Building greatness takes time

There's been a lot of disenchantment this past week, as Connecticut marched toward their tenth national championship. Many basketball fans are sick of the Huskies, who also made it three in a row with tonight's win.

UConn fans and former players are quick to say "don't hate, emulate." Ex-Husky and current ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo had such an outburst the other day:

"Grow up," Lobo snapped, addressing an invisible audience of head coaches Saturday at Amalie Arena. "Watch what they do. Watch what those players do on and off the court.

"Make yourself better. Coaches, make yourself better so that you can compete with Connecticut. Don't try to make Connecticut worse. They're nothing but good for the women's game."

She's right, of course. But let's not fail to realize that coaches and teams are indeed getting there.

Maryland has been to three Final Fours and won one title in ten years. Baylor has claimed two in 11 years. South Carolina has risen, Arizona State has returned, and those are just a few among many other examples of up-and-comers.

This college hoops season was the most exciting ever, in my opinion, with a near-constant stream of upsets that continued into the Tournament, and mid-majors rising like never before. At the end, we saw some unlikely teams rise to the occasion and exceed expectations, like Dayton, while others fell. Great growth is taking place.

But it doesn't happen overnight.

The women's Tournament is 34 years old now, and like anything else that's been around for a while, there is impatience for progress. Couple that with a nationwide short attention span and expectation of instant results in every area, and you have discontent.

The three collegiate coaches with the most titles are John Wooden, Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma. Wooden's first season at UCLA was 1948-49; his first title was in 1964. Summitt was at the helm at Tennessee for 13 years before winning a championship. Auriemma was in his tenth season before he picked up his first trophy. The legends remind us that building greatness takes time.

In all the frenzied discussions right now on how to grow the game, we would all do well to remember that.

Connecticut beats Notre Dame to claim tenth title

Connecticut put away Notre Dame, 63-53, for their tenth National Championship.

Naismith Trophy:

The Naismith college coach of the year is Princeton's Courtney Banghart.

The Naismith college player of the year is UConn's Breanna Stewart.

Player news:

Former Indiana guard Larryn Brooks has transferred to Texas Tech.

Junior point guard Ashley Betz-White has chosen not to return to Old Dominion next year.

Coaching news:

Maryland associate head coach Tina Langley is the new head coach at Rice University.

The "growing the game" discussion:

Georgetown tried kale to get students to a game earlier this season.

Not one but two stories on how analyst Debbie Antonelli thinks the Tournament should move to Las Vegas.

Lauren Hill:

The Mount St. Joseph's freshman with inoperable brain cancer is weak but still fighting.

Her coach reflects on the season.

WNBA and overseas news:

Amanda Zahui B. is happy to go her own way and enter the draft.

UMMC Ekaterinburg is reeling in the absence of Diana Taurasi, who is out up to six weeks with a broken hand.

Maintaining a championship program isn't just difficult - it's extremely rare

It's easy to take UConn for granted, with their nine-soon-to-be-ten titles. Same with Notre Dame the last five years. Baylor and Stanford are also programs considered elite.

Turning a team into a champion is a tough journey. Keeping a program on top is so difficult that it's rare. To date, only three coaches have been able to do it on a championship level for any consistent length of time: John Wooden, Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma. As can be seen from the list of winners in the 33-year history of the women's Tournament, others have come and gone.

The Bears and the Cardinal have taken two titles each, but have remained relevant by claiming conference titles year after year. Other team greats are a memory.

Remember when LSU made four straight Final Fours? Remember when Louisiana Tech was the team to beat? Texas used to be great; are they coming back for real, as it seems?

Champions, all-time history:

