PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s not like the game is new, but now more eyes are on women’s basketball than ever before. A record 12.3 million viewers tuned in for the Iowa-LSU game on Monday night in the Elite 8.
For a comparison, NBA games this season average 1.6 million viewers. Last year’s World Series on Fox averaged 9.11 million viewers.
“Fans are starting to see the skillset, the athleticism of the way women play the game,” said Pitt women’s basketball coach Tory Verdi. “We have grown it in the likes of Caitlin Clark. She has brought a lot of attention to women’s basketball and I think fans are starting to see the quality of basketball.”
The game Monday featured Clark, the NCAA Division 1 all-time leading scorer, plus LSU’s head coach Kim Mulkey, who has recently been in the news and forward Angel Reese is also one of the best players in the game. It was also a rematch from last year’s national championship game.
“It’s been great,” Verdi told 93.7 The Fan. “It’s been controversial. They are all different with different personalities. The most important ingredient they all have is there competitive spirit and will to win. It’s so significant and fun to watch.”
Verdi isn’t surprised and told 93.7 The Fan it’s about people finally giving it a shot. He understands. He had doubts about the women’s game at one point too.
“People felt a certain way, ‘oh they are not like guys’,” Verdi said. “You are not going to see dunks or see the athleticism. I’ll be honest with you, I probably thought that when I was coaching men before I was coaching women. Before taking a women’s position, I asked myself ‘am I going to miss that part’.”
“But it’s about the competition. It’s grown leaps and bounds. It’s been fun to watch the growth, now we need to do a little bit more.”
To continue to grow the sport the second-year Pitt head coach, who has been a college women’s head coach for a dozen years, said they need to copy the European model. They need to have camps to define skillsets and work on fundamentals nationally. He would love to see a grassroots program with certified coaches so they are teaching the right things and force AAU programs to use these coaches. He would also love to see organized girls basketball start at a younger age.
There are also stereotypes with the women’s game that he wants to see fade away. Allow for more Caitlin Clark’s by accepting the deep shot. Verdi said it opens up the court and coaches can’t be scared of what traditionally hasn’t been the women’s game. Allow them to use their athleticism and give them the freedom to create.
He said the energy from this season is infectious and only growing in the NCAA Tournament. Verdi said it’s great for female players, who have played in virtually empty arenas at times previously, to see thousands of fans lining up for games. A new generation of young girls is seeing that and It should motivate them to be even better.
“They feel like they were being doubted and now they are paying attention,” Verdi said.
It used to be women’s programs begged for their games to be streamed and now they are feature presentations on ESPN and drawing ratings bigger thahen t World Series.
No one saw that coming. What is in their future?