Sports & Recreation >
College Basketball
Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedIs the '08-'09 UConn women's basketball team the best of All-Time?
Results so far:
| Yes | 43% | 61 votes | Total: 143 votes | |
| No | 57% | 82 votes |
Yes
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesReading various articles and listening to various commentary has inspired me to add my two cents to the debate as to whether the 2008-2009 team is the best UConn team of all time; To which I respond resoundingly in the affirmative. The 2008-2009 team is the best women's college basketball team to date. The efforts of this team stand a very good chance of being surpassed by next year's team. Caroline Doty will return from knee surgery and Tiffany Hayes will step up as the next UConn All American having already set the freshman NCAA tournament scoring record and having a gold medal winning experience at the World University Games this summer.
There were a number of outstanding UConn teams that did not win a national championship due to horrific bad luck. The 2000-2001 team consisted of the 2001-2002 starting five along with first team All Americans Shea Ralph and Svetlana Abrosimova. However, injuries to Ralph and Abrosimova dimmed their national championship ambitions; Ambitions that might still have been realized of not for an awful 1 for 15 shooting performance by Diana Taurasi against Notre Dame. Every shot Taurasi took that night was a good one; they just did not fall. That game, however, made Diana Taurasi the player and the leader she would become in leading UConn to three straight national championships. She would also lead the consensus opinion as to who was UConn's all time greatest player.
That consensus is now up for serious debate. The 2007-2008 team that started the season was as good a team as UConn has ever put out on the floor. When they started Tina Charles, Charde Houston, Kalana Greene, Mel Thomas and Renee Montgomery, the bench featured the likes of Maya Moore, Ketia Swanier, Brittany Hunter, and Kaili McClaren. Season ending knee Injuries to Greene and Thomas thwarted this teams hopes; Hopes that might still have been realized if not for some poorly timed offensive and defensive lapses against Stanford. The 1996-1997 team was another outstanding team derailed by a psychologically devastating injury to Shea Ralph.
Much of the debate about the best UConn team of all time focuses on the three undefeated teams. Of the two against whom the 2008-2009 team will be compared only the 2001-2002 team merits any real consideration. The 1995 team was very good and is responsible for much of the juggernaut that UConn has become. But an outstanding Rebecca Lobo, a very good Kara Wolters, a very good and determined Jennifer Rizzotti, an undersized but courageous Jamelle Elliott, supported by the likes of Kim Betters, Carla Berube, and Pam Webber; Not to mention that the best player on that team was a freshman, Nykesha Sales. However, this team was too slow, did not have the offensive firepower, or the defensive tenacity of the 2008-2009 team. And, if you run them down player by player, one would be hard pressed to find a matchup that favors the Rebecca Lobo led 1995 team.
This brings us to the 2001-2002 team. This team could do it all; Pass, run, shoot, rebound, and defend. They just could not do any of these things as well as the 2008-2009 team. Granted, the 2002 team has more depth. All of their first seven players Swin Cash, Ashja Jones, Tamika Williams, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Ashley Battle, and Jessica Moore would eventually sign WNBA contracts. One can only reasonably assume that five players from the 2009 team will play in the WNBA. Player by player, position by position, the matchups seem pretty even across the board. One exception might be the two Number 3's, Diana Taurasi and Tiffany Hayes with Taurasi holding a slight edge. I believe slight because Hayes is a much better defender and rebounder; and is much quicker afoot. Taurasi's leadership is unsurpassable. The other glaring exception is Maya Moore. No one in the history of women's basketball matches up to Maya Moore. Maya Moore is the player who compelled me to attend my first women's basketball game; a very compelling player indeed who actually ruins the game for me and causes me to miss much of what goes on during a game because of my tendency to narrowly focus my attention upon her.
So, where does the 2009 team hold the winning advantage? Their winning advantage is their incredibly tenacious defense. The tandem of Kalana Greene and Tiffany Hayes will limit Diana Taurasi's scoring and playmaking, making it very difficult for the 2002 team to score enough points to keep pace with the 2009 team.
A year from now, I fully expect the 2009-2010 team to join this debate.
Learn more about this author, Leonard Kendall.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
No
It is so common in sports to anoint a current brilliant team as the "best of all time" that the premise has become trite and meaningless. Anyone that viewed the Old Dominion University Lady Monarchs in the late 70's knows well their complete dominance over every team that they played; this has never been duplicated. During that era, ODU, Louisiana Tech, and upstart Tennessee were the prevailing powers. In the waning days of AIAW (pre-Title IX renaming to NCAA women's basketball), ODU won two national championships behind All-Americans Nancy Lieberman and Inge Nissen; they went 72-2 during this period. They won again under the NCAA banner in 1985.
The coach, Pam Parsons, recruited these players and made them the focus of a team that was close to unbeatable. When she was suceeded by future National Coach of the Year Marianne Stanley, Anne Donovan and Medina Dixon joined the team, later to become All-Americans themselves Also retained was alum and current 24-year coach Wendy Larry as a graduate assistant; the trio helped to continue the tradition, winning another title in 1985. Connecticut has an incredible team, but the Lady Monarchs were not only true pioneers, but more likely the best of all time.
As an example of their utter domination of the women's game. in 1980 the #1 Lady Monarchs hosted the #2 UCLA Lady Bruins in a much-anticipated East-West match up. ODU won by over 50 points in a game that, unbelievably, was not considered by many experts to be even that close.
As Title !X (a provision mandating equal funding of men's and women's sports) became heavily established in the next decades, smaller schools like ODU and Louisiana Tech found it harder to compete for the best players, much as Immaculata and Stephen F. Austin had previously. Still, the 70's-80's were a golden era for women's basketball. and ODU positioned itself as the leader by demanding excellence by hiring and recruiting the best in the sport to play at a well-funded mid-sized Division I school.
Connecticut deserves great praise for its commitment to supporting a women's basketball team of the highest quality. They have a long-standing tradition of excellence, are deservedly revered at present, and will likely be for all time. That said, to consider their 2008 squad to be the best in history is a highly dubious argument at best; the idea is highly disrespectful of the ODU Lady Monarchs during their heyday, who more rightly deserve the accolade.
Learn more about this author, John Baradell.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
- College Basketball
- Are UConn coaches paid what they are worth?
