Opinion: This year’s NCAA Women’s tournament gave us a taste of the future
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As a casual sports fan at best, I had a shocking realization while avidly checking the NCAA Women’s College Basketball championship scores; I was eager to know what team would come out on top. That is, the fact that I was actually invested in the sport for the first time in my life.
Both individually and on a cultural level, the buzz was significantly louder (or at least comparable) for the women’s March Madness tournament rather than the typical fan-favorite of the men’s tournament.
In terms of viewership, the women’s tournament soared above all expectations. As reported by Forbes, the University of South Carolina’s final win against the University of Iowa set a new record of 18.7 million average viewers, peaking at 24 million, making it the most-watched basketball game since 2019.
With such overwhelming hype from an often neglected sport, I’ve felt deeply curious about the significance of this cultural shift. Why do we care about women’s basketball all of a sudden?
The primary catalyst is the emergence of this season’s superstar players. Caitlin Clark, the record-breaking Iowa senior, served as the tournament’s poster child while a plethora of other talented and charismatic players also came to the forefront.
This is thanks to a perfect storm of on-the-court skill and social media prowess. Players such as Clark and University of Connecticut’s Paige Bueckers appeared in thousands of TikTok edits, hyping them up as athletes whose personalities shone both on and off the court.
“I’ve been more engaged with women’s basketball because of the talent in the college scene. Names like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have put [the sport] on the map like never before,” UO first-year Kainoa Ching said. “The NCAA women’s tournament is creating opportunities for these talents to potentially make their way to the WNBA.”
On a less obvious level, women’s college basketball maintains a certain “freshness” that the men’s game, in its constant support, has lost over time.
As a result of being constantly undermined, women’s teams always have something to prove. This leads them to play with a certain rawness and creativity that makes games engaging.
While overall support has skyrocketed for women’s sports, much of the commentary made reflects the everpresent misogyny towards female athletes. Symptoms of this include a double standard for athletes playing aggressively and using trash talk, as male players are expected to do so while female players, especially Black athletes, are shunned for acting “masculine.”
One of the most infamous examples of this occurred in last year’s championship when Louisiana State University’s Angel Reese gestured at Clark wavedher hand in front of her face and received massive backlash from supposed fans of the game.
Another challenge with increasing heightened viewership is the need to, as a result, hold women’s games to a comparable standard to the men’s. This heightening of expectations pertains not only to skill but also to player and team behavior.
This is a double-edged sword. For genuinely terrible teams, it’s important to acknowledge their skill level instead of praising them for daring to play it in the first place.
As for the well-performing teams, they deserve to have their greatness recognized for what it is instead of boiling their success down to a singular talented player. As expected, such teams have impressive stats as a whole and dynamic chemistry, not just the saving grace of star players.
The media’s portrayal of Louisiana State coach Kim Mulkey is a great example of why we need to hold women’s teams, including their coaches, to a higher standard. Often praised for her talents as a passionate female coach, Mulkey’s toxic behavior toward players has also been ignored for years.
For instance, Mulkey’s former player, Brittany Griner, claimed that the coach “encouraged gay players to hide their sexuality” and clashed with them about their appearances, as reported by The Washington Post.
Additionally, if we are so inclined to follow and support other women’s college basketball teams, our lack of support for UO’s team is ridiculous. Yes, they may have had a difficult season, but at the same time, some attention from the community may prove to be the boost that they need.
Sitting in the student section at a basketball game (a common occurrence at UO women’s games) isn’t enough, especially when standing is the expectation at a men’s game. So for next season, make an effort to show up and stand up for Duck athletes of all genders.