basketball & books

the women's final four as my favorite books

If you follow me on instagram you know that my current hyperfixation is the women’s NCAA basketball tournament.

Listen, I might not be your traditional sporty spice, but nothing gets me fired up like seeing powerful women compete on the court. I’ve been watching women’s basketball for as long as I’ve been watching anything. I collected WNBA player cards in those little plastic sleeves in a special three-ring binder. For Christmas one year when I was ten or eleven my sister got me a Sports Illustrated cover signed by my hero, Diana Taurasi. I used to cut articles about her out of the sports page for my own special archive of greatness.

Watching women’s basketball (or for me, just basketball, since I don’t really watch any other kind) has deeply impacted my view of the world and my place in it. No, I didn’t grow up to be an accomplished player myself (lol), but I did have this constant, clear and present example of power, skill, persistence, and grit. And even when I didn’t have words for it, my love of women’s basketball has always been about queerness and gender expansiveness.

Breaking news: the WNBA is very, very gay.

One thing about me is I am going to find a way to intersect my special interests, so today I have prepared a somewhat niche offering for you….. the 2024 NCAA Women’s Final Four teams as my favorite books!

Some of these comparisons might seem a little out of left field (apologies for the baseball metaphor), but bear with me and I think you will see what I mean. Or at least you will see that I am extremely committed to the bit.

IOWA HAWKEYES

Up first is the team I picked to win it all, the Iowa Hawkeyes, lead by the one and only Caitlin Clark. They are not a Cinderella team by any means, but winning it all is not a given for this small team with a big star.

My first pick for Iowa is Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. On the surface this is because Kaveh Akbar lives in Iowa City and is a literal faculty member at the University of Iowa. Caitlin Clark and Kaveh Akbar strolling around the same campus?? Ahh to be amongst greatness. But this comparison goes deeper. Martyr! is a joyful novel to read, it never goes quite where you are expecting, and you can’t help but root for its hero. I would say the same for Iowa Women’s basketball team.

Next up is There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib. Now you might be thinking, “oh she picked this because it is a book about basketball,” and reader, you are correct. I had to use this book for one of our teams. Nobody writes hoops like Hanif. That said, I chose to pair it with Iowa because I do, in fact, think this is their year. What does it mean to place all your hopes and dreams in the hands of one incredible athlete? This is a question Hanif’s book asks and the question on the hearts and minds of every Iowa fan.

Finally, Dream Work by Mary Oliver. The GOAT (Mary Oliver) for the GOAT (Caitlin Clark). Dream Work, which contains the classic poem “Wild Geese” is the first collection Mary Oliver published after winning the Pulitzer Prize. If breaking the all-time scoring record is Caitlin Clark’s Pulitzer Prize, then a National Championship is her “Wild Geese.”

Work with me here, people.

UCONN HUSKIES

Next up, the University of Connecticut Huskies, a basketball dynasty and historical powerhouse that has faced adversity in recent years. I am a UCONN fan for life (Diana Taurasi is my hero!) and even I didn’t think they would make it to the final four.

First up we must pair this team with, in my opinion, one of the greatest writers to come out of New England (specifically Connecticut!) in recent years, Ocean Vuong. Ocean Vuong’s debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous was not supposed to be a bestseller. It is a deeply poetic novel that plays with form and structure and is loose and free where other novels are tight and buttoned up. UCONN was not supposed to be an elite team this year. They have been plagued by injury. Their bench is shallow. What do this electrifying debut novel and this once great, now struggling women’s college basketball team have in common? One, they are both from Connecticut. Two, they are both all heart.

Next, I paired the Huskies with Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino. Jia Tolentino, who writes with precision and piercing insight on everything from weddings to scammers to reality tv, is one of the smartest writers working today. Geno Auriemma, the legend head coach of UCONN, is one of the smartest coaches. Just like I don’t think any other writer can grapple with our culture the way Tolentino does, no other coach could have turned this particular UCONN group into a final four team. Also, UCONN’s star Paige Buecker’s simply has a lot of tricks up her sleeve. In a single essay, Tolentino can turn your perceptions and assumptions in on themselves. I would argue Bueckers does the same on the court.

Finally, I selected Family Meal by Bryan Washington, because more than any other team this year, UCONN feels like a family team. Nobody thought they would make it this far. They are playing for each other. Much like the community of chosen-family in Washington’s novel, the UCONN huskies have carried each other through great adversity and continue to celebrate and lift up the gifts they each bring to the table.

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS

South Carolina is without a doubt the team to beat this year. They are undefeated. They simply cannot lost. For this reason, my first pick for them is James by Percival Everett. If James does not win the Pulitzer this year I will be shocked. Percival Everett has been around the literary scene for decades and is the author of over thirty novels. South Carolina’s coach Dawn Staley has been a leader in women’s basketball on and off the court since she led the University of Virginia to the final four in 1990. You see what I mean? Two powerhouses.

Next pick for South Carolina is Long Division by Kiese Laymon. First because I know from instagram that Kiese is a fan of South Carolina and Dawn Staley, and they are his pick to win it all. Second, because Long Division is a playful novel that is a pleasure to read even as it holds you tight in its fist. This is how South Carolina plays basketball - with joy and ease and next thing you know they beat you by forty points. Look up the South Carolina team dancing the macarena on the court and you will see what I mean.

Final pick for South Carolina is The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. South Carolina has the deepest bench of any team this year. They do not have one, overwhelming star without whom they would almost certainly lose. The Swimmers is a brief, brilliant novel told partly in the “we” voice of a group of people who have something important in common. The Swimmers is a novel of unlikely community, and if South Carolina wins, it will be a communal victory.

NC STATE WOLFPACK

This is the team no one saw coming. The true Cinderella of the season. After upsetting Texas, NC State is headed to the final four for only the second time in their team’s history and the first in twenty-six years.

The wolfpack made a fool of my bracket so my first pick has to be You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi. This novel is more than what it seems and so is this team. May they make fools of us all!

It’s easy to underestimate a team playing with that “we’re just happy to be here” spirit. For this reason, my second pairing is The Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay. Yes, NC State is grateful to have made it this far, but they are more than that. Yes, Ross Gay’s poems are about gratitude and gardens, but they are more than that. True gratitude comes with reckoning with hardship, and a true underdog is more than just happy to still be playing.

Finally, I will pair this fierce underdog team with Come & Get It by Kiley Reid. Everybody is talking about undefeated South Carolina, or the record-breaking Caitlin Clark, or the smooth moves of Paige Bueckers, but if we’re not careful, NC State might come & get it right out from under our noses.

heh heh see what I did there?

Okay, wow, if you are still reading that is major commitment. Thank you for wading through my nonsense.

Women’s basketball is absolutely where it’s at, and I am so glad people seem to finally be figuring this out.

I just hope all the teams have fun.

Go sports!!

Whatever you do today, I hope there is some joy in it.

In my mind, you’re all winners.

Love,

Rosamond