From 1995- 2004 other than wins from Purdue and Notre Dame, the national championship resided in Knoxville(Tenn) or Storrs(CT). People started to wonder if the Huskies and Lady Vols would be dominant forever. Some even made note not to watch games.
Then, Diana graduated.
The following season you had Baylor win an improbable championship over Michigan State. The NCAA's encore, was to have Maryland and Duke play a beautiful game and eventually crown Maryland as the champs. Fans were happy (well except UConn and Tennessee fans). There was parity in the game now. You could tune in on the nights where women's basketball was on and never know who was gonna win until the final buzzer sounded.
Then Candace Parker took over.
She led the Lady Vols throughout the season. Proving them to be dominant. They ended the storybook run of a great and talented Rutgers team. Once again one of the Powerhouses emerged champion. Pat Summit aka Queen Pat (Long Live the Queen) had won lucky number 7.
Now its Maya Moore's turn.
The freshmen is looking to guide UConn in the same kind of season Tennessee had last year, and she has plenty of support including the last two Big East freshman of the year (Renee Montgomery and Tina Charles). The Huskies looked poised for greatness. Geno the Great (who already has 2 undefeated runs) has this team playing better defense than any UConn team before them. Their scoring margin is higher than that of the two undefeated teams and they are #1 in the country.
But Candace Parker isn't finished yet.
In what will most likely be her final season CP3 looks as dominating as ever. She is still the number one player in the country (although as read in my first blog, thats arguable). Her talent added to the experience she has just makes Candace Parker hungry to repeat. Despite a loss to Stanford early this season Tennessee is just as good if not better than they were a year ago.
So what's this mean?
I don't know. Although teams are much closer to UConn (I say this lightly because even Stanford lost pretty handily) and Tennesee than in past seasons when they were at thier peak, the difference is still pretty great. But then again anything can happen come on any given day. My guess though? One of these two teams will be champions this season and judging from the potential of their recruiting classes, parity is not as close as most might like it to be.
vs.
Jay D
