Ladies First- Why UConn's Streak Stands Alone

As UConn marched past UCLA's record of 88 consecutive wins, before being halted at 90 Tuesday night by Stanford, there were two equally trite worldviews. One was the Rodney King "Can't we all just get along?" line. "Both streaks are great, why do we need to compare, blah blah blah."The other, a haughty"Let's not compare the two. The men's game was deeper and more competitive."

Even prior to the streak ending loss to Stanford, the conventional logic seemed to operate like this; the longer UConn's streak went, , the more sub-standard the level of competition must necessarily be. "They won ___ in a row. Their opponents must be weak" But a men's team's won that many too, so therefore the logic cannot hold. The reflexive argument being, "well, they're men." A fallacy on its face--women play against women, and men against men.

Although it is true that the men's game of 1970 was deeper than the women's game of 1970, and the same is true of both games today, and cross gender comparisons are always tricky, I can't take the coward's route and say you can never make them. Nor can I take the smug, intellectually lazy tack that even cross-era comparisons always favor men. To wit, both Roger Federer's and Serena Williams' roads were tougher than Pete Sampras' (that's for another column). What we can compare is the level of athlete and depth of competition relative to the comparable sports in the time period. In other words, the question is, during time period and relative to their gender, who faced the tougher gauntlet? Empirical evidence alone makes the answer The Lady Huskies, and it's not even close.

Other Champions

At the time of their Jan. 19, 1974 loss, UCLA was the 7-time defending National Champs. S-E-V-E-N. North Carolina State would ultimately win that year's title, one of two interlopers from 1964 to 1975 (Texas Western was the other). Irrespective of any streak, there was little suspense as to who would win in a given year. To put this number in perspective, four consecutive Bruin senior classes had won all of their NCAA tournament games.

UConn's title run stands at two in a row. Every junior and senior on this team has ended a season without raising the trophy. But let's look even further back. Since UConn won their first title (with, coincidentally, an undefeated season) in 1995, nine times another team has claimed the crown. This would include two different teams from Indiana, Notre Dame and Purdue. Maryland and Baylor have also won championships. That is called quality depth. Which brings us to the other 800-pound Gorillas. . .

Tennessee and Stanford

One NPR host, Scott Simon, contrasted the difficulty of the two paths by stating UCLA had "teams like Notre Dame" to contend with. I couldn't stifle an incredulous belly laugh.

A testament to the reverence Geno Auriemma's current crop of Huskies has engendered is that Pat Summit's program has become almost an afterthought, as if her glory were ensconced in the mid-Paleozoic. Only two years ago Tennessee claimed its eighth crown under Summit. . . and three years since their seventh. Indeed, The Vols have sung "Rocky Top" five times in the "Geno The Great" era, including another run of three in a row.

The coach whose team ended Uconn's stellar run, Stanford, is also a giant. Her resume, too, is festooned with accomplishments that Digger Phelps of Notre Dame never caught a sniff of, including eight Final Fours, seven All-Americans, an Olympic gold medal, and two national tittles. Her team has appeared in three consecutive Final Fours, and gave Uconn a scare in last year's title game.

John Wooden had no such contemporaries during his run. Adolph Rupp had become an actual afterthought, and North Carolina and others were not imposing enough physically. Wooden had the Candace Parkers, Chamique Holdsclaws, and Brittany Griners of his day, not is competition.

Failing to see the inherent contradiction, critics diminish UConn's current run by stating it does not include Tennessee. It's not like UCLA played North Carolina, Kentucky, and NC State in the regular season each year, and the Bruins' conference competition was a breeze.

Sports Choices of the Best Athletes.

When I was a pup growing up in Los Angeles in 1980, there were two outstanding all-city basketball players who had their pick of colleges to attend. Their names were Eric Davis and Darryl Strawberry. They were the norm of the day. Very few of the most gifted athletes of the early 70s chose basketball as a vocation, even the tall ones. When time came to pick a sport to pursue as a profession, the choice was usually football, baseball, or boxing, as well as Olympic sports like track and swimming. That's where the money was. Ed Too Tall Jones was the LeBron James of his day, a physical freak so gifted he interrupted a stellar pro-football career to box, going 6-0 with five knockouts. The NBA was on life support most of the 70s, a marginal league with bad PR until a Hick from French Lick, Indiana and a "conjuring" point guard from Lansing, Michigan resurrected the sport in 1980. 10 years later, even German kids named Nowitzki wanted to be like Mike (who himself preferred baseball as a child).

It is very different today. Talk to young girl athletes from 1990 to now, and their heroes are most likely basketball players. Most girls today play sports, and the best often choose basketball. Which leads me too. . .

AAU

For a sophomore playing for an opponent in 1973, UCLA players were like dragons, the stuff of legend, until you faced them on the court. These were the pre-ESPN days, when there were 3 networks for national sports, and most of the airtime was taken by Olympic sports and football in the winter and fall, and hockey, boxing, baseball and horse racing the rest of the year. You played only for your high school team, and likely switched sports season to season. And now, you are in the presence of Bill Walton or Lew Alcindor for the first, and probably only, time, on the biggest stage. It could be downright terrifying.

By contrast, one constant between the two genders has been the explosion of traveling spring and summer club ball, and the proliferation of corporate sponsored camps since the 80s, driven by the demand sparked by the NBA golden years. Players are specialized much earlier, and the top players tested against each other at a younger age. This is what makes the Huskies' streak all the more jaw dropping. There is no intimidation factor, no mystique. Their opponents see them on TV every week and coaches have a Druid's hold-worth of game film. Yet, the 30-point drubbings continue, even after a four-year parity sabbatical that saw two programs win their first title.

Road games and Conference Play

Uconn does not subscribe to the SEC football model of scheduling. They actually play home and homes with both top programs and mid-majors. In other words, they play trap games where they have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Notre Dame was consistently the only non-conference true road game on the Bruins' schedule, while Duke has gone to Stanford, Florida St, Georgia Tech, Duke, Texas and North Carolina, all formidable.

None of this diminishes John Wooden, for his Bruins remain the gold standard of sports dominance. But this is a silly debate upon intellectually honest scrutiny. The Wizard rarely finished second to anyone, but in this case, it's unquestionably Ladies First.