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Turkued
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Lack of Commitment |
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As the highest seeded Pac 10 team not receiving a NCAA bid USC received an automatic bid to the women's NIT. Repeating it's decision of last year USC
declined the opportunity to give it's women student athletes postseason experience. It declined the bid. No Pac 10 team will be playing the the WNIT this
year. Teams from every other major conference will be playing in the WNIT. Multiple bids went to conferences like the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, ACC, Big East.
Schools accepting bids ranged from regional women's powers like Vermont and South Dakota State to traditional national powers like Florida and Colorado. Is
USC too good for the WNIT? Is USC too poor to be able to afford to compete in the WNIT? The message this sends to me is this: Women's college basketball is
not a priority for the USC athletic department. Women's college athletics is not a priority for the USC athletic department. The national champion soccer
team had to play all but one postseason game on the road as USC refused to bid for home games on two other occassions. At least there was a facility problem
there. What's the excuse now? Would USC have refused a NIT bid for it's mens basketball program had it not qualified for the mens NCAA tourney? If the
answer to the later question is yes then USC is in violation of Title IX. If next year the mens team receives and accepts a bid to the mens NIT then the
Department of Justice needs to investigate the USC athletic department. I feel sorry for the seniors who will never get the opportunity to compete in a
postseason game thanks not to their efforts and results but to decisions made by Mike Garrett and his ilk.
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TrojanTim |
I don't think it's lack of commitment . . . | #1 | ||
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. . . for the Women of Troy as much as it's the health issue with all the injuries. What this team needs more than anything else right now, is to rest,
recuperate and recover from all the injuries. Normally, it would be a "no brainer" for us to compete in the WNIT to get the additional practice and
post-season experience, but unfortunately, we are in the same boat as last year. We all witnessed our inability to finish the season off strong and this
season has definitely taken quite a toll on our girls. If we were healthy enough to go, we would go, but by the same token, if we were that healthy, we
would've made it to the Big Dance in the first place . . .
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Turkued |
#2 | |||
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I wish I could agree with you, TrojanTim, but with the major exception of Nadia's injury this is still the team that was in position to get a NCAA birth
three weeks ago. Our injuries were bad but this is nothing like what the University of Arizona faced earlier this year when they could only dress six players.
I can't buy the argument that all we need to do now is rest. Our next game is eight months away. There is plenty of time for rest. There is also our
responsibility to our conference. Continually declining invitations to the WNIT is not going to create opportunities there for Pac 10 members in future years.
The Pac 10 has fewer teams in postseason play this year than any other "major" conference. Stanford, one could argue, was dissed by getting a number
2 seed. Declining invitations to postseason play does not help our conference nationally. Florida Gulf Coast University will be hosting South Florida in this
years WNIT. Newspaper reports indicated they submitted a $30,000 guarantee to the organizing committee to host a first round game. South Dakota State
University, who beat USC last season, submitted a $25,000 guarantee. I personally do not believe USC would ever guarantee such an amount to host a first round
game. I would suggest the men's team would not face a similar problem. All one needs to do is read the Appeals Court ruling in Stanley v. U.S.C. and
Garrett to understand how Mike Garrett's athletic department really feels about women's basketball. For example: "According to USC, the reason
that women's basketball does not generate the same amount of revenue as men's basketball, and that the women's coach is not under the same pressure
as the men's coach, is that there simply is not a sufficient spectator or media market for women's basketball games." USC, which won that case,
used that argument to justify the salary differential between the men's and women's head coaches. I'd suggest that applies to other aspects of the
programs as well and indicates the lack of commitment I referred to earlier. Stanley did not argue Title IX. If the men accept a future NIT bid and the women
continue to decline WNIT bids then I hope somebody brings USC to court to force compliance with the statute. I recognize that injuries are an issue as was our
4 game losing streak. Might I suggest the best tonic for the way our season ended might have been a winning first round game at the Galen Center in the WNIT.
Sadly, we'll never find out.
Last Edited By: Turkued 03/18/08 12:11 AM.
Edited 1 time.
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TrojanTim |
Interesting aspects . . . | #3 | ||
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of the program and a historical perspective which appears to go beyond this season's WOT basketball team itself. This has actually been a fascinating
couple of weeks for me in terms of 'conspiracy' theories . . . I've heard all kinds of things from the presidential election, to the economy,
the devaluation of the dollar, the War in Iraq, gas prices, open borders, the war on terrorism, etc. . . .
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| Lack of Commitment | 03/17/08 9:55 PM | Turkued |
| I don't think it's lack of commitment . . . | 03/17/08 10:37 PM | TrojanTim |
| Re: Lack of Commitment | 03/18/08 12:09 AM | Turkued |
| Interesting aspects . . . | 03/18/08 12:32 PM | TrojanTim |