Women's Hoops Misses The Boat In Tournament

Quick-how's your NCAA Women's Bracket doing? What's that? You DON'T have an office pool for the ladies? You didn't have Tennessee losing in the first round for the first time since Ronald Reagan was in the White House? You're not alone. This week, the women's game took another plunge into obscurity by doing something that would NEVER happen in the men's game.

This past weekend many bracketologists were up in arms when men's 3rd seed in the East, Villanova, had a home game in Philly against UCLA. It's not uncommon for the top two seeds in a region to play close to or at home in an arena near campus. Duke and North Carolina have had that perk for years. It doesn't happen (usually) beyond the two seeds. Critics were right to protest.

If the women's game had a real following (maybe in a few years the WNBA champ will be able to beat a tough UCONN or Tennessee ladies' club) talk show hosts and pundits would have blasted the NCAA for what we've seen the last few days:

C. Vivian Stringer's Rutgers' team, seeded 7th had a home game against a number 2 seed, Auburn. Even worse, Duke, a top seed was on the road against #9 Michigan State. In both cases, the lower seed won relatively easily.

That's just wrong. It's bad enough that women's hoops has a tough time drawing a lot of publicity. What's the purpose of a team playing well and then having to play on the road? It's as foolish as telling the Saints they had a 'home' game at Giants Stadium after Hurricane Katrina.

You can certainly say that these games demonstrate that the women's game isn't that exciting. You're right. But at least reward the teams that play well with neutral sites or home games.