The big game is tonight! Before the NCAA’s D1 Women’s Basketball March to the Arch, I spoke with Cathy Inglese, former head coach at Boston College whose teams made it to the tournament six of the last eight years (plus were Big East Champions in 2004). She has spent this year visiting the nation’s top programs, watching games and practices — and getting a veteran’s courtside view of women’s D1 basketball.

FGN: What makes women’s basketball today special?
CI: What makes the women’s game so exciting to watch is the teamwork both offensively and defensively. The play is very team-oriented and this year the players are stronger, more skilled, and more athletic than ever before. For example, you’ve got players like Courtney Paris who are consistently recording double-double games – that’s double digit points and double-digit rebounds.

FGN: How does such a team-oriented game translate into to how this tournament has progressed?
CI: The most interesting thing about this year’s bracket was its parity. Besides UConn, who I think play on a level above that of the other teams, on any given night any of the top 50 teams could beat each other. What it came down to was the matchups, how each team’s particular dynamics played out against their opponent’s. It’s not always the best talent that determines the win.

FGN: What should we expect to see from University of Connecticut?
CI: UConn portrays a real team dynamic; they practice hard and really play together and mesh together as a team.

FGN: Which players should we be watching in tonight’s game?
CI: Maya Moore from UConn, for one. She is an energetic player who works hard all the time. You’ll notice in tonight’s game how unselfish she is. She’s extremely athletic, but she also meshes well with her teammates. Maya’s teammate Renee Montgomery is great point guard for the team and a big scorer. She distributes the ball very well, getting the ball to the player that’s open. She makes those people around her better. Look for Angel McCoughtry and Candyce Bingham tonight as well, playing for Louisville.

FGN: Thanks so much for your insight, Coach Inglese. So, do you plan to get back into college coaching?
CI: Absolutely. I love what I’ve been able to do during this year as far as visiting other teams and meeting coaches around the country, but being part of a team is what I’m really missing right now. I’m chomping at the bit to get back into coaching.

Savanna Johnson is a Wellesley College senior and swimmer who is a three-time NCAA qualifier and two-time NCAA Academic All-American. She holds NEWMAC conference and meet records in the 50 yard freestyle. Johnson (who also runs track) holds Wellesley College records in seven swimming and three track events.

Here’s an experiment you can do at home: Google “March Madness” and see how many entries actually mention a women’s championship. Just about any place you click, March Madness is talking about one playoff – and it’s all about the guys.

Even the NCAA site takes some navigating to get to the women’s play, while the men’s pops right up. The difficulty is only compounded if you actually want to watch the women’s games. The NCAA site offers a “Podcast Central” and “Post Game Central” for the men while the women’s side offers a PDF of printed remarks from a March 16 press conference. Come on, guys, is this for real?

Let’s hope the CBS College Sports All-Access (the video tab on the NCAA site) adds some of the D1 women’s programming to its schedule in the next few days.

The crux of the problem, of course, is that all of those office pools, online-bracket contests – and all the water-cooler yammering, friendly texting, and TV-watching – is all about the men’s contest because (SUPRPRISE!) most folks bet on the men’s games.

It’s time to change that.

Start your own office/workplace contest for the women’s 2009 “March to the Arch.” You can do it online or score it by hand. Download the bracket here, get your friends to fill it out and get it to you before play begins on Saturday. There are several ways to score, but one approach:

The winner will be selected based on a system of points awarded during each around for correct picks: Participants will be awarded one point for each victory correctly predicted in the first round, two points for each victory correctly predicted in the second round, three points for each victory correctly predicted in the third round, four points for each victory correctly predicted in the fourth round, five points for each victory correctly predicted in the fifth round and 10 points for correctly selecting the national champion. The winner of the contest will be the person with the most points.

Print out that bracket, pass it out, and start talking about the women’s games and post your comments here. This is not just about sports. It’s about women’s power and status. This is a political act!