Lynne Roberts knows there’s interest in women’s basketball.
Two days ago, the University of Utah coach looked up into the stands in Austin and saw thousands of people — an announced attendance of 3,822 — cheering for the hometown Texas Longhorns.
“I was impressed with Texas’ crowd last night for their first round game. That was really great,” Roberts said as her team prepared for the second round of the NCAA tournament.
She just wished her Utes didn’t have to face that same Texas crowd on Sunday afternoon.
Unlike the men’s tournament, which plays games on neutral sites, the first two rounds of the women’s tournament are held on the home courts of the field’s top seeds.
“I don’t know when it started the host sites. Ten years ago? I don’t know,” Roberts said. “There wasn’t people going to those games at neutral sites to see a 1-16 or a 3-14 [matchup] or whatever, but I think we’ve seen on the women’s side the parity has gotten so much better. I do think people will come out to watch it.”
Roberts said there has been discussion of hosting super-regionals on neutral sites in the future — an idea she would support.
“I don’t know enough about that in terms of the logistics … but maybe that’s a good idea,” she said. “Pick cities that we know are women’s basketball fans and send some teams there. I do kind of feel like — I hope soon we kind of graduate from this, and I always have kind of believed that women’s basketball is always a few years behind the men’s. I think we’re catching up to [them]. You’re seeing attendance numbers go up, TV money go up. People care.”
