All posts tagged UConn

UConn and Stanford Women To Play for NCAA Championship

By | April 5, 2010 | Basketball, NCAA, Women's Sports | Comments Off

The final is set. Tomorrow night UConn Huskies and the Stanford Cardinals will be facing off tomorrow night in San Antonio, Texas for the NCAA Women’s Basketball title game.

The final four scores don’t actually tell the stories of the games. Stanford beat Oklahoma 73 – 66 but the game wasn’t even close until the final two minutes. Oklahoma never had the lead even once during this game, and most of the time Stanford was ahead by more than 10 points. Oklahoma just couldn’t stop Nnemkadi Ogwumike. She scored 38 points during the semi-final. Thirty-eight points! That makes her the woman that has scored the second most points in an NCAA Final Four game. The only woman who outscored Ogwumike in a late round tournament game was Sheryl Swoope. Swoopes scored 47 points in the National Championship game in 1993.

The final score of the other semi-final was UConn 70 – Baylor 50. While Baylor never actually had the lead, the game was very close for a good deal of the second half. Baylor came out of halftime on fire, the Lady Bears scored 12 unanswered points right out of the locker room.

This game was nothing like I expected. Yes, I knew Baylor was good. But good enough to hang with Connecticut? To be within 4 points early in the second half? I never would have predicted that.

- Kacileigh – Women Talk Sports

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The first ten minutes of the second half of this game was intense, then everything fell apart for Baylor. The UConn dominance we’ve been seeing all year was back. Maya Moore (who, by the way, has a 3.7 grade point average and is considering applying for a Rhodes scholarship in 2011) could not be stopped. Moore had 12 rebounds and 34 points in the game (she had 21 points in the first half. The entire Baylor team had 26 first half points.) moving her ahead of Rebecca Lobo and Kara Wolters into fifth place on the UConn all-time scoring list with a current total of 2,145 points. Tina Charles also had a monster game with 13 rebounds, 4 assists and 21 points – and that was matched up against 6′ 8″ Brittney Griner.

Brittney Griner set a tournament record herself. She had 35 block in the series.

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Now The University of Connecticut will face Stanford. Stanford has won 27 games in a row. Their only loss all year wasback in December – to UConn.

UConn has now won a record 77 games in a row. Their last loss? April 2008 – to Stanford.

If Geno Auriemma can coach The Huskies to their 78th consecutive victory it will be the 7th time he has coached The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team to a NCAA Championship.

I am hoping for another Stanford buzzer beater, but I’m betting on UConn.

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Originally written for and cross posted on BlogHer.com

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UCONN Dominance and Watching the NCAA Women’s Tournament

By | April 1, 2010 | Basketball, Women's Sports | Comments Off

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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U Conn Women Set NCAA Winning Streak Record

By | March 9, 2010 | Basketball, NCAA | 1 Comment

The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team has won an NCAA women’s record of wins with 71 games in a row. 71.

I haven’t won 71 anything in a row, ever, excluding managing to get out of bed 71 days in a row which I have to admit is sometimes a little iffy. Have you?

The Huskies have won every game – every game – since March 11, 2003, by double-digits – specifically an average of 32.5 points. Melanie Jackson at ESPN listed some of the most memorable games in the streak.

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Coach Geno Auriemma says it’s good for their sport.

“You know, there’s people talking about women’s basketball now that wouldn’t be talking about it this time of year because of what we’re doing,’’ he said. “We have a way here at Connecticut of making everybody around the country talk about women’s basketball. We’ve been known to do that for a long time.’’

Auriemma keeps the Huskies, including star players Tina Charles and Maya Moore, focused on the championship, downplaying the milestone celebrations. I guess this is understandable, because what happens when you finally lose, if you ever do? Who wants to think about that?

They certainly don’t, but I’m sure the team that hopes to beat them does. Congratulate these players in the meantime. They may not be allowed to celebrate, but even this Maryland fan will give them a round of applause today.

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