Harvey Araton of the New York Times is shocked -- SHOCKED at the coverage women's sports gets:

This year, the W.N.B.A. produced a far more compelling championship series than its big brother, but was virtually ignored. So was Lindsay Davenport after making a resounding comeback to women’s tennis after giving birth in June. Eight years after Mia and Brandi took America by storm, most major news organizations (including The New York Times) did not send a reporter to China to cover the recent Women’s World Cup; it was almost a nonevent until Solo became a victim of a semifinal benching and then a vixen who was critical of her coach and the woman who replaced her.

There's some interesting stuff in Harvey's piece on the "flavor" of the coverage women athletes -- though anyone who's actually been paying attention (hello, we're the Women's Sports Foundation) won't be surprised.

Okay, moment of reflection. I've been pounding on the Times for its deliberate lack of coverage and/or its disparity of coverage. Not to long ago, I suggested that if the Sports Editor (aka Tom "not so" Jolly) said "we're not covering women's sports," then there were writers at the senior level who had the ink-muscle to speak up and/or cover it themselves.

Conversations with writers have suggested that there is an active apathy within the Times' ranks -- a "why bother, people don't care" attitude. So it seems that a "atta boy" should be sent out to George and Harvey for using their columns (different beasts than "coverage") to tweak the subject.

And with the arrival of Maya Moore, maybe Jere avec accent will be inspired to advocate for gas money up to Storrs. (Jere! You won't be disappointed! Kara called her the "real deal." And SHE'S a TN alum!)

Women' basketball, and women's sports in general, is a niche sport. As such, businesses (aka: newspapers) don't anticipate coverage will create advertising revenue. And so, we fans face the "chicken and egg" syndrome. Or the "Field of Dreams syndrome:" "If you write it, they will read it... and, eventually, advertisers will purchase ad space next to it."

So, seems to me, if we're silent, we're ignored.

Call me an optimist. I think slow, steady (and occasionally snarky) tapping on the door will make a difference. It costs me nothing (and is rather fun). And heck, maybe people will use Kim's womensbasketballonline.com's "Contacting the Media" tips to join in!

Until then, there's always the highly lucrative blogging gig. "Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better" indeed.