The Tennessee Volunteers won the women's basketball national championship! Candace Parker took home her second Final Four Most Outstanding Player! You were following the women's bracket, right?
Well, my guess would be no. This time of the year is all about the men's tournament. Maybe you've heard about Stephen Curry, Psycho T and Memphis' title game collapse. But it's less likely you've heard about Parker and her Volunteers or Maya Moore and her Huskies, even though those are the two best women's college basketball programs in the country. Most people surely could not name the other half of the Final Four: Stanford and LSU, both No. 2 seeds.
So what's the problem with women's basketball? It comes down to two things: excitement and parity. One feeds into the other.
It's not fun to watch a tournament when you know that there are two teams that are overwhelming favorites to make it to the end. Tennessee and UConn have combined to win five of the past seven championships and 10 of the past 13. Geno Auriemma, coach of the Huskies, has a 655-122 record and five championships in 23 seasons. Pat Summitt, coach of the Volunteers, has gone 983-182 over 34 seasons and won eight championships. The two teams have faced each other four times in the national championship game, three more times than any other pair.
While it produces a great rivalry and makes for a great time for fans of either team, it takes away from the growth and respectability of the sport itself. The men's tourney gives us feel-good stories and shows us how anything is possible. Ten different teams have won the championship in the past twelve years. The women's tourney gives us UConn vs. Tennessee.
So here's a new question: Why is there only enough talent in women's basketball to support two powerhouses?
Well, how many little girls really want to grow up to be basketball stars? Most probably wouldn't view it as a glamorous fate. But perhaps the problem is with basketball and not the girls.
Women's basketball is not exciting. There are certainly talented players, and they are certainly fundamentally sound. But they are certainly not fun to watch. So let's just get to the elephant in the room; there are almost no dunks in women's basketball.
Candace Parker is famous for being the first woman to dunk in an NCAA Tournament game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college game. Meanwhile, in men's basketball, Joe Schmo from Bumbletown University can throw down some of the sickest jams you've ever seen. Who are you going to watch, Candace or Joe?
Basketball without dunking is just anticlimactic. It's like baseball without the home runs, football without the hits or NASCAR without the car crashes. Sure, the rest of the time is fun, but those are the moments that fans live for.
It's no secret that men are generally stronger and faster than women. As Ron Burgundy would say, "It's science." The men's world record for the high jump is a little more than eight feet, whereas the women's record is about 6.8 feet. At the same time, men are about five to six inches taller than women on average. And yet, both men and women play basketball with hoops of the same height.
It doesn't make sense. The women's ball is smaller, but the basket is the same height? It simply needs to be lowered.
Sure, it'll mess with some players' shots for a while, but so what? You're making the rim lower: Shooting should become easier. Contests will be higher-scoring and more exciting, while the game will be accessible to more girls and a deeper pool of talent. Candace Parker shouldn't be the only woman to dunk in college basketball; she should be the LeBron James of women's dunking. And she could be.
David Heck is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at David.Heck@tufts.edu.
