Thank goodness UConn has more punch than Griner
Only a punch to the face could knock top-ranked and undefeated Connecticut off the top of the women's basketball news cycle.
The compelling, not to mention disturbing, footage of Baylor's Brittney Griner clocking an opponent hard enough to break her nose has drawn plenty of attention to women's basketball.
Griner has been suspended for two games for throwing (and landing quite forcefully, I might add) a punch Wednesday night at Texas Tech's Jordan Barncastle.
A YouTube phenomenon for her dunking, the 6-foot-8 freshman is now getting considerable face time for this.
Thanks goodness for Connecticut's team.
Women's basketball often has a difficult time getting respect. The last thing it needs is this black eye grabbing headlines that should be trumpeted elsewhere.
Like for the Connecticut women's basketball team.
Talk about a phenomena.
The Huskies have waltzed through the regular season, running up a 30-0 record and beating teams by an average of 35.6 points per game.
Add in the 39-0 record from last year's national championship season and Connecticut has won a whopping 69 games in a row dating to November of 2008.
A victory in the Big East tournament quarterfinals on Sunday and the Huskies will tie the NCAA record for consecutive wins at 70. Fittingly, they'll tie themselves.
From 2001 to 2003, the Connecticut women won 70 straight games.
Since these current Huskies seem destined to keep rolling through both the Big East and NCAA tournaments, it's possible they could up that number to 78 straight victories with another NCAA championship in April.
That would put them just 10 wins shy of the record 88 straight games that the UCLA men won between 1971 and 1974.
Some debate whether an obscenely dominant team, like Connecticut, is good for the women's game. The Huskies don't allow for much drama, unless you're talking about the drama of whether or not their streak will continue.
But I must say, I'll take that kind of drama any day over the kind of drama that Brittney Griner foisted on women's basketball this week.
What a shame.
Big honors: Although it may not seem like it at times, there are other teams that matter in the Big East - and Notre Dame and DePaul are two of those teams.
It will be interesting to see if either team, particularly No. 6 Notre Dame - which allowed Connecticut to notch its 69th win on Monday in a 76-51 defeat - can at least put the Huskies on the ropes in the coming days.
In the meantime, congratulations to Notre Dame senior guard Lindsay Schrader of Bartlett, who was named first-team all-Big East this week for the second straight year. Schrader is third on the team in scoring (11.2 ppg.) and first in rebounding (6.9 rpg).
Keisha Hampton and Sam Quigley of DePaul made the second team, while teammate Katherine Harry was a unanimous selection to the Big East all-freshman team.
Big honors II: In the Big Ten, Jenna Smith of Illinois was named first-team all-Big Ten, while Northwestern's Amy Jaeschke was named to the second team.
Not dancing: On Friday and Saturday, Iowa continued its march through the Big Ten women's basketball conference tournament in Indianapolis.
The 20-12 Hawkeyes, who will make the NCAA Tournament only if they come out of Indy with a title, put themselves in a position to do so when they defeated No. 2 seed Michigan State (22-9) by a 59-54 decision in Saturday's first semifinal.
No. 1 seed Ohio State (29-4) beat No. 4 Wisconsin (21-10) 82-73 in the second semifinal.
Iowa and Ohio State will meet for the Big Ten title at 3:30 p.m. today on ESPN2.
It's likely only three Big Ten teams will make the NCAA Tournament. If that.
Ohio State is a shoe-in. Probably also Michigan State.
Wisconsin, with 21 wins and a 10-8 third-place record in the conference, might also be able to squeeze in.
Here's hoping the Big Ten gets big again real soon.
pbabcock@dailyherald.com