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Baylor women going for college hoops history tonight

spt-120403-griner

Mike Miller

Kentucky isn’t the only team that will have its place in history debated. The Baylor women are doing the same thing.

If the Bears beat Notre Dame in the women’s NCAA tournament on Tuesday night, they’ll go 40-0, the first team – men’s or women’s – to post such a record. That’s not just historic, it’s also kind of absurd. But hey, when you’ve got a player like the Brittney Griner, a 6-8 shot-blocking star who’s as dominant a force as the women’s game has ever seen, 40-0 is feasible.

“40-0 was never really the goal,” Griner said. “We have team goals each year and our goal was to win a national championship.

“If you lose, you can’t win a national championship. You’ve got to go 40-0 now.”

Notre Dame (35-3) won’t be a pushover though. Skylar Diggins’ team has beaten UConn three times, is in the title game for the second consecutive season and only lost by 13 when the teams played earlier this season. Griner led the way in that game with 32 points and 14 rebounds.

There have been six unbeaten teams in women’s basketball since the NCAA tournament began in 1982 (three more before that). Among them, four were 39-0: ’98 Tennessee and ’02, ’09 and ’10 UConn. Would the Bears be better than any of those teams?

Tough to say. I don’t think Baylor has the same amount of overall talent as those teams, but none of them has a player like Griner, either. We’ll see.

You also can follow me on Twitter @MikeMillerNBC.