Apr 5, 2016
UConn Women’s Basketball: Where being too good isn’t good enough
On Tuesday night, you have a chance to watch Hamilton's own Kia Nurse and the UConn Huskies complete another championship run. But rather than call Connecticut just "too good", Marshall Ferguson explains why you should just sit back and enjoy greatness.
They say we love dynasties, we do. Until they make us uncomfortable.
Late last week Boston Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy sent a care-free tweet while sitting in a Florida hotel room writing a piece on the Red Sox pitching rotation.
It simply read, “UConn Women beat Miss St. 98-38 in NCAA tourney. Hate to punish them for being great, but they are killing women's game. Watch? No thanks”.
Shaughnessy spent the subsequent week openly defending himself from claims of sexism or worse. His phrasing was blunt and nondescript which didn’t help the cause and while his thought was valid, its application is flawed.
We all know the essence of sport is competition. The UCONN women’s basketball team have currently won 74 straight games, most by a large point differential. That number seems rare and impressive until you learn of the UCONN women’s 70-game win streak from 2001-03, or their 90-game win streak from 2007-10.
Hardly the definition of competition.
Despite the lack of parity or a consistent challenge for the UCONN women’s basketball team, they continue to push both themselves and their competition to adapt. The UCONN women are a high tide continuing to raise all boats. The only problem is their boat is so far ahead of the competition.
While we recognize greatness in most other arenas, our collective appreciation of the Huskies' dominance is the invisible, yet omnipresent elephant in the room.
They have reached a level of dominance in attempting to win their fourth consecutive national championship Tuesday evening that should be recognized and demand your attention, but as Shaughnessy’s tweet suggests our natural reaction to their dominance is to punish them with our ignorance.
The UCONN women’s basketball team is so good they have become unworthy of our attention.
Imagine if we treated the Golden State Warriors like that while they chased the Chicago Bulls' all-time single season win record. Can you picture the mainstream media and columnists disregarding the New England Patriots' 16-0 regular season of 2007?
Why do we willingly submit to boycotting excellence in women’s team athletics instead of celebrating these grand achievements?
I wish I knew. There are simple ways to answer the question, but they rarely justify the true depth of the question.
I get it. The sports calendar is never empty and women’s collegiate basketball rarely graces centre stage. Better yet when it does get the chance to entertain you there is rarely if ever a personal draw to watch the game.
This isn’t Laurier against Regina. You don’t know anyone who went to UCONN. None of the game’s superstars are Canadian, until now.
Tuesday’s championship game has more than a couple reasons to watch, not the least of which is Kia Nurse of Hamilton, Ontario.
Nurse led Hamilton’s St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School to gold at the AAAA OFSAA Championship in 2012 and 2013. This while winning five-straight Provincial Championships with her Transway team and two National Championships with Team Ontario. She wins stuff, a lot of stuff.
With that level of excellence and her strong athletic bloodlines - Dad Richard was a CFL standout, Sister Tamika played basketball at Oregon, Uncle Donovan McNabb was a well-known NFL quarterback, brother Darnell is a defenceman for the Edmonton Oilers - UCONN came calling along with several other major Division I NCAA schools.
Kia is a legitimate superstar, a homegrown talent who continues to rise to the occasion no matter her competition.
A Hamilton native is taking on the sports world, defeating all possible opponents with crushing force while leading her major college program to levels of success rarely seen before. If you feel as though you’re running out of reasons to not care about this team, this athlete and this championship game, don't feel badly. That's a good thing. You’re starting to realize how ludicrous ignoring it all for being “too good” is.
On Tuesday take one night, just one to appreciate greatness.
Forget about the big picture or the implication of UCONN’s impending victory on women’s basketball development. Just grab your favourite snack and a cold drink, settle in and embrace what excellence looks like: A local girl dominating the best American women’s basketball has to offer.
The NCAA Division I women’s basketball championship game between Syracuse and UCONN can be seen on TSN2 on Tuesday night beginning at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt.