UConn Women v. High School Boys

The UConn women’s basketball team just completed a perfect season by beating Louisville in the National Championship game Tuesday night. This is the second UConn team under Geno Auriema to go 39-0. This year’s team not only went undefeated but was, essentially, unchallenged. The Lady Huskies won every single game by at least 12 points and their average margin of victory was 31 points per game. These are obviously impressive, jaw-dropping stats. I commend them for their dominance and excellence.

As I watched the game the other night I asked myself how this dominant UConn team would fare against a average or decent high school boys team. It was an intriguing thought to try and process because I think there are several factors to consider which I will get to in a second. My answer, however, I arrived at almost immediately: It wouldn’t be close.

First of all, the women’s ball is smaller than the men’s ball. This is a bigger factor than you might think. I played high school basketball and could not palm a men’s ball. This may sound inconsequential but for ball control, dribbling and shooting it is a huge factor. As for ball control and dribbling, it would basically allow most guys to handle the ball like Michael Jordan. You know what I’m talking about - palming the ball, arm extended away from the defense while you warded off pressure and surveying the defense. A smaller ball also gives you more control while dribbling in traffic and gives you the ability to go stronger to the basket and even more readily alter your shot in a split second if need-be. These factors would instantly make high school boys tougher to defend for the women.

The smaller ball also provides a wider margin of error when shooting since the ball is smaller yet the rim size is the same. Because the boys are used to shooting with a bigger ball, this is an advantage that would only be realized by the boys. Given this fact, accuracy would obviously increase in shooting for the boys. Shooting range would increase for the high school boys as well, again, another aspect that would make them tougher to defend for the women.

Another immediate factor that would play to the boys’ advantage is physical size. Height would be the first noticeable aspect of the size comparison. A tall girl is anywhere from 6’1 - 6’4”. A tall high school boys player might be 6’3” - 6’6” (or taller). This general size discrepancy would make it especially harder for the women to play toe-to-toe with the boys in the post. Even point-blank shots would be tough to make for the girls given the fact that the defense they would have to navigate would be a challenge under these circumstances. This size advantage would, for the most part, be evident at all positions, therefore, the women would be challenged in a way that they are not accustomed to as it relates to getting good looks at the basket.

Another aspect of the size difference would be strength. Strength would be a component that would allow the boys to better dictate the action on both the offensive and defensive end. Stronger players would hold the advantage in posting up, boxing out, defending, rebounding and penetrating the defense on the offensive end. These types of advantages are key elements to the success, efficiency and effectiveness in which players and teams are able to out-perform their counterparts.

The last characteristic I bring up as a key element of this breakdown would be general athletic ability which I would characterize into such aspects as quickness, jumping ability , speed and lateral movement. The boys in high school would dominate each of these components as well. This would, yet again, give the boys a decided advantage in the many key elements of gaining an advantage on the opponent.

The only advantage that I can see the UConn girls would have is coaching. However, because the boys are better prepared to dictate all other aspects of the game, I don’t think any amount of coaching could off-set the other advantages that the boys hold.

I admire the girls game and can appreciate the exceptional skill that the UConn women’s team has over their female competition. I actually think the boys, or men for that matter, could learn quite a bit from some of the fundamentals that the girls exhibit. I even think watching the girls play live, in person, would give most people a newfound respect for their skills. However, I think the physical aspects that even high school boys have would be too difficult for the women to deal with.

To give you a quick example, in college I played one-on-one against a girl from the Western Kentucky basketball team that was Ms. Basketball in the state of Kentucky and broke Rex Chapman’s scoring record at Apollo high school. She was an All-American candidate her senior year, was a two-time all-conference performer for the Lady Toppers and, at the time of her graduation, held the single season record at Western for points in a season (736), scoring average (22.3) and set a single-game record for points (41). Therefore, she was no slouch! I’d love to have had the same success that she enjoyed. However, during our one-on-one game, it was no contest. She had to settle for outside shots because she lacked the strength to drive or post up with any great success. Rebounds were also tough for her to come by. Nonetheless, we played to 20 and I beat her 20 - 8.

Now for my prediction of the outcome between a decent boys high school team and the 39-0 UConn women’s team: 30 points!