Women's BBall: "Lowering the rims? Um, no, that's not the answer"

[madgator]

Back in 1996, the Team USA women's basketball team was preparing for the Atlanta Games by having their training camp at a local university (one that recently hosted a presidential debate coincidentally).

One of my high school basketball assistant coaches girlfriend was an assistant coach at that college. She had also been the assistant coach at a local CC coaching future WNBA superstar Yolanda Griffin.

Around the time when she was there I was a freshman and sophomore in high school. During my freshman year our coach used to send over the JV team to scrimmage against the women's team and Griffin who was CC all-american. Probably scrimmaged them 3-4 times. I never remember us winning by less than 15-20 points. We also had to play with that mini-ball.

Anyways fast forward to early summer 1996, I got a call from a former high school team mate who was on the men's team on that universities team. The coaching staff was looking to put together a team of guys for the USA women's team to scrimmage. Guys that could play different offensive and defensive schemes as directed. My name came up with a few other guys that I played HS ball with and a couple of other guys we all knew.

Anyways, not one of the guys called were on any college level higher than D-II and no one was over 6'4. Team USA had all the stars; Lobo, Leslie, Edwards, Staley, Swoopes, and Azzi. This team of course won gold with better than a 30+ average margin of victory.

We scrimmaged a full game.....and won by like 16 or 18 points.

This was arguably the best women's team ever and almost certainly up until that point in time. There is no way that our slapped together group of 8 guys (most without ANY D-1 college minutes logged) was the 5000th best men's basketball team together at that moment. Heck, I consider my current men's league team I play with today a better team by far. And honestly, the game was never really in question. After the game, the coaching staff was going bat.... on those women.

[tilly]

Originally Posted by madgator

Back in 1996, the Team USA women's basketball team was preparing for the Atlanta Games by having their training camp at a local university (one that recently hosted a presidential debate coincidentally).

One of my high school basketball assistant coaches girlfriend was an assistant coach at that college. She had also been the assistant coach at a local CC coaching future WNBA superstar Yolanda Griffin.

Around the time when she was there I was a freshman and sophomore in high school. During my freshman year our coach used to send over the JV team to scrimmage against the women's team and Griffin who was CC all-american. Probably scrimmaged them 3-4 times. I never remember us winning by less than 15-20 points. We also had to play with that mini-ball.

Anyways fast forward to early summer 1996, I got a call from a former high school team mate who was on the men's team on that universities team. The coaching staff was looking to put together a team of guys for the USA women's team to scrimmage. Guys that could play different offensive and defensive schemes as directed. My name came up with a few other guys that I played HS ball with and a couple of other guys we all knew.

Anyways, not one of the guys called were on any college level higher than D-II and no one was over 6'4. Team USA had all the stars; Lobo, Leslie, Edwards, Staley, Swoopes, and Azzi. This team of course won gold with better than a 30+ average margin of victory.

We scrimmaged a full game.....and won by like 16 or 18 points.

This was arguably the best women's team ever and almost certainly up until that point in time. There is no way that our slapped together group of 8 guys (most without ANY D-1 college minutes logged) was the 5000th best men's basketball team together at that moment. Heck, I consider my current men's league team I play with today a better team by far. And honestly, the game was never really in question. After the game, the coaching staff was going bat.... on those women.

Forgive my skepticism, but your story leaves me feeling....well....skeptical.

[rpmGator]

I worked the first WNBA tryout camp at Disney's Wide World of Sports.

They were working toward the first draft and had all the info of those attending. Some had free throw percentages higher that Rick Barry.

The only dunk I saw was from a 16 year old boy, who was there to sweep the floors.

My thoughts at the time was you could take the best women in the world and they would have gotten beat by a boys high school team. I was watching the best they had...

Udonis and crew went 6'9", 6'9", 6'8" on the front line, when they played in HS. No way do the woman's best, beat that team of HS teens. Now years later, they have gotten better, and if some enjoy it, so be it.

[madgator]

Originally Posted by tilly

Forgive my skepticism, but your story leaves me feeling....well....skeptical.

like your opinion matters.....all I can do is tell my story.

[corpgator]

Originally Posted by tilly

Forgive my skepticism, but your story leaves me feeling....well....skeptical.

There are stories about WNBA players playing in pick-up games all over the net. No one ever has a good thing to say about them.

[corpgator]

Originally Posted by philnotfil

Now I'm sorry that I posted the article. I enjoy women's basketball. I think it is a much better game for young basketball players to be watching and learning from than the NBA or even college men's basketball.

I don't agree. The NBA has a lot of flash, but these are still the most fundamentally sound players in the world. You don't select a few hundred players out of a pool of billions by ignoring fundamentals.