In Reply to: UConn Coach Geno Blasts NCAA On Women's vs Men's Tourneys posted by UCLA78 on April 06, 2025 at 22:18:43
This was their 12th National "women's" Championship surpassing UCLA's 11 "men's". Apples and and oranges comparison though. He's certainly not on the same level as a coach as John Wooden, IMO. Granted, he is a great "women's coach" and has a great record. His string of championships started the same year UCLA won their last in 1995.
However, IMHO, there is no comparison between women's college basketball records and men's. It's just not the same game, not even close. Women have been getting better every year and I'm amazed at the "technical skill" of some of those young ladies but their game still isn't on the same level in athleticism, size, strength or physical play as the men. It's not difficult to see.
As a father of 4 daughters, all athletes in various sports and a wife who was a 3 sport athlete, I'm a big fan of women's sports particularly golf, tennis and softball. And I watch enough of women's college basketball to see the huge difference between their games and the men's. Even though some women players are sometimes more fundamentally grounded than some men players, the differences in athleticism, strength, size, physicality of play and speed of the games still stands out for all to see.
Even though I'm not a UCLA alum, as far as I am concerned, John Wooden's record will never be broken, regardless of how the media wants to report it. I'm in no way trying to diminish Auriemma's accomplishment though. 12 National championships in any level of sports is a great accomplishment. But in my opinion, his record simply falls in a different category (different level of play and different gender of athletes) than the higher level of men's play that John Wooden coached.