In by far the biggest upset so far this March, the 3-27 Colorado State women's team beat 27-3 Utah in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
Colorado State had lost 20 consecutive games before beating UNLV in the tournament play-in game. Utah had won 22 games in a row. From the Salt Lake Tribune:
The big problem was shooting; the 27-4 Utes made just 17 of 57 shots (29.3 percent), and their three top players -- Leilani Mitchell, Morgan Warburton and Kaylee Whipple -- combined to go 13-for-48 from the field. At one point, the Utes had made just 4 of 19 shots in the second half. Mitchell led the Utes with 19 points and seven assists before fouling out. Whipple added 11 points and 11 rebounds. Meanwhile, the Rams won their second straight game after going 2-27 through the regular season. Emily Neal scored 17
To give an idea of how big an upset this was, the Sagarin ratings ranked Utah as the 18th best women's basketball team in the country and Colorado State as the 305th best. The corresponding upset in men's basketball would be Farleigh Dickinson beating Connecticut.
The Scripps Howard Foundation's annual National Journalism Awards were announced last week. Sports writers have an uphill battle in winning these types of awards, measured against other writers who take on slightly more serious topics like education and climate change and war, but here's the citation for commentary:
Jason Whitlock of The Kansas City (Mo.) Star receives $10,000 and a trophy for his ability to seamlessly integrate sports commentary with social commentary and to challenge widely held assumptions along the racial divide.
Specific columns of Whitlock's weren't cited, but there was one story, more than any other, that Whitlock used as a springboard to his current position as the go-to guy for people seeking opinions on the intersection of race and sports: Don Imus calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." Whitlock ripped both Imus for what he said and those who bashed Imus without likewise bashing the common use of the term "ho" in popular culture.
"It's a tremendous honor," Whitlock said. "I'm really humbled. Mike Royko, my idol, received one of these awards in 1981. I couldn't be in any better company."
I'd like to introduce you to Kevin Borseth, the women's basketball coach at Michigan:
That was Borseth's reaction to the Wolverines' 69-67 loss to Wisconsin. He started things off by slamming the podium and saying, "That's how I feel."
He then screamed, "I'm so damn sick and tired of getting out-rebounded!" Over the course of the press conference it's pretty amazing that he didn't break his hand, the podium or his glasses, which he took on and off with growing frustration. More from the press conference:
"Twenty-five offensive rebounds!?!"
"The first time we block out, we get called for a damn block out?! For pushing people?! Meanwhile, they're on the other end of the court, they're grabbing rebounds, going over the top and grabbin' them! We get one offensive rebound and then get called for over the back!"
"We either can't block out damn well or we're not getting calls, one or the other. That's why I'm frustrated. ... The entire thing came down to offensive rebounds. "They got every ...
Slam went the podium again.
"... offensive rebound, and we didn't get one of them!"
ESPN's Outside the Lines did a long piece this morning on the Fresno State athletic department's treatment of its female employees, three of whom have taken the school to court and ended up with multimillion-dollar verdicts or settlements. Here's a look:
But Fresno State says that's not why she was fired. The school says it fired her for several reasons, the most serious of which is that she used her players to obtain prescription pain medication for her. Johnson-Klein admits to doing that, and in my book, that's an offense for which a coach deserves to get fired.
And there's the fact that most of what Johnson-Klein says about the way women within the Fresno State athletic department were treated as second-class citizens is completely believable. Overall, the hostility to females in the Fresno athletic department was absolutely disgraceful, which is why the women who have taken the school on are three-for-three in winning.
The whole Outside the Lines piece is worth a look. Fresno State alumni and fans -- and the taxpayers who are ultimately on the hook for these multimillion-dollar payouts -- should be outraged.
Congratulations to Colorado freshman forward Brittany Spears on being named the Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Rookie of the Week. Spears helped Colorado win its 10th straight game with a 16-point, seven-rebound effort against Pepperdine.
"People say, 'Is that really your name?' And I say, 'Yeah, that's really my name,'" Spears said. "It's funny," Houston said. "My name is going to be Whitney Houston long after they get through the jokes and stuff."
You can see a picture of Brittany Spears by clicking either of the links above, and the official Colorado basketball roster is here.
Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher has made a fairly successful transition from the sideline to the studio as an analyst for the NFL on CBS. But it turns out that pro football isn't his only sport. CBS is also using him to discuss women's college basketball:
As Awful Announcing notes, Cowher has a fairly solid background in women's college basketball. His wife, Kaye Young, played at North Carolina State and in the now-defunct Women's Professional Basketball League. All three of his daughters play, with Meagan Cowher and Lauren Cowher at Princeton and his youngest daughter playing in high school. Cowher has watched a lot of women's basketball.
I don't think Cowher is going to be covering women's basketball all season, but I wish he would. He'd be a welcome addition.
Give credit to the Arizona women's basketball team for this: They didn't quit. On Thursday night the Wildcats traveled to Oregon State with just six players available to play. The rest of their players sat out due to academics, injuries or "personal reasons." And as if having only six players available wasn't bad enough, the Wildcats got into foul trouble. Serious foul trouble. Such serious foul trouble that by the time the game got to double overtime, four players had fouled out, and Arizona finished the game with just two players on the floor. I haven't been able to locate video of the game, but here's Oregon State's coach talking about it afterward:
"I've just never seen a game like that either on television, in person or from the sideline in all my years of coaching," Oregon State head coach LaVonda Wagner said.
Added an Oregon State player of the way Arizona kept fighting despite a three-player disadvantage, "They deserved it more than us." That may be true, but the Wildcats lost, 94-88 in double overtime.
In April Don Imus was fired for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." Today Imus was back on the air, promising to change.
Imus now has two black cast members, and he said the two of them will join him in discussions of race relations on the air. And Imus said today, "I will never say anything in my lifetime that will make any of these young women at Rutgers regret or feel foolish that they accepted my apology and forgave me."
The problem is, comments like "nappy-headed hos" didn't come from nowhere. Those comments were integral to the Imus show and the Imus shtick. Maybe he can persuade the audience that liked his old show to also listen to his new show, minus the racial and sexual humor. I have my doubts.
In the meantime, I hope he invites the Rutgers women's basketball team to come on the show, and I hope they accept. That would make for some good radio.
Rutgers women's basketball coach Vivian Stringer had a long and impressive coaching career long before Don Imus referred to her team as "nappy-headed hoes." But since that infamous incident, she's become not just a basketball coach but also the go-to source for many in the media who want an opinion on the intersection of race, sex and sports.
ESPN's Doris Burke asked Stringer what she thought of Knicks coach Isiah Thomas saying that he isn't bothered as much by a black man calling a black woman a "bitch" as he is by a white man calling a black woman a "bitch," and Stringer expressed her views:
"It's disgusting. You know, I turned the dog-gone set off. I thought 'has he lost his mind,' honestly," Stringer told ESPN
Thomas responded by telling Stringer to "get the facts'' about what he said, but I'm not sure what leads him to believe that she doesn't have the facts. Thomas says it's always wrong for a man to call a woman a "bitch," but that if a man is going to call a black woman a "bitch," Thomas would prefer that it be a black man. Stringer disagrees -- she doesn't want to be called a "bitch" by anyone and wouldn't feel any better about being called a "bitch" by a black man than she would about being called a "bitch" by a white man.
That's an opinion she's entitled to, it's consistent with the things she said after the Imus incident, and it's absurd for Thomas to suggest that just because she disagrees with him, she needs to "get the facts."
The UConn-Tennessee women's basketball rivalry should be one of the best in college sports. But it's a rivalry that has disappeared, as the schools will no longer play each other, unless they meet in the NCAA Tournament.
"I think she should just come out and say she's not playing us because she hates my guts," Auriemma said. "And I think people would buy that. Then everyone [who seeks a reason] would be happy. She should just say that [Geno is] a dope, a smart-ass and then everyone could say that they agree with her."
I don't know anything about the personal rancor between these two, but I do know it's a shame that they won't play each other. The two most storied programs should find a way to meet on the court every year, whether the coaches like each other or not.
In by far the biggest upset so far this March, the 3-27 Colorado State women's team beat 27-3 Utah in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament.
The Scripps Howard Foundation's annual National Journalism Awards were 
Congratulations to Colorado freshman forward Brittany Spears on being named the 
In April 
Rutgers women's basketball coach Vivian Stringer had a long and impressive coaching career long before 
The UConn-Tennessee women's basketball rivalry should be one of the best in college sports. But it's a rivalry that has disappeared, as 
