Congratulations

to the University of Minnesota women’s basketball team for reaching the final four. Since they played Duke tonight, I would have been pulling for the Golden Gophers even had I not read Rocket Man’s Heart of a Champion post about the team (but was it the sexist in me that made me feel compassion for the Duke team at the end?). Having read about Janel McCarville and Lindsay Whalen made the game, and the victory, all the more enjoyable.
Since Duke is about as good a women’s college team as there is, you have to think that Minnesota can play with anyone they meet in the final four.
HINDROCKET adds: The game was a thriller; the Gophers led all the way, but Duke, rated number one in the country, never gave up. Lindsay Whalen scored 27, and Janel McCarville added 20 points and 18 rebounds, showing again that there is no center in women’s college basketball who can compare. Everyone played well; senior Kadidja Andersson scored 17, and defensive wizard Shannon Bolden scored 10 while hounding Duke’s superstar, Alana Beard, who shot 4 for 14 and also finished with 10. It’s on to New Orleans, and the Gophers are the team that no one wants to play. Lindsay Whalen, meanwhile, has achieved a level of sports celebrity in Minnesota that approaches Kirby Puckett, Harmon Killebrew and Kevin Garnett.
The photo below shows McCarville (#4) and Whalen (#13) in the game’s waning moments: