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Spelling bee
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Women's hoops deserves fan support**
One of my most memorable Duke athletic moments began and ended in my 1993 Ford Taurus. Now before your minds start wandering too far, let me explain. It was March 18, 1995, and I was on my way back to school from Florida. As I approached Raleigh, I was bored with the typical car mixes--the U2, the REM--so I switched the radio to the AM dial and picked up the Duke-Alabama second-round women's NCAA Tournament game. The game faded in and out, but eventually I caught the tension-filled end of regulation.
After dropping off two friends, and waiting in their rooms to listen to overtimes two and three, I found myself in my car, in an empty parking lot, listening to the game's finish. I never left my seat until Alison Day's last three-point shot became the Blue Devils' last points. The women's basketball team lost the game, but gained at least one fan.
When I arrived at Duke, I'll admit basketball was a factor. But it was of the men's kind. Watching Danny Ferry, Christian Laettner and Grant Hill on the tube, I thought men's hoops was the only kind at Duke. Just the thought that I could be interviewing these stars was one motivation to me becoming a Chronicle sports reporter. I remember calling home and saying, "I'm a new sports reporter. That means I may get a chance to eventually cover basketball." Meaning men's basketball, of course.
Women's hoops never crossed my mind as a potential top sport at Duke. It wasn't a sexist thought. It was just the men's team had much more publicity than its female counterpart. Nearly every other week, ESPN was showing a Duke men's game. Women's basketball only occasionally showed up on television, and that was when a perennial powerhouse like Virginia, Vanderbilt, Stanford or even North Carolina was playing. Duke never measured up to those teams.
That is, until last year, when the tables turned a little bit. While the men's team struggled, the women's team flourished. Over 5,000 fans packed Cameron Indoor Stadium to see the Blue Devils take on the much-hated and highly-talented No. 3 Tar Heels. When it was all over, they saw Day's game-winning shot bounce into the basket and the women's team bounce its way into the hearts of many Dukies. While the 5,000 fans wasn't anywhere near the sold-out in advance attendance of the No. 1 Vanderbilt-No. 2 Tennessee game, it was 10 times the normal crowd the women's team had received. People around campus started recognizing names like Day, Jennifer Scanlon and Kira Orr almost as much as Jeff Capel, Ricky Price and Cherokee Parks.
Unfortunately, I didn't cover many of the women's games last year. The two previous years, I had done my share of interviewing head coach Gail Goestenkors after games. I have even made a journey to the shrine of ACC women's hoops--Rock Hill, S.C., home of the ACC tournament. And the year I did, the team was bounced in the first round.
Still, if offered a chance at a men's game over a women's game last year, there would be no decision. The men's team would win my devotion, hands down.
This year, that's all changed. First, the Blue Devils have now been deemed worthy by the gods who choose ESPN's scheduling to appear on television. OK, so the games, starting with the Dec. 10 match-up against Seton Hall, are really going to be on ESPN2. But hey, its a start. Duke's final game of the year, against the Tar Heels, is also being shown on "the Deuce."
Added to this is the fact that Duke has consistently been ranked in the top 25 in preseason magazines. And deservingly so. Duke only returns six players, but four of them are returning starters. Then they have a recruiting class loaded with talent, starting with high school All-Americans Hilary Howard and Payton Black.
In just four years Goestenkors has turned this team from a second-division ACC team to a squad that is capable of winning not only the conference title, but also has an outside chance at the national title. At the same time, women's basketball fever has began to sweep the nation. For the first time, the women's team is going to have a "Dream Team" of former collegiate superstars, like Rebecca Lobo of Connecticut and Texas Tech's Sheryl Swoopes. Team USA is currently touring the nation against top-25 teams, and is destroying the nation's top teams. Just imagine what it will be able to do against most likely inferior opponents in Atlanta.
What's sad is as women's basketball in general gains momentum, the same fever hasn't caught on here. The same excitement some had for the women's team last year just isn't there. Maybe all of its fans graduated. More likely, it's the fact that Coach K is back with the men's team and everything is supposed to return to normal. The football team stinks. Men's basketball is supposed to be good. And the women's team, well, who cares about them?
Hey, I care a lot about the women's team, you say. Then why is it that by Monday at noon only around 25 FREE tickets had been given away for the first game of the Preseason Women's National Invitational Tournament? No doubt if it was the men's Preseason NIT, fans would be lining up by the droves to see the game. And the first 500 fans can't use the five dollar cost as a factor. Besides, to fans No. 501 and above, what's five bucks to see what may turn out to be the higher-ranked basketball team on campus?
And seriously, what else are you going to be doing on a Wednesday night? Studying? Yeah, right. Watching television? All the great NBC shows come on Thursday night. So maybe you should venture down to Cameron Indoor Stadium to catch what has already proven to be one of the bigger success stories in Duke athletics over the past few years.
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