I’ve always enjoyed college basketball. Men’s college basketball anyway. It always seemed more intense, with more hustle and percieved effort then you saw in the NBA (excluding a select few players). I never was much of a fan of women’s college ball though, it just seemed like high school ball in comparison to the men’s game. Tonight, I’m proud to admit that I no longer hold that semi-sexist notion.
I just saw the Minnesota Women’s team beat Duke. I admit my obvious bias (I live in Minneapolis), but even so I have to say it was quite possibly one of the most hard-fought basketball games I’ve ever seen. Bodies flying everywhere, tough defense, incredible shots (in particular Lindsey Whalen’s spinning layup with about 2 minutes left), amazing passing (Janel McCarville’s behind-the-back-no-look pass to Whalen for an uncontested layup).
I have to thank The Girlfriend™ for quite a bit of this. Our first ‘date’ was actually a Minnesota Lynx (WNBA) game. I’ve spent several weekends with her watching women’s games on ESPN and Fox Sports.
Now I just have to rearrange my schedule to watch the Women’s Final Four. And start looking into Lynx tickets for the summer… (WNBA Gods, if you can hear me, please do what you must to insure that Whalen gets drafted by Minnesota. Thank you.)