Women's Hoop Dirt (2024)

FAQs

Why don't they lower the hoop for women's basketball? ›

Lowering the rim completely changes the root principles of the game. Basketball is a game that can be played by anyone. Though the WNBA has never seriously considered this change, it will just create more division within a sport where gender bias is the biggest hurdle.

The list includes NCAA, AIAW and NAIA levels. Tara VanDerveer, the head coach of Idaho from 1978–80, Ohio State from 1980–85, and Stanford since 1985 (with a hiatus in 1995–96 to coach the US Olympic team), tops the list with 1,216 career wins.

In women's NCAA basketball, a sport made up of 30% Black athletes, Black women made up 12% of head coaches across all divisions during the 2021-22 season, according to the NCAA's demographics database. Fourteen Black women led women's basketball teams across 65 Power Five programs this past season — up one from 2021.

Tennessee hired Marshall coach Kim Caldwell on Sunday, going outside the Lady Vols family for the first time since the late Pat Summitt stepped down in 2012.

Because of the player-to-rim difference, the game is played at a different speed and in a different style. As a result, dunking is rare but not impossible. Since the league's inaugural season in 1997, dunking has become ever so slightly more common. Those who like seeing it can thank Brittney Griner.

In women's tournaments, they play with a smaller basketball, have more host sites for the first and second rounds of games, and have different rules about getting the ball past midcourt. But the biggest difference notable to fans is likely the difference in formats of playing.

Teresa Edwards is the only female basketball player to win five Olympic medals (four of them gold).

In 1999, Peck led the Women's Basketball team to their first NCAA championship and Purdue's first national championship in any sport since 1961. With their NCAA Championship win, Peck became the first African-American woman coach to win a national championship in the United States.

Has a woman ever coached a men's college basketball team? ›

In 2003, Teresa Phillips became the first woman to coach a Division I men's basketball team at Tennessee State, but she held the post for just one game. Serving as athletic director, she had fired coach Nolan Richardson and interim Hosea Lewis was suspended for that game.

Tennessee parted ways with coach Kellie Harper on Monday after five seasons, opting to make a change to try to reinvigorate a program that has not played for a national championship since the late Pat Summitt retired. Harper, who played under Summitt, could never quite get the program back to an elite level.

Pat Head Summitt

During her career as head coach at the University of Tennessee, Pat Summitt has created a legacy of success and integrity unparalleled in women's basketball.

Regulation basketball hoops used throughout America have a standard height of 10 feet (3.05 meters) from the ground. That is the official height of hoops for all players aged 12 or older, meaning players ranging from school children to NBA superstars use a 10 feet high hoop.

Rules and equipment

The rules for women's basketball are almost identical to the rules for men's basketball. The most noticeable difference is in the circumference of the women's basketball, which is one inch (2.54 cm) less than the men's basketball. The smaller ball was introduced for NCAA play in the fall of 1984.

It's not done because then that isn't basketball. Basketball is played on a 10 foot rim. Every single professional, amateur, collegiate league plays on a 10 foot rim.

The standard basketball size used in college (NCAA) basketball for men and women is the same size that is used in both the NBA and WNBA, which is 29.5in (size 7) for men and 28.5in (size 6) for women. The ball must be inflated so that the weight of the ball is a maximum of 22oz for men and a maximum of 20oz for women.