There isn’t much you could say to criticize women’s basketball that hasn’t already been said. The players have heard it all.
The points people make, they have validity. Women aren’t as athletic as men, and therefore the game of basketball isn’t as exciting when played by women.
It’s a boring, incorrect argument, and I’m tired of hearing it.
Sure, women can’t dunk a basketball. I hate to be a downer, but no one on the Florida Gators women’s basketball team is going to rise above the rim and throw the ball through the hoop. It’s only been done by seven women in the NCAA – most recently by Baylor star Brittney Griner in 2013. So the odds are pretty low that any of the Gators will dunk.
The tallest player, redshirt junior Viktorija Dimaite, stands at a solid 6-foot-4, a significant few inches shorter than the 6-foot-8 Griner. And with a left knee that’s undergone two ACL reconstructions, it’s doubtful that Dimaite can even get up high enough to dunk, let alone while running full-speed in a game.
In its original iteration, basketball inventor James Naismith developed the sport with strategy in mind. There were no dunks, no alley-oops, and Naismith required the ball to be passed to be moved down the court. There was no dribbling or blocking of the basketball – each team had equal opportunity to move the basketball down the court through a series of strategic passes and communication.
If you want to see high-flying dunks, a fast paced game, and outstanding athleticism, then go to a Harlem Globe Trotters game.
But at 3:15 p.m. on Friday, the Florida’s women’s basketball team takes on Jacksonville, providing their own take on the sport that has changed the lives of millions. This form of basketball relies upon team chemistry, dynamic passing, and moving the basketball to create space.
These elements have countlessly proven to be the most crucial in developing an effective women’s basketball team. While it’s true that basketball is faster at each succeeding level, women’s basketball requires mostly memorization of plays and offensive sets along with increased conditioning, as these are the most common ways to score once you negate above-the-rim athleticism from their version of the game.
The most noticeable difference between the two sports? The degree of athleticism between men’s players and between women’s players features a much smaller margin of difference for the women.
This means that most players of the same height typically have identical degrees of quickness and speed. Often, the only way around a player is to run the play effectively and efficiently, leaving little room for error.
Women don’t have the advantage of being able to use their athleticism if a play breaks down – they just have to draw up a new one.
This method of essentially "on the fly" play calling makes a women’s basketball guard more similar to a football quarterback than any other sport. If a team has identified your play, the guard essentially must audible into another play to try and break down the team’s defense.
While it seems like a more stripped-down version of basketball, that analysis is a lazy generalization.
The offense in women’s basketball is almost entirely reliant on plays, and often the original play doesn’t work the first time. If you can’t develop a new play or move the ball to get a shooter open, you most likely will run back down the court empty-handed.
When it comes to developing an efficient basketball offense, women have to be quicker than men.
It would be belittling and downright sexist of me to infer that men’s basketball players are slower intelligently than women’s basketball players. I’m not trying to position one gender as better than the other, in either way. I’m just damn tired of hearing people call women’s basketball "boring" or "slow."
It’s not – it’s a strategic game played at court level, entirely reliant on communication and strategy. Akin to chess or tennis, the sport requires you to outwit and out match your opponent on a more balanced court than the men play on.
And that doesn’t sound boring to me at all.
It sounds absolutely enthralling.
Follow Graham Hall on Twitter @Graham311
Cassie Peoples drives down the court during Florida’s 81-76 loss to Missouri on Feb. 20 in the O’Connell Center.
