UConn's Auriemma off base about his team's 89 straight wins.

Last night the UConn women’s basketball team crushed Florida State for their 89^th consecutive win. That’s one more than the previous best streak authored by the UCLA men’s team in the early 70’s. To start this discussion I want to go back to Sunday when it appears that the right side of the bed was blocked and UConn coach Geno Auriemma was forced to get out of bed on the other side. The wrong one.

 Geno was pretty cranky and played the gender card. Saying his team’s accomplishment wasn’t being taken nearly as seriously as it would have been if pulled off  by men.  Am I as interested as I would be if the UConn men won 89 in a row? No I am not. Do I think it would have been more impressive if the UConn men won 89 in a row? Yes, I would.

Do I have to apologize for being sexist? Ok, ok, enough with the questions. I am not going to apologize and in no way am I a sexist. There are two issues here. Interest from fans and perception of the magnitude of the feat. Comparing the women winning 89 in a row to men doing it.

It’s not sexist to realize that women’s sports just don’t have the same appeal as men’s. I’m not interested in Nascar either. It has nothing to do with gender. I like the athleticism and skill of the mens’ game. I just don’t see the same when watching women. That’s not to say that they aren’t great players. And yes, the UConn women could beat a lot of men’s teams. Many pick up teams at the Y. Just not any college teams. It’s foolish to ignore the difference in size, strength and speed between men and women.  There is no way that the UConn women could beat any good high school boys team. The starting frontcourt at my kids high school is 6-10, 6-8, and 6-6. Dajuan Coleman mans the middle at 290 pounds and is one of the top five players nationally in the junior class. How would UConn handle him?

Geno has done an unbelievable Hall of Fame job. Maybe too good. It’s hard to consider the UConn streak as impressive as UCLA’s because of the comparative lack of competition for UConn. Only two of the 89 wins were by single digits. 53 of the wins were by more than 30 points. 89 straight wins is certainly impressive, but it does lose something when there isn’t much of a chance of an upset.  Geno and UConn certainly deserve all the credit in the world for building a program that is so dominant, but there is no doubt in my mind that it lessens the magnitude of the streak.