Year Champion (Record) Coach Score Runner-Up Site

2014 Connecticut (40-0) Geno Auriemma 79-58 Notre Dame Nashville, Tenn.
2013 Connecticut (35-4) Geno Auriemma 93-60 Louisville New Orleans, La.
2012 Baylor (40-0) Kim Mulkey 80-61 Notre Dame Denver, Colo.
2011 Texas A&M (33-5) Gary Blair 76-70 Notre Dame Indianapolis, Ind.
2010 Connecticut (39-0) Geno Auriemma 53-47 Stanford San Antonio, Texas
2009 Connecticut (39-0) Geno Auriemma 76-54 Louisville St. Louis, Mo.
2008 Tennessee (36-2) Pat Summitt 64-48 Stanford Tampa, Fla.
2007 Tennessee (34-3) Pat Summitt 59-46 Rutgers Cleveland, Ohio
2006 Maryland (34-4) Brenda Frese 78-75 (OT) Duke Boston, Mass.
2005 Baylor (33-3) Kim Mulkey 84-62 Michigan State Indianapolis, Ind.
2004 Connecticut (31-4) Geno Auriemma 70-61 Tennessee New Orleans, La.
2003 Connecticut (37-1) Geno Auriemma 73-68 Tennessee Atlanta, Ga.
2002 Connecticut (39-0) Geno Auriemma 82-70 Oklahoma San Antonio, Texas
2001 Notre Dame (34-2) Muffet McGraw 68-66 Purdue St. Louis, Mo.
2000 Connecticut (36-1) Geno Auriemma 71-52 Tennessee Philadelphia, Pa.
1999 Purdue (34-1) Carolyn Peck 62-45 Duke San Jose, Calif.
1998 Tennessee (39-0) Pat Summitt 93-75 Louisiana Tech Kansas City, Mo.
1997 Tennessee (29-10) Pat Summitt 68-59 Old Dominion Cincinnati, Ohio
1996 Tennessee (32-4) Pat Summitt 83-65 Georgia Charlotte, N.C.
1995 Connecticut (35-0) Geno Auriemma 70-64 Tennessee Minneapolis, Minn.
1994 North Carolina (33-2) Sylvia Hatchell 60-59 Louisiana Tech Richmond, Va.
1993 Texas Tech (31-3) Marsha Sharp 84-82 Ohio State Atlanta, Ga.
1992 Stanford (30-3) Tara VanDerveer 78-62 Western Kentucky Los Angeles, Calif.
1991 Tennessee (30-5) Pat Summitt 70-67 (OT) Virginia New Orleans, La.
1990 Stanford (32-1) Tara VanDerveer 88-81 Auburn Knoxville, Tenn.
1989 Tennessee (35-2) Pat Summitt 76-60 Auburn Tacoma, Wash.
1988 Louisiana Tech (32-2) Leon Barmore 56-54 Auburn Tacoma, Wash.
1987 Tennessee (28-6) Pat Summitt 67-44 Louisiana Tech Austin, Texas
1986 Texas (34-0) Jody Conradt 97-81 Southern California Lexington, Ky.
1985 Oid Dominion (31-3) Marianne Stanley 70-65 Georgia Austin, Texas
1984 Southern California (29-4) Linda Sharp 72-61 Tennessee Los Angeles, Calif.
1983 Southern California (31-2) Linda Sharp 69-67 Louisiana Tech Norfolk, Va.
1982 Louisiana Tech (35-1) Sonja Hogg 76-62 Cheyney Norfolk, Va.


The men's tournament has had a far more diverse list of winners in their long championship history. With the exception of UCLA during Wooden's historic run, winners have rotated often. A common pattern is to see a program take two consecutive titles, and then drop off.

Maintaining a program at the highest level takes a tremendous amount of energy and inspiration from a coach. Wooden, Summitt, Auriemma, Tara VanDerveer and Kim Mulkey deserve a lot of praise and admiration. So do Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino and John Calipari.

We just need more of them.

Plenty of non-Tournament items

More on the Final Four:

The Gamecocks have no shortage of talent or motivation for next season.

Coach Dawn Staley is already eyeing a Final Four return.

South Carolina's loss can't overshadow the impact of Aleighsa Welch.

The Terps won't let yesterday's loss define a memorable season.

For Maryland's lone senior Laurin Mincy, yesterday's loss is a rough end to an inspirational career.

Awards:

Florida State coach Sue Semrau is the 2015 United States Marine Corps/WBCA NCAA Division I National Coach of the Year.

Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier is the 2015 Spalding Maggie Dixon NCAA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year.

Duke University's Elizabeth Williams is the WBCA Division I Defensive Player of the Year.

UConn's Moriah Jefferson has won the Nancy Lieberman Award.

More college news:

Center Sarah Imovbioh and guard Tiffany Suarez are leaving Virginia. Imovbich was the second-leading scorer on the team.

South Florida has extended coach Jose Fernandez's contract through 2020-2021.

WNBA:

There is no concrete pick for the Tulsa Shock in the WNBA draft.

The Storm have signed Japanese star Ramu Tokashiki.

Championship game 101

UConn and Notre Dame are set for a championship rematch.

How do the Huskies and Irish match up, numbers-wise?

In contrast to last year's bitterness, McGraw and Husky coach Geno Auriemma show mutual admiration for each other on 'ship eve.

Underdog Notre Dame has a chance to be remembered, as they get another crack at dethroning UConn. They relish the chance.

How can the Irish defend Breanna Stewart?

Sidelined by injury in December, when Notre Dame lost to UConn, can Brianna Turner make the difference now? The team is "so much tougher" since that game, coach Muffet McGraw said.

Notre Dame's Taya Reimer is a seasoned sophomore.

McGraw maintains that familiarity between the two teams will help in the title game.

As the Huskies have come down the stretch, Morgan Tuck has surged to the front, while Kia Nurse hasn't let the big stage rattle her.

UConn is happy with the same old story.

The UConn standard is high.

Auriemma's journey got them there.

Husky seniors Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Kiah Stokes have no regrets as they ready to play their last game for the blue.

March Madness:

The term has been used since 1939.....here's the story.

Amanda Zahui B. declares for WNBA draft

Well, now.

