5 O'Clock Shadow
News you can 't leave work without:
Unless Illinois makes the WNIT and gets a home game, Jenna Smith's final Assembly Hall appearance will take place Sunday.
Admission is free to Senior Day as the Illini host Purdue. Our tribute to Smith, one of the program's best players, can be found here.
Here's what to expect Sunday (4 p.m. tip):
Free admission, free parking, first 500 fans in orange will get a $5 gift card to the Illini Apple Center, one fan will win a flat screen TV, and a postgame autograph session with the Illini.
Jenna has been the fresh air and pride for our team for four years. I know not where you go from here. Hope it includes a Masters and perhaps a coaching future [((Guess where))] You bet! No matter what or where, you will succeed.
Jenna; Thanks for giving us your best. Thanks for giving us hope, and thanks for being Jenna.
oooooohhhhh! Gotta disagree that Champaign-Urbana media is kind to women's basketball or any of the 16 "other" sports (exclusing football and men's basketball) at the University of Illinois. I do remember when Men's Tennis won the national championship; you probably don't - media coverage was scant. It was a long time ago, but I still remember 9 years ago, when the women made the NCAA. On that same day, the men won the big ten trournament. In regard to the men, the N-G gave them every inch of the sports section. EVERY INCH. There was not something the size of a job ad that contratulated the women.
I find channel 3 to be worse. Often,the women cannot get 24 hour coverage for a game (meaning morning coverage, 6pm, & 10:00 coverage). Most of the time, I can only see the 6pm, and often on the Friday after a Thursday game, there is no coverage. I do not think I am unique in being a person who only watches one version of the news. Therefore, citizens who only watch one version of the news (6:00) get no exposure, and no prompt to even THINK ABOUT women's basketball. For men's basketball though, there will be a 3-4 minute coverage, even on days that don't follow a game. They will be earth-shatterning topics, like "they had a team meeting", or "one of the spartans are hurt, what do the Illini players thing about that."?
In Bloomington Il., there are billboards for men's AND WOMEN'S basketball. Ditto for West Lafayette. In West Lafayette, a bar/pizzeria has specials and adverstisement that their TV will be carrying the Matt Painter AND SHARON VERSYP show. Generally, your waitress in West Lafayette knows even when the women play.
Part of why our attendance is scant is due to lack of a big season in recent history. However, part of the reason why the Illini are one of the weakest supported women's teams in the Big Ten lies squarely on the shoulders of the media and the community.
I have to agree with Donna on this one.
One of the weeks Jenna & Karisma were named Big Ten Player/Freshman of the Week, I did not see one word in the News Gazette!! (Don't recall looking the other 2 times.) I remember posting my displeasure on that omission & predicting if an Illini men's team player would get the same recognition, there'd be a color picture on the front page of Sports. Demetri McCamey gets Big Ten Player of the week & there he is smiling in color on the front page of Sports. (Wish I could pick Lotto numbers that well!) Regardless of which sport, if a UofI athelete is named Big Ten Player of the Week, News Gazette, which claims to support UofI atheletics, should print a noticable write up on him/her. I wouldn't expect a full page complete with color photo (of course that would be nice:) but not a postage stamp-sized 2 sentences hidden in a corner of the back page either. It's an honor for the athlete & the UofI to get national recognition.
I've heard the excuse the "other" sports don't draw big crowds. How can a sport attract new fans if people don't know it's out there?
Forgot to add that Iowa Hawkeye women (a team that draws crowds, but really does not win much more than Illinois) had a local TV station cover 4 of it's games. Four. Add that to the 3-4 already on Big Ten network. That is some good coverage. It makes channel surfers actually think about women's basketball, and their local team.
Perhaps the local station carries some of the "other" sports besides women's basketball. What a boon for gymnastics, wrestling, etc.
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