Women’s basketball shines in own way

Here is the part that most people missed when condemning Geno Auriemma for his comments about the griping over his Connecticut women's basketball team breaking the UCLA men's team's long-standing record last season: He was right.

Some people were angry a men's record was about to be surpassed and followed the story hoping UConn would lose. They struggled comparing the feats.

That was their first mistake.

To equate at all the accomplishments of UConn today and UCLA then made no sense, trying to analyze winning streaks produced in different eras by different sexes with different skill sets.

It's not the same game. It never will be.

But excellence is still a trait worth celebrating, and Auriemma has made a habit of producing the nation's best women's teams. Now, he will try doing it on a stage much larger than the college town of Storrs.

Hello, world.

The United States last lost a women's basketball game in the Olympics when Bill Clinton first made a home in the White House, meaning the Games roll around every four years and the odds of ladies from America shooting jumpers and winning gold are as sure a bet as Bob Costas delivering late-night Olympic reports.

There is a faction that doesn't care and never will, a faction that views women's basketball as more of a snoozefest than a politician's speech on energy.

It's just not something you break the speed limit racing home to watch.

The U.S. women are here for a three-day training camp with their sights on London in 2012, and there isn't nearly the media attention at UNLV that LeBron and Kobe and the men's team have drawn when they hit town. Nor should there be. Different games. Different worlds.

"We could go 39-0 (at UConn) three years in a row and not get the amount of media that goes to a men's Final Four," Auriemma said. "It's just part of the deal. People are either going to appreciate you or they're not. I'm sure there is an (Olympic) swimmer who says, 'I'm up at 5 a.m. every day. Where is everyone?' Or the guys on the crew team who say, 'We're in the water busting our ass every morning. Where is everyone?'

"Does it bug me? No. When you look back five years, the attention is better now than it has ever been. I would just like it if one of our players made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win the gold medal, she wouldn't have to take her shirt off to get the coverage it would deserve."

Yeah, but Brandi Chastain would have probably made a great on-ball defender.

How do you motivate players to win when that's all they ever do?

It's a challenge Auriemma faces as the women's coach, finding ways to inspire the world's best players, who know better than anyone their program has won four straight gold medals and in September went 9-0 in claiming a world championship by an average score of 96-61.

His message is always that this is a new team, a new day, a new time. Their time.

Lisa Leslie is gone. So is Katie Smith. New stars must develop. More winning beckons.

Sue Bird knows of such success. She enjoyed it at UConn and has at the professional and international levels. She has won an NCAA title, a WNBA title and two Olympic gold medals. She wants more.

"For me, it's knowing how great (winning) feels," Bird said. "Knowing the sense of fulfillment, of satisfaction when you're standing on that podium receiving a gold medal ... that feeling, that is what motivates all of us.

"It's always a new journey, a new puzzle every time. If you can continue to put it together with different people, different teams, different countries, it's fun. We know the NBA is worldwide popular. I'm not comparing the two, but this is my 10th year with USA Basketball, and more and more people follow us, recognize us. There is more of an awareness for the (women's game)."

Is it all relative? Yes.

Should excellence be celebrated? Definitely.

Is there a chance someone will take her shirt off in London? Probably not.

These are smart women. They will leave the role of playing a basketball fool to the likes of Andrew Bynum.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.