Whatever men hoopsters do, women do ... well, 'better'

You think I'm crazy. You think I was hit in the head by Troy Polamalu. You think I'm looooosing it.

"I totally agree with you," said Tree Rollins, the longtime NBA player who now coaches the Washington Mystics. "You're not so crazy. I have to tell you I find myself watching the women play as much as the men, if not more."

"If you give women's college basketball a second look, you see the difference from some years ago," said David Stern, NBA commissioner.

Again, read carefully. No one is stating that Pat Summit's Tennessee Volunteers can beat Bruce Pearl's. They don't have the physicality to do that.

However the women's basketball skills are actually close to those of the men. Stern compared women's basketball to women's professional tennis. No one expects Sharapova to beat Nadal because Nadal is much stronger, but Sharapova playing Venus Williams is an entertaining match and the skill levels are fairly close to men's.

There are of course dissenters (I didn't speak to current college women's coaches or players because of their obvious bias). There are people who believe I'm the lone passenger on a ship of fools.

Gentlemen, start your ridicule.

"You are crazy," e-mailed Dallas owner Mark Cuban. "If it was on par (with the men's college game) there wouldn't be the Division I blowouts you see all the time. That said, if you write it, every women's player will love you."

So there's that.

The women's college game still has flaws. There are still too many moments when you see a women's college player bounce the basketball off her knee. The women's games lack the basketball equivalent of heroin: the huge slam dunk.

But based on various interviews -- and my own eyes -- women run their offenses almost as well as the men, shoot almost as well (though sometimes still a little more awkwardly) and move the ball in transition almost as well. You could have never said anything like just a short time ago.

"The only thing, in my opinion, the women can't do is dunk the ball in traffic," said Rollins. "Almost everything else they're doing as well as the men. People may laugh at that but it's true."

There are several major things that have made the women's game improve dramatically:

1. The women have closed the gap on the men in terms of two major fundamentals: dribbling and shooting.

"One of the big things is 3-point shooting," said Rollins. "It's much better."

2. Women actually play more team ball than the men. "When I played we had a better grasp of the fundamentals than NBA players today," Rollins said. "We were team oriented. You don't see that now as much in the NBA and in some ways you don't see it as much as you do in men's college ball."

3. More ex-NBA players are involved in the women's college and pro game than ever before. That is particularly true in the WNBA and there seems to be a trickling down effect beginning in college.

"The women listen to you more and trust what you're saying more," said Rollins.

Maybe I am indeed losing my mind.

But at least my mind is wide open.