I watched the Twister Sisters go down to BU ...

[runbikeswim]

Yeah, some boys just can't get beyond themselves. They bemoan the women's game and then cheer for the men when the NBA is clearly 10x superior. Thus, bubbas' boy argument doesn't make sense.

Women play a different game than men. It can be thoroughly entertaining when played the right way. I didn't enjoy watching BU beat down ISU. But I did enjoy seeing how the Twisters attacked them and played Baylor pretty much dead even for three quarters.

I still don't understand the disparity in talent across the women's game, although the volleyball explanation is a new angle that makes sense. In MBB, playing old makes up for raw talent. That doesn't happen in WBB because they all stay 4 years.

IMO there is more parity in WBB this year then the last decade. The top 7-10 seeds this year could all beat each other. Before the last two years, there were only 1 to maybe 3 teams, and hardly anyone that could touch UConn. So, it is getting better.

 

[CYdTracked]

I feel like you're confusing overall athleticism with fundamentals. And I'd put Carleton and Middleton's dribbling ability ahead of a number of D1 men that I've watched this year.

Wigginton could use a few pointers from Middleton on handling the ball. She is quick and can stop on a dime then drive right past her defender with a nice move. LW seems like whenever he tries that he winds up dribbling the ball off his leg half the time or falls down.

I wish I had watched more women's games this year. I used to go to nearly every game when I was in college which was the same class Angie Welle was in. Funny story about her, my first day of class this tall girl sits down in the row right in front of me. I'm 6 foot tall myself so up until then I'd never really been around a female taller than me. I remember thinking to myself "damn that girl is really tall, I hope she is on the basketball team." Well 1st BB game of the year and she's the starting center! Wish I could get to more games these days but just too much going on to commit that much time to both men's and women's games and all the other personal commitments I have going on. This year's team seems to have much more chemistry and play more as a team than some of the "down" years we've had lately and I think some of that has to do with the type of personalities and players we've brought in.

 

[alarson]

Do they still give out 15-16 scholarships for women's teams, as opposed to 13 for men?

Is there a particular reason the women are allowed a deeper bench of scholarship players like that? I have always thought 13 was even excessive for the men, probably tending towards more like 12 (with 3 available for each of the four years) if I had to choose.

I think its just because it helps with title ix

Having 15-20 blue chip recruits spread themselves out among second-tier programs instead of cramming themselves onto the benches of the blue bloods would help out the competitive balance of the sport significantly. Plus, I thought we all wanted to see them actually play.

Absolutely. Currently without the pro factor\more focus on education there's probably more willingness to sit on the bench on a championship team as well, as there's less need to 'be noticed' through greater and earlier playing time.

 

[cyclone13]

These are the list of basketball fundamentals and I don’t see dunking as fundamentals.
https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/youthfundamentals.html

Yes the Women’s game don’t have dunkings (save that for probably Candace Parker, Britney Griner and another player I cannot remember). However I found women’s game enjoyable.

Slightly off topic but as comparison I enjoyed watching US Women National Soccer Team waay better than the Men’s team because they play better. And I know about soccer: 1986 was my first World Cup that I watched. So fundamentals don’t always correlate with being fast, jumping higher or higher athleticsm. Look at Kurt Warner: he might not be the quickest QB nor was he nimble outside of the pockets but his fundamentals were rock solid

 

[farm85]

Can someone explain why there is such disparity in WBB both in-conference and nationally? Is it just that there are not enough talent girls in high school, that has to be it? I mean even Texas is fading. K-State's working at it, but gosh. Ku hasn't been good for decades.

ISU played their collective butts off, but for me, it seemed the game outcome was never in question. BU has two trees in the middle that the Cyclones just couldn't get around.

Surly, is this really you?? Didn't recognize your post without the trademark italics.

Just giving you a hard time

 

[Knownothing]

At least there is no mystery around how you got your screen name.

If it's so good, why is attendance so low across the country if it's so thrilling

 

[kcbob79clone]

To me basketball is NBA.

WOW no words except to say that NBA <<< College WBB < College MBB, heck NBA less than IHSAA with no shot clock.

NBA Playoffs <<<<< MBB Championship Week << March Madness

Note: I am using the '<' as a 'less than'.

Brent Blum is that you using an alias

 

[cyputz]

I thought Middleton is a very determined athletic smart player. You could see she wanted the ball.

 

[kcdc4isu]

If it's so good, why is attendance so low across the country if it's so thrilling

Two questions, have you seen the crowds at many of the men's games (not counting Hilton) this year? Second if you dislike the women's game why watch and post on the women's board? The game is more like what basketball is supposed to be played like, a team game usjng basic skills.

 

[BoxsterCy]

As far as ball handling, I'd take our team over Baylor's 10 times out of 10. Carleton and Middleton are two of the best out there. Baylor did a good job staying tight on our shooters out of the three-point line, forcing us to go inside to their strength. They honestly played good defense against us all night, but we were working our asses off for points.

We did a great job tiring their bigs out for 3 quarters, but KM countered by slowing the game into a half court game and dominated us inside in the fourth. That final score looks bad, but anyone that watched the game knows that was a helluva game for 3 quarters.

^ That bolded part, truth! Texas gave us good looks from three in the 1st quarter (like playing H-O-R-S-E compared to Baylor) and we made 6 of them in the 1st. Turned out to be the difference in the game. We were hot from 3 in the first half vs Texas but they were unhurried in rhythm shots.

Even with Baylor almost eliminating that big part of our game we hung tough for over 30 minutes. Some good coaching from both benches too.

 

[Cyclone1995]

I always thought the half court game was fun to watch back in the day.

