Commentary –

Injuries Take Little

From Shea And Svet

By Chris Powell

Now that their college basketball careers have been ended by injuries, people are saying that what happened to UConn’s Svetlana Abrosimova and Shea Ralph is an example that “life isn’t fair.” Of course life isn’t fair, and it would have been a thrill to see Ralph and Abrosimova playing as seniors in another national championship game, helping to defend the national championship title for UConn women’s basketball.

But if life was fair it would be without the better part of its virtue and heroism, which arises from the struggle to make it fairer and from the struggle against adversity. Besides, another few tournament games and even another national championship really would not have changed the things that count most, would not have changed what Ralph and Abrosimova had already achieved by the time of their injuries.

That is, they already had set the standard that will endure for decades at UConn and maybe for all college women’s basketball.

Abrosimova came to define courage and grace on and off the court. As a mere teenager she journeyed to this country alone without even a language to get along in. But she mastered that and college in addition to basketball while endearing herself to thousands who didn’t want her coach to be so tough on someone who already was going through so much, even though his being tough on her was for the best.

Ralph came to define determination and ferocity for hurling herself into the contest over and over, for never letting up, for repeatedly conquering injuries that beset her because she played so hard, and for sacrificing herself in the end during a tournament game that will probably be the best and most thrilling game ever seen by those who watched it.

Ralph and Abrosimova already had been part of one national championship team and still may be part of another. They both should heal and have professional basketball careers or careers in coaching.

Life is unfair? What gifts these young lives already have been, to themselves and to Connecticut. Life should be so unfair for everyone that its biggest challenge upon graduation from college is what to do for an encore. In bidding farewell to Ralph and Abrosimova this year, UConn basketball fans may also bid farewell to some of UConn’s dominance in women’s basketball. As much as Connecticut has enjoyed Gampel Pavilion’s being the world capital of the sport, it wouldn’t be much good if Connecticut got to keep the best of the sport to itself forever.

Uncompetitive games are no fun for the rest of the country, and examples that young women can excel in sports are needed everywhere, not just in Storrs. The game has to be shared, and the more it is shared, the more it will prosper.

That’s why it was so good this season that the UConn women’s basketball team developed its rivalry with the University of Notre Dame, beyond the usual one with the University of Tennessee – and why it was good, as much as it hurt in these parts, that Notre Dame’s home crowd got to see the Irish defeat UConn.

Ralph, Abrosimova, and Coach Geno Auriemma’s recruits, like Coach Jim Calhoun’s on the men’s side, have spoiled Connecticut. Even in what may be considered their worst seasons – like this year’s for the men – they give the state the one sports endeavor that will always bear the state’s name and will never betray it, and they make winter pass quickly and with fun and excitement. There will be more of that, not less, if, over time, the outcome of women’s games is a little more in doubt.

(Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.)