04/19/24
April 04, 2007
Insert Your Own "Reaching the Summitt" Joke Here:: Tennessee Women's Basektball Coach Pat Summitt racks up her seventh National Championship, as the Lady Vols stomped Rutgers last night, 59-46. Tennessee has now beaten Rutgers three straight years in the NCAA tournament and five times since 1998.
posted by The_Black_Hand to basketball at 07:14 AM - 11 comments
Whenever Tennessee and Rutgers meet, I always hope for a different outcome, if for no other reason than to prevent the coronary that I know my 77 year old mother is going to have watching the two teams play. People, she's calling me and shouting at the Rutgers team to do something different! After this year, I've come to the conclusion that I will be the one on the floor of cardiac arrest, not my mother. Please, Vivian, if not for my mother, for me, beat Tennessee please...
posted by yzelda4045 at 08:24 AM on April 04, 2007
So much for my alma mater's first shot at a national championship since winning the NCAA fencing title in the mid-'40s!
posted by billsaysthis at 09:59 AM on April 04, 2007
i had high hopes about last night, but the scarlet knights just had that deer in the headlights look for most of the game. i think their age really showed. but, like dyams said, a lot of players return next year. in fact they all do, as they had no seniors on the team. they had a great run this year, winning the big east tournament for the first time, so i'm not terribly disappointed. and now that rutgers is starting to get more coverage in the national media (what with the football team doing well this year and all) it may just help a bit on the recruiting side all around. anyways, congrats to tennessee. i think i understand why some people hate the yankees so damn much. So much for my alma mater's first shot at a national championship since winning the NCAA fencing title in the mid-'40s! and unfortunately they're cutting the fencing program, among others.
posted by goddam at 12:22 PM on April 04, 2007
and unfortunately they're cutting the fencing program, among others. Yeah, football will do that to an athletic department.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:28 PM on April 04, 2007
It seems like only UCONN or Tennessee can win the Womens bball title. What's up with that?
posted by yay-yo at 12:33 PM on April 04, 2007
It seems like only UCONN or Tennessee can win the Womens bball title. They've won many in recent years, true, but prior to last night, Purdue, Notre Dame, Baylor and Maryland (along with UConn, of course) have all won titles since Tennessee's last one.
posted by dyams at 12:46 PM on April 04, 2007
Yeah, football will do that to an athletic department. That seems a bit biased to me lbb. While football definitely can hurt and take away from other athletic programs (particularly women's), a lot of football programs bring in more than enough revenue to keep other sports alive, despite their lack of profitability. I'm not trying to say that football programs are above criticism (i don't want you to hear me saying "Don't bite the hand that feeds you") and that other athletes should only be thankful for football, but it does seem to me that football, despite all the harm it does to an athletic program, also enables others to compete at a college level. While they are not above criticism, i'm hopeful that we are careful with placing blame on them for other programs woes. I think that it is a bit more complicated than that. I know you are sharp lbb, and i don't want to misunderstand you. Would you agree that fopotball actually helps athletic programs other than itself, or do you think i am off base. I am eager to hear your thoughts.
posted by brainofdtrain at 04:32 PM on April 04, 2007
brainofdtrain, the number of football programs that operate in the black is what I'd call "a few", not "a lot". Also, what they mostly have taken away from over the past 30 years or so is men's programs: with Title IX mandating equal access for women (which is never, ever measured in dollars; if it were, you'd have football for men and a dozen or more sports for women and that would be it), it's mostly been other men's sports that have been axed. There are a lot fewer wrestling programs around than there used to be, and now men's tennis seems to be getting the boot too. The article goddam linked to is very revealing: a bunch of teams were cut, ostensibly for budgetary reasons, eliminating 115 athletes and a total of $1 from the budget. The football team budget was then upped by $1.2 million. Something doesn't add up here.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:28 PM on April 04, 2007
Tennessee may have won but Rutgers has much higher academic standards and about 183 championships to boot. So there.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 07:04 PM on April 04, 2007
The whole monolithic dynasty talk is easy to temper, just because Pat Summitt has never been less than a class act since forever. Rutgers will definitely be back, and the stranglehold that TN and UConn have had won't last a whole lot longer. And Candace Parker is a total fuckin' rock star. Talent for miles, a good head on her shoulders, gorgeous, engaging and clearly ready to lead. She's gonna be the most famous female athlete in North America inside of two years.
posted by chicobangs at 01:37 PM on April 05, 2007
Whether or not you follow women's NCAA basketball closely or not, you have to have serious respect for a program like the one at Tennessee. Summitt's a great coach, who by all accounts seems like a class person. Too bad for Rutgers, though. They return a lot next year, so they'll get another chance to lose to the Vols.