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Username Post: 75 Fans For Today's Womens Game        (Topic#26757)
Greenhorn 
Senior
Posts: 318

Reg: 11-24-04
12-06-22 05:56 PM - Post#347579    

They dropped a nail biter to Albany 73-45.

Hard to see them winning another game this season. But let's indulge fantasy and give them two more W's. That would put them at 3-25 (6-48 for the past two years).

What gives? This was the premier program in the league for 25 years. And even in the darkest days of Coach Belle, they were never this bad.



 
flinder 
Freshman
Posts: 72

Age: 45
Reg: 11-16-16
12-06-22 11:58 PM - Post#347615    
    In response to Greenhorn

I would like to see Dartmouth play Amherst, a perennial D3 powerhouse, because I really don't know if the Big Green could beat them.

 
Go Green 
PhD Student
Posts: 1124

Age: 52
Reg: 04-22-10
Re: 75 Fans For Today's Womens Game
12-07-22 10:55 AM - Post#347649    
    In response to Greenhorn

  • Greenhorn Said:

What gives? This was the premier program in the league for 25 years.





The most obvious reason why Dartmouth lost its perch as the premier WBB program is that urban areas are no longer the death traps that they were in the 1970s-90s. It was easy to convince a female recruit and/or her parents to come to safe Hanover instead of crime-ridden NYC, New Haven, Philly, Providence, Boston/Cambridge, etc.

Not nearly as easy anymore...

If we could build a time machine, we should have tried to find a way to keep Courtney Banghart and given Wielgus some sort of cushy promotion. I wonder how things would have played out if that had happened...

 
CM 
Senior
Posts: 394

Reg: 10-11-18
Re: 75 Fans For Today's Womens Game
12-08-22 02:50 AM - Post#347761    
    In response to Go Green

This seems like a stretch. The fact is women's basketball is just far more competitive and recruiting is taken far more seriously than back in the day. Plenty of women's programs that were awesome in the early days of WBB hardly register at all any more - Old Dominion, LA Tech, to name only a couple. Add to that the challenge of recruiting to a NH, add to that no scholarships to offer, add to that super challenging admissions, add to that top coaches not interested in the job. And you have the terrible program that's getting smashed by a team like Albany.

 
CM 
Senior
Posts: 394

Reg: 10-11-18
Re: 75 Fans For Today's Womens Game
12-08-22 02:57 AM - Post#347762    
    In response to Greenhorn

Coach Belle came from a D1 program, had played D1, and had D1 experienced assistants. While very successful on the D3 level, Coach Shibles had zero D1 experience as either player or coach, none of her assistants did either. This is one possible explanation.

I'm curious what Dartmouth's threshold is for awfulness because back to back 'worst seasons ever' - as seems likely now - is pretty rough.

 
Go Green 
PhD Student
Posts: 1124

Age: 52
Reg: 04-22-10
Re: 75 Fans For Today's Womens Game
12-08-22 06:04 AM - Post#347763    
    In response to CM

  • CM Said:
This seems like a stretch.



It's not just basketball.

Dartmouth used to have the best women's varsity programs in the Ivy across the board. We were powers in women's lacrosse, field hockey, and ice hockey.

We're not anymore.

 
Go Green 
PhD Student
Posts: 1124

Age: 52
Reg: 04-22-10
Re: 75 Fans For Today's Womens Game
12-08-22 06:38 AM - Post#347764    
    In response to Go Green


And I also attribute the "urban areas are a lot nicer than they used to be" theory for why Dartmouth fell a few spots in USN&WR over these years as well.

In the late 1980s to mid 1990s, we were usually thereabouts #7 on USN&WR, and usually ahead of Penn and Columbia. But in the 21st Century, we're more around #12, and usually behind Penn and Columbia.

 
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