DALLAS — Geno Auriemma gets asked about the health of women’s basketball a lot.
As the coach of the nation’s best team and the sport’s most recognizable face, Auriemma often doesn’t hesitate to speak candidly about what is going on with his sport, which is holding its Final Four at the American Airlines Center this weekend in Dallas.
Auriemma took center stage yet again Thursday when he was asked a variety of questions about the state of the game, attendance, opportunities for women’s coaches, and how to attract more interest. Many of the questions Auriemma faced dealt with issues the sport has faced for the last several years. Just like in previous Final Fours or interviews, Auriemma spoke his mind.
When asked about generating more interest, Auriemma said the women’s basketball needs more overtime games and upsets in the NCAA tournament. He also referred to “some changes” that the women’s basketball tournament needs to make. He declined to say what those changes were, but he said he didn’t think the NCAA was “willing to make that change yet. But eventually they’re going to come to their sense and they will.”
Auriemma went into a little more depth in his next answer when asked what he thought about the switch from a Saturday-Tuesday format to a Friday-Sunday format at the Final Four.
“Well, I’ve said this in the past. TV and what’s going on in the actual arena don’t go together,” Auriemma said. “So what’s best for television is a 10 (p.m.) start in the East Coast or a 9:30 (p.m.) start on the East Coast. It’s not best for my players to sit around until 9:30 tomorrow night, but it’s best for TV because they’re paying the bills, so they get to show the game whenever they feel like it.
So we’re lucky, how does that affect attendance in the arena, and what’s more important? We say, well, at the regionals there were a whole lot of people there. Well, you think anybody cares about that? No. They were on TV, weren’t they? That’s all that counts.
“So what are we trying to do? Fill the arena or make sure people are watching on television?
“People in Dallas have done an amazing job. The arena is sold out. Is it ’cause it’s Friday-Sunday and people don’t have to take five days off from work to wait until Tuesday night to play? I don’t know. … Does ESPN like Friday-Sunday? No. Are they going to make sure it gets back to Sunday-Tuesday? Yes. Is that good for us? No. Is it good for them? Yes.
“In the end, who is going to decide what’s what?”
Auriemma also was asked if he sensed resentment from some of his peers for being a man who is so successful coaching a women’s sport, and how he felt about the number of coaching opportunities for women in the sport. He said he though there was some resentment toward him 20-25 years ago, but that isn’t the case anymore. He said he likes to think he has done too much for women’s basketball and worked hard to help it grow that people to resent him because he is a man.
Auriemma also said women have more job opportunities than they did 20-30 years ago and that there are a lot of other options that likely would provide a more stable schedule and would be higher paying than a college basketball coach.
“I can get a job at Travelers (an insurance company), making X, live a normal life. You want me to sit in a gym with 400 other coaches and watch 17-year-old spoiled brats play and I have to take five of them to come play for me? Not everybody wants to do that. Why? They have options they didn’t have 25, 30 years ago.
“So it’s not like people are consciously depriving women of opportunities. There’s just too many other choices that, quite frankly, are better choices for a lot of women. The ones that do choose to get in, they’re really passionate about it, they work their butt off.”
Measuring Morgan
It’s no secret Morgan William has the heart of a champion, but the junior point guard’s height recently has been a hot topic of conversation.
Listed at 5-foot-5, William attracted national attention Sunday when she scored a career-high 41 points to lead the second-seeded Mississippi State women’s basketball team to a 94-85 overtime victory against top-seeded Baylor in the championship game of the Oklahoma City Regional.
William had seven assists and zero turnovers in one of the best performances in the history of the program.
When asked about William and how she is able to compensate for her lack of height and score around the rim, MSU coach Vic Schaefer said, “We probably need to re-measure that because I’m pretty sure she ain’t the five in the second part of that.”
Credit to coach Blair
In his longest and last answer of his news conference, Schaefer was asked about how he and his coaching staff have gotten MSU to the Final Four in five seasons.
Schaefer talked about recruiting and believing MSU could get to the Final Four. He also highlighted the support of his fans and how they helped the Bulldogs finish seventh in average attendance (6,641) this season. He said building a fan base is an essential part of building a program he learned from a dear friend.
“I got to give (Texas A&M) coach (Gary) Blair a lot of credit because I sat and watched him for 15 years, was with him,” Schaefer said. “That’s how we built it when I was with him.”
Last season, MSU was 16th in the nation with an average attendance of 5,162. It was fourth in the nation in largest increase from the previous season (1,406).
This and that
This is the second Final Four in MSU basketball history. The 1996 MSU men’s team advanced to the national semifinals. MSU is one of five Southeastern Conference schools (Georgia, LSU, Arkansas, South Carolina) to have a men’s and a women’s team reach the Final Four. … This is the third time Schaefer has led a program to the Final Four. He was a member of Blair’s coaching staffs at Arkansas and Texas A&M when those program accomplished the feat. … Auriemma was named The Associated Press’ Coach of the Year on Thursday. Schaefer is one of four finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year. He also was named a regional coach of the year by the WBCA.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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