October 5, 2022

Women’s basketball transition time thoughts — Molly Bolin Kazmer on the WNBA’s pre-history — Must-click women’s basketball links

The IX: Basketball Wednesday with Howard Megdal, Oct. 5, 2022

Team USA celebrates after winning the gold medal in the FIBA Women's World Cup in Sydney, Australia, on Oct. 1, 2022. (Photo credit: FIBA)

Happy Basketball Wednesday! I’m easing back into things slowly, after a Florida trip turned into an escape from a hurricane last week. Fortunately, I did, and we’re back, safe and sound. But it was quite a journey. I stayed somewhat abreast of the latest happenings here in the women’s basketball world while I was away, and I have some initial thoughts, with more to come as we rapidly approach the start of the collegiate season…

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The number of vacancies in WNBA coaching circles will dwindle rapidly over the next few weeks. Indiana and Dallas are talking to precisely the folks they should. Los Angeles needs to make sure they hire someone empowered. The obvious answers for these openings are to let Pokey Chatman build in L.A., Latricia Trammell fix Dallas’ defense and Brandi Poole maximize Lin Dunn’s vision, in my view. We’ll see how it all turns out…

…you know how you didn’t see anything about the FIBA World Cup ratings? And you know how you didn’t even see a schedule of when the games would be on TV until a few days ahead of time, not to mention a lack of any ads whatsoever across the WNBA playoffs about these games featuring the stars of said playoffs? These are not unrelated things!

So when General Dempsey says there needs to be coordination between FIBA and the WNBA, he’s right. But he’s only addressing half the issue. The season and the tournament close together has inherent problems relating to fatigue. But the worst part here is the missed opportunity of that very proximity to allow one to be a promotional vehicle for the other.

The WNBA playoffs and the FIBA World Cup are signature events. They should both be treated as such…

…I know we’re used to taking the USA Basketball wins for granted, but Cheryl Reeve and co. had seven active players they knew they could count on as this tournament began. This was a remarkably drama-free win for USA Basketball. It did not have to be that way. This is impressive by any measure…

…still absolutely heartbroken over how soon we lost Tiffany Jackson.

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