If you’re a fan of women’s athletics – not just women’s basketball, but women’s athletics in general – and you’ve never attended the NCAA Division I women’s Final Four, you owe it to yourself to do so. This is a special event – arguably THE most special event presented annually on the women’s sporting calendar. There is a buzz here – a sense of pride, a sense of celebration of the accomplishments of female athletes – that you’ll find nowhere else (we’re eliminating once-every-four-years events such as the Olympics and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, from this discussion). Perhaps the host cities are required to do so, but who cares? It is still stirring to walk the streets of Boston (’06), Cleveland (’07) or Tampa (this year) and see palatial arenas (the St. Pete Times Forum, in this case) decorated with half-a-block-long banners saluting the four best women’s college teams in the land. And let’s be honest about this: It doesn’t hurt when you step onto an airplane in gray, raw, see-your-breath-steaming-on-the-air weather and step off to palm trees and 85-degree sunshine.

The Final Four has sold out every year since 1993 – 16 consecutive seasons. That’s quite a feat – 16 consecutive seasons despite being largely ignored – except at tournament time – by electronic media not named ESPN. If Richmond feels like applauding itself for its role in the streak – well, it should. The women’s Final Four might still be languishing in relative obscurity, unfolding each year in arenas filled to 50 percent of capacity with family and friends, had not the early 1990s given us, in succession, three national championship games of undeniable significance. In 1993: Sheryl Swoopes’ one-woman show in Texas Tech’s 84-82 title-game victory over Ohio State and Katie Smoth was, quite simply, impossible to ignore. Swoopes, scoring in every way imaginable, finished with 47 points. Had she scored only 45, the Red Raiders might have lost. In 1994, in the Richmond Coliseum, high drama reigned. North Carolina’s Charlotte Smith delivered what is certainly the most famous – and most frequently replayed – shot in women’s basketball history: a 3-pointer from far out on the right wing, launched with :0.7 remaining, that lifted the Tar Heels to a 60-59 victory over Louisiana Tech. The game’s final five seconds atoned for the fact that the first 39:55 was, frankly, substandard. In 1995: The Connecticut phenomenon was born. Obviously, it lives still. The 1995 UConn team, featuring senior forward Rebecca Lobo, finished unbeaten (35-0) and captured its first national title with a 70-64 victory over Tennessee. The Huskies became the darlings of the northeast and, because of ESPN (located in Bristol, Conn.), became the first women’s basketball team to receive significant coast-to-coast exposure. For years, many believed the most glaring flaw in ESPN’s coverage of the women’s game was its tendency to regard 1995 as the sport’s birthdate. Worth thinking about: How might the landscape of the game be different had Virginia, playing on UConn’s home floor, hung onto a second-half lead and bounced the Huskies in the 1995 East Region championship game? Connecticut won 67-63.

Aren’t we making too much – maybe much too much – of the Geno-vs.-Pat squabble? Doesn’t it come down to this? They don’t particularly like one another and possibly are a bit envious of one another? Are these the first coaches who have ever behaved that way? Doubtful. Or were you not paying attention when Terry Holland and Dean Smith did battle in ACC men’s basketball in the 1980s?