Taylor: Just go for it

After Baylor ensured Stanford would be returning home empty-handed from its fifth-straight NCAA Final Four appearance, it almost feels a bit soon to be writing another column about women’s basketball. The wounds haven’t had time to heal. But there is something I really want to discuss before everyone forgets about college basketball for another few months.

At a media conference last week, prior to the women’s basketball team jetting off to Denver, I had my suspicions confirmed: Stanford’s star senior forward Nnemkadi Ogwumike can dunk.

This really shouldn’t come as a surprise. She can hit just about any shot from the floor and, as anyone who has seen her play during her time on the Farm can attest, she clearly has the necessary leaping ability. At just 6-foot-2, she might not stand as close to the basket as 6-foot-8 Baylor junior forward Brittney Griner, but dunking is such an extreme rarity in women’s basketball that I have to admit I wasn’t sure.

At the same conference, Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer talked about what it might take to boost the popularity of her sport. She also mentioned Griner’s dunking, enthusing that it was great for the game and that, even if Griner had slam-dunked the ball during Sunday’s semifinal, it would only have hurt as much as a standard two-point jump shot.

I find it hard not to see connections between the two answers. There are many who dismiss women’s basketball because of the lack of such crowd-pleasing moves. They are wrong, of course. There might not be quite the parity of talent across the whole of women’s college basketball as there is in men’s, perhaps evidenced by all four No. 1 seeds reaching the Final Four, but that doesn’t mean that the top players aren’t extraordinarily talented athletes capable of thrilling those sports fans knowledgeable and enthusiastic enough to come watch.

If women’s basketball is to grow in popularity, though, it is going to need to appeal to the less-informed and fickle fans. It is going to need something eye-catching, something like a dunk shot.

We know that Griner can dunk — she’s shown us that twice in this NCAA tournament alone — but knowing that Nneka is also capable raises the question: How many of the hundreds of talented college players out there can also accomplish this feat?

The answer is probably a lot. Just looking at Stanford’s team, it is easy to suspect that at least Nneka’s sister, sophomore forward Chiney Ogwumike, probably can. But, if they can, why don’t they?

My guess is that dunking is caught in a vicious circle. It is considered a high-risk shot, and thus it is neither practiced nor encouraged by coaches. As a result, players don’t hone their dunking skills, and if they try and fail, they are certain to be criticized for turning the ball over.

I see the same problem in football with the lateral pass. As someone who grew up in the country that brought us American football’s predecessor, rugby, I am convinced that this play is not just achievable, but could be used to great effect to break through the defensive line. But, because it almost is never used, football players just don’t have the ball-handling skills and the learned experience of how to use it to best effect, and thus it becomes a very risky play.

In close games, perhaps coaches don’t yet want to let the reins off their players and allow them to take a chance on a dunk, but there are many contests in which the top players could go for it without risking the outcome. At the end of a blowout, the starters often get taken out early, and although it is great to see bench player gaining experience, why not, at least occasionally, just let the stars go and show us what they can really do?

As more players get to show off their abilities in-game, the actual dunks themselves would improve, too. Griner’s first dunk in this year’s tournament didn’t seem like anything to write home about, but it stood out as impressive simply because this type of shot never happens in women’s basketball. I don’t mean to take anything away from her skills by saying this<\p>–<\p>if more of her fellow players were putting in the same shot, I am sure that competition would drive Griner to be more spectacular.

And when dunking becomes a regular feature of the women’s game, there won’t be any excuses left for sports fans to tune out.

Tom Taylor also wants to know if anyone else thinks Brittney Griner will be the second pick in the NBA Draft after Anthony Davis. Tell him why you hope that is the case at tom.taylor “at” stanford.edu.