National Champions

Tuesday, being a loyal fan of Maryland sports, I sat down to watch a Maryland-Duke basketball game. Although the Duke coach had a long, impossible to pronounce last name, I did not watch men running up and down the court. Rather, I watched a women's basketball game, start to finish. I have seen snipets of past title games, and some of the Terps games earlier in the tournament, but I've never sat in front of my television for two hours straight watching women's basketball before. It was a truly enlightening experience.

1) Although the game certainly isn't the same without high flying dunks, you don't miss them when you're actually watching the game. All the critics of women's basketball go on about how the game isn't as interesting because there are no dunks. Now, I don't mean to disclude people, but if you watch basketball just for the dunks, you aren't a true basketball fan. The beauty of the game is in the intensity, the strategy, the flops, the 3 point daggers, the old-fashioned 3 point play, and superb athleticism. Ok, the women's game isn't as explosive as the men's game. But when Kristi Toliver made a 3 over the tallest player on the court to force overtime, I guarantee you no one in the arena or watching on ESPN was complaining.

2) After I defended the women's game, I now need to attack it. A lot of proponents of the game have said it's better fundamentally than the men's game; I did not see that at all. Duke missed 3 lay-ups in the first five minutes of action. There were just as many sloppy passes and bonehead plays as there were in any men's game I watched this season. The shooting was probably worse than the men. The game itself is certainly worse than the version the men put out, but, hey, it's a national championship game involving a team I like. I'm there.

3) Bandwagoners: It's just not worth it. To be fair, I'm a bandwagoner here. I'm not going to watch the Terps women any other time if it's not a Final Four game. Was I happy when the Terps won the title? Hell yeah. But it didn't really mean anything to me. I've been lucky enough to see 2 of my 3 core teams win championships, the Ravens and the Maryland men's Basketball team. In both cases, I had lived and died with the team from day one, I watched every game I could. So when they won their respective titles, I really felt ecstatic. Now that I've, looking back on it, jumped on several bandwagons over the last five years (Patriots, Red Sox, Maryland men's Soccer) , I realize that it doesn't measure up to the real ecstasy you feel when the team you actually care about wins the title. In retrospect, it wasn't as good for me as it was for older folks with the Terps and Ravens, because I didn't have to wait very long to get the ultimate prize. If this national title gives rise to an entire generation of women's basketball fans at Maryland, that'll be good. I won't be among them, however. I can't watch the sport 25 times a year. And when they play in the Final Four again next year, I'll watch, I'll be happy when they win, but as I won't have devoted any of my time to them, it won't measure up to what it was like when a team I actually love won.

4) Why is Mike Patrick allowed in the broadcast booth?

In conclusion, I watched a great game: Maryland 78, Duke 75, in overtime. I saw a dramatic, overtime forcing 3 pointer to cap off an amazing second half comeback. Am I suddenly a women's basketball fan? No, but that doesn't really matter. You can enjoy the game without being a fanatic, (A new experience for me, actually), but just don't expect a wave of emotion when your team wins.