2009 UConn women: Greatest college team ever?

Yes, I know these comparisons are cliche, but considering how dominant these Huskies were this season, it merits the discussion. They won every game by double digits this year, an incredible feat -- especially considering the schedule they played.

I'm only 34, so I only know Wooden's UCLA men's teams from news clippings and TV reels. Were any of them as dominant as the UConn women's team this year?

 

Yes. From 1971-73, they absolutely smoked the entire world of college basketball. In 1971-72, they had an average margin of victory of over 30 points. The question was not whether they were gonna win the NCAA title, but whether they would somehow lose a single game during the season.

 

First of all you can't compare a dominant women's team to a dominant men's team. There is no comparison.

 

Well, I didn't watch them play, but I just read something that said the 1971-72 UCLA men set an NCAA record with an average margin of victory of 30.3 ppg.

Not sure what UConn did this year, but that's pretty farking stout.

 

Not only that, but this was one of the weakest women's fields I've ever seen. This wasn't even the best UConn team ever.

 

I also think it's hilarious when people try to make the comparison. Men's and women's basketball are two different sports.

 

Agreed. The 2002 team was better. The 2000 team, which lost one game by one point, was also better. Its second five that was better than 90-95% of the starting fives in the game that year.

That being said, you still have to win the games, and winning all 39 games by double digits deserves a great deal of praise.

 

Perhaps, but you can't stack the game side-by-side. You have to base it on the comparitive accomplishments in the two sports. UCLA in that stretch is far and away the winner. But this might be the most dominant women's team.

 

Can't compare men's & women's hoops -- they're two different games (and I spend most of my hoops time around the women's game).

I'm somewhat partial to the 1975-76 Indiana team, but I do have a piece of paper that says I spent four years of my parents' money at IU and passed enough classes to justify the expense, so I might be biased .

As far as women's ball, I'd probably lean toward the Holdsclaw-Randall-Catchings Tennessee team in '98 over this year's UConn team.

 

That would be interesting to watch. The pace has slowed a little, but the women's game has still changed dramatically, if for no other reason than there was so much room to grow for a sport that really didn't have the opportunity to take itself seriously until the '70s.

You can make an argument about this being the best team ever in the women's game, but they don't compare to those UCLA men's teams.

 

2002 UConn women went undefeated and had four of their five starters picked in the top six picks of the WNBA draft. The fifth starter? Diana Taurasi, who went on to lead them to two more titles and is probably the best player in women's college history. Taurasi, Sue Bird and Swin Cash have all won Olympic gold medals, and Ashja Jones has been a WNBA All-Star.

 

Agreed.

I think you could say the gap between UConn and the rest of the teams in the country was the biggest ever — but that's due in large part to this being a pretty weak year. The 2002 team would probably beat this team nine out of 10 times.