04-03-2023, 09:10 AM
Agree with the posters that the game has changed and not totally for the better. I have been a men’s basketball fan since the early 1950’s (East Coast mostly small Catholic schools and the NIT) and women’s basketball since Stanford won in 1990. My wife (who was not a sports person) agreed to become season ticket holders in 1994 and she is a real fan and supporter of the women’s game because it was “a beautiful and enjoyable game to watch”. Not so much for the men’s game. She also liked the fact that she could watch the development of the players for four years both as players and humans. Without doing a deep dive into the rules, I believe that both the men’s and women’s games were non-contact with freedom of movement. One could play defense with quick hands and feet. As the players got bigger and faster the game became more above the rim and it was easier to either change the rules or how the referees interpreted them. I rarely leave a game before it ends but the Mississippi-Gonzaga was too hard to watch and we left shortly after halftime.