Over the years, we’ve had a little fun on this blog, with friendly bets with other employment law attorneys, over everything from a sports event to, well, a sports event.  The loser traditionally has to extol the virtues of the winning team on an employment law blog with some loose employment law tie-in.

Last week, Philip Miles — who writes the long-running Lawffice Space Blog –– issued a challenge to me to see who would win the UConn – Penn State women’s basketball game over the weekend.  Since his post is appearing here, you can guess the results. I’ll let Philip finish the story, though his employment law angle is a bit lacking:

One of the greatest sport clichés of all time is that “to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.”

My beloved Penn State Lady Lions basketball team has taken that statement to heart and challenged the UConn Huskies each of the past three years. Unfortunately, the Lady Lions dropped all three contests. In fact, none of them were even particularly close. I placed a friendly wager on the latest game with the proprietor of this blog. I now pay my debt: a tribute to UConn.

Make no mistake about it, UConn is the best. Are they ranked number one? Check (by unanimous vote). Are they the defending national champions? Check (including a blowout win over fellow 1-seed Notre Dame). Are they historically one of the greatest? Check (seven championships from 2000-present). Do they have a legendary coach? Check (Geno Auriemma is 841-133 as a head coach – although I think Pat Summitt contends for greatest ever).

I don’t have much more to say. To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. For now, the basketball world is a game of “King of the Hill” (perhaps “Queen of the Hill” would be more appropriate here) and everyone else is just scrambling for a shot at UConn . . . just to get knocked back down again. Baylor and Notre Dame had all kinds of hype last year, but they couldn’t get it done.

Rest assured, there are challengers out there right now preparing to take down the reigning champs, and they’re hungry. Does UConn have what it takes to stay on top again this year? Recent history suggests they do, but March Madness is a long way off.

Of course, to get the employment angle, Philip could’ve updated us all on the discrimination lawsuit that had been brought against UConn coach Auriemma — it was dismissed earlier this year.  But let’s face it, watching basketball is a lot more fun than keeping track of lawsuits.  

My thanks to Philip for the quick guest post. Even shorthanded, though, the UConn Huskies are still “simply the best”.