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For the Women’s Tournament, Separate Is Unequal
New York Times ^ | March 20, 2009 | JERÉ LONGMAN

Posted on 03/20/2009 2:55:39 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement

The N.C.A.A. tournament hasn’t started, and already the women have fallen behind the men, never to catch up.

Instead of being part of a sumptuous basketball buffet, the women are treated like leftovers. That’s too bad. And no one deserves more blame than the administrators in charge.

Give me the women’s tournament over the men’s any day. Its coaches and players are more accessible and forthcoming. The story lines are plentiful and fresh. The women’s game is exciting to watch, and the players have careers, not auditions.

No one who has met the garrulous wiseacre Geno Auriemma could possibly prefer the dour sarcasm of Jim Calhoun. If possible, Pat Summitt is an even better storyteller than she is a coach. At last year’s Final Four, Tara VanDerveer invited me into the Stanford locker room and gave a patient tutorial on the triangle offense. You won’t find a more thoughtful and engaging college athlete than Courtney Paris.

The women have a great product to sell. Unfortunately, the powers that be do not trust it enough to give it full display. By so adamantly separating the women’s tournament from the men’s, administrators risk marginalizing the sport instead of maximizing it.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: athletics; basketball; collegebasketball; marchmadness; ncaa
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Cue Helen Reddy.
1 posted on 03/20/2009 2:55:39 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

Awwww, are the big bad networks missing a great opportunity to highlight the women’s game? Don’t be silly. No one wants to watch a bunch of girls run up and down a court rather slowly I might add.

I take that back somewhat... There are many male basketball players who aren’t good enough to make the men’s team but watching the girls makes them feel and say “I could do rather well against them!”

Women’s figure skating is the star of the winter olympics, women’s basketball is just a bone thrown to tired reactionaries of the left who think “gender” is a social construct.


2 posted on 03/20/2009 2:58:49 PM PDT by Professor_Leonide (I said to the young man who showed me a photo, "Who can ever be sure what is behind a mask?")
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

I guess since most of these players resemble either Warren Sapp or Rosie O’Donnell and watching high school boys is about a 50% improvement in athletic ability...unless its a friend or relative, no use watching. IMHO.


3 posted on 03/20/2009 2:58:55 PM PDT by wac3rd (In the end, we all are Conservative, some just need their lives jolted to realize that fact.)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan
Hey, I got a great idea - let women's sports fund scholarships for these women “athletes”! Without the revenue from the men's programs, women's sports would not exit.
4 posted on 03/20/2009 2:59:15 PM PDT by Cowboy Bob (http://isportsdigest.tripod.com)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

They ought to consider themselves lucky to have a tournament given that even some of the best programs are in the hole millions of dollars.


5 posted on 03/20/2009 2:59:24 PM PDT by Perdogg (The difference between Madoff and the US Congress is about a trillion dollars)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

It’s the Blue Oyster Bar of sports.


6 posted on 03/20/2009 2:59:34 PM PDT by Sir Gawain ("Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect")
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

The market has decided. Someone from the NYT does not like the market’s decision. Cue the tears.


7 posted on 03/20/2009 3:00:16 PM PDT by Andyman (The truth shall make you FReep.)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

Oh great, more victims.

How about if ya make money for the school ya get exposure.
And les beans and mothers watch girls basketball and no one else


8 posted on 03/20/2009 3:00:42 PM PDT by Joe Boucher (An enemy of Islam)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

In the new Kulture...you MUST watch women’s sports and pay them equally...if they are not making money, the men will subsidize them (see Title IX).

In Amerika, equality comes with the new regieme.

Capitalism and exceptionalism beware...


9 posted on 03/20/2009 3:00:51 PM PDT by wac3rd (In the end, we all are Conservative, some just need their lives jolted to realize that fact.)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

More idiocy from a paper full of lunatics.


10 posted on 03/20/2009 3:01:01 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: Cowboy Bob

When the Duke’s women program was at its height, they were in the red $4,000,000.


11 posted on 03/20/2009 3:02:31 PM PDT by Perdogg (The difference between Madoff and the US Congress is about a trillion dollars)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan
"Give me the women’s tournament over the men’s any day.

I'm going to get flamed for this, but what is this woman smoking?

I'm the father of two girls who both participate in scholastic sports and I'm happy that they can. But, to think for a moment that the NCAA women's basketball games are "entertaining", let alone more entertaining than the mens is ridiculous.

Women just aren't athletic enough to make watching them play basketball entertaining - golf, yep, tennis, sure, swimming, you bet, gymnastic - ok. But basketball - no way. Whomever ends u winning the Women's NCAA tourny, could not beat a city men's all-star team comprised of 15 year-old boys - they just couldn't. Sorry.

12 posted on 03/20/2009 3:02:42 PM PDT by Big_Monkey
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To: wac3rd
"you MUST watch women’s sports and pay them equally"

The new Fairness Doctrine.

If you spend an hour watching men's sports, then you must spend an hour watching women's sports. Sports Bar owners will lose their liquor licenses if they don't change the channel on an hourly basis.

And if you watch at home...well, let's just say that the FCC knows what channel you are watching, comrade.

13 posted on 03/20/2009 3:04:50 PM PDT by ChicagahAl (Don't blame me. I voted for Sarah.)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

Don Imus can tell you why I’m not interested.


14 posted on 03/20/2009 3:06:10 PM PDT by genetic drift
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan
I have tried watching womens college BB. When I compare the boys vs chicks there seems to be a lack of gracefulness in womens....the men just to have a smooth hand to ball while running and throwing grace that women don't have.....and those pony tails swishing back and forth are distracting.....
15 posted on 03/20/2009 3:09:06 PM PDT by Kimmers (Working hard so Obamas friends don't have to)
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To: ChicagahAl

I would watch women’s gymnastics, but the views are often from ten miles away with bad edits of the coaches’ faces and fans continually thrown in at the wrong time. Gotta adhere to Hillary and Janet’s bans on showing female beauty ya know.

But I’d rather watch birds plop in my backyard than women’s basketball.


16 posted on 03/20/2009 3:09:30 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

Women’s basketball is boring as hell. A good Jr. High boys team would whoop em. Good place to pick up lesbians though.


17 posted on 03/20/2009 3:10:40 PM PDT by pissant (THE Conservative party: www.falconparty.com)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

Next we will be putting mandatory tampon machines in the NFL locker rooms.


18 posted on 03/20/2009 3:11:44 PM PDT by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

Women’s basketball sucks ... so does golf.


19 posted on 03/20/2009 3:14:46 PM PDT by maggief
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To: genetic drift
What got lost in the shuffle of Imus' "nappy-headed hoes" comment was the absolutely hilarious comment that was made almost simultaneously by another member of his crew about that same Rutgers women's basketball team:

"They look exactly like the Toronto Raptors."

ROFLOL.

20 posted on 03/20/2009 3:16:24 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (I'm out on the outskirts of nowhere . . . with ghosts on my trail, chasing me there.)
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