I still remember the return match with UCLA. Boy did they put a whooping on us. The ACC win is a great accomplishment to be sure, but going to the final four is still a better one. In those days we didn’t have a conference championship to win, so it was all or nothing. Let’s see how far we get in the tournament before we start comparing this team to the likes of Tripucka, Laimbeer and Hanzlik.

“If the men continue to progress, the women’s team will become secondary.”
I find this comment depicting a sexist attitude.

Saying that the women’s team has to be treated as second class citizens in order for the men’s team to grow and thrive, reminded me of the sexist comments former UCONN head coach Jim Calhoun said about the 1995 UCONN women’s team, who won UCONN’s first basketball championship. He said that women’s basketball should not be televisied because it took time and attention away from the men’s teams and only old women and children attended the women’s games; therefore, the women’s game is inferior to the men’s and not deserving of being nationally televised. Calhoun was roundly critisized in Connecticut for those sexist comments and it further deepened a rift between him and Geno Auriemma. However, Geno was and still is close friends with Kevin Ollie, the current UCONN head coach, and while Calhoun was a sexist jerk, the men’s basketball players supported the women’s team and vice-versa.

As I recall, former ND Men’s basketball head coach Matt Doherty praised the ND women’s team during a televised interview in 1999. Coach K of Duke also praises Duke’s women’s basketball teams. Neither saw their women’s team accomplishments threatening their manhood or interfering in the development of their own teams. In 2001, I recall seeing Mike Brey in the ND section at the NCAA Women’s basketball championship where the ND women won the title against Purdue.

At UCONN both the men’s and women’s basketball teams are supported enthusiastically. While most fans support both teams, the women have a cohort of loyal followers who prefer the women’s basketball games due to it’s emphasis on mastering the fundamentals over making the game into a dunking contest. The men have their cohort too.

UCONN is the only college to have the men’s and women’s basketball teams win national championships in the same year twice. Why can’t Notre Dame do that? In fact, I challenge Notre Dame to do that.

Instead of putting the ND women’s team in second class status, why not challenge the men’s team to do as well as the women’s team, who have a national championship under its belt, 2 ACC Tournament and Season titles and been to the Final 4 multiple times. It’s not easy winning titles in the women’s game either.

Every year, I cheer for both the ND men’s and women’s basketball teams and am proud of their
accomplishments. ND alumni and fans should cheer for all ND teams to do well.

Glad you were able to work that out. 🙂

The 1978 Final Four ND team is still my best ND Men’s bb memory right now. But my #2 best memory of ND men’s basketball was this year’s team’s ACC championship game and season to-date.

True, but to current fans and players, none of whom were alive for those NC’s, something like an ACC title is a lot more meaningful.

Understood. Neither is a Final Four. I was commenting in response to “For all the fantastic moments Notre Dame basketball has brought its fans in 100+ years, that “one Final Four” during the video pregame introductions has been pretty lonely.” If you’re gonna go back 100 yrs, then there are accomplishments akin to that one Final Four.