It wasn't fun to play. It's why I dropped out of basketball.

 

[SolarGarlic]

Womens basketball in my opinion is terrible. Women have other sports that take a lot of the talent like Volleyball, Soccer, Softball and many others. Womens basketball is boring as hell, The fundamentals are terrible, No dunking. It's just not interesting. It's like watching a game that is just not as good. Other womens sports are pretty good, like soccer and Volleyball because they can play the same game as the men.

So basically the talent pool in womens basketball is not that good compared to men which makes it unequal. Not to mention that the game has not evolved. It's like UCLA back in the day. The talent was all at UCLA. Wooden was not a great coach. He had the best players and the rest of the talent was spread all over the place. BTW Wooden cheated his ass off also.

I agree that women's basketball isn't the best product, but I enjoy the game, and I can appreciate their skills.

But you think women are playing the same game as men in soccer and volleyball? What are you watching?

 

[HFCS]

WOW no words except to say that NBA <<< College WBB < College MBB, heck NBA less than IHSAA with no shot clock.

NBA Playoffs <<<<< MBB Championship Week << March Madness

Note: I am using the '<' as a 'less than'.

Brent Blum is that you using an alias

I love the format of college basketball postseason, but the quality of the basketball quite often sucks. These players can't make open shots that the worst shooters in the NBA make in their sleep. Regular season college basketball is unwatchable unless you have a passionate love for school or team.

My point is when you have the best shooters and best defenders and best athletes and longest athletes in the world...the 3 point shot makes sense and is actually becoming MORE common. Women's college hoops talent distribution is so out of whack that the best teams don't even have to try 3s.

 

[dafarmer]

I noticed the close-ups of Mulkey standing, whining and complaining all the time. Does she have hemorrhoids, or is she just a trailer trash beeotch.

 

[Walden4Prez]

I noticed the close-ups of Mulkey standing, whining and complaining all the time. Does she have hemorrhoids, or is she just a trailer trash beeotch.

Little of column A, Little of Column B

 

[surly]

Surly, is this really you?? Didn't recognize your post without the trademark italics.

Just giving you a hard time

An ISU fan said it bothered him that I used cursive, so I changed the font. I like this crowd (for the most part) and don't want that to distract the chatter.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Do they still give out 15-16 scholarships for women's teams, as opposed to 13 for men?

Is there a particular reason the women are allowed a deeper bench of scholarship players like that? I have always thought 13 was even excessive for the men, probably tending towards more like 12 (with 3 available for each of the four years) if I had to choose.

Having 15-20 blue chip recruits spread themselves out among second-tier programs instead of cramming themselves onto the benches of the blue bloods would help out the competitive balance of the sport significantly. Plus, I thought we all wanted to see them actually play.

Is it just a little help to tip the scales on balancing Title IX requirements?

.

They do still have 15 scholarships available for WBB however I am not sure that is any real factor in parity. Not a lot of teams carry 15 scholarship players. Baylor is #1 in the country and has a full roster of only 12 gals this season. UConn has 10 players on their roster (one gal left in December) and Miss State has 13, etc. If you have a roster full of five stars and high four stars they are not all going to just wait to play, at least more than a year. They will just transfer, and do!

ISU has 14 and looks to have that again if no one leaves and Ines gets her eligibility appeal. Who knows, we might even be at 15 if we get a transfer but it still doesn't fit the top teams doing roster hoarding due to increased scholarship limits because we are not a Top 10 elite program. We normally are more at the 12 -13 level like MBB.

 

[SolarGarlic]

I love the format of college basketball postseason, but the quality of the basketball quite often sucks. These players can't make open shots that the worst shooters in the NBA make in their sleep. Regular season college basketball is unwatchable unless you have a passionate love for school or team.

My point is when you have the best shooters and best defenders and best athletes and longest athletes in the world...the 3 point shot makes sense and is actually becoming MORE common. Women's college hoops talent distribution is so out of whack that the best teams don't even have to try 3s.

I've never really understood this narrative. You mean to tell me that professional basketball players are better than college basketball players?! No way.

College basketball players are very good at what they do, and one of the best parts of watching tournament basketball is when the best teams elevate their play.

You can say the quality of basketball sucks, but in comparison to what? The NBA? Duh. It's still one of the highest levels of the sport, and anybody who's played the game understands how good you have to be to get to a D1 school, let alone, to a power conference school.

 

[HFCS]

I've never really understood this narrative. You mean to tell me that professional basketball players are better than college basketball players?! No way.

College basketball players are very good at what they do, and one of the best parts of watching tournament basketball is when the best teams elevate their play.

You can say the quality of basketball sucks, but in comparison to what? The NBA? Duh. It's still one of the highest levels of the sport, and anybody who's played the game understands how good you have to be to get to a D1 school, let alone, to a power conference school.

The average college player clanks an open 10-15 footer. The average below average shooter NBA pro makes it easily. Joe College Basketball Fan calls that "bad defense" in a total fallacy that college players play better defense than NBA players, along a lot of other things they can't mathematically process.

My point though...and I don't think this can't be argued against...is that when you have the absolute best, longest, fastest, strongest, biggest athletes the three point shot is becoming MORE common. Yet here in women's college hoops the talent distribution is so out of whack that the best team can get by without taking any 3s.

I know even less about WNBA than I do about women's college hoops but I'm guessing the best team in the WNBA always has 3 point shooting as part of their strategy because the size and talent is probably more evenly distributed.

 

[tim_redd]

Iowa State completely left a few girls wide open last night. When one of those girls finally shot the ball you can understand why. Ugly is an understatement for that girl's jumpshot.