It may be easy to detect and sicken of the East Coast/Midwest/Deep South bias and anti-West/anti-Mountain sentiment found in most of the national sports press, radio, TV, and new media. However, that is no excuse to return the insult and view teams and schools from the central and eastern time zones with anything less than objectivity and equality. It's time to admire two schools and two programs equally: Connecticut and Stanford. Yes, women's hoops.
Stanford beat UConn tonight, ending the Huskies' 90-game winning streak. The streak started after a loss to Stanford almost three years ago. Unbelievable. No, it wasn't greater than UCLA's 88-game men's streak in the '70s. Nevertheless, it was remarkable. Predictably, ESPN (based in Connecticut) focused on Coach Geno's impressions post-game, and treated the victorious Coach VanderVeer's words as an afterthought.
Congratulations to both programs. Here is the real reason to salute them: they do not and never have shirked the responsibility they owe their low-profile sport as high-profile teams to schedule tough each and every year. Unlike most SEC and Big 10 football teams, they do not schedule purely nonconference cupcakes in order to pad the won-loss stats.
Stanford regularly plays tough games at home and on the road in late November and December. For example, they travel to a good Utah team every other year, where the Salt Lake City altitude could be a factor working against them. They also schedule teams like UConn and Tennessee when they can. Equally, the Huskies set up tough games at home and on the road. If Coach Auriemma had his way, they would still be playing Tennessee annually. The Volunteers pulled out of that arrangement.
What these coaches do schedule-wise help to promote the sport, even though it all works against establishing long winning streaks.
As a result, both coaches and teams should be admired and congratulated--as much for losing as for winning. Why? They do the right thing.
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