Not a good night in San Antonio for the Lone Star State teams. I wrote about the UConn-Tennessee now-phantom rivalry for ESPN.com, a topic that will no doubt irritate some folks.
I’ve written about a million stories that don’t involve UConn or Tennessee over the last 13 seasons for ESPN.com … but some people still insist I don’t write about anything except the Huskies and the Vols. All I can say to that is it’s not my doing that those two programs have combined to win 14 NCAA titles in the last 22 years.
You write a lot about who wins a lot – and they’ve both won a lot.
That said, what about the Raiders, who fell 91-53 to Tennessee, and the Longhorns, who lost 83-58 to UConn? Both programs looked overmatched by their respective opponents.
As for Texas Tech, it’s a program that for many years was one of the elites but has crash-landed and will take a while to get rebuilt. Marsha Sharp left after the 2006 season, and Kristy Curry seemed a pretty good fit coming from Purdue. But Tech has lost its mojo, to say the least.
I think most Tech fans could have lived with the idea of losing some ground in recent years. Especially as new coaches/recruiters moved in to take over programs such as Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State.
But what’s driven Tech fans to real despair is the notion that they have lost a lot of ground – and that that process happened much more quickly than the process of getting it back will. Tech has such a great, loyal fan base for women’s basketball, but a lot of them never warmed to Curry and the disappointing results have cooled their enthusiasm for the program even more.
“We’ve got 10 freshman and sophomores,” Curry said. “And we’re trying to get the wheels back on the bus one wheel at a time.”
Which may not be the most comforting analogy, since the bus can’t really go anywhere until it has all its wheels.
It’s an overreaction to judge Tech based on a loss to a team like Tennessee. However, Tech did also lose an exhibition to Lubbock Christian of the NAIA. Sure, it was only an exhibition, and Lubbock Christian is a good team at its level. But Tech simply can’t lose games like that, even if they don’t officially “count.”
Meanwhile, I think Texas fans might have thought that Gail Goestenkors could bring a magic wand to Austin. This is Goestenkors’ third season, and her Longhorns showed a few instances of spark against the Huskies. But the process there also takes time.
Sometimes I think Coach G should have never left Duke, I she created Stanford East. Texas and Duke do not attract the same type of student athletes. I wish her the best though because I really like her as an coach. I guess you have to look at the time it took Tara to build Stanford and the time it took Stringer to build Iowa and Rutgers to competitive programs as an guide post.
Tara and Stanford are the wrong comparison. Tara won a national championship at Stanford in her 5th season on the Farm, but that was a totally different world. It was a much less competitive environment.
Wish they would have chosen to show-case other teams against Connecticut and Tennessee. Neither game was competitive. How about TN-Stanford and UCONN-Ohio State or even Notre Dame? Either one of these matchups would have been much more compelling.
Games with Tech used to be compelling, but as Mechelle says, not only are things not getting better, they seem to be getting worse.
Even in Coach Sharp’s last season, we were in the games we played, even if we lost. To lose to an NAIA team and to not even be close to being in the game against Tenn is unacceptable. It’s not that they lost by 38, it’s the way they lost. If the Vols had not backed on defense, they could have beat us by 50+. UConn would have buried Tech. We looked poorly coached, over matched, under sized and out of our depth. Breaks my heart as one of those that have cherished the Lady Raiders.
Sharp left Tech in this mess, otherwise why would your retire in your early 50′s? At least Curry had the guts to take on the challenge and I think folks need to ease up. West Tx HS talent has dried up. It’s hard to recruit to Lubbock. Look at what Coach G inherited….Arriaran,Nash,Nash(whose grandparents live in Lubbock),Raven and Williams. Curry inherited Murphree. It’s going to take Curry alot more time to fix the mess than it took to create it. Minnesota and several others lost an exhibition too.
geri, a very touching post. very touching. keep cherishing.