2008 Woodie Awards
Title inspired by the soundtrack playing inside the empty Greensboro Coliseum a couple minutes ago.
Welcome back to Greensboro, N.C., for tonight’s live coverage of the formerly-known-as-East Regional final. It’s No. 1 UConn and No. 7 Rutgers in the matchup that has been anticipated since March 17, when the brackets were announced.
Tonight’s game is for dominance, Big East pride, the upper hand in women’s basketball’s best active rivalry, and more importantly? A trip to Tampa and a date with Stanford in Sunday’s national semifinals.
As games I’ve been in attendance for go, it don’t get no bigger than this.
We’re about 2+ hours away from gametime (9:07 p.m., ESPN), so lineups will come in due time, possibly along with thoughts on the Tennessee-Texas A&M game at 7.
By the way, just to get some miscellaneous thoughts out there, I put a little bit of a “last will and testament”-type thing, but since it’s more personal, self-reflecting (and much less funny and thereby less entertaining to anyone who isn’t me), it’s after the jump. Just a few thoughts I’ve been thinking with gametime fast approaching.
Back within the next two hours or so.
So this is it. Elite Eight. Regional final. Rutgers. I walked out onto the court a few minutes ago, just to take it all in. The sights, the sounds, the emptiness of an 11,000 (really 23,000) seat arena.
I did the exact same thing last year before the LSU game at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, just to take a glimpse and take a picture in my head.
I thought that UConn team could go all the way. I was naive - and LSU’s 23-point beatdown was the proof. I think this year’s UConn team has enough to cut down the nets, too. We’ll find out in about a week (or in four hours, if they lose tonight) if I’m still naive.
But my predictions aren’t what inspired this post. Just a simple realization: this could be it.
It’s been an absolute pleasure to cover the UConn women for the last two years. The personalities on the team - from Geno to Maya to Cassie to Jacqui and everyone in between - are simply fascinating, and I wish I was capable enough to write a 1,000-page book about them. I suspect this will be the case with any beat I were to cover, but hey - they were here first.
The rivalries - against Rutgers (tonight will be the seventh UC-RU game I’ve seen in person) and Tennessee (whom I’ve had the occasion to see once in person) - are fun, and exactly what college sports are about (and exactly what the UConn men are missing, too).
The fans - be they the diehards, the students or the bandwagon types who show up for big games - are all crazy in various ways. They too entertain the hell out of me.
The Horde and associated media, each of the 157 newspapers that cover UConn basketball - they’re crazier than the fans, behind the scenes.
But that’s enough sentimentality for one post.
I love this gig. It’s the type of experience you can’t teach in a journalism classroom, and in 2008, women’s basketball is a niche sport with an audience that desperately wants coverage. As disheartening as it is to see the Greensboro Coliseum half-full, all I can think is that someone will find a way to showcase the game the way it was meant to be. Like the UConn-UNC game this year. Or either UConn-Rutgers game. Hell, or any game with 17,500 screaming Lady Vols fans.
And for the first time, it’s possible that I’m 40 minutes away from not being a part of this anymore. Not that it’ll be worse on me than it would Mel Thomas, Brittany Hunter, Charde Houston or Ketia Swanier. It won’t. It’ll just be…different.
If it ends tonight with a UConn loss, that’ll be a shame. If I end up with a plane ticket to Tampa in the next few days, that’ll be just dandy, too.
I wasn’t a women’s basketball fan before I came to UConn. Count me among those who will be watching Maya Moore, Elena Delle Donne and the rest of the crew next year, win or lose tonight. Laugh if you want, it doesn’t bother me. It’s a great game featuring great athletes with great stories, for those who want to put aside their love of the almighty dunk.
And whether I end up sitting courtside across from Jim Calhoun next year, or do something completely different, it’s going to take a lot to top what I’ve seen, heard and felt in my current gig.
That’s why I felt the need to write this.
I hope that I haven’t embarrassed myself too much here. Tennessee and Texas A&M are just tipping off now, as is the dinner buffet. See you around 9:00.
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