UConn women show that sports is sports

In 1995, when Rebecca Lobo and Jen Rizzotti led UConn to its first national championship, women's basketball was a decidedly niche sport, at least among my high school peers. Even with homestate pride at stake (and a point guard from the next town over), hardly anyone I knew, even those who could tick off entire NBA rosters, was all that interested.

A few days ago, nearly three decades after that undefeated season made Geno Auriemma a household name, I listened in as my 12-year-old son and a friend marveled at UConn's greatness.

That's easy enough to understand. Fourteen straight Final Fours is excellence with unprecedented consistency. Even if South Carolina was better this year, it was another amazing season at the state's flagship university, and for fans, it never gets old. After losing in the national title game, Auriemma is now 999 games over .500 for his career.

Still, it was notable hearing a couple of preteen boys go on at length about women's basketball. That's something that wouldn't have happened before UConn started its run. It's another reason to be proud to call this state home, and the university my alma mater.

The UConn family has been quoted as saying it's “national championship or nothing” in Storrs, which is what happens when you win so many of them. From 1995 to 2016, UConn won 11 championships in 22 seasons, which is absurd. They haven't won any since then, which could be taken as a knock against them but is really just a reflection of how much more competitive everyone else has gotten.

That UConn has stayed elite as the rest of the nation caught up is another mark of greatness. They haven't lost a step; everyone else is just better.

I rarely miss an opportunity to share my favorite UConn stat, which is that the women's basketball team hasn't lost back-to-back games since 1993. Even if you allow that there are a lot of subpar teams out there, it's a crazy statistic. Good teams lose two in a row all the time. You could lose consecutive games multiple times in a season and still win a championship. At UConn, it just doesn't happen.

But the wins are only part of the story. To an uncommon degree, UConn seems to attract thoroughly decent people to its basketball team. Maya Moore, one of the handful of best players the school has ever seen, gave up her basketball career to free a wrongfully imprisoned man. Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are able to carry hours of live television just on the virtue of their personalities. Swin Cash and Lobo have excelled as broadcasters. It's a long list.

The change in emphasis on women's sports has gone beyond UConn. The U.S. women's soccer team, for instance, is if anything a bigger deal than the men's team, and the WNBA has come into its own in the past 25 years. That doesn't mean there's equality or anything close to it in terms of coverage, salaries or other metrics. But there is a growing recognition that sports is sports, and greatness comes in all kinds of varieties.

The effect is certainly heightened in Connecticut, and is maybe less true in states that don't have dominant college teams. But it's not just here. The women's NCAA tournament has struggled for parity with the men's side, but today is moving closer to achieving it.

As for the players, if you can't appreciate what Taurasi or Paige Bueckers can do on a basketball court, I don't know how you'd call yourself a sports fan.

There's a question of whether UConn can return to its previous level of dominance, and the answer is probably not. No one is going to win four straight titles again anytime soon, which UConn did when Breanna Stewart was on the team. Maybe they'll win another title, or a few more, and with Bueckers around for two more years they'll have as good a chance as anyone. But even if they don't, their run has already been a remarkable one.

What they've done over the years is help change the perception of women's sports. It's not a niche product. It's just sports. Ask any 12-year-old — they'll tell you.