Here Comes Basketball
Wed., February 12, 04:30 PM
As you know, baseball was always my game of choice. In elementary school we were taught to play basketball, which was pretty dull. We played “girls’ rules,” six people on a team, three forwards and three guards. A line divided the court into two halves, and if you were a guard, you played only on your opponent’s half and never got to shoot. No one was allowed to cross the line. Only the good shooters got to be forwards, and the guards didn’t get to practice shooting because they were guards. (And this was before the time when everyone had a hoop in the playground or in someone’s driveway.) I’d rather play baseball, where I could perform adequately – sort of.
When I was in college, baseball was more or less inaccessible. In New England’s weather, in our arctic corner of Connecticut, the school season seems to end before the ground really dries out. It was hard to watch pro baseball, because personal television sets were not permitted, and you’d be lucky to be allowed to watch the one in the lounge, if you could receive the program. The only radio baseball I could receive was the Boston Red Sox; I was a New York fan.
Fortunately, our university always had a good basketball team. This was men’s basketball, and it was exciting. I could attend any on-campus game with just my college I.D., and most of the games were on the radio as well. As I had with baseball, I learned the rules and the players. Occasionally we would hear that a player had been removed from the team for a semester because of “academic difficulties.” I was always a little proud that our school made academics a priority; it was not yet an NCAA requirement. We generally did well in the Big East and usually played in the National Invitational Tournament. (Women, of course, whether in P.E. or intramural games, were still playing girls rules.)
Then I graduated and returned home. Now baseball was back, and the college games were inaccessible. (Why would local radio or television cover a college team a hundred miles away?) The NBA didn’t offer the same excitement so, outside of checking the newspapers for mention of the college teams, I paid little attention until the early 1990’s. That was when two separate situations happened at the same time. First, I was getting more and more annoyed with baseball. Around the same time, the UConn team was gaining national attention. Suddenly the local television station was airing the games, and everybody in our office was humming the Connecticut “fight” song. “Go ahead and hum,” I told them, “I know the words.”
Within a few years, a second miracle was taking place – the emergence of women’s basketball. Our girls are exciting. Women were playing “men’s rules” now, no more of this “guards can’t shoot.” Connecticut’s Public Broadcasting station took a chance on airing the women’s championship games that year. With record audiences women’s basketball turned out to be a good fundraiser for the station The number of games they aired was increased in the following years. At present Connecticut Public Television broadcasts every single UConn Women’s game unless it is being carried by national television.
Just as there are distinct differences between college basketball and the NBA, there are differences between men’s and women’s basketball. Most of the boys playing college ball today are auditioning for the NBA. The girls are scholars who happen to play basketball. Many of them are dean’s list students. There are fewer opportunities for them to play professional ball, and the result is that the girls actually graduate.
What are the implications? Women often earn scholarships to universities they could not afford to attend; so these women are better educated. High profile women achievers are positive role models for little girls. Unlike the men, they respond to the attention by volunteering in the community. They become communicators and teachers. They become coaches. When Jen Rizzotti coached the Hartford team to the NCAA tournament last year, it began to look as if the great coaching at UConn is something that can be taught.
The idea of cutting back Title IX funding when its effects are so positive is something that only a man could think up. (Oh, wait, that’s another story.)
The UConn women are riding a record winning streak right now, and a lot of people are waiting for them to lose – as they will eventually. What’s more important is winning enough games to get to the championship. I wouldn’t miss this. Don’t bother me tonight – there’s a game on CPTV.
