COMMENTARY : Something Is Happening Here

Traffic jam! I am stuck in a traffic jam for 25 minutes, going nowhere on Stadium Drive in College Park, Md., waiting to get into Cole Field House to see a women’s basketball game between Maryland and Virginia. Backed up on an exit ramp for women’s hoops! What is this world coming to?

I am a doubter. I do not believe 14,500 people will go to a regular-season women’s college basketball game -- even if it is between No. 1 and No. 2. I do not believe they will take up every seat, and the overflow will gather along the rail of the upper deck, and scream and yell continuously throughout the game. I do not believe they will scalp tickets for five times their face value. I do not believe they will do this for a game where no one dunks. I do not believe that the atmosphere surrounding a women’s game will look and smell and feel exactly like the men’s Final Four.

I am wrong.

I have seen the future of college basketball.

It wears a ponytail.

“It felt so good to walk up that tunnel and see all those people,” Maryland forward Dafne Lee is saying. “During the afternoon, I heard there’d be standing room -- but I said, ‘To see it is to believe it.’ Then I saw it. It was like being at a part of history.”

The entire ambience -- the game, the crowd, the scramble for tickets -- resonates with a Big Event quality that prompts people to save their stubs and press them in a book somewhere. For all its storied history as a basketball gym, for all the tempting ACC matchups, for the 50 NCAA tournament games it hosted over the years, including two Final Fours, Cole Field House never ever had the No. 1 and No. 2 teams play on its hallowed floor. Now they’re here, and they’re from the same conference to boot. Maryland Athletic Director Andy Geiger greets so many folks he knows -- but hasn’t seen at a women’s game before -- he must feel like a maitre d’.

The crowd gets into it from the jump; even before the jump, actually -- during the player introductions. The cheers are so loud, and the stands so thick with red pompoms, you think you’re in the world’s noisiest poppy field. And it’s an educated crowd.

Nobody has to tell them women’s basketball is no longer played with three women on each side of the midcourt line. When one of Virginia’s big, identical Burge twins commits a foul with 15:12 to go, they not only know which Burge (Heidi), they know what number foul (four). You realize how seriously the game is taken when you hear them chanting disapprovingly at the referees after an especially unpopular call. That says these people think real basketball is being played.

It’s such a big event, most of Maryland’s men’s team players show up. Evers Burns is particularly stoked; whenever Maryland center Jessie Hicks touches the ball, you can hear him enthusiastically shouting, “Go to work, big fella.” The spectacular point guards, Virginia’s Dawn Staley and Maryland’s Limor Mizrachi, routinely bring Burns out of his seat, as they maneuver upcourt, dribbling the ball with wizardry behind their backs and between their legs. “You put those two on the same team,” Burns says in dreamy anticipation, “and you’ve got the best backcourt in women’s history.”

The game is everything you can hope for. Both teams run well. Neither team breaks away. The first half ends 42-40. The second half sees Virginia quickly go up by nine, and Maryland hang tough, with Dafne Lee getting 15 successive Terrapins points. With less than two minutes to play, it’s anybody’s game. At the buzzer Maryland has the ball and a last, desperate shot for a win. It misses and they lose, 75-74. “Aside from winning,” Maryland Coach Chris Weller is saying, “we couldn’t have asked for more.”

At the end 14,500 people are standing.

And applauding.

“This is where we want to be,” Tammy Reiss is saying as pens and microphones crowd around. “Coming out of high school, I never thought I’d see women’s basketball where it’s at today. Not in a million years did I dream it. Because the men’s game is so much more exciting, so much more athletic -- the guys play above the rim!” She smiles, maybe somewhat in envy. “We’ll never challenge them. But now we’re getting on TV, and people are getting a glimpse of our game, and responding to it. Crowds like this are going to become more common. ... “

This has been said before. More than a decade ago, when Carol Blazejowski and Nancy Lieberman were in their flower, there were predictions that women’s basketball would ride the crest of equal opportunity to become the next great growth sport.

But a women’s pro league fizzled, and the sport seemed to lapse into hibernation. Now, if only for a night, there’s standing room only at Cole. There are long rows of seats reserved for press, and there are TV cameras at courtside, telecasting the game live. Women basketball players are being asked about floating zone defenses and overloads off the stack, and men reporters are taking down every word they say. If only for a night, Dafne Lee feels what it’s like to be a big-time college athlete. If only for a night, she can relate to Walt Williams.

“This game is not a blip on the screen,” Andy Geiger says confidently. “It’s going to happen. You’ll see.”