Dawn Plitzuweit's Gophers goals: Entertain as well as win, with Mara Braun leading the way

Dawn Plitzuweit, the new Gophers women's basketball coach, has a full schedule these days.

She has been waking at about 3 a.m., to watch her most celebrated player, incoming sophomore Mara Braun, compete in a three-on-three tournament in China.

She corresponds with Braun, then heads to campus to finalize the plan for the morning practice. Then there is practice, then meetings, recruiting, administrative duties, and, oh, yes, getting rid of all of the boxes accumulating at her family's new home a short drive from campus.

Plitzuweit has been coaching since 1995. She got her first head coaching job in 2002. She has observed and experienced the growth of women's basketball and women's sports in general. Often, conversations about that growth revolve around public perception and the role of the media.

"Put the games on TV and people will watch.''

Which is true.

"Women's sports thrive despite receiving a microscopic percentage of media coverage."

Which is also true.

"Women's sports are growing exponentially after starting as an afterthought — which is exactly the way Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA slowly established themselves.''

Which also is also true.

It's also more complex than that. When Plitzuweit was asked earlier this week why she thinks her sport has grown, she offered an unusual response that rang true.

"I think the level of play has continued to grow and it's been really fun to watch,'' Plitzuweit said. "I think the WNBA has continued to expand in terms of not necessarily the number of teams but the exposure that's out there.

"All women's sports are continuing to grow their exposure, and I think that certainly women's basketball benefits from that as well. But there's a level of play — hey, we have some really fun players. You don't have to get up at 3 a.m. like me to watch these three-on-three games, but they are exciting.

"They're so fast-paced, and that's what I think is really fun, that there are opportunities to watch. The level of play is really high.''

Marketing and media attention matter, but only if the product delivers. Nobody attends or turns on a sporting event to be bored, and few watch to make a political or societal point.

The players have to be compelling.

Plitzuweit wants her team to entertain. She also knows that to be considered entertaining, you have to win — and to win, you have to defend and rebound.

Modern women's basketball is relentlessly compelling.

Gophers women's basketball became remarkably popular when Lindsay Whalen started playing like a superstar. The Lynx became popular when they drafted Maya Moore. Paige Bueckers is popular because she has been a great player since she was a child. The Iowa women are peaking in popularity because Caitlin Clark is a superstar on an entertaining and intense team.

It's basketball the way you dream of it — remarkable shotmakers testing degrees of difficulty against intense defenders.

Even routine regular-season WNBA games can be spectacular. On Tuesday night, the 4-9 Lynx faced the 4-9 Storm in front of a cozy crowd at Target Center, and the level of play made the game worth watching, as Napheesa Collier played like a star and rookie Diamond Miller played like the team's next star.

Plitzuweit is right about women's three-on-three games, as well. I was in Tokyo when Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young won a gold medal for the USA. Plum in particular seemed to grow exponentially during that tournament. Two years later, they were key players on a WNBA championship team in Las Vegas.

Braun's team won the 2023 FIBA 3X3 U21 Nations League Asia-Pacific Conference championship, earning a berth into the U23 Nations League Final in Mongolia in September. No one would be surprised to see Braun make similar progress as a sophomore under Plitzuweit, and become the next women's basketball player in Minnesota you just have to watch.