Women’s Final Four: UConn’s loss to Mississippi State is good for women’s college basketball

Mississippi State defeated the seemingly invincible Connecticut Huskies in the Women’s Final Four, but could the shocking upset change the landscape of women’s college basketball for the better?

Morgan William’s buzzer-beating shot set the college basketball world ablaze, as she led the Mississippi State Bulldogs to a 66-64 victory over the Connecticut Huskies in overtime. Prior to the loss, UConn had won an astounding 111 games in a row and looked like no team would ever beat them.

However, the benefits of this upset extend far past the national media attention that the Mississippi State program will receive and the focus suddenly shifting onto the Women’s NCAA Tournament during the same week as the Men’s Final Four. This upset, while not immediately, will lead to parity in women’s college basketball and a better overall product for years to come.

This upset, while not immediately, will lead to greater parity in women’s college basketball and a better overall product for years to come.

Recruits will look around at other schools and dream of playing somewhere besides with the Huskies, realizing that it is possible to win at other schools apart from UConn. Sure, top recruits fall through the cracks sometimes to other schools, but UConn consistently gets the best recruits in the country. If you follow SEC football at all, you can understand how frustrating this gets, as Alabama reloads every year.

While other schools (like Mississippi State for that matter) have been catching up to the Huskies, it was still a widely-held belief that they were all a step behind. Parity is just as important to a sport as a legendary, headline-grabbing winning streak, and we will see that moving forward.

I understand some of the UConn pain, as I’m a graduate of a school with a dominant program. I attended the University of Tennessee at the end of Pat Summit’s career. I was there in the arena when they gave out “We Back Pat” T-shirts and everyone chanted her name as she held back tears. I was there after she stepped down and watched many of the same fans still go to game after game with Holly Warlick as head coach and the team floundering.

While we should not expect UConn to begin a downward spiral after one loss – in fact, I think they will come back with a vengeance – it is better for the sport as a whole not to be dominated by one team. UConn is legendary, but a Women’s NCAA Tournament in which any number of teams could win would be wonderful to watch — and we will definitely get to see that this season.

Next: Gonzaga vs. South Carolina preview

Even better news from this upset, however, is that the teams that have been catching up, are catching up, meaning that we’re not far off from a women’s college basketball season that’s even more competitive and exciting than it already is. Get ready.