I have a couple predictions about how the media will talk about the UConn women’s basketball team as they (hopefully) tie and break UCLA’s record of the most wins in a row in college D-I basketball. Given the scarce coverage of this exciting and historic event which Christine Brennan wrote about in USA Today, it will be interesting to see if my predictions come true. Read Geno Auriemma’s comments about the streak here, including this quote, “The reason everybody is having a heart attack the last four or five days is a bunch of women are threatening to break a men’s record, and everybody is all up in arms about it.”
If UConn breaks the UCLA record…
Prediction 1: The lack of parity in women’s basketball will be highlighted. UConn’s domination will be attributed to a lack of talent among the other teams. I wasn’t around for the UCLA streak, but I’m guessing no one said Wooden’s teams amassed their streak due to a weak field of opponents. The sanctity of the UCLA streak will remain intact.
Prediction 2: The women’s game will be constantly compared to the men’s game, in which the men’s game will be constructed as a better, faster, more exciting form of basketball….”real basketball”
Prediction 3: Some will argue that UConn Coach Geno Auriemma is “so good” that he should go and coach men’s basketball, because he is wasting his talent coaching females
Prediction 4: The UConn players will be called ruthless, robotron competitors who play unapologetically to win…and this will be constructed as not feminine or unladylike. In fact, some will say the UConn women play like men.
Prediction 5: The lack of interest in UConn’s streak will be blamed on women. It will go something like, “if women themselves don’t support women’s sport, than who will?” The flaw in this argument is that the success of and support for men’s professional sport is attributed to only males. The fact is, nearly 40% of all fans of professional men’s sports are women. Therefore the lack of interest and coverage of UConn should be equally attributed to males and females, maybe even more so to males because they hold over 90% of all sport media positions and thus make the decisions about what is covered and what isn’t.
Prediction 6: More emphasis will be placed on the fact the streak is a women’s basketball streak, rather than the longest winning streak of any team regardless of the sex of the athlete.
Prediction 7: Some will say women’s basketball is lucky to get any coverage, streak or no streak.
I may think of a few more in the next couple days. Do you have some predictions to add?
One Sport Voice 
Prediction 1: UConn will get the win streak &
surpass the current UCLA record.
Prediction 2: The tie for the record will happen
on Sunday so the media will not cover it much
since the NFL gets top billing.
Prediction 3: They will break record on Tues. but
no one will care since the media will be covering
Brett Farve’s retirement or the idea that he will
retire. Plus UConn will absolutely kill Florida State
so people will say yet another boring women’s
basketball game.
Prediction 4: UConn will not win the Championship
this year.
Prediction 5: Women’s sports writers will write
about this record but most male sports writers will not
I challenge you to find 8 male sports writers
that will write about the streak once UConn has
the new record. Not report it, but write about
the UConn program & tell a story of basketball.
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