Breanna Stewart: Other schools need to get better

Breanna Stewart weighed in on the debate about whether UConn’s dominance is bad for women’s basketball, and her opinion is pretty predictable.

Stewart, a 6-foot-4 center who was named Final Four MOP all four years while leading UConn to four straight championships, says other schools need to get better to hang with UConn. She was asked the question during an appearance on “The Jason Smith Show” on Fox Sports Radio last week.

Jason Smith: “What’s your reaction when you hear UConn’s dominance isn’t great for women’s basketball?”

Breanna Stewart: “My reaction, personally hearing that UConn’s dominance isn’t great for women’s basketball – I don’t really want to believe that one bit. I think that what we are doing for women’s basketball is, we are growing the game. Yeah, you can say that some games aren’t competitive and that kind of stuff, but look at the way we are playing basketball. Look at what we are doing on the court and it’s sending a message to all the other schools that we need to get better, players need to get better before they come to college. It will continue to make them more competitive. I mean, if you look at the Final Four this year, there were three teams that have never been here before, so I would say that the game is definitely growing.”

Is the sport going to improve if players don’t have the goal of playing for UConn or becoming good enough to beat UConn? Those sorts of benchmarks are important for sports.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma had perhaps the best response of all to those who think what the Huskies are doing is bad for the sport.