More pro news:

Diana Taurasi had surgery on her broken hand last week and will miss 4-6 weeks of Euroleague play, including the "final four."

Lisa Leslie has been named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

"Why UConn is so dominant in college basketball"

Great points in this piece:

But it's not just about dynasties like Connecticut and Tennessee. The women's tournament on the whole tends to have fewer surprise wins. Only 18 women's No. 12 seeds have defeated No. 5 seeds in NCAA D-I opening-round games since 1994, when the women's tournament grew to 64 teams. On the men's side, there have been 35 No. 12 wins over that period. For No. 13 seeds, its six wins on the women's side compared to 17 on the men's side. For No. 14 and 15 seeds, it's zero on the women's side compared to 16 (combined) on the men's side. (However, the women's tournament is the only one to ever have featured a No. 16 seed winning its opening game — Harvard's 1998 defeat of Stanford.)

This isn't to say the women's tournament has to look just like the men's...but the men's tournament does give a picture of how competitive the sport could be.......

So what keeps those five or six teams so far removed from the rest every year? There are a few theories, none of which likely explain the whole thing. But taken together, they could explain why the women's sport is so dynasty-prone (and upset-proof).

Great coaching attracts great players. Many people attribute Connecticut's consistent dominance to Coach Geno Auriemma, who in 1985 took over the program and eventually turned it into a powerhouse.

"He's established a culture of winning," says Barbara Jacobs, associate commissioner for women's basketball for the American Athletic Conference. "I think it is rare and I think it is special.".....

But in the WNBA, it's even more restrictive: that league requires potential draftees to be 22 and either have graduated from a four-year college or to have played two years in another professional league. That means the best college players stick around for four years, making great teams even greater (and stopping other teams from rising).

And that in fact was part of the WNBA's rationale, as Ackerman said back when she was president of the league — "It's enabled the women's college game to stay very vibrant, and that's critical to us as league. We need a strong college game in order for women's pro basketball to be successful.".....

The game is too physical. Ackerman now believes part of the problem is also that the game is getting too rough......

A need for more coaching talent (and maybe high school talent as well). Women's college basketball has some tremendous athletes and coaches. But there aren't a lot of Geno Auriemmas or Pat Summitts out there — or, as the Ackerman Report put it, there's a "lack of depth in the quality of coaches." And some coaches told Ackerman they're concerned that girls aren't learning the fundamentals as well as they should in high school — improve the fundamentals among all high school players, and it could raise the college game......

The writer is correct in that players gravitate toward great programs, and they don't often want to try anything new. But they also want the glory.

Senior Janae Sharpe told me last fall that she want to Cal State Northridge so she could help build a program. University of Washington sophomore Kelsey Plum said the same thing. That used to be more common, but now, players like Sharpe and Plum are the exception. More often, athletes want titles and rings these days instead of rebuilding work and more playing time.

Fundamentals have been slipping at the high school level for a long time, due to the proliferation of club ball teams, for one. These teams try to get kids seen by as many coaches as possible, which means sacrificing teaching time.

Quality coaches are definitely lacking at the professional level, but there are plenty of fantastic coaches in colleges. What is keeping them all from becoming the next Pat Summitt or Geno Auriemma? Being at mid-majors, playing in weak conferences, athletes who only want to play for big name schools.

For now, it's UConn and Notre Dame in the title game yet again. Unless there is more change in what we value in athletics, Final Four participants won't change much.

More awards

The US Basketball Writers Association has named Connecticut's Breanna Stewart the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award player of the year.

Princeton's Courtney Banghart is their coach of the year.

Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell is the freshman of the year.

The USBWA gave Lauren Hill the Pat Summitt Award.

Tiffany Mitchell won the Dawn Staley Award (that's funny).

Championship game deja vu

South Carolina's rally came up short, and Notre Dame pulled out the win, 66-65.

The finish was improbable.

The Gamecocks faltered on the last play of the game, after they got the ball with 13.9 seconds to go.

South Carolina seniors were inconsolable after the final buzzer, but Notre Dame guard Jewell Loyd tried her best to comfort Tiffany Mitchell anyway (pictures in first link). What fantastic sportsmanship.

The Irish had unlikely heroes.

In the second game, Connecticut routed Maryland, 81-58.

Breanna Stewart lead the Huskies with 25 points.

So for the second year in a row, Notre Dame and UConn will square off for the Championship. Some are tired of it.

Will you be watching?

There's always more

A bit of history:

How women's college hoops battled its way to center court.

Renton, Wash.-based Baden Sports was instrumental in changing women's basketball.

Virginia coach Joanne Boyle:

Interesting discussion on this message board thread about Virginia coach Joanne Boyle. Is she underachieving? What do you think?

WNBA:

A healthy Elena Delle Donne is prepping for the upcoming season.

Will Amanda Zahui B. leave Minnesota for the draft? Jewell Loyd and Leticia Romero can also be drafted, but their coaches say they're staying at school.