Women’s College Basketball

Stanford’s Cardinal women’s basketball team won the NCAA championship on April 4th, 2021. The season just started back up on November 9 and the regular season will end march 6, 2022. The current rankings are as follows: South Carolina is number one, NC State (T-2), UConn (T-2), Stanford (4), Baylor (5). Some players to look at for this season are Paige Bueckers (UConn), NaLyssa Smith (Baylor), Aliyah Boston (South Carolina) and Haley Jones (Stanford). Drew (11) said, “I know of Jayda Curry and Kierstan Bell. Those are the only women’s college basketball players I know.” CJ (11) added, “I don’t know many players but I do know the Cavinder twins and a past player Brianna Stewart.”

Paige Bueckers plays at Uconn, recently she was the first college athlete to sign a deal with Gatorade. She is a junior in college and has done a lot for her team. She led UConn to the Final Four of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Also her freshman year she was an All-American and was the first freshman to earn a major national college player of the year award, she won all four she was eligible for. Aliyah Boston plays for the University of South Carolina. She has led South Carolina to two SEC Tournament championships, and one SEC regular season title. She also has won the Lisa Leslie award as the best center in NCAA women’s basketball twice. Cj (11) commented, “UConn is my favorite team, I like their coach and I hope they win the national championship.” Tate (12) added, “I root for Georgia women’s basketball and I hope they win the national championship.”
Most people don’t know much about women’s college basketball because it isn’t interesting and people just don’t want to watch it. The NCAA D1 championship game in April 2021 had the most viewers ever with 4,077,000 viewers. But 10.5 million people watched the men’s championship game in 2019. CJ (11) said, “I guess if I looked more into it I would be more interested and want to watch it more, but it’s nothing that they do wrong that makes me not want to watch.” Drew (11) also commented, “Maybe if they had a larger fan base.” “ I watch some college basketball (march madness) and sometimes the NBA finals. There is a lot of hype around them, fast paced, physical games with highlight moments.” CJ (11) added, “ I watch men’s college basketball, I don’t watch NBA, but the reason that I watch it is because it is on more than women’s.”

To wrap all of this up, most people don’t know a whole lot about women’s college basketball, most people just want to watch men’s basketball because it’s more exciting and exhilarating. It is obvious that these women have done a lot for their teams and for themselves. The season has just started and hopefully more people will watch games and support these hard working women. Yes women are at a disadvantage because they can’t dunk or run as fast or score as often as men can, but they are still athletes and hard work and dedication is all that matters. Hopefully this season the teams that people are cheering for do good and accomplish their goals for this season and end up winning a NCAA national championship. The more support this program gets the better it will be for future generations and hopefully people will start to appreciate the women and the sport itself and people will want to watch and support.