Imbalance coverage

Kansas won this year's men's college basketball national championship, defeating Memphis in overtime Monday in San Antonio.

I watched the exciting contest with the TV sound off and listened to Westwood One's radio broadcast. Kevin Kugler did the play-by-play, and analysts John Thompson, who was the first Black coach to win a national title in the 1980s at Georgetown, and Bill Rafferty expertly played off each other. They analyzed instead of second guessing, as CBS' insufferable duo of Jim Nantz and Billy Packer often do.

The only down point was the always annoying Jim Gray, who smooches his interview subject with expert precision.

Now one champion is crown -- I can't wait to watch the second one.

Yes, Virginia, there is another championship game. Tennessee and Stanford play Tuesday for the women's national title in St. Petersburg, Florida.

It's a shame that the Women's Final Four doesn't get as much fanfare as the men's. But this is to expected.

Sports Illustrated, for example, will devote reams of pages to the men's field in its annual March Madness issue, but barely a half-page for the women. USA Today and others will devote Texas-size space for the tournament brackets and team breakdowns, while scant mention is given to the women teams.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a story on imbalanced coverage of men's and women's sports. Penn State University assistant professor Marie Hardin conducted a study for the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and concluded that most editors, which are majority male, have a jaded view of women's sports. Many don't see the value of covering them, the study said.

In a June 2007 study, Hardin again reported that most newspapers carry little coverage of women's sports.

Endless babbling was done over this year's Final Four teams. The title game was analyzed to senseless proportions. Meanwhile, on Tuesday's women match-up, barely a peep is said.

Unlike the men's, there is no Dick Vitale for the women.

Tonight's telecast on ESPN, which could do a lot better as the home for the women's title game, will have Mike Patrick and Doris Burke as announcers. They are far better than Nantz and Packer. I rather listen to them than Westwood One's radio duo of Beth Mowins and Debbie Antonelli -- these two are horrible announcers. They treat the audience like kindergarten students as they explain every piece of the action.

Unlike the men's, there is no Greg Gumbel as studio host for the women. He always is rock solid, but Clark Kellogg too often overstates the obvious. Meanwhile, Rece Davis is basically a suck-up while Stacey Dales has her moments, but Kara Lawson must get over herself.

Unlike the men's, there won't be the late Luther Vandross serenading the women's champs afterwards. And don't expect ESPN Radio and Sporting News Radio spend the remainder of the night and the next day, talking about it, as they do for the men.

Another second-class attention given. This is an annual disappointment that women's hoops fans, which I proudly count myself as part of this group, that we have come to expect.

No shining moment here.