When I began writing sports for The Chronicle, my ultimate goal was to be able to cover men's basketball. Duke was the team I had watched for years on television. And when your first official visit to the school comes on the day after the national championship game and Duke's first title, it's kind of hard not to get caught up in the excitement of Cameron.
While men's hoops has provided me with some amazing memories in my four years-this year's win over UCLA and Marty Clark's tip-in to beat Notre Dame, to name just a few of the stellar games I have covered- I think I would much rather cover women's basketball. There were times this year when I could have gone to Temple or other sites to watch the men's team play. I turned them down to follow the women's program. Yes, I have had my brain checked recently. No, I am not dating any of the players. There are logical reasons why I chose to write about the Duke women's team this year.
The difference between men's and women's college basketball at Duke and at most colleges symbolizes two separate paths collegiate sports have taken in recent history. The former has become a breeding ground for the NBA. High school, and sometimes middle school, players are drooled over by college programs. Teams are becoming walking commercials for shoe companies. Replica collegiate jerseys hang in nearly every sporting goods store. And the players are treated like idols. From the first day I stepped onto this campus, there was an aura surrounding men's basketball players. They were respected because they played men's college basketball for Duke.
At the same time, there were 10 other players who played basketball for Duke. They too played in Cameron. But they went unnoticed. There were no replica jerseys for the women's team. If you wanted to call their head coach, all you had to do was pick up the phone and call her directly. The same thing applied to the players. If a women's basketball player walked down the quad, she blended in with the rest of the 6,000 undergrads on this campus. Only her close friends and the few fans who followed the sport knew she played college basketball.
Men's basketball has become so popular over the past few years that the players and coaches have sometimes become inaccessible. I understand that head coach Mike Krzyzewski is so desired by most of the nation that it would be very unreasonable for him not to have a secretary to screen his calls. In a similar sense, it's understandable that Grant Hill would not have his phone number listed, because if he did, he would get calls from thousands of pesky members of the media, as well as fans and random strangers. But when that happens, the players and coaches become more than just college students. Some may argue that playing for one of the nation's top basketball programs automatically places them above other college students. But there once was a time when men's college basketball players were college students who also played basketball. Now they are basketball players who also happen to be in college.
This rambling somewhat explains why at the beginning of the basketball season, I decided to become the unofficial beat writer for the women's basketball team. From the preseason team preview to the Blue Devils' final game in the NCAA Tournament, I was there on press row. Ali Day probably got tired of me showing up to practice, thrusting a tape recorder in her face and asking her questions for some team preview or feature. But in doing so, I got to know a team more than any other sports team I have covered at Duke. The players would recognize me outside of the gym and say, "Hi." I saw them as not only athletes but as people. That feeling never happened in my three years of covering men's basketball.
The other thing I have never seen is a women's player join a professional league in the U.S. Granted, there is no women's professional league. But that's another story.
At the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament, there was a writer from the San Francisco Examiner who was the beat writer for the University of San Francisco women's team. During one press conference, he talked about how he enjoyed covering women's sports because they didn't come with the added attention. The players played college basketball because they loved the game, not because they were merely using it as a stepping stone for another league. I couldn't agree more.
Ironically, most sports writers use women's basketball as a stepping stone in order to cover the men's team. Like any job, sports writing has its hierarchical ladder. First, comes the high school sports. Then the non-revenue college sports and unknown professional leagues, like indoor soccer. On that same level is minor league baseball. And at the top of the chain is college basketball or football and the Big Four-NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL.
When I was a kid, it was that final step that I dreamed of reaching. Who wouldn't want the chance to walk on the field and talk to the players he reads about in the paper each day? This past summer, when I did an article on the Baltimore Orioles and got a press pass to Camden Yards, that little boy's dream came true. My jaw dropped as I ate it all up. There was Cal Ripken 10 feet away. There was the Kansas City Royal dugout, home of my favorite team. I was in heaven.
But now that I've seen the top, I want to go down. Give me a beat with a well-known women's basketball team, and I would be set for life. Sure, I wouldn't turn down offers to cover professional teams. But for now, women's hoops is fine with me.
John Seelke is a Trinity senior and associate sports editor of The Chronicle.
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