For college basketball fans, March is the "month of heaven". In its purest form, the NCAA tournaments provide the best that sports can give us. From dramatic finishes to upstarts showing their worth, the Madness leaves everyone hanging on their seats. For women's basketball fans, those arena seats are extremely comfortable and familiar.
Since the women's tournament began in 1982, dominant teams have had the luxury of extending their postseason success to the cheers and admiration of a home crowd. Programs such as Tennessee, Connecticut, Louisiana Tech, USC, and Stanford have used that advantage to its fullest, winning multiple championships.
However, for the past few years, a cry has been growing louder from the peanut gallery.
"How can we expect to beat a Texas, or Connecticut, or Georgia when all we hear is rabid fans during our huddles?" That or something of the like.
"If the games were held at a completely neutral court, we'd have more of an opportunity to beat the best teams." A paraphrase, of course.
Fans of the smaller well-to-do teams were looking for something to look forward to during the tournament, instead of a backhand slapfest to a Purdue or Texas Tech. Well, enter the NCAA with ideas on how to make everybody feel better.
Before the 2003 tourney, execs in the Indianapolis offices decided to change how the first- and second-round games were chosen. Instead of the top four seeds (maybe a five every now and again) getting a home-court advantage, the sites would be pre-determined before the season.
You could hear shouts of "Everybody love us!" from the halls of collegiate justice. But before long, those sentiments turned to ones of "Doesn't anyone love us?".
So where did all the love go? Apparently to the deepest portion of the Mariana Trench. According to Penn State head coach Rene Portland, no coaches were enamored by this plan from the start. Now, fans of the sport are beginning to see her logic more clearly.
During the 2003 tournament, 14 teams received the honor of hosting the first weekend of play. In half of those cases, the host team was not the highest seed (a 1, 2, 3, or 4). Sure there were a couple of 5s and 6s playing host, but three of the sites featured home teams seeded 10th or lower. Fortunately for the selection committee, Oklahoma, Old Dominion, and Cincinnati didn't take advantage of their happenstance.
Not the case this time around.
For the 2004 "field of 64," 12 schools got a chance to see their team play on campus during the opening weekend. Although the number of host teams dwindled, the advantage to lower seeds bordered on ridiculous. Nine, count 'em, nine schools hosted as lower seeds, with seven of those squads boasting a number of 7 or lower.
The two standouts in this group were UC-Santa Barbara and Minnesota. Sure, the Lady Gophers ended up running all the way to the Final Four, beating Duke on a truly neutral court. It's also clear that the Lady Gauchos gave UConn their toughest game of the tournament, especially considering that game was a home one for the Lady Huskies.
However, don't say that UCSB would have been as effective against Chandi Jones and Houston outside of the Thunderdome. Furthermore, try to make people believe that the Nicole Ohlde-led Kansas State Wildcats would be blown out had they not played U of M in Minneapolis.
Cases such as these force me to side with Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma (an extremely difficult thing for me to do). The situations put good teams in an unfair position. Sure, the old way didn't work, but using a mirror image to help the problem is the wrong way of doing things.
And it seems as though the committee is hearing those voices of doubt, as well. A recent announcement will add another twist to the tourney for next year. As of 2005, the amount of first-round sites will be reduced from 16 to eight, allowing more of the neutral court matchups that some fans believe make the Madness ... well, madness.
While this is most definitely a step towards the better, it's not going to seem that way for a while. The reason will simply show up in the numbers. With schools not having as good a chance to stay on campus, attendance will sink at contests, even if they mean a trip to the Sweet 16.
Of course, officials with the tourney say that this move won't mean a huge dropoff in ticket sales. Truthfully, though, there's going to be a nugget in the brain that knows support won't be as good for a neutral game in Detroit as it would for home tilts in Knoxville, Storrs, Lubbock, or Albuquerque.
That's the loss-loss situation it has come to for women's college basketball. It's not fair to the game, but lumps are always part of the growing process. Football and baseball didn't become giants overnight. Then again, they didn't let a wildcard have homefield over the top dog. In the end, this decision will mean big strides for women's basketball, even if those first steps look similar to a Michael Jackson moonwalk.
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