UConn Women's Basketball: Boring Embarrassing Games

As we venture through yet another season of March Madness tournaments for college basketball, there is always a constant. That constant is UConn Women's Basketball putting up another extreme blowout victory over Albany. It has been the storyline for almost a decade and as of now, a current streak of being undefeated for three, four straight years. While their win streak is an impressive feat in itself, it is also something that makes them a very unwatchable team.

For the record, I am not misogynistic. There are great games for women's basketball. Other tournament games have shown to yield close and exciting match ups where the effort is seen from the start until the final buzzer. In the case of UConn, they don't bring anything exciting to the table unless you are loyal to that college or are a huge fan of them. It's blowout after blowout of teams that they face. By the time half time comes, you're searching for something else to watch because they are up by 30 points. That's what drives people away. People want to see games come down to the wire. Not games that you see from this team. It goes beyond college basketball.

I was a waterboy for my high school football team. We had a two game period where the total points was over 100. One game was 49 points. The other was 80. In the case of the latter, the scoring was so huge in the first quarter, the back ups were in by the time the end of it and the start of the second quarter occurred. Even with that, they were still scoring. While the opponents did score a few times, it was one of the most lopsided games I had ever seen. It was quite embarrassing. You feel bad for opponents. An example was my younger brother and his modified basketball team. They were scoring and the opponent couldn't even make a single lay up. You know you're in a bizarre world when both team's crowds want to see some points from the one that hasn't scored.

You hear these stories about shutouts and blowouts and even some of the consequences that occur. There's that story back in 2009 of a Texas high school girls basketball team shutting out their opponent 100 to nothing. Sometime after that, the administration called for a forfeit and fired the coach. You hear coaches getting suspended for high point differentials. Sometimes, the quality of the games are so poor, you wonder how some of these teams live with it. Whether it comes down to competition or something else, who knows?

Getting back to Uconn, their coach, Geno Auriemma had the audacity a few years ago to say men's college basketball was awful. I understand that both men and women's basketball are different. There are different ways of playing the game on each side, but Auriemma has got to be the biggest idiot and really shouldn't be complaining about what the other side of the sport. Yeah, there is the debate on whether to take your foot off the gas during a game for any sport, the fact that he doesn't really shows off his arrogance. I bet he wouldn't last five years on a men's basketball team. The competition is lot fiercer throughout the United States. Obviously, the North Carolina teams, Ohio State, the Michigan teams, Syracuse, Oregon, Florida, the list goes on.

Auriemma simply doesn't get it. People are getting sick and tired of the constant blowout victories. I don't think any team is ever going to break their record of wins whenever it does end, but it gets frustrating. Why should viewers tune in to Uconn games unless you are a die hard or loyal fan? I'm not saying to boycott women's sports overall, but when it's comes to shit games, you are looking for that remote control. A dumbed down kids film would be exciting than UConn, and that's not saying much.

I'll reiterate again that I'm not misogynistic. However, until Auriemma retires, I don't know what will be seen from women's college basketball. It's a borefest when UConn faces opponents. Unfortunately, a lot of people, including myself, have to face the music and wait patiently for that retirement or some other team or teams to take the throne and make women's basketball more exciting and interesting.

Securing a Romo

For the 2006 NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys started with Drew Bledsoe as their quarterback. Heading into mid-October they were at 3-3 following a poor performance against the New York Giants. In the midst of that game, Bledsoe, who had certain issues in games (accuracy, yards, and turnovers mostly), would be benched in favor of third year backup Tony Romo. Though Romo struggled coming in that game, he would put up some good numbers in ten and a half games. He would end the season with almost 3000 yards, 19 touchdowns, and earned a trip to the Pro Bowl.

With a young player under center, the Cowboys were a team to fear. In Romo's first three years as the full time starter, they had postseason berths in two of them. Their 2009 season got them a playoff win, something that wasn't seen since the 1996 season when they beat the Philadelphia Eagles. Despite the numbers he was putting up, there was Romo's infamous chokes. Long story short, there was the 2006 playoffs where he botched a field goal snap and tried to run for the endzone against the Seattle Seahawks. He threw the game ending interception against the eventual Super Bowl champion Giants a year later. The label has stuck ever since, even with a win against the Eagles in 09 and the Detroit Lions in 2014.

Heading into the 2010 season, the Cowboys saw a mediocre year where nothing worked early on and Romo getting injured on national television in mid-October with a broken clavicle. He would rebound and have very strong seasons statistically but saw major chokes in the last game of the season in 2011 and 2012. The team would rebound in 2014 and put themselves back in the playoff race and win another game. Though 2015 started off well, Romo would suffer injuries twice in the same body part like in 2010. Dallas faltered without him. With this past pre-season, he would injure his back and lose his starting job to Dak Prescott, who put up a good rookie season.

With the question that begs to be answered, where does Tony Romo go? The Houston Texans just traded Brock Osweiler away to the Cleveland Browns. He could fit in there with a decent ground game and some young talented receivers. There is questions on whether he goes to the Denver Broncos. As far as that team goes, they have some good receivers, but the ground game is a little concerning. That being said, Trevor Siemian didn't have that bad of a season. It was something that didn't become a huge problem.

If Romo were to go to one of those two teams, they are going to need to be sure there is a competent backup in place in order to avoid like what happened in 2015. Dallas caught a huge break with Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott propelling them to success. Whoever gets him has to know the injuries that have been there for the last two years. Romo may be turning 37 in April, but Denver and Houston may only have a few years with him if they want a championship immediately, especially Houston. They have that strong defense and decent ground game, but Tom Savage is not a proven strong backup. Siemian might help in a pinch in case of any injuries in Denver, 

My personal thought is Romo stays in Texas and goes to the Texans. They have more than enough talent to have at least a 10 win season. Combined when you healthy players like JJ Watt in a strong defense, the opportunity and expectations to win a Super Bowl increases if the trade goes through. Other than the Houston Rockets in basketball, there hasn't been many championships in Houston sports, with the most recent being their soccer team in 2006 and 07. Whether it pans out in a conference where the biggest threat is Brady until he retires is up to how the Texans manage the next few seasons. The timetable is extremely tight and they better hope everything fits into place come September. Otherwise, it could be a potentially long year if injuries occur again if the trade goes through.