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Baylor Women's Basketball
Kim Mulkey unloads on ESPN not airing top matchups
November 15, 2016
4,248
After Baylor’s second-ranked Lady Bears’ convincing win over ninth-ranked UCLA on Monday night, Kim Mulkey was asked what she thought of last week’s election. She joked asking who won?
She said she just doesn’t watch much politics. What she does keep a finger on at all times is basketball and that has her more than skeptical about the state of women’s basketball.
Baylor plays two top-ten teams this week with third-ranked UCONN on the slate for Thursday. Neither were picked up by ESPN.
“I think we failed miserably not to have Baylor women’s basketball on ESPN this week,” Mulkey said. “They always tell ya, ‘Coach Mulkey, help grow the game. Help grow the game.’ Well you know what my philosophy is? I’m gonna help grow the game at Baylor University. ‘Cause that’s really the only people that matter to me.”
It’s clear Mulkey is fed up with this patriarchal basketball system where a top-ten matchup like on Monday night isn’t even picked up by a secondary ESPN channel when there’s not a single men’s game on the schedule.
Though, it also seems like this TV blackout is partly associated with the negative perception of Baylor as a whole from the on-going football scandal. UCONN-Florida State was aired on ESPN 2. If games were solely selected by rankings and national relevance, that game between the No. 3 and No. 12 team should have been lower on the totem poll.
Come Thursday, not even UCONN’s notoriety within the basketball community can pull together a national TV spot.
“Thursday night’s gonna be on a New York station, I understand,” Mulkey said. “So we’re playing two teams in the top ten and neither game is picked up by ESPN. Ohio State played South Carolina and that wasn’t picked up by ESPN.”
What was picked up by the worldwide leader in sports, though, was Texas-Stanford. Granted, another good matchup between the eighth-ranked Longhorns and 11th-ranked Cardinal. But that didn’t help Mulkey disdain for her Lady Bears to be completely shutout on the market for both their top-tier matchups this week, especially since the UCONN game could be a national title preview.
“I know Thursday at UCONN is hard because it’s a [men’s] college ESPN package,” Mulkey said. “They have Thursday games. I get that. But tonight, I don’t understand it. They didn’t ask for my opinion.”
She said she just doesn’t watch much politics. What she does keep a finger on at all times is basketball and that has her more than skeptical about the state of women’s basketball.
Baylor plays two top-ten teams this week with third-ranked UCONN on the slate for Thursday. Neither were picked up by ESPN.
“I think we failed miserably not to have Baylor women’s basketball on ESPN this week,” Mulkey said. “They always tell ya, ‘Coach Mulkey, help grow the game. Help grow the game.’ Well you know what my philosophy is? I’m gonna help grow the game at Baylor University. ‘Cause that’s really the only people that matter to me.”
It’s clear Mulkey is fed up with this patriarchal basketball system where a top-ten matchup like on Monday night isn’t even picked up by a secondary ESPN channel when there’s not a single men’s game on the schedule.
Though, it also seems like this TV blackout is partly associated with the negative perception of Baylor as a whole from the on-going football scandal. UCONN-Florida State was aired on ESPN 2. If games were solely selected by rankings and national relevance, that game between the No. 3 and No. 12 team should have been lower on the totem poll.
Come Thursday, not even UCONN’s notoriety within the basketball community can pull together a national TV spot.
“Thursday night’s gonna be on a New York station, I understand,” Mulkey said. “So we’re playing two teams in the top ten and neither game is picked up by ESPN. Ohio State played South Carolina and that wasn’t picked up by ESPN.”
What was picked up by the worldwide leader in sports, though, was Texas-Stanford. Granted, another good matchup between the eighth-ranked Longhorns and 11th-ranked Cardinal. But that didn’t help Mulkey disdain for her Lady Bears to be completely shutout on the market for both their top-tier matchups this week, especially since the UCONN game could be a national title preview.
“I know Thursday at UCONN is hard because it’s a [men’s] college ESPN package,” Mulkey said. “They have Thursday games. I get that. But tonight, I don’t understand it. They didn’t ask for my opinion.”
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