<p>The Stanford women’s basketball team tonight upset the most dominant team in sport, the UConn Huskies. The win ended a two-year, ninety-game run, the longest winning streak in NCAA history, men or women. </p>
<p>I don’t really follow women’s (or men’s) basketball at all (LOVE college football, though!!). However, as I watched a bowl game last night, they kept breaking in about this game and it got my attention because Maya Moore went to my kids’ high school. She is amazing, and though I certainly recognize that Stanford did a great thing, this one loss should not diminish her amazing accomplishments. </p>
<p>But good for Stanford. What an amazing streak UConn had!!!</p>
<p>I have not been following the women’s basketball. What I saw last night was a week U Conn team and a strong Stanford. It was hard to believe U Conn had a 90 game winning streak, if based on last night’s performance…</p>
<p>Coach Geno and UConneticut got out-coached. And what’s with Geno’s complaints that no one pays attention to womens’ college basketball? UConn has received great press from places such like the NY Times for years, and their games have been on national broadcast TV. The problem in women’s basketball as a whole is the wide disparity between the good programs and the poor programs. There are about 10 excellent programs, especially UConn, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Duke. The rest is pretty much the bottom of the barrel. That’s why the scores [margin of victory] in so many games is huge.</p>
<p>I took a look at the Stanford roster post-game. Unbelievable size for a womens’ team. They out-rebounded and out-hustled UConn last night. I thought that Baylor would be the team to beat UConn, but kudos to Stanford!</p>
<p>I’m still hoping to see Baylor in the finals. </p>
<p>It actually played out exactly the way I wanted…I wanted them to break the record to draw attention to the women’s game, then I wanted them to GO DOWN.</p>
<p>No one could ever rightly categorize UConn as a weak team. This team still holds the record for the longest winning streak. The 90 games beat UCLA men’s basketball team record.<br>
Both Stanford and UConn are great teams which can and should draw attention to the young women on both teams and their dedication to their sport.</p>
<p>Agreed with ebeeee…two great teams (and there are others too). Both Stanford and UConn have great teams. There had to be a loser last night. Stanford played their A game…and they won. Great for them. It doesn’t diminish the quality of the UConn team.</p>
<p>I agree with ebeeeee and thumper1. As someone who’s passively followed women’s basketball, I’m not surprised Stanford was able to beat UConn. They were the last team to do so prior to last night, and are a very good team. That said, UConn is still a very strong team, and their success is measured in Championships, not win streaks.</p>
<p>Obviously Uconn looked like a weak team on a night they lost. That doesn’t mean they’ve been a weak team for the last 90 games. Also, this year’s team has 10 active players, five of which are freshman, and two freshman starters (the point guard and center). They lost their starting center to graduation, who was the #1 WNBA draft pick and played on the national team, and had another starter graduate and their starting point guard tear her ACL. I wish they had looked stronger here, but I wouldn’t dismiss them and the past two years because of one game.</p>
<p>This result was the perfect storm for me: I’m a Pac 10 alum (UW), a fan of college hoops in general (a more exciting game than the NBA), and a fan of women’s hoops (which relies more on playmaking and less on shooting than the mens’ game). Sometimes there’s a magic that settles onto a basketball team and that also happened last night. </p>
<p>Basketball, by its nature, lends itself to the occasional eye-popping upset. A couple of the Cardinal shooters were on fire, and the team was committed to defending Maya Moore. The Huskies were not themselves last night. That takes nothing away from their many accomplishments, and even we West-coasters can’t deny their GOAT status.</p>
<p>Which is one reason why John Wooden repeatedly said he had much more respect and and enthusiasm for the current women’s game than the current men’s. It relies much more on the teamwork principles he taught instead of flash and individual athleticism.</p>
<p>The problem with women’s college ball is that there are always just a few dominant teams- and they tend to be the SAME few. I’m not sure why this is the case, but it is. Strength of schedule just isn’t really there for ANY team. While I’m impressed with the UConn winning streak, I simply can’t equate it to the UCLA/Wooden accomplishments for that reason. Congrats to Stanford for sure and UConn is still a great team and probably always will be.</p>
<p>^^The reason why is the top talent pool in the women’s game is not deep enough to support dozens of high-end teams. And the current top teams already have a championship reputation and recruitment pipeline established, so they keep snagging the top high school players year after year. And there isn’t enough top talent left over for other schools to build a contender.</p>
<p>Popularity of the women’s sports has grown enormously over the decades, and that’s great. But compared to the men’s game, the numbers and percentages of pre-teen and young teen girls who are out there in the driveway or playground working on their jumper long afer it gets dark or perfecting their dribble until their hands bleed, is much lower. There are girls who do that, but it much less common. And the ones who do keep ending up at UConn, Stanford, etc.</p>
<p>Agree with Scipio mostly, about the much lower number of seedlings in the garden of womens’ basketball, so to speak. But I also believe that often there’s a lack of quality coaching as you go deeper. And coaches who aren’t as capable as teachers or students of the game tend to believe that the only way they can win is having a sole superstar or one dominant player. This is the antithesis of the success at UConnecticut, Tennessee and Stanford, where team play is the objective. There’s a small Jesuit college division I team whose games I used to attended frequently. Those gals were usually unranked and had no single dominant player and few over 5’8’'. But they hussled. They were obviously a well coached team and kept the game close when playing “bigger” and more successful programs. Womens basketball needs more teams like that.</p>