Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 22, 1995 TAG: 9502220082
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The Lady Vols' visit to Virginia Tech for tonight's tipoff at 7 is the kind of game women's college hoops needs if it is to really become a spectator sport with more than a few hundred onlookers dotting large arenas on most campuses. It's not just the $3 admission that gets someone's attention.
It's not just a game. It's an attraction. Tech, which had a Cassell Coliseum record women's crowd of 4,300 for last month's upset of Virginia, might eclipse that figure tonight. Carol Alfano's Hokies aren't averaging 800 more spectators per game than last year just because they're 19-6 and headed for a second straight NCAA Tournament berth.
It's because with a veteran team, Tech has played North Carolina, UVa and Tennessee at home. The first two of those games brought in some curious spectators who wanted to see the sport at its best. They liked what they saw, so they came back. Since beating the Cavaliers, the Hokie women have averaged almost 1,700 per home date. The average in the 1993-94 regular season was 768.
``Perception is everything now in our sport,'' Alfano said. ``We've moved from the days when there was nobody in the stands, but we need these kind of games. That's exactly what happened in men's basketball years ago. Our sport needs to have marquee games every couple of weeks, and we need them on television, and not on the third [sports] page of the newspaper.''
If they play them, they will come. Asked about playing the second-ranked Lady Vols (25-1), Alfano said, ``It's just going to be fun. We've spent the season as the hunted [in the Metro Conference]. In this game, there's no pressure. We just play the best we can.''
For Tennessee, the visit to Tech is just another game, too - another against an unending list of teams headed for the postseason. Forget whatever college schedule you think has been the toughest ever played. Summitt's team has reached the summit at Rocky Top.
The Lady Vols not only play in the toughest women's hoops league - the Southeastern Conference has seven of its 12 teams ranked among the top 18 in this week's poll. Summitt's club is 8-1 against teams in this week's top 10. By the end of this week, the Lady Vols will have played every other one of the top 10 clubs except Texas Tech, 15 games against ranked teams plus other successful clubs like Texas, Montana, Old Dominion and the Hokies.
``We played that kind of schedule to prepare a veteran team, and secondly, this team needs that challenge,'' Summitt said. ``This team has played its best basketball when challenged. We also play that kind of schedule to promote the game.''
At their level, the Lady Vols display that women's basketball is more about thinking and passing than the men's game. At its best, women's college hoops is the men's game of the pre-Lew Alcindor days. It's horizontal, not vertical.
Does a game need dunks just to have the right stuff?
What women's college basketball at its highest level must do now is begin to broaden the base of its success. The new NCAA Tournament format, with the 64 teams divided into four-team subregionals at high-seed sites, may enhance revenues, but it diminishes the opportunity to broaden interest.
Tennessee and top-ranked Connecticut already are scheduled to host regionals. Each also will get first- and second-round home games. Why not just give them a bye into the Final Four? Summitt said she hopes the game will get to neutral sites soon.
Now that women's hoops has expanded the NCAA field, it still needs to expand interest. Having the best teams playing in more locations can do that, as has been proven this season at Tech and by Tennessee.
by CNB