All posts tagged Brittney Griner

UCONN Dominance and Watching the NCAA Women’s Tournament

Sure, sure, we’re all been watching March Madness, in the men’s tournament there have been an unusual number of extraordinarily close games and there have been a ton of upsets this year, but are you also watching the NCAA Women’s basketball games? If not, you sure are missing something.

There has been a lot of talk about the dominance of The University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team, and if you have seen them play you know why. Not only have they gone undefeated for over two years, but they have absolutely destroyed their competition.uconn-womens-basketball-team

Look at UCONN’s scores so far:

Round 1:

Connecticut 95, Southern University 39

Round 2:

Connecticut 90, Temple 36

Round 3:

Connecticut 74, Iowa State 36

Round 4:

Connecticut 90, Florida State 50

Come on! Last night The Huskies beat the 3 seed FSU by 40 points and it was the only game of the tournament so far where they haven’t double their opponent’s score.

So is this level of dominance good or bad for women’s basketball?women's basketball

Some people say it is a bad thing, that it is boring when the same team wins everything all of the time. That one sided games are hard to watch. I get that. I agree with that, mostly. Then I watch a UCONN game, and if you can stop yourself from feeling sorry for the other team it is sort of like art. Maya Moore and Tina Charles lead this team in a way that is almost like watching Kobe and Shaq back in the day. Except better.

The problem is that people aren’t saying that Moore and Charles are amazing. They are saying that the UCONN doesn’t have any decent competition.

(Denise, this is when you yell PATRIARCHY!)

It clearly isn’t true. There are other VERY good NCAA women’s teams. This Sunday UCONN will face Baylor. Baylor is where Brittney Griner plays. You remember me talking about Griner, right? The 6′ 8″ freshman who can dunk? Now, I am not putting down any cash against the Huskies, but I think that Griner and The Bears will give them a much tougher game than their previous four.

There are some proponents who say that the UCONN dominance is a good thing. Why? Because even the mainstream male dominated media is talking about them. And them talking about women’s college basketball at all is a good thing for the sport.

I personally think that the Connecticut/Baylor game is one that shouldn’t be missed, and the winner of that game will play either Oklahoma or Stanford.

If you want to see some exciting basketball, check out the Stanford ladies taking out Xavier in the final second of the game this week.

It doesn’t really matter what your feelings are on UCONN’s dominance. These ladies put on a good show. They haven’t lost a game since April 4, 2008 – and they lost that game to Stanford.

Just keep watching. This tournament isn’t over yet.

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Cross posted on BlogHer.com

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Brittney Griner Punches Texas Tech Player During NCAA Game

Brittney Griner, the 6′ 8″ Freshman from Baylor who dunks, got suspended this week after punching Texas Tech’s Jordan Barncastle in the head.

Barncastle left the game with a broken nose.

See?

It would appear that women are totally ready to play in the NBA.

Girls Can Dunk

While the rest of the world was waiting on pins and needles to see who would end up in the NFL Playoffs and the D.C. area was awaiting the fate of Jim Zorn, Brittney Griner was in Waco, Texas dunking twice.

You heard me right, and yes, Brittney Griner is a girl.

Watch this.

She dunked twice, and she did so with style. Griner became the only the second women to dunk twice during a NCAA game. The first was Candace Parker. Parker had two dunks against Army when she played for Tennessee back in March of 2005.

Now I’d like to see those men who try to tell me that women’s basketball is boring.

Like my friend Megan pointed out this story even made Deadspin and as a longtime reader and fan of Deadspin I can tell you that you don’t see much women’s college basketball news over there unless somebody got impregnated by football player or posted naked pictures of herself on facebook.

The dunking is awesome, but that aside, Griner had 26 points, eight rebound and three blocks in the game against Texas State.

Her stats get better. Brittney Griner just broke Baylor’s single season record for blocked shots. She blocked 88 shots in 14 only games! Can you even imagine what her numbers are going to look like at the end of this season?Brittney-Griner-Dunk

Did I mention Brittney Griner is a true freshman? She just turned 19 in October. She is 6′ 8″ and she might not even be done growing yet.

Just to sweeten this whole thing Miss Griner and her team gave their coach, Kim Mulkey, her 250th career win by beating Texas State 99 -18.

Kim Mulkey understands what kind of phenomenon she is working with here.

“They say records are meant to be broken,” said Mulkey about Griner’s blocking prowess. “I’m not sure that when she finishes her four years that anyone will ever come close to her shot block record.”

- Cheryl Coward quoting Kim Mulkey on Hoopfeed.com

I have a feeling that Brittney Griner is going to be a household name pretty soon.

Baylor’s women’s basketball team is currently ranked fifth in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls but I am guessing that if you looked at the tv ratings or attendance records for 2010 they will be number one.I know I will be watching.

Cross posted and originally written for BlogHer.com

[photo: Glenn Nelson]

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