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The Show, If Not The Dunk, Is Coming

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 16, 2007

Updated: 11/16/2007 12:44 am

T AMPA - We wrote letters. We begged her. We sent a box of (half-eaten) cookies to her Tampa hotel. It was no use.

Tennessee superstar Candace Parker didn't dunk Thursday night.

The 6-foot-4 Parker has dunked before in games, several times.

The nerve.

C'mon kid, how about one for the show?

It was a good show anyway, a fine way to kick-start a women's basketball season that will end here in April at the Forum with the Women's Final Four.

Three powerhouses - top-ranked Tennessee, No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 10 Duke - and one little engine that could, but couldn't Thursday - South Florida - came together for the ESPNU (don't get this channel) Invitational at the Forum. The announced crowd was 6,631. There will be 20,000 in April.

There will be a show.

One worth watching.

Candace Parker remembers the best thing about her first dunk. It came when she was 15.

"I did it before my brothers did."

Star-Filled Show

The show is coming and it's a good one. It will be filled with stars, maybe Parker and Oklahoma's Courtney Paris, arguably the two best female collegians in the nation, who squared off in the second game Thursday, after Duke walloped USF 89-52.

The show is coming. It will be filled with skills, teamwork and people actually sharing a basketball. It will come with tears.

The show is coming and it has come a long, long way.

Sue Donohoe, NCAA vice president for women's basketball, remembered the first Women's Final Four, held a quarter-century ago. She was an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech.

"The cheapest ticket was $1.75," Donohoe said.

And not all of them were purchased.

Tennessee coaching legend Pat Head Summitt was asked how many media attended her first Final Four.

"Well, each school had one, so that was a start," she said.

The show is a real show these days.

It'll be ours in April.

"It's the dream to get back here," said Duke shooting star Abby Waner, who missed the USF game with a sprained ankle.

She'd like another crack at Tampa. Who wouldn't?

The women love their show.

Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale thinks you will, too.

Coale is in her 12th season at OU. She took the Sooners to the Final Four in 2002. Seventeen years ago, Oklahoma tried to drop women's basketball. The NCAA pitched a fit.

"We had 200 people at our games," Coale said. "I would whisper to my assistants, 'Do you think we should go to the zone,' because everyone could hear us."

Oklahoma averaged 10,000 per game last season.

It's a show.

The show is coming and you might relate to it better than the bigger, grander, more commercialized men's show. Oklahoma point guard Jenna Plumley is 5 feet, 4 inches tall. Tennessee point guard Shannon Bobbitt is 5-2.

This show is for all comers.

"We find a lot of people who come to our games are inspired to do better by what they see, the way we compete, the innocence, the purity of it all," Sherri Coale said.

And it's coming here.

Top Teams Want To Return

Tennessee, Oklahoma and Duke have serious designs on a return to Tampa. USF? Jose Fernandez had his team in the NCAA Tournament two seasons ago and on the bubble last season. The Bulls are young and new to what happened Thursday. That doesn't stop dreams.

"We're home, and you want to be in the show when it's at your home," USF center Jessica Lawson said. "The Final Four is home this year. You can't get any better than finding your way home."

Now if only Candace Parker could have found her way to the dunk contest. Heck, she dunked at UConn last season, so why couldn't she serve up an appetizer for April on Thursday?

Alas, The Tennessee-Oklahoma game, a pressure cooker, didn't allow it. Still, Candace Parker scored 28 points as the Vols held off the Sooners 70-67. Oh, and 5-2 Shannon Bobbitt scored 27. These were two great teams. We'll get four in April.

So we'll let it slide, Candace. For now.

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