First of all, Congratulations to the Connecticut Huskies Women's Basketball team for claiming the longest winning streak in NCAA sports history, a truly amazing feat. The Lady Huskies have won each game by an astonishing average of a 33.3 point differential. Prior to last night's game, Head Coach Geno Auriemma made many ill-timed, unneccessary statements. "I just know there wouldn't be this many people in the room if we were chasing a woman's record," he said. "The reason everybody is having a heart attack the last four or five days is a bunch of women are threatening to break a men's record, and everybody is all up in arms about it.
Well honestly Geno, no one is "up in arms about it" because it is in fact women's basketball. Tonight I watched the Orlando Magic versus the Dallas Mavericks on NBA TV, instead of your girls break the record. Why? At the end of the day you are still coaching women's basketball. Although it is considered the purest form of basketball in the world due to the lack of player size, jumping ability, and increased utilization of mid-range jump shots, it's not entertaining. For such an important game I barely hesitated to change the channel from a game between two NBA teams I don't care about to the 89th consecutive win game for the UCONN ladies (Plus the Maverick-Magic game actually turned out to be pretty good).
I guarantee no men's team will ever break the UCONN Women's basketball team win streak if it ever ends, let alone John Wooden's UCLA Men's basketball win streak. The reason is parity, or lack there of I should say. The Lady Huskies defeated the number 11 ranked Ohio State Women's basketball team by 31 points on Sunday. Only 3 times in the past 3 years worth of games has a team come within 10 or fewer points of Connecticut. That's absurd. What would make Geno Auriemma think that anyone cares about his Women's basketball games when everyone knows they are going to win. There was not the slightest chance that number 20 Florida State knocked them off tonight.
Auriemma also says, "Because we're breaking a men's record, we've got a lot of people paying attention. If we were breaking a women's record, everybody would go, 'Aren't those girls nice, let's give them two paragraphs in USA Today, give them one line on the bottom of ESPN and then let's send them back where they belong, in the kitchen.' " Yes, there are a lot of people paying attention to the streak now, but not because it is a men's basketball streak, but because of how legendary the UCLA teams were that earned it to begin with. Maybe Geno did this as a stunt to attract more attention to the struggling sport of women's basketball, maybe he really believes what he said, either way, Geno should probably head to the kitchen before anyone else should so he can cook up some better educated statements and ask himself, "Am I in it for my ego, or the good of my team". If he is looking for comparisons to John Wooden, this doesn't help his case. This whiny tantrum is something that would never come from the beloved John Wooden (a longtime supporter of the Lady Huskies).
The streak is obviously a significant, important day in the sports world which signifies the reason that people watch, play, and show admiration in all sports: the jaunt for excellence. The NCAA sports winning streak has been broken, and the NCAA Women's basketball winning streak has most certainly been shattered, but the NCAA Men's basketball winning streak has not, and never will be overcome by another Men's team. John Wooden's UCLA basketball teams stand alone in not only the talent they possessed, but the talent they faced. For this reason, Geno Auriemma's legacy will never truly stand close to the Great John Wooden's.
P.S. - The Lingerie Football League's very own Los Angeles Temptation face the San Diego Seduction on New Years day at 9 PM. I recommend tuning in, it might be the only women's sports I watch for the entire new year. That and the Lingerie Bowl February 6th...
Really interesting read here. I think that the streak is fairly impressive but as streaks go I can't say it's at the top of my list. It's such a touchy issue when you talk about women's sports and how it compares to men's and how much or how little attention women's sports garners. I just think that it's tough to compare this streak to some of the great one's. The coach of UConn's women's team obviously thinks differently. 89 is a lot of wins in a row no matter what, but with the amount of competition they have to face is it really. Also, you think you could check out my blog cuz I really would love to hear what you have to say about my thoughts. http://chrisross91.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/congratulations-uconn-women-however/
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