by Shawn Nowlin
Who says that women aren’t just as competitive as men?
While the NCAA D-1 Men’s Basketball Championship will be decided between the Florida Gators, Duke Blue Devils, Houston Cougars and Auburn Tigers, the best NCAA D-III women’s college basketball team this season has already been answered.
From March 20-22, four programs left it all on the Cregger Court at Roanoke College to settle who is indeed worthy of being a champion: NYU, Wisconsin – Stout, Smith and Wisconsin – Oshkosh.
When the semifinals action tipped off on March 20, Stacey Stephens was in attendance with a soda in one hand and some popcorn in the next. “The event was filled with passionate college basketball fans like myself. I prefer watching women hoop over men because they play with more effort and are usually more fundamentally sound. Each team had unique players and creative offensive schemes,” Stephens said.
Meg Barber is the head coach of the NYU Violets. When the final horn blew on March 22, she captured the school’s second-straight DIII women’s basketball title by defeating Smith 77-49. With 31 victories and zero losses, the Violets were able to pull off the rare perfect season.
To put their accomplishment into context, for the season, NYU’s average margin of victory was 37.4 points. A 19-point win was the closest game they endured. The program will head into next year on a 62-game win streak.
“I said this last year, but it’s never been a goal to go undefeated. It has been a goal to win the national championship. I did think we had a team to do it, but accomplishing it the way we did, it literally feels like a dream,” Barber said after the game.
“We had Natalie Bruns in the transfer portal with some Power Five coaches coming after her and she decided to come back and use her graduate year at NYU,” the coach added. “So we’re blessed with a lot of talent, but, more importantly, they’re just really great people.”
The influx of different fan bases from across the country was a boost to the local economy. “Before and after the championship game, my family and I ate at some Salem establishments,” NYU supporter Walter Rose said. “I’ve never been to Salem before, but with how everyone treated us, I certainly plan to visit again over the summer.”
Sports results are not subjective. In most team competitions, there is a definitive winner, one that reigns supreme when all is said and done.
For the NYU Violets, they will have bragging rights as college champions for at least a year.
