King Kaufman's Sports Daily
Why Baylor's NCAA title is so shocking. Plus: Why do women's teams still use "Lady"? And: Dominique not in the Hall? Close it. And: God is a Red.
Read more: Sports, Baseball, NBA, Basketball, News, Women's basketball, NCAA, Salon News, NCAA Tournament, King Kaufman, Sports Daily
April 6, 2005 | Baylor's 84-62 thrashing of Michigan State in the NCAA women's Championship Game Tuesday was astounding in so many ways.
There was Sophie Young's effortless brilliance, the all-American from St. Vincent, West Indies, scoring 26 points, 18 in the second half, and grabbing nine rebounds to cap a season in which she was in double figures in every game and posted 17 double doubles. This is a 21-year-old who didn't play basketball until she was 15.
There was Emily Niemann coming off the bench early to nail five of seven first-half 3-pointers -- some of them from NBA range -- to lead the Bears, who had started the game with three quick turnovers, to a 19-point lead. There were the Spartans, a No. 1 seed and the comeback kids of this Tournament, unable to mount one of their furious rallies like the one that had toppled Tennessee in the semifinal Sunday, getting no closer than nine and looking overmatched all night.
But none of that was more astounding than this: Before the Tournament, I picked Baylor.
I came closer than usual to picking the men's champion this year, but who knew I'd pick the women's winner? I certainly didn't. It took an at-first puzzling reminder from reader Jim Murphy, who wrote after the semifinals, "You said that if Illinois wins it'll be your first winner in a lot of years. Didn't you also pick Baylor for the women?"
Shucks no, I wrote back, you have me confused with some smart person, but he sent this excerpt from the March 14 column:
"For all I know Tennessee or UConn will win and make it nine of the last 11 championships divided between those two schools. But the competition is tougher all the time. More teams have a chance to win. UConn is only a 3 seed. Duke dropped down to a 2. Michigan State, Baylor, Minnesota and Ohio State are all seeded in the top three without having been dominant Tournament teams in the last decade.
"My pick to win it all, coming to you directly from thin air: Baylor."
Not bad for a guy.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Hey, ladies! Enough with "Lady" [PERMALINK]
One last thought on the women's Tournament: I wish women's athletic programs that haven't done so already would get rid of that obnoxious word "Lady" in their nicknames.
It comes from a time when female athletes were considered so odd that they just couldn't be labeled the same way as the men. The men's teams at Baylor were called the Bears, for example, so the women's teams had to be the Lady Bears, because who ever heard of a female bear, right?