Blessed Are the Women of College Basketball
The good news is that we can be late to the game and still get to play in the kin-dom of God.
When the NCAA Division I women’s college basketball championship game started last Sunday afternoon, I was overcome with emotion. Welling up with tears, I looked to my left, where my daughter sat nestled under my arm, and then to my right, where my son’s long legs rested across my lap, and the warm tears pressed harder, finally finding their way out and down my face.
Wade, our 8-year-old, had his eyes glued to the television, and Liv, our 4-year-old, was vaguely aware that there was a game on and that women were playing in it. Whether they watched the whole game with me or not, I did not care. What mattered was that it was on, and that we were together, and that they would witness their Mom and Dad, both, cheering for the women of a sport we love.
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Though I grew up playing basketball, among other team sports, women’s college basketball did not take a prominent role in our home like the men’s game did. To this day, I can tell you where I was standing on April 6, 1992 as I watched Christian Laettner of the Duke Blue Devils make the game-winning shot in the final seconds of the NCAA Division I men’s college basketball national championship game.
Where were you standing? you wonder.
Answer: In my childhood home, behind a navy blue loveseat facing the fireplace and built-in bookshelf, which held the television. Moments prior to the end of the game, we discovered the communal trashcan in our alley was on fire, lit up by someone’s smoldering ashes they thought were done burning.
I held the family dog to keep him from going outside while others were in and out of the backyard, checking in with firefighters and making sure the fire was under control. Thankfully, the fire was managed and tamed, and everyone made it back inside just in time to see the famous game-winning shot.
But the NCAA Division I women’s college basketball championship game, which took place the day prior on April 5, 1992, in which Stanford beat Western Kentucky 78-62, wasn’t on my radar at all. To be fair, my dad, who is indiscriminate in his viewing of sports, and, therefore, watches everything from women’s golf to football to tennis, likely watched the game that Sunday afternoon. But I was oblivious to it.
I don’t remember anyone talking about it. We didn’t fill out a women’s tournament bracket like we did the men’s, nor did we invite friends over to watch the game like we did on that Monday night when Duke played (and beat) Kentucky.
Even now, the group of friends we’ve been in a bracket pool with the past several years for the men’s tournament only added a bracket pool for the women’s tournament this year - and, wait for it - not as many people chose to play in the women’s pool as they did the men’s. I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve lagged behind in this area. I’ve let the men’s game rule supreme and paid attention, here and there, to the women’s game, and, only in more recent years, awakened to the inequities between the two.
So, the tears last Sunday were ones of joy and sadness all mixed up together. Sadness that it took me so long to celebrate the women of my most favorite sport just as much (if not more) than the men. Joy that the average ticket price for the women’s championship game was $481 and that PEOPLE WERE PAYING IT. Sadness that it takes so long for change to occur, for justice to be borne. Joy that change for the better was taking place right before my very eyes.
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Of course, the commentary about not knowing a whole lot about women’s college basketball has less to do with me as an individual or with my family of origin or with my group of friends and much more to do with our culture and society as a whole.
Women have been treated as second class citizens for years, especially in the realm of sports. It wasn’t until 2022 that the NCAA Division I women’s college basketball tournament was even allowed to use the March Madness branding. Only after Oregon Ducks’ player, Ali Kershner, posted photos and video in 2021 showing the absurd disparities between the resources given to the men playing in the NCAA tournament and the resources (or lack thereof) given to the women playing in the NCAA tournament did the NCAA begin to level set the inequities. (Read more about Kershner’s whistleblowing here.)
My reflections on the lack of equity between the women’s game and the men’s game (and my and our complicity in them) are an invitation for all of us to explore who we celebrate and center and why in hopes that our explorations might lead to liberation, justice, joy, and love.
While I was pulling for Caitlin Clark to win on Sunday (I’m a softie for a player who can shoot, pass, and handle the ball like she can), I was elated for Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks when they won because, from where I was sitting on the couch with my family, it felt like all women were winning. And, we were. For those two precious, sacred hours, I reveled in women—strong, confident, and elevating the game of basketball—being smack dab in the center of it all.
Look, the good news is that we can be late to the game and still get to play in the kin-dom of God. Love reminds us there is always time to catch up, there is always growth to be had, there are always women to be centered and celebrated.
We can start today, if we’ve yet to start. Because, as I’ve said before and I will say forever, women are everywhere. On the basketball court. In Palestine. Across the street. In the Republic of the Congo. Standing in line with you at the grocery store. In Ukraine. Leading organizations. In the United States. Caring for loved ones. Speaking out and up for justice, mercy, and love.
If last Sunday’s game told me anything, it told me this: it is past time to know, recognize, center, and celebrate women and their power, both on and off the court.
Thankfully, though, Love sits at a round table with her friends, Grace, Mercy, and Freedom, and says, “Come on, my dears, the time is here. The time is now. The women are everywhere. Thanks be to God.”
And just like that, Gospel. Goodness. Gratitude. Amen.
P.S. In further celebration of the Women of College Basketball and their blessed beloved-ness, check out this video of Dawn Staley standing up for all who identify as women and want to play sports, and this video of Flau’jae Johnson standing up for her teammate, Angel Reese, both of the LSU women’s basketball team.
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