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The perpetual greatness of women’s basketball, on display

By Howard Megdal

COLUMBUS, OH - MARCH 30: Arike Ogunbowale
COLUMBUS, OH - MARCH 30: Arike Ogunbowale /
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COLUMBUS, OH — The Hall of Fame women’s basketball writer, Mel Greenberg, didn’t have to ponder much when asked if Friday, March 30, 2018 was the greatest night in the history of what is a rich, often hidden history of women’s basketball.

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Sure, there was that night back in 2005 when Baylor and Michigan State roared back from steep deficits to upset Sylvia Fowles’ LSU and Kim Mulkey’s Baylor took down Tennessee, but the sheer magnitude of basketball, the punches and counter punches, well, Greenberg had it on his scorecard as the very top.

He’s lived it and covered it. The rest of us merely felt it, knew intuitively that the oft-dismissed women’s game just provided America with the most compelling evidence yet that this is a great sport growing ever greater.

“Yeah, crazy,” Geno Auriemma, whose Connecticut Huskies came down on the losing side of the second classic, a 91-89 loss to Notre Dame. “Two overtime games. Again, when you see the bracket come out and you see the field and you kind of project ahead, if everybody wins, the four teams that could be in the Final Four, and it played out that way… The four best teams in the country were here, and they played like it. It was an amazing night of basketball for the fans here, for people watching. It was pretty impressive, I have to say.”

If anything, the two games each deserved their own platforms, a chance to breathe, talent and will and strategy that ran the full gamut of the scope of the dramatic things possible in a world where more are playing, excelling, and spreading the game into previously unconquered territories.

Mississippi State, the early winners, a 73-63 victory over Louisville in overtime, are themselves a study in contrasts, massive force of will Teaira McCowan, all muscle and reach, and the diminutive Morgan William, whose presence of mind transition steal late in this one, along with the free throws you were certain William wasn’t going to miss, represent the axes of size. The rest of that team, from elegant Victoria Vivians to Ro Johnson, whose shot kept the Bulldogs’ season alive, it’s all enough to fill a reporter’s notebook and a fan’s heart.

“Ro’s got to make a shot,” Schaefer said when it was over. “Let’s face it. It’s the biggest shot of the night, of your career, on the biggest stage you’re ever going to play on. I don’t care where she plays after this. That stage out there tonight is the biggest stage you’re ever going to play on in my opinion, and it’s going to have the most ramifications.”

COLUMBUS, OH – MARCH 30: Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs center Teaira McCowan (15) reacts in the division I women’s championship semifinal game between the Louisville Cardinals and the Mississippi State Bulldogs on March 30, 2018 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH. (Photo by Adam Lacy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OH – MARCH 30: Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs center Teaira McCowan (15) reacts in the division I women’s championship semifinal game between the Louisville Cardinals and the Mississippi State Bulldogs on March 30, 2018 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH. (Photo by Adam Lacy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The shot guaranteed Mississippi State a chance at immortality that extends beyond merely beating Connecticut, something that isn’t even singular in recent memory anymore, thanks to Notre Dame. How close they came to missing that opportunity is a tribute to the Louisville Cardinals of Asia Durr and Myiesha Hines-Allen, a team built, really, for 2019 (when all but Hines-Allen return), but who have arrived ahead of schedule.

Talent and will makes the heart greedy. Durr and Hines-Allen comforted each other through tears from the dais. They had every belief they would win, and every right to feel that way. This is where women’s basketball is now. Possibility is no mere siren song.

“Athletics is a wonderful thing,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said after the game. “It’s a great thing, boy, but there’s some ups and downs that just kick you square in the ass, and right now this is one of those. But you can’t let a moment define you. You’ve got to figure out what are you going to do to be able to get back here next year and then make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Walz will watch his good friend Vic Schaefer try and do just that on Sunday, but it won’t come easy against a Notre Dame team that somehow seems to get stronger as its numbers decrease. Six players played for Notre Dame. Four of the six played at least 43 minutes. And it didn’t matter, not even after the Huskies rallied so improbably to force overtime, the endlessly intuitive Kia Nurse snagging an inbounds pass and hurtling to the other end of the court for a game-tying layup.

Those legs weren’t so tired for Arike Ogunbowale that once Connecticut blew up the play Muffet McGraw drew, which called for Ogunbowale to drive to the basket, she simply shot over the defense. Auriemma said the game reminded him of last year’s loss to Mississippi State, and he was right in many ways, but notably this one: Mississippi State’s play call that night also blew up. Both times, players who hadn’t gone to Connecticut made great plays at the most vital moment, just as Johnson did once again.

COLUMBUS, OH – MARCH 30: Head coach Muffet McGraw of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrates with her staff after her team defeated the Connecticut Huskies in overtime in the semifinals of the 2018 NCAA Women’s Final Four at Nationwide Arena on March 30, 2018 in Columbus, Ohio. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the Connecticut Huskies 91-89. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
COLUMBUS, OH – MARCH 30: Head coach Muffet McGraw of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish celebrates with her staff after her team defeated the Connecticut Huskies in overtime in the semifinals of the 2018 NCAA Women’s Final Four at Nationwide Arena on March 30, 2018 in Columbus, Ohio. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the Connecticut Huskies 91-89. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

The Hall of Fame coach has gotten unjustly lost in some of the conversation over the last few years, but even before Friday night, her ability to find the alchemy in such a limited roster (in number if not in talent) earned her justified plaudits. McGraw hasn’t been coaching for quite as long as Mel Greenberg’s been writing, but she’s seen plenty since her days playing at St. Joe’s when Title IX was still a novelty, no one quite able to predict how exquisitely the forces it unleashed would thrill the 19,564 in Nationwide Arena and the national television audience alike.

“Unbelievable,” McGraw said after the games. “First time we’ve ever had two overtime games in the Final Four. Definitely set a record for what time the game finished. I think just great basketball. Both games, hard fought battles and exciting for the fans. That had to be a great TV game both times.”

And so it was. Expecting a boon in television ratings for the final, the way last year’s semifinal surprise boosted South Carolina-Mississippi State’s audience, only reinforces the way this all works, the inexorable force that seems to be precisely what drives women’s basketball critics to ever more unstable positions.

The game was great when Muffet McGraw coached at Archbishop Carroll and Vic Schaefer assisted at Sam Houston State and it is even greater now. A generation of girls stayed up late tonight and will wake up tomorrow and imagine they are Ro Johnson or Arike Ogunbowale, and then they’ll grow up and do things that even Ro Johnson and Arike Ogunbowale didn’t know were possible.

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