TV helping Big Ten women's programs

Someone asked me recently, "Do you myspace?"

That's how much of a phenomenon the online social network, also known as myspace.com, has become. It's now a verb in the English language.

My answer was "No, I don't myspace."

You know who does myspace, though? College coaches. They say it's a great recruiting tool, and they use it as a way to show recruits that they've done their homework.

"Now with the Internet, you can find out a lot about a kid," Iowa women's basketball coach Lisa Bluder told me at the Big Ten's media day last week. "We've gone to myspace to find out about a kid's off-court behavior and what they value and what's important to them."

You know what's important to high school basketball players now? Television exposure. Even on the women's side.

They want to be on TV as much as possible.

So you can guess how thrilled the women's coaches in the Big Ten were when they heard about the Big Ten Network and its commitment to air an unprecedented 55 women's basketball games this season.

Talk about the gem of their recruiting toolboxes.

With the Big Ten Network already hitting more than 30 million homes nationally -- even without a deal with Comcast -- Big Ten women's teams will be seen more than any other women's teams in the country, and probably more than a lot of men's teams.

"That's huge," said new Penn State women's coach Coquese Washington. "The Big Ten Network is going to be great for recruiting because kids really want to be on TV now. When we tell recruits about how many games are going to be on TV this year, you can see their eyes, and their parents' eyes go wide. They're like 'Wow.'

"And it's not just so that their parents can see them. These kids have dreams of going to the WNBA and playing in the NCAA Tournament. They want the (NCAA selection) committee to see them play. They want WNBA coaches and GMs to see them play. They want TV."

This demand is recent.

It wasn't that long ago that many of the top female recruits, knowing that basketball ended for them after four years of college, hunted first for the best place to get an education.

Washington, barely in her mid-30s, chose Notre Dame for that reason.

Now, there are other priorities.

"Things have changed so much just from when I was playing -- it's like it's happened almost overnight," said Washington, a 1992 Notre Dame graduate. "Every single kid wants to play in the WNBA, and they're picking schools based on visibility for that. It's like the guys. 'Where am I going to go to be seen? Which school is going to get me the most visibility? Which school is going to give me the best opportunity to play professionally?'

"It's an interesting perspective, one that I don't come from. But I've adapted. You have to."

Familiar faces: Last year as a whole, the Big Ten was young and inexperienced. It showed when only three league teams received NCAA Tournament berths.

But now that those young players are veterans, it should be very different. Five of last year's top 10 scorers and seven of last year's top 10 rebounders are back. Rosters are stacked with veterans.

Four league teams return all five starters, and two return four of the five.

Illinois -- along with Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin -- is stacked with five returning starters. New coach Jolette Law couldn't be more thrilled with her good fortune.

"It definitely helps to have that leadership that you get with five returning starters," Law said last week. "They've been there, they know what to expect in the Big Ten. They're veterans.

"But at the same time, each and every day is a process for this team because there are a lot of new things to learn. They've got to learn a whole new philosophy and style of play. So even though I'm pleased with where we are and what we're doing, we still have more to do."

Junior guard Lori Bjork led the Illini in scoring last year as a sophomore with 14.3 points per game. She was selected to the preseason all-Big Ten team.

More new faces: The Big Ten used to have some basketball lifers in the ranks of its women's coaches.

But lately, the coaching carousel has been spinning at a steady pace, and now Iowa coach Lisa Bluder is the dean of conference coaches with only eight years under her belt.

Besides Jolette Law at Illinois, the other new coaches in the league this year are: Kevin Borseth at Michigan, Suzy Merchant at Michigan State and Coquese Washington at Penn State.

Including the four new additions, six of the league's 11 coaches are either in the their first or second seasons at their respective schools, while eight coaches have been in their positions less than five full years.