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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

SEC shows growth in girls’ play

Ed McGranahan The Greenville (S.C.) News

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Courtney Hawkins said Louisiana State is her favorite team, and she hopes to see the Tigers this weekend during the Southeastern Conference Tournament at the Bi-Lo Center.

Hawkins, a junior at Greer High School, is the point guard on the Yellow Jackets’ basketball team. She dreams of becoming a college basketball player. It began when she saw the opportunity coming to other girls.

“Anywhere I can get an education,” she said. “It’s what my dad’s always talking about.”

The SEC Tournament is the most visible sign this week of the growth of women’s basketball. The sport is enjoying increases in participation and attendance, which has brought with it network television contracts and viability as a marketing tool.

The sport also has opened doors for young girls, who can use basketball skills to earn scholarships to college and, thanks to the 8-year-old Women’s National Basketball Association, to pursue professional careers.

Hawkins said she began playing organized ball when she was 9, about the same age as many of the nearly 100 girls, some not much taller than a yardstick, who participated in a two-hour basketball clinic at the Bi-Lo Center on Wednesday morning hosted by the SEC.

They received T-shirts and basketballs, and staff members from many of the conference schools worked the girls around the floor in a series of shooting, passing, dribbling and defensive drills.

It wasn’t hard to imagine the future, even for those who remember the past.

“It’s a different generation of players,” said Furman University women’s coach Sam Dixon. “Young girls are playing basketball at 5 or 6 years old in youth leagues. Consequently, as they stay with it and develop their skills, they’re going to be very good players.”

Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 states that no person on the basis of sex shall be excluded from participation, denied the benefits or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid.

Including basketball.

The NCAA serves as taskmaster and conscience for most of the nation’s college and university athletic programs. Among its responsibilities is determining how many scholarships schools may offer in a particular sport.

Until Title IX, it wasn’t an issue.

According to the NCAA, there are 604 Division I and Division II schools that may offer financial aid to girls who wish to play basketball, amounting to 7,665 scholarships.

“We didn’t have that opportunity,” said Deb Osborne, athletic director at Mann High school.

“I’m a Title IX baby,” she said. “I’d never gone to school without Title IX. It came into existence right when I needed it to, and for women’s basketball to have come as far as it has is incredible.”

What Osborne and her colleagues on the high school and college ranks have seen is a remarkable growth in a sport that didn’t have its first NCAA-sanctioned championship until 1982.

This year will mark the 13th straight sellout of the Final Four.

In 1975, a game involving the University of Maryland women’s team and Immaculata College received the first coverage by a national television network. The women’s national championship later that year was shown on tape delay.

In 1996, ESPN entered a seven-year agreement with the NCAA to telecast the Final Four. Now, ESPN televises all 63 games of the NCAA Tournament.

Last year’s championship between Tennessee and Connecticut received the highest rating of any basketball game televised by ESPN to that point.

“Young girls can dream now,” Clemson University women’s coach Jim Davis said. “They can see the stars in women’s basketball, and they can dream of growing up to be like them.”

Roughly 6,000 books of tickets have been sold for the four-day SEC Tournament, and the NCAA reports steady increases in attendance, most dramatically at the Division I level, which has seen a jump of more than 800,000 since 1999-2000.

Six-time national champion Tennessee, the No. 2 seed in this week’s tournament, averages between 12,000 and 13,000 for home games. Top seed and national No. 1 LSU has witnessed dramatic growth in attendance the past couple of years.

“The visibility of the sport makes people stop and take notice,” said Kentucky coach Mickie DeMoss. “I can remember when we’d be thrilled when there’d be 600 people in the stands.”

The SEC Tournament will receive blanket TV coverage this weekend with the four games today, four Friday and the semifinals Saturday televised by Fox Sports South. Sunday’s championship game will be shown nationally on ESPN2.