This past Tuesday night Tennessee Lady Volunteers and Stanford Cardinal battled for the women’s National Championship in Tampa, Florida. The match-up pitted two of the premiere players in the country in Tennessee’s Candace Parker and Stanford’s Candice Wiggins  The Lady Vols triumphed, thrashing the Cardinal 64-48 led by Parker’s 17 points and 9 rebounds with a dislocated shoulder to capture back-to-back national titles. The win was a culmination of a brilliant college career, since Parker is the first women’s college player to enter the WNBA draft early.
 

 Yet, despite the crowning achievement Tennessee’s championship and Parker’s exit something was missing. Where was the fanfare? Where was the SportsCenter Special post-game analysis and press conference from Tampa for the gist of the night? Why didn’t Tennessee get heaped with adulation? Like R&B group 702 said, “Where my girls at?”  Dang it man, can the ladies get some love too?

 The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is one of the most exciting events in sports and the highlight of the season. Everyone knows The Big Dance is guaranteed to an unpredictable, full of unbelievable shots, unthinkable upsets and fabulous individual performances. Point blank, the tourney’s off the thermostat.

 Yet, their female counterparts tournament doesn’t have anywhere near the same pageantry or receive an ounce of the recognition the men’s tourney gets. Yes, ESPN airs the entire tourney, and their overall ratings were up from 1.0 in 2007 to 1.4 this year and they earned a 3.0 rating on Tuesday night’s title game, a 30 percent increase from last year’s 2.3 rating. However, those ratings grossly pale in comparison to the men’s, which registered a national rating of 12.1.
 
 As a young-un I remember watching Texas Tech’s Sheryl Swoopes fricasseeing every helpless defender who futilely tried to check her as she dropped 46 points in the 1993 championship game. Or Nikki McCray’s Lady Vols facing Rebeca Lobo’s Connecticut Huskies who won the game and became the first Division 1 women’s basketball team to ever go undefeated. Both of those games were televised on CBS, before the women’s game even had a season-long TV deal. With all the money CBS accumulates every year, why can’t they hook the ladies up with a national stage for the title game?
 
 To compare the women’s game to the men’s is inane. Men are physically built differently than women, which endows the fellas with more athleticism. The men’s game is above the rim, while the ladies play a more grounded game. Many people say they prefer the watching the men play because they make more spectacular plays, the game is faster and the like the high-flying flushes. In fact, several women hoopers I’ve talked to say they can’t stand watching the women play. They complain the game is to slow and women struggle and “shoot too much like girls.”
 
 A message to all the people who ain’t feeling female ballas: Quit playa hatin and start appreciating. No, you’re not going to see a bunch of sick crossovers, people getting sliced up or breathtaking aerial displays because physiology prevents most women from having these capabilities. What you will see is a bevy of fundamentally sound players’ who understand the art of the bounce pass, judicious shot selection and having a high basketball IQ to overcome physical limitations. A lot of young hoopers, and men could learn some things if they caught more women’s games.
 

 Plus a lot of these ladies are can legitimately ball. LSU Tigers SEC Player of the Year Sylvia Fowles is a 6’6 inch athletic freak, who gets more rejections than Will Ferrell in Night at The Roxbury, and she’s a ferocious bull on the block. Oklahoma Sooner   Courtney Paris is the Charles Barkley of the women’s game because she woman-handles her foes. Homegirl’s put up double-doubles in points in boards in 92 straight games! That’s ridiculous. She oughtta make people pay rent cause she owns the paint with her sheer size and dominance.
  
 Stanford’s Wiggins had just as incredible a tourney as Davidson’s Stephen Curry. A four-time Kodak-All-American, Wiggins put it down in with several electrifying scoring displays, most notably busting 44 points against Cleveland State in the second round and 41 against the no. 1 seed Maryland Terrapins. Wiggins is flame-thrower who with a hair-trigger and a Ray Allen like pure jumper. She also has an infectious smile that captivated the nation, but she isn’t afraid to bake you like a potato if you want to oppose her.

 And who can forget the Wooden Award winner, and all-everything (not to mention incredibly fine, but this is about the basketball so be easy and remain focused Beil) Candace Parker. At 6’4, Parker is revolutionizing the way the women’s game is played with her eclectically lethal game. Parker’s got the inside game of a power player and a Hakeem Olajuwon like fallaway which women don’t typically have in their arsenal. CP3 has the handles of a guard, as she can regularly be seen chopping up spellbound defenders, gracefulness and if you caught slippin she throw it down on you.

 Each of these players are all-time college greats and the future superstars of the WNBA. In addition, the women’s game is home to Tennessee’s Pat Summit, a coaching icon. Summit is the all-time winningest D-1 coach in men or women history with a preposterous 983 career wins and 8 national titles. Summit is the prototypical coach who could lead a men’s team if she wanted too. UConn’s Geno Auriemma has racked up five national titles and his Huskies are always a frontrunner to cut down the nets. Plus the genuine heat between Summit and Auriemma always makes it fun when their squads hook up because you know the volatile situation can finally erupt and a fight could pop off at anytime.

 And look out for 16 year-old junior Britney Griner in a couple years. She’s the next step in the evolution of the women’s game. The 6’8 Griner slams in games with no stress, and I’m not talking about break-away barely tip the rim dunks. I mean she puts down fierce rim-rattling bangs with the nastiness of a dude.

 So as Hall of Fame R&B group The Dells once said, let’s “give the ladies a standing ovation” because they deserve it for all their hard work and skills they possess. All the independent female ballas who ain’t scared to bust the grill of a dude that irreverently disrespects your game and underestimates you throw your hands up at me. We see you mama and we respect your struggle to gain more notoriety and equal visibility. Just know Beil got love for ya.