My love of basketball has been drilled into me since I was born, so naturally, March Madness—the period from mid-March to early April in which the NCAA basketball tournament takes place—is one of my favorite times of year. (Check out my article from last year for more explanation of the tournament!) Both my parents instilled in me an equal love of men’s and women’s basketball. I grew up attending every George Washington men and women’s home basketball game, and when I visited my grandparents in Kentucky, we frequently attended University of Louisville women’s basketball games. Yet my experience is not the norm. When most people think of basketball, they only consider the men’s game. But women’s basketball can be every bit as entertaining and exciting as men’s basketball, and has features men’s basketball just can’t have. Though March Madness is typically associated with the men’s basketball tournament, the women’s NCAA tournament happens at the same time and is just as worth the watch!
A big difference between men’s and women’s basketball is that the women play a more technical game, relying less on pure strength and more on skill, which is neat to watch if you know basketball. And even if you don’t know all of the techniques of the sport, it’s a great way to learn the game and see how it was originally meant to be played. The women may not pull off as many fancy moves as the men (though some can dunk!), but the teamwork they employ is just as inspiring.
Women’s basketball games also tend to be cheaper because, unfortunately, far more people wish to attend men’s basketball games. Because fewer people attended their games, the teams often act more grateful towards their fans. When I was little, I often got to meet the GW women’s coach and players after the game, and the coach sometimes joked that when I was old enough, I could come to GW to play on his team. My parents didn’t have any special connections to enable this—it was simply because we were season ticket holders and dedicated fans to the team. The GW women’s team likes to connect and give back to the fans that support it. Similarly, when the Louisville women’s basketball team got to play at home for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament this year, the coach Jeff Walz said that he would write anyone’s boss an email requesting that person to be let off work early so that they could attend the game. And he really did it! You just don’t get that kind of personal touch among the men’s programs.
Unfortunately, there is simply not the same excitement surrounding women’s basketball as in men’s. Universities struggle to sell tickets to women’s games—unlike the men’s tournament, in the women’s NCAA tournament the top four seeded teams get to host the first and second round games so that more fans will actually be able to attend (since people are far less likely to travel to see the women’s tournament). All of the women’s games are delegated to a single ESPN channel, and the game times are decided around the men’s tournament so as to maximize views of the women’s games when the men’s games are not on. In basketball, women are still very much considered second to men.
Yes, the women’s tournament in some ways is behind the men’s tournament: there is more disparity between the teams, and the top-seeded teams tend to remain the winners more often than the men’s teams do. In their first round game this tournament, the defending national champion and overall one seed UConn crushed their opponent Robert Morris with a 52 point win. There’s a very clear difference between the talent of the girls on UConn team and the girls on smaller teams like Robert Morris, something that isn’t as much a disparity in the men’s tournament. But, as my brother pointed out, that’s what the men’s tournament looked like forty years ago. Give it another forty years and enough women will be into sports to allow teams to choose from a much broader range of women. Give women another forty years of being allowed to pursue whatever passion they want to follow, and women’s basketball will be every bit as intense as the men’s game.
Women’s basketball is already on that path. There are already starting to be more upsets, which is one of the features people love most about the men’s tournament—you never know when a top team is going to fall to an unexpected school. The women’s tournament can be every bit as exciting and intense as the men’s. In 2013, when the fifth-seeded Louisville women upset the undefeated and top-seeded Baylor (the team of the legendary 6’8” player Brittney Griner), my whole family was out of our seats in front of the TV with bated breath as the game came down to the wire. Check out this clip of the end of the game and tell me it isn’t as exciting as the men’s tournament. And the women’s tournament can have the thrilling first round upsets the men’s tournament is known for too. Just this year, two 12th seeded teams beat their more acclaimed fifth-seeded opponents: Albany knocked off Florida and South Dakota State beat Miami.
So what can we do about this stark inequality in women’s sports? The system won’t change until the fans demand it. Men’s sports simply make more money—more people attend the events and more people watch on TV. But if more people watch women’s sports, it will slowly gain the popularity and respect men’s sports do. Women’s basketball is catching up to where men’s basketball is in terms of a greater spread of talent. In the meantime, fans just have to remain dedicated to the excitement that already is present in women’s basketball and encourage others to give the female version of the sport an equal chance. (Need a way to convince them to try out women’s basketball? Check out my brother’s article on why you should give the women’s tournament a chance if the men’s team of the school you root for didn’t make the tournament.) After all, March Madness isn’t just a men’s tournament. Why not enjoy double the basketball while supporting the hardworking female athletes?
Image Credit: Chicago Tribune, Twitter, ESPN