Women's college basketball deserves even more exposure and attention | Bohls
While I got ya, here are nine things and one crazy prediction:
After Caitlin Clark, will women's basketball make a sound?
1. High on hoops: They made the court too small or maybe the game’s just too big right now. The dimensions in the Portland 4 Regional weren’t correct, but women’s college basketball is becoming multi-dimensional and- is just exploding. Never been hotter. Its television ratings show it. Your eyeballs show it. The game on the court shows it. Now they just have to capitalize on it with a full-court pressure as ESPN plans to with its new eight-year deal with the women’s game. It’s never been in a better place, but the NCAA has to do its part. The Portland 4 Regional, in too many respects, was “a train wreck,” one college expert told me. From the debacle on the court where one 3-point line was nine inches shorter than the other to the confusion with the failure to properly inform the teams and coaches about the timing for the national anthem to other bureaucratic screwups, women’s basketball deserves better. Otherwise, I worry if the game’s popularity slips a bit when Caitlin Clark leaves for the WNBA and the LSU off-court controversies die down. The sport has been driven by the magnitude of the personalities and their star power and the shooting prowess and increasing athleticism in the game. Iowa’s first NCAA Tournament game against 16-seed Holy Cross drew 3.23 million viewers. That’s more than UConn’s men’s national title game win in 2016. Listen, between Clark’s sensational career, South Carolina’s two-year run of dominance, LSU’s 2023 title and Kim Mulkey's budding future as a newspaper editor, women’s basketball definitely overshadowed the men’s game this year and has offered a completely compelling product. But four of the top five most-watched women’s games involved Iowa and Clark. Can that be sustained? Let’s hope so. We all realize freshman sensations like Texas’ Madison Booker, USC’s JuJu Watkins and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo are exciting and hopefully will drive the needle, but Clark is the Taylor Swift of college basketball. “I would like to think our game is in pretty good shape,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “Obviously from a fan point of view, it would certainly appear to be. I’m still very disappointed in the floor gaffe that we had in our regional.” Can’t blame him a bit. What would have been the reaction if the 3-point lines for a men’s tournament game were discovered not to be uniform, would the outrage have been greater? Of course, it would. The controversy would have very long shelf life. Get with it, NCAA. The women’s game is just as important as the men’s. When I asked Schaefer who’s the next Caitlin Clark, he said, “Who knows? There’s always someone on a driveway somewhere shooting hoops with no backboard.”
Looking for early impacts among Texas freshmen
2. Freshmen finds: When I asked Steve Sarkisian which of his new true freshmen are acting, looking and practicing nothing like freshmen, the Texas football coach was reluctant to say any of his rookies are rising to the front as leaders and big-impact players. “It’s too hard to tell yet if any of them are going to step into leadership roles,” Sarkisian said Tuesday. “There’s a lot on their plates right now. I have no complaint with any of the guys, but one guy who has stood out is (wide receiver) Ryan Wingo. He’s starting to make plays, and you can see his size, speed and athleticism. But I don't think any have ascended into leaders yet.” … Sark is very high on sophomore running back Tre Wisner and sees him “with a role for us this fall. He has really been impressive. He’s at the top of our hardest workers on the team, and that’s paid dividends for him.”
Never thought this day would come, but so long, Eddie
3. Best of 'em all: It’ll be hard to replace the irreplaceable Eddie Reese after his 15 swimming and diving national titles, but at least Bob Bowman will at least have the 82-year-old legend hanging around. Not as a GA, but as coaching emeritus for the entire UT athletic department, athletic director Chris Del Conte said Tuesday after introducing Reese’s replacement as Longhorns director of swimming and diving. Bowman's fresh off a national championship at Arizona State. He's more than competent, highly respected in those circles, and said the message will remain the same: work harder and go faster, and the end results will take care of themselves. Bowman has the same self-deprecating sense of humor and warmth as Reese, who said he took issue in a deadpan way that he took the Texas job in 1979 when Bowman was 12. When I asked Bowman if his prize pupil Michael Phelps would have won any of his Olympic gold medals without him, Bowman said, “You could probably have coached Michael to a medal, but probably not 23. The best advice I gave him was to ‘Be you and do your thing. Step up in the moment and go for it.’“ … He added that he’s “not replacing Eddie, I’m just the next guy.” I kidded Reese, who has retired twice, how long this retirement would last. “Retirement is the wrong word. I’m just changing jobs,” he replied. And how does he see his new job working out? “I plan to give Chris a lot of advice,” he kidded. He joked it’s been awhile since he began coaching PE at an elementary school in New Mexico. He did say he plans to help coach up his successor on how to hunt and fish. And what will he miss the most in the day-to-day coach? Reese said as only he could, “I’ll probably miss these press conferences the most.” Always with a zinger. We’d expect nothing less from probably the best coach Texas has ever had, no matter the sport or gender.
