Why I'm rooting against UConn

Tonight, the University of Connecticut women's basketball team will go for and in all likelihood obtain its 89th consecutive win, a remarkable feat in and of itself, and also a milestone that will exceed by one game the men's basketball record of UCLA.

If they win, good for them. But I hope they don't, and I feel that way because of their loutish head coach, Geno Auriemma.

Yesterday morning, I was flipping for NFL highlights while getting my little girl ready for school. Some UConn hoops highlights came on. I don't follow the sport, but I figured it would be good for my daughter, who gets plenty of secondhand sports through me, to see some females playing organized sports. So I left it on "SportsCenter" and pointed it out to her.

Suddenly the highlights stopped, and we saw Auriemma at his post-game rant of a press conference. He gave a nonsensical acidic speech about how the media doesn't want to see women break a male record, and how nobody would care if they were "just" topping the girls' mark. He continued on in this vein, using the words "hell," "pissed," and "bastards" in the span of about 45 seconds, and making me sorry I stopped on women's basketball highlights.

First of all, Coach, nobody cares about you "breaking a man's record." They are two different sports. It's a tremendous accomplishment, and everyone knows your team is dominant. In fact, you're so dominant, you probably prevent many people from even bothering to watch women's college hoops.

But you are not "breaking" any UCLA record. I never celebrated Sadahuru Oh as the all-time home run king, certainly not of the baseball I knew and followed. He was the Japanese home run champ, not the champ of MLB, and nobody compares records of the two. Men's college basketball and women's college basketball are essentially two different sports, and no bitter chauvinists are gonna cry in their Schlitzes because, "First Bobby Riggs, now UCLA--is nothing sacred?"

And if a few media types are rooting against you, so what? Really, you came off looking like a real ass, and you embarrassed me because I exposed my little girl to inappropriate language at 7:00 in the morning. You're a terrible ambassador for the game you represent, and though I admire the talent of your players, I will root against you, and not because of UCLA's record.