Lots of Canadian flavour in the Women's NCAA Final Four

When the ball goes up at the NCAA women’s Final Four familiar faces will jump.

But UCONN and Oregon State are far from longtime rivals. The familiarity comes from playing under their flags.

The Oregon State Beavers are one of three teams dancing on college’s biggest stage for the first time while a historically dominant University of Connecticut Huskies side, winners of the past three consecutive national titles, are searching for their 11th since 1995.

Kia Nurse for UCONN and Jamie Weisner and Ruth Hamblin for Oregon State have trained and played alongside one another for years as part of Canada Basketball’s developmental system.

“It’s so exciting to see the Canadian female athletes in the Final Four which is the highest level of play in the world for this stage of development,” Canada Basketball’s director of women’s high performance Denise Dignard told Yahoo.

“They know each other extremely well because they’ve all been training with the senior team as part of the squad for the past three years. Whether they come in for tryouts or training camp they know each other and there’s a lot of respect there.”

Oregon State guard Jamie Weisner was born and raised in the States, but the dual-citizen laces up her Nike’s for Canada where she pick and rolls with her collegiate teammate Ruth Hamblin from small-town Houston, B.C.

The two Beavers seniors trained with the Canadian women’s senior team last summer before helping lead the development team to a best-ever silver finish at the World University (FISU) Games.

Meanwhile, young gun Kia Nurse fresh off her first NCAA title played a significant role as starting point guard for the senior team that won gold at Pan Am and FIBA Americas setting up a promising Rio 2016 Olympic path.

Nurse sent a statement to her Huskies teammates Brianna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson, and Oregon State coach Scott Rueck who served as an assistant with the American side, scoring 33 in a 81-73 win for the Pan Am gold medal on home court in Toronto.

Much has been said and written about the wave of Canadian talent through the men’s college ranks but the women’s Final Four offers a showcase of an even more promising pipeline including fellow Oregon State guard Kolbie Orum and Syracuse freshman Julia Chandler. It bodes well for the quality of women’s development within the Canada system.

“These young players that we have on our radar that we’ve been incorporating into what we call the development of our Senior B team,” said Dignard. “We’ve got a nice mix of young and veterans with our senior team and that group is the core of our next quadrennial to Tokyo in 2020 and beyond even.”

Women’s basketball will get some rare recognition with the two semi-finals and final match picked up by TSN. Though programming for women’s sports only accounts for 4% of the total, high-level women’s basketball has an audience in Canada. In fact, in a recent study by the Dairy Farmers of Canada promoting women’s sports, the FIBA Americas Final was the only major sporting event where the female event drew a higher viewership than the male equivalent.

The Final Four games will be distinct from the men’s with more continuity and stronger programs than the because the top male talent is too incentivised by NBA millions to stick around.

Imagine Andrew Wiggins just finishing his junior year at Kansas rather than lighting up the NBA as one of only 20 players averaging 20+ points this season.

UCONN’s top talents from the past stayed all four years; Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, and now Brianna Stewart, who could become the first to win four titles and four Most Outstanding Player awards.

The Huskies have 120 wins in their last 121 games, all wins by double digits. Their previous games this tournament were blowouts by 52, 46, 50, and a comparatively close 21 to Texas in the Elite Eight. They’ve beat opponents by an average of 40.3 points this season, the second highest margin of victory in NCAA D-I history.

Meanwhile, Oregon State snuck past top-seeded Baylor by three points to win their bracket and reach the Final Four with a deep bench, efficient offence and tough defence centred on 6-6 “Canadian Hammer” Ruth Hamblin.

About that defence – the Beavers lead the nation in defensive rebounds (31.9), were 26-0 this season when leading at halftime, and lead the nation in field goal percentage defense at 31.7 percent.

To top the Huskies they’ll have to live up to that defensive reputation and have everything fall just right. Pac-12 player of the year Weisner will need another gem like her 38-point outburst in the Sweet Sixteen. Oregon State has been building their program and these seniors preparing for four years and now they have to beat the best to be the best.

All that time spent together makes for dynasties rather than drive-throughs, and it’s good for the game. Just watch.

WOMEN’S FINAL FOUR TV SCHEDULE
Apr 3 @ 6:00p.m. ET
NCAA Women's Basketball Semifinals: Oregon State vs. Connecticut (TSN 5)

Apr 3 @ 8:30p.m. ET
NCAA Women's Basketball Semifinals: Washington vs. Syracuse (TSN 5)

Apr 5  @ 8:30p.m. ET
NCAA Women’s Basketball: Championship (TSN 2)

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