A little thinking out loud as the Women’s Final Four field has been determined . . .
Those running the sport of women’s college basketball ought to bottle up the first 20 minutes of Monday’s Albany Regional Final and serve it up as the ideal example of what the game should aspire to be.
I’m not just talking dramatics here, but also aesthetics.
The first half between UConn and Dayton was more than a basketball purist’s delight, an utter joy to watch. Not only did one feel privileged to absorb the crisp passing, precise screening and fearless shooting.
It was a banner advertisement for a sport with too little suspense and even less of this kind of execution on a sustained basis: Near perfect.
The Flyers actually led the Huskies at the intermission, 44-43, before the plotline became all too familiar: Smothering defense and a litany of offensive rebounds by UConn, and too much Breanna Stewart.
But the 91-70 verdict shouldn’t be yawned at, regarded as another predictable result from the latest UConn team that doesn’t appear to have an equal.
This was a half of a game, at least, to savor, for all the others out there wishing to emulate what transpired at the Times-Union Center.
And not just because Dayton, runners-up to George Washington in the Atlantic 10 Conference, was the only mid-major that reached the Elite Eight.
It was the way the Flyers played, and not just on offense, that was a marvel to observe. Geno Auriemma harkened back to his first Final Four team, in 1991, in which every player on the floor was skilled offensively, in making a comparison.
Coach Jim Jabir’s team bewildered three excellent power-conference teams this way – Iowa State, Kentucky and Louisville, and for a half against UConn.
Mid-range jumpers. Lots of threes. Fast-paced transition basketball. Many teams want to play this way, and try to, but not enough of them have the personnel, and the patience, to pull it off.
Some have superior talent, as far as the recruiting ratings go, but not many who can just line it up and shoot.
The Dayton-Kentucky game, which the Flyers won in overtime at Lexington, was the perfect example of this style, and is easily the best game of this tournament.
Dayton has been a foul-prone team, but for a while on Monday – until Stewart and Kaleeda Mosqueda-Lewis went on scoring rampages in the second half — managed to keep its key players out of foul trouble.
Most dreams of upsetting UConn die before they’re ever really hatched, but Dayton’s were torpedoed later on than usual. Ally Malott and Andrea Hoover, who were on fire in the first half, had no room to breathe, or even to see the basket, after the break.
This may not be much of a consolation for the Flyers, but it was stirring to read Jabir, in post-game comments, saying that “this was a great day.”
His kids delivered a terrific, amazing effort, and that’s all you can ask, no matter the odds.
So much more should be done with this display than to simply recall it, years from now, as a compelling interlude on the way to the Final Four.
An important part of Val Ackerman’s 2013 white paper on the sport delved into the quality of play, the well-honed fundamentals that stem from an old-school devotion to skill development.
That is the product that needs to be emphasized in the women’s tournament. While the men will always have their early-round buzzer-beating memories – this year it’s Georgia State’s R.J. Hunter and his father-coach, Ron Hunter, falling off a stool in celebration – the women have to go for style.
Drama is great, and it is what has made March Madness what it is. The women’s tourney has had it, in smaller doses: Dayton-Kentucky, Jamie Cherry’s long-bomb winner for North Carolina against Ohio State, and Tennessee’s furious comeback against Gonzaga in the Sweet 16.
But I think what will get more casual fans to watch is to show how well the game can be played by women. If that sounds patronizing, I’m sorry. There is a glaring lack of quality, of the kind of basketball John Wooden once found appealing about the women’s game.
For those who think UConn’s style is unattainable because of the talent on Auriemma’s roster, what Jabir has done with Dayton is a model for what so many other teams could do.
And not just mid-majors. He actively recruits shooters at all positions, and builds a style around that. Jabir’s game plan against UConn, at least for 20 minutes, is what often has worked for 40 against others.
While UConn is the seemingly impossible standard to reach, Dayton offers more than hope. The Flyers have succeeded with a formula that seems simple and easy to follow, but is not widely emulated.
I am looking right now at field goal percentage statistics by team for the season. All four of the Final Four teams are in the top six – Uconn (1), Notre Dame (2), South Carolina (4) and Maryland (6).
Only the Huskies are above 50 percent, and only the Huskies and Princeton are above 40 percent on 3-pointers.
Dayton isn’t all that far behind, tied for 18th at 44.4 percent shooting overall.
These things matter. Defense and rebounding do too, as Stewart’s display on Monday demonstrated.
But if you can’t shoot, you can’t score, and if you can’t score, you’ve got no shot to do much of anything, much less give UConn a scare.
There’s nothing profound in all this, especially with the Final Four awaiting at the end of the week.
Dayton-UConn, at least for a while, was too just good to be true.
