Quite a bit of uproar has surfaced on this year's back to back games. Fans and coaches all want an equitable playing field. However, other concerns such as injury prevention, quality of the game, and stamina have surfaced with this format.
During my WNBA playing career we managed to get in 4 to 5 games in one week's time. When I played on an exhibition team during my professional off season, I played in 11games in 13 days.
Conference tournaments are typically played back to back, potentially having to go three in a row if your team continues to win.
If you have seen the movie A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, Jean Cione (who is a Fast Break booster for our program) was a professional baseball player on one of the teams represented in that movie, the Rockford Peaches.
I think the answer is explained best by Jean when she said that we used to be concerned about women's fitness when they were only allowed to play half court basketball. "Now we are playing full court AND back to back."
Just think of what women will be doing in ten more years. Watch out!
Coach Bin
1 comment:
Trish,
I don't have any particular opposition to back-to-back games per se. My interest is basic fairness. For example, when Big Sky teams on the road have to play one night and then travel to an opponent the next day I believe they are at a potential disadvantage to the home team, e.g. the bus to Missoula or Bozeman the morning of a game (or the night before). Any competitive disadvantage is limited by having a day off between games, e.g. Thursday/Saturday of Friday/Sunday. Also, I think it is unfair when a team that has played the night before meets a team that did not.
By the way, I notice that MSU only plays a single back-to-back weekend before the end of the season. Five Big Sky teams play three such weekends, including those ahead of our team. Also I notice that we play two road games with teams that have played the night before. Our team has no such contests. Sounds like a good deal for us this year. Wonder that next year's schedule will look like.
Bob Nichol
PS: That was an unfortunate back court foul by Perry with a minute left and two points down Saturday. Were you out of time outs? (A coach's life is tough!) Bob
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