Sports
The Collegian: 4
10 February 2020
UConn plows past Golden Hurricane Basketball journalist Hannah Robbins discusses Tulsa’s loss against UConn and the team’s inability to put together plays when it mattered.
The Golden Hurricane was planning to add to their six game win streak on Thursday against UConn, but unfortunately the Huskies had one final sucker punch before they left the American Conference: handing Tulsa a loss. While Martins Igbanu scored a career-high 29 points, his successes were unable to transform into a win as the Golden Hurricane made only a single 3-pointer all game. The Golden Hurricane started off strong by winning the tip off. Then Brandon Rachal hit his free throws to put Tulsa on the board first. The Huskies responded, but another pair of free throws by Joiner put Tulsa up by three. UConn made Tulsa fight for every shot and ended up edging above the Golden Hurricane with a three pointer by Jale Gaffney. After that, both teams began to miss back to back until Rachal hit a two pointer and followed it up with a free throw. Igbanu hit a layup then a jumper to put Tulsa up by five.
The teams went back and forth, with TU keeping their narrow lead. But during the next few minutes of play, threes by UConn were only met with two pointers by Tulsa, narrowing their lead to three toward the end of the half. When Rachal missed the first of his pair of free throws, it signalled the end of Tulsa’s lead. After another pair of free throws by Igbanu, UConn hit seven unanswered points before Igbanu could put up one more jumper to bring the Golden Hurricane up to only a two-point deficit. At the start of the second half, UConn seemed energized while Tulsa struggled to keep up, only answering four points at the top of the half with a pair of free throws by Igbanu. The Huskies quickly gained a 10-point lead, but Tulsa fought back. Igbanu quickly put up six points, with a layup by Darien Jackson right after and a dunk by Igbanu brough the Golden Hurricane back in the game. Unfortunately, that did not last.
Rachal went down with an ankle injury and left the game at the worst time. James Bouknight singlehandedly gave the Huskies a 10-point lead as Tulsa watched on. Finally, Joiner hit Tulsa’s first 3-pointer of the night and got the team back on the board with eight minutes left, but the team was unable to capitalize on that. The team continued to miss threes and give the Huskies possession without putting points on the board, and in the last eight minutes the team scored only six points, finally being put out of their misery 72-56. The team was not on their A game against UConn, and since they beat UConn only two weeks ago in overtime, Tulsa should have known they had to fight for every point, but the abysmal accuracy in three pointers and reliance on Igbanu for most of the points made it easy for UConn to outplay Tulsa. Just because the team was on top doesn’t mean they will always be, and that might be a lesson Tulsa needed to learn before the season ended.
Igbanu throws down a thunderous dunk (top). Igbanu looks to shoot (left). Rachal flies high above the defense for an attempt at the hoop (right).
New WNBA contract to benefit female athletes Student journalist Zack Long covers how and why the new deal will bring women’s sports closer to equality with men’s sports.
The start of the new year brought about a new agreement between the WNBA and the players union. This new agreement has the potential to make a large The start of the new year brought about a new agreement between the WNBA and the players union. This new agreement has the potential to make a large impact on both the women of the WNBA and on female athletes in professional sports in general. The push toward the measures outlined in the contract is certainly not a newfound effort, however. Professional female athletes from
a multitude of sports and levels have been pushing for a change for years in the areas of compensation, maternity, childcare and more. Such calls for change continue to garner attention today as the lawsuit over equal pay for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, spearheaded by Megan Rapinoe, is scheduled for this May. Several changes outlined in the proposed contract will be aimed at creating a standard of salary for athletes in the WNBA that better reflects the demands of the job than the current compensation system. This includes a 53 percent increase in
cash compensation, a set minimum of $750,000 in prize money for special competitions, higher cash bonuses for performance awards and a new 50-50 revenue sharing system contingent on the league achieving revenue growth partnerships. Beyond this, the contract will bring about an increase in quality travel elements for players (i.e., better hotel room accommodations and Premium Economy Class flight status for regular season travel) and motherhood provisions that include full salaries for players on maternity leave.
The benefits for players don’t stop there as the contract also lifts the free agency restriction to one year earlier than under the prior agreement and aims to help the WNBA facilitate career development workshops and opportunities for players and their post-play careers. Such a deal would also have the potential to impact players and teams around the world. Under the new agreement, players with more than three years of WNBA experience will be required to play the entire WNBA season. If they are playing for another league and subsequently fail to report to their WNBA team, they can be deemed ineligible. This stipulation has the potential to motivate foreign leagues to restructure their season schedules so that players don’t have to choose one league over the other. The higher earning opportunity for WNBA players is also aimed
photos by Tommy Reid
at keeping top players in the U.S. from having to play in such leagues overseas to earn supplemental income in the off-season, which can actually be quite exhausting and lead to injuries that affect these players’ ability to perform in regular season games. While this contract would constitute a huge step forward for the female athletes seeking equal pay with their male counterparts, it still would leave the league’s players far from attaining salaries near the male players of the NBA. Nevertheless, it signifies the leagues’ recognition that more must be done to support the hard work these women pour into the sport and would be a massive milestone representing progress towards building a stronger WMBA while providing a more comprehensive collection of resources to meet its player’s needs.
