My friend and fellow sports blogger Katie made a recent post about how some of her gendermates get on her nerves when it comes to sports. Interestingly enough, I've got something to say about my fellow men as well--not because this is a pissing match, but because this time of year happens to bring out one of my pet peeves.

With fairly little exception, I hate it when men say they hate women's basketball.

I don't begrudge anyone that belief and I'm sure there are some who hold it who get a bad wrap. But more often than not, those who feel the need to chime in with their opinion are simply displaying knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing chauvinism.

I'm not here to tell you why you should like women's hoops. True enough, while I'm a fan, they still fall significantly behind men's hoops for me. But my feeling is this: I don't like BAD basketball. So maybe my sample is off, having the opportunity to watch some of the finest women's basketball in the country played here in the home of the ACC tournament. But from where I'm sitting women's basketball can be, and often is, just as entertaining as its male counterpart.

Where I most often see the women's hoops bashing occur is on the internet (surprise!). On a message board or in a Livejournal community someone will say something about women's basketball. Now mind you, the people who hate hockey probably stayed silent on the hockey thread, because it had no interest to them. The soccer haters? Silent about that topic. But bring up women's hoops, and one of the first responses you get will likely be, "Who cares? It's women's basketball." Several others will chime in about the level of play and how boring it is. A few years ago, after the Terps won the national championship, I posted about it in a sports community. Someone commented, "what does this have to do with sports?" Currently, USF is in the Women's NIT (ok, I must admit, "We're Not Interested, Thanks" was pretty funny) and every thread is met with the same shenanigans. And it all smacks of "shouldn't you be making me a sandwich/ironing my shirt/on your back?"

Again, I'm not saying you've got to love women's hoops. But would it kill you to keep it moving?