More: Hall of Fame swim coach Bob Bowman will replace Eddie Reese at Texas
Next year looks even better for Texas basketball
4. No backtracking: Major props to Schaefer and his game bunch of Longhorns in making it all the way to the Elite Eight with a freshman small forward pressed into playing point guard and without a sure-fire perimeter shooter. With four starters returning, next year promises to be even better. “I’m certainly fired up,” he said. Does he expect Rori Harmon to be back for the season opener after tearing her ACL? “I don’t have any reason to think she won’t. She’s already ahead of the game and has a tremendous work ethic.” … Schaefer hasn’t filled out next year’s schedule, but has talked with USC and “we’re talking to TV about playing the top five or six teams in the country. I can’t play ‘em all. I can’t play a death row, but it’ll be pretty good.” … He doesn’t expect to lose anyone besides seniors Shaylee Gonzales and Khadija Faye and loves his three incoming freshmen, who he said “are really talented and fearless. And if there’s someone in the portal who fits our style and can help us win, we’ll certainly try to get ‘em."
More: With college career complete, Texas guard Shaylee Gonzales prepares for 2024 WNBA draft
Is Xavier Worthy a good fit for the Philadelphia Eagles?
5. X marks the spot: Latest mock draft has Xavier Worthy perhaps going to the Eagles in the first round. He’s definitely first-round worthy. I’ll be surprised if Philadelphia takes him since it already has an elite wide receiver tandem in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Pro Football Focus raves about Worthy’s “understanding of angles and leverage,” not to mention his speed and downfield ability. Most expect the Eagles to look at their secondary as a position of greater need. … Ran into Sam Ehlinger on Tuesday, and the former Longhorns quarterback looks buffed and ready for his third season as a backup with the Indianapolis Colts alongside Joe Flacco and starter Anthony Richardson. He reports for OTAs in two weeks and enters the final year of his three-year rookie contract. He said he still has no plans to go into coaching because “I’m not sure they ever see their families,” and he likes Quinn Ewers' decision to return to school and play behind “arguably the best offensive line Texas has had in a long time.”
Thoughts, musings on March Madness
6. Scapegoats or goats: You’ve got to be happy for Purdue’s Zach Edey and Matt Painter reaching the Final Four after all the abuse they took in the loss to 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson last year. But you have to hurt for Tennessee’s Rick Barnes in falling just short of his second Final Four. … Hats off to Alabama. I had no idea the Crimson Tide lost nine players and three assistant coaches from last season and still made the Final Four? Is Nate Oats the best coach in men’s basketball right now after Dan Hurley?
More: Alfred, Longhorn friends on track for Olympic gold | Bohls
The next great Texas track star?
7. A star is born: Texas track coach Edrick Floreal raved about John Rutledge, who anchored the Longhorns’ winning 400-meter relay at Saturday’s Texas Relays. Rutledge teamed up with Marcellus Moore, Nolton Shelvin and Almond Small to become the first Longhorns foursome to win the relay since 1990. Rutledge also combined with Brian Herron, Yusuf Bizimana and Shelvin to take the sprint medley relay in 3:15.03. Flo has tried to cut back Rutledge’s schedule and not load him up with so many events because the Texas sophomore “is so skinny. I’m chicken, whatever you want to call it. I’m just trying to keep him healthy. But he’s going to be special. I’ve set him up to be a star. He is on a roll. He’s very strong. He’s a little small but he reminds me of Jeremy Wariner. You look at him, they move similar. He’s going to do something special. I want him to get a little bit bigger and we’re working on that.” That’s high praise since the gangly Wariner was the nation’s premier 400-meter runner for a decade and won four Olympic medals, three of them gold, as well as six world championships. … Asked if he likes to trash talk, Rutledge said, “Nah, I like to keep my mouth shut and just let my action do the work.”
More: Texas decathlete Leo Neugebauer is on collision course with international stardom | Golden
Whatever happened to ...
8. Scattershooting: While wondering whatever happened to former Cowboys running back Duane Thomas, who once said if the Super Bowl was “the ultimate game, then why are they playing it again next year?” Man had a point. ... Last week’s target, Jackie Swaim, is a school administrator at Danbury Public School in Connecticut.
You saw something I obviously didn't, Academy Awards
9. On the couch: Endured “Poor Things,” a bizarre Frankensteinish takeoff that earned Emma Stone an Oscar. This movie stretches the imagination, offered outlandish costuming to make Kim Mulkey jealous, gave Stone an intriguing outlet for her incredible talent and is as quirky and raw as you can get. Willem Dafoe was made for the role of creepy mad scientist. It pushes the envelope in a huge way, but not my envelope. Gave it four ducks.
Texas will be tops to open the 2024 season
Crazy prediction: The Texas women’s basketball team will start next season as the No. 1 team in the country.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Popular women's college basketball deserves first-class treatment
