Meanwhile in the Women's Bracket

Back in college decades ago, I attended a retreat held by a campus Christian organization. After morning studies and lunch the afternoons were free until the evening proceedings. I joined a bunch of guys each afternoon on the basketball court. None of us played college ball, but some of us had played in high school. I was one of the sandlot scrubs.

Some of the girls on the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team were a part of the same organization and in attendance at the retreat. They were joined by some of their friends from the NC State women’s basketball team. One afternoon the lady basketball players came out to the court and said they wanted to take us guys on. We agreed, and the friendly game was on.

Our strategy defensively was to try to keep them outside and at least try to get a hand up when they set up to shoot. We knew if they got some time and space, they would shoot the lights out. Offensively, the idea was all-fast-break, all-the-time. Rebound, outlet the ball to Jeff or Jay, and let them streak the court for layups. We didn’t want a half-court game against them, because they were quick and clever, could steal the ball, and get layups of their own if we were not careful.

Our opponents knew they had to make their shots, and, if not, they had to get some rebounds. The problem was they did miss frequently, or had shots blocked, and they couldn’t get any rebounds. They tried boxing out the tallish scrub in the middle in twos and threes. When that failed, they would get a running start and smash linebacker-like into him, but the problem was they would just bounce off, and he usually got the rebound, fling the ball to a streaking Jeff, who would either layup or lay off to his front-running partner.

The games were not close, but fun was had by all.

I think today such a game would still not be close, but likely the women basketball players would handily defeat a team of male players with similar backgrounds to ours. Major college, major-sport women athletes are now world-class athletes. This is of course true in women’s basketball, but it is even truer at the elite levels of women’s college soccer.

In the NCAA Women’s College Cup you have THE best four teams in the country. All four of these teams play very sound, very technical soccer.

Perennial powerhouse North Carolina is the most cohesive, well-coached team in the country. So they lost three games during the regular season. Who cares, it does not mean beans. There is not a weak or even fundamentally suspect player on the entire squad.

Same deal with Notre Dame. Who cares about the early-season losses? The first three or four, or even FIVE games in the regular season are essentially training matches, since NCAA rules severely limit the amount of organized preseason training teams can conduct. Those games are not very significant indicators of the ability or potential of a team.

UCLA is a quality side with two of the best pure strikers in the country in Lauren Cheney and Sydney Leroux. This is a side that can beat anybody in the country, especially at a neutral venue.

Rounding out the final four we have undefeated and untied Stanford, led by Kelley O’Hara and Christen Press, two of the top scorers in the nation. The thing is they have a list as long as your arm of people who can put the ball in the back of the net. Like the Brazilian National Men’s team, they can even spot you a goal maybe even two and still win it going away.

So, you have four elite teams with great players, who are all extremely well-coached, playing for it all (at, I am relived to say, a neutral venue for a change). This could very well be the best women’s College Cup we have seen in a long time.