphone, is getting SIGNIFICANTLY more coverage on the cable networks than UConn Women’s Basketball who has won 109 games in a row and is about to win their 5th national championship in a row.

Admittedly, I do not particularly enjoy watching the Huskies consistently dominate other D1 schools by 40 points either. But can we all at least recognize the level of basketball at which these women are performing and agree they deserve at least a bigger share of the talking head/blogger pie than they’re getting?

The sports media however is not to blame. We, the sports media consumers are to blame. Geno Auriemma is an outstanding coach who has been nothing but a class act and has instilled that in his players. Of course they get the best recruits every year, but Geno is the one convincing them to join his system and out-coaching the other schools who also get 5-star recruits routinely.

It would take a catastrophe for the UConn Huskies not to win the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight year and there’s little doubt the lack of parity has hurt the women’s college basketball brand. But not a day should go by that the Huskies and Geno Auriemma aren’t praised by the pundits and anchors for their continued success.

Watch a women’s tournament game. They may not dunk or play above the rim like the men do, but they do work just as hard for a fraction of the glory that comes along with winning the men’s tournament which speaks to their competitiveness and passion for the game. If you’re a basketball fan you should be a basketball fan, not a “men’s basketball fan.”