Tougher road: Men or women?
Making the Final Four for a second straight season is a monumental achievement for OU’s women’s basketball team. Yes, the Sooners got a cushy NCAA Tournament assignment, with two home games to start with, a regional without Connecticut and a trip to Kansas City, which its fans could drove to and create a decent homecourt advantage against Notre Dame and Kentucky.
But still. The Sooners won two virtual tossup games — they were slight underdogs against Notre Dame, slight favorites against Kentucky — against completely different but very worthy opponents.
The Sooners’ trek to San Antonio shows the difference between the men’s NCAA Tournament and the women’s NCAA Tournament. The men’s Final Four is harder to reach, because the men’s field is deeper.
From left, OU's Whitney Hand, Danielle Robinson, coach Sherri Coale ad Nyeshia Stevenson celebrate after winning the Elite Eight round of the NCAA women's basketball tournament between the University of Oklahoma and Kentucky in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, March 30, 2010. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman
Men’s mid-majors can step up and bite you. Women’s mid-majors rarely do. Three mid-majors reached the women’s Sweet 16. Only Xavier won. No mid-major has reached the women’s Final Four since (Southwest) Missouri State in 2001. Meanwhile, five men’s teams reached the Sweet 16 and Butler made the Final Four, the second mid-major to do so in the last five years.
So that means it’s much easier to reach the Sweet 16 in the women’s tournament. But often, it’s harder to get out of the second weekend in the women’s tournament.
Compare OU’s run to the Final Four with the Duke men’s. Duke beat a 16 seed (Arkansas-Pine Bluff), an 8-seed (California), a 4-seed (Purdue) and a 3-seed (Baylor). The Sooners beat a 14-seed (South Dakota State), an 11-seed (Arkansas-Little Rock), a 2-seed (Notre Dame) and a 4-seed (Kentucky), the first two at home. Pretty clear that the Sooners had the easier early road but the tougher later road.
Compare OU’s run to Michigan State’s men. The Spartans beat a 12-seed (New Mexico State), a 4-seed (Maryland), a 9-seed (Northern Iowa) and a 6-seed (Tennessee). The Spartans won those first two games in the literal final possession. Then won a tight game against UNI and another final-possession game against Tennessee. Again, much tougher road to the Sweet 16 for the Michigan State men, and tougher games combined when the Spartans got there, but overall the caliber of competition was tougher for the Sooner women.
Fewer upsets on the women’s side means more high-seed showdowns in the regional finals and semifinals. That doesn’t mean there’s more parity among those high seeds. Doesn’t matter if Connecticut plays a 2-seed or a 14-seed, the Huskies are going to win by 50.
So all in all, the men’s Final Four is more difficult to reach. But once the women get to the second week of the NCAA Tournament, a team like Oklahoma gets few breaks. It’s got to do just what a Michigan State or even a Duke has to do on the men’s side. Win two straight tossup games.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
RW, you just made Berry’s point! The lower seeded teams rarely advance to the later rounds, which in turn makes the later rounds more difficult in the women’s tourney. But to me, the upsets are spoilers, because the UNIs and Butlers usually get knocked out in the next round (Butler is the rare exception). We then don’t get to see the elite teams like KU, Syracuse, and Kentucky in the later rounds. One time some years ago, UNC advanced to the Final 4 by beating a 16, a 9, a 13 and a 10 seed…no one even ranked in the top half of the 64 team bracket, meaning all unranked in any poll, and 33rd or worse in the overall seeding. It might be fun to see the team you love to hate (KU, maybe, or Kentucky, or UNC?) get beat, but most people want to see those kind of teams battle it out in the Final Four. They’re already predicting the TV rating this weekend will be the worst in years for a Final Four. John Wooden once won 38 consecutive tournament games, all against conf winners or top independents, because in that era they only had about 24 teams in the tourney. No “ribbon clerks” at all. THAT was a tough road.
Bob, If I understand your point…..you are saying that a tournament featuring low-seeded teams that have no chance to win is a tougher road than a tourney with low-seeded teams that can with AND high-seeded teams that can win?
In the women’s tournament, the top seeds really only have to win four games because the first two are gimmes. In the men’s game, as demonstrated year after year, a team must be prepared every night or they could go home.
So, which is tougher – to win four games that can beat you or to win six games?
After listening to the “Rush Limbaugh” of Wommen’s Basketball (Traber), with 5% truth and 95% bluster about the women’s game,I find myself turning the volume down. Most fans do not try to compare the men’s and women’s game; I enjoy it for the effort and teamwork. It’s a pure game with all the elements, dribbling, passing, shooting, and defense. Coaches coach, fans cheer, and players play the game. What more do you need?
P.S. I like the Men’s game too! Is this allowed?
I’m not buying that the women have a tougher road than the men in any round of the tournament. Using the seeding to compare schedule difficulty in the tournament is a somewhat specious argument. As you yourself pointed out, a low men’s seed is much more dangerous that a low women’s seeded team. There is only a miniscule chance the lower seeded women’s teams will win a game against a top-ten team. Not so with the men – in any round.