Christine Brennan's column

Again, you put words in my mouth and ignore the point of my post.

ADD:

And if I had to cover women’s basketball on a regular basis I would 1.) put in my application at Wal~Mart and 2.) write about just how bad a sport it is, and how people who make a living coaching it (if the Maryland coach is any indication) are so out of touch with that reality. Any column or story about overpaying coaches should begin with a look at how much the average major D-I women’s basketball coach earns compared to the revenue (or deficit in most cases) the sport produces.

 

To the original point: Isn't the best way to say it this way: Florida is the first school to hold the titles in the two college sports most people follow most closely and give a fig about, notwithstanding fans of women's basketball, or hockey of any gender, or fencing, skiing and crew. And when Fox's announcer said it, everyone understood it.

 

This stuck in my head ...are you saying they should have played 6-on-6 basketball and the fact that they chose 5-on-5 is the reason there are so many knee injuries in women's basketball?

Actually, that's a lot more interesting of a premise than Brennan's column. Not that I agree with you, but it's interesting.

I'm amazed at how many times I've seen stuff like what Brennan wrote and how few stories I've seen on important issues in women's sports, such as the problem with knee injuries. It does happen a lot more often in the women's sports, particularly soccer and basketball.

Your post also makes me think of a very good reason Brennan ignored Tennessee holding the football and women's hoops titles at the same time and failed to talk to Summit. Because she knows Summit would have cut her premise to shreds.

 

I saw one of the last AIAW finals, Immaculata vs. Delta State in 1976 at Penn State's Rec Hall. The level of play was VERY high.

The difference, as might be expected, was in the borderline, role players; they were not the type of players who could hold their own in today's Division I game. But the Luisa Harrises of that era would have been stars today.

 

I'm not saying that women should have kept playing 6-on-6, but in some very real terms, it was a catastrophic decision to play fullcourt.
The reason is that women's knees are different internally from men's. As a point of fact, surgeons use different replacement parts when doing a total knee replacement on a man versus a woman. And I think women are six or seven times more likely to tear an ACL than a man.
You don't see any coverage on it though, outside of the very scholarly pubs.
But all you'd have to do is call the trainer at a college program and count up the number of torn ACLs. I'd bet at least two-thirds would have had at least one surgery and some multiple surgeries.

 

When my daughter played high school ball about five years ago, the organizational meeting included a lecture from the program's coach on that the girls should expect to see somebody tear their ACL during their career. He said he's seen females do it landing perfectly on a jumper, or on an innocuous cut.

 

So women shouldn't play basketball because they have a higher risk of tearing their ACL? Bit condescending there, Jay. Maybe men should stop playing offensive line because how men carry excess weight makes them more prone to heart attacks.

I'm really not sure why men are so threatened by female athletes.

And yes, I tore my ACL, playing softball. Guess I shouldn't have ever taken up sports. Why, I'd still be whole then.

 

Are you sure you didn't tear that ACL falling off those heels?

 

Positive. I was wearing cleats though. Those are sorta like little platforms. Maybe that's how I did it

 

Cleats, sorta like little platforms.
Never heard it put quite that way.

 

Well they are if you think about it.

 

Not even questioning that. Just love the analogy.