When I said NCAA tournament, I meant Men's

by krazieman on Mar 21, 2006 2:12 PM CST

Seriously, that's not a dunk
My personal opinion is that women's basketball is one of the worst spectator sports to watch. The excitement level rivals that of curling. It's bad enough that all WNBA franchises are in the red and barely kept afloat by revenues from the NBA, but why is there so much press coverage over a girl dunking in an NCAA game.

Candace Parker of Tennessee managed to "dunk" twice against Army in the NCAA tournament this weekend. Why do I even know this? It's because ESPN attempts to continually shove the women's NCAA tournament down the audience's throats even though most people care about this as much as they care about Richard Simmon's next workout video.

If you look at the pictures, you can tell that she barely cleared the rim. Actually it appears in the first picture that she laid the ball in over the rim and grabbed the rim. This is obvious because of the position of the ball. In a true dunk, the ball would be already thru the rim. The worst tragedy was when Ms. Parker won the McDonald's all american slam dunk contest in 2005 against the high school men. She was able to complete a regular one handed dunk and was awarded the full 50pts whereas other kids doing 360's and windmills were awarded lower scores.

Anyways, I would just like ESPN and the media to stop shoving this crap at us. How many people printed out a bracket of the women's NCAA tournament? How many people even knew there was a women's tournament or could name more than one team in the tournament? I'm sure the bookies are cashing in on the rake from those women's tournament pools now.

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women

I've paid attention to more women's basketball over the past few years than I ever thought I would. My wife covers it for the paper, so I was drawn in. And I filled out a women's bracket.

For the most part, it isn't very exciting. But when you get good teams playing each other in the tournament, the games are entertaining and competitive, and there are a lot of talented players.

And, no, those were not dunks.

by Jason Mayer on Mar 21, 2006 2:28 PM CST reply actions

Dunks?!

Yeah, and I'm Cat freakin' Osterman.

I heard on NPR this morning (NPR for God's sake!) about this girl "dunking." So first thing when I get to work, I go to espn.com and watch the video.

Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed. That, my friends, is not a dunk. Hell, I can pretty much do a lay-up and grab the rim - someone call espn and have them do a story on the first-white-guy-outside-of-the-NCAA-Tourney-to-"dunk"-in-retaliation-to-Candace-Parker.

I still can't believe that NPR covered that. Ugh.

by Broccoli on Mar 21, 2006 2:45 PM CST reply actions

Lighten up folks...

First of all, let me start by saying that I as well do not give a damn about the women's tournament. That said, some pretty knowledgable basketball minds (John Wooden for example) have said that women's basketball is the best basketball played today. Not sure what he meant by that, but I'm assuming he's referring to their fundamentals. The main complaint I have is the utter lack of parity in the women's game. For example #1 seeded Duke obliterated #16 seed Southern 95-27 or something ridiculous like that. However, just beacuse the women's tournament is not as competitive and exciting as the men's doesn't make it entirely worthless.

As for ESPN shoving it down our throats, what do you expect? Their the ones shelling out all the dough to broadcast the event. You damn right they're going to promote it in anyway possible.

by Michael Bean on Mar 21, 2006 3:14 PM CST reply actions

October 14, 1910

That's when Wooden was born.

My complaint is not so much with women's basketball, the Tourney, etc., but with the much ado made of Candace's "dunk," when it's not even a dunk. Like I said, NPR.

by Broccoli on Mar 21, 2006 3:54 PM CST up reply actions

Women's bball

If all people cared about were fundamentals, then Bob Cousy would be the best point guard of all time.

Men's basketball players (NBA and college) are not as good fundamentally as they were in the 60s and 70s. But it is also more exciting.

I'm not even sure if it is the fundamentals that makes women's basketball so boring. Maybe if they lowered the hoop to 8 feet, it would be more fun to watch.

GO BRUINS. HOOK 'EM HORNS.

A Trojan can only be used once. A Bruin is forever.

by uclawarren on Mar 21, 2006 3:59 PM CST up reply actions

Dont know about lowering the hoop

you could lower the hoop to 8 feet at my pickup game on Wednesday nights, we would dunk all over it, but I don't think it would become a spectator sport.

Also, I don't know because I have not seen much video of the NBA from the 60s and 70s, but it has to have been better than the junk that I have seen over the last 5 years.

by Wells on Mar 21, 2006 4:42 PM CST up reply actions