I can't watch women's basketball.

After reading Lawrence Fischer and Rob Riva's column in Wednesday's Collegian (It's only fair: support women's basketball), I need to respond.

My women's basketball counterparts spent the entire column explaining that the Penn State women's basketball team is really talented, and therefore, more people should come out to the Bryce Jordan Center to support the team.

That's not the way the sports world works. If that were the case, that the most talented teams draw the biggest crowds, then we'd all be tailgating outside the White Building on Saturday mornings to watch the fencing team beat the snot out of Princeton or North Carolina.

Remember three Falls ago? Our football team lost to USC, then Toledo, then later to Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Minnesota and Iowa. That football team was just plain bad.

But still, every weekend, the fans came in droves, clogging up traffic and making the line at The Deli ridiculously long.

Why? Because it's college football. It's big men, big hits and big plays.

I don't like women's basketball. Most of the country doesn't like women's basketball.

It's just not the same as the men's game. It's slower and less physical. It's set shots vs. jump shots, lay-ups vs. dunks, short vs. tall, slow vs. fast, boring vs. thrilling.

If people liked watching women's hoops, then the WNBA would be successful. As it is, the WNBA would have been out of business long ago if it didn't have the complete financial support of the NBA.

Kelly Mazzante is an unbelievable basketball player. One day, she'll graduate from Penn State and move on to the WNBA, where she'll make about $60,000 a year playing basketball in near-empty arenas. That is, if the league is still around. In six years of existence, the WNBA has yet to show a profit. Why? Because no one watches.

I was home over winter break, watching TV, flipping around, when I stumbled on the Lady Lions taking on then-No. 3 Louisiana State in a nationally televised game.

It was early in the second half, and the Lions were down by 15.

I turned the channel. I think Ron Popeil was selling a pasta-maker on an infomercial somewhere.

Women's college basketball has just one team that can win the national championship -- UConn.

Everyone else is just fooling themselves.

Big Ten men's basketball is competition at its best. So what if the Nittany Lions are now 5-10, 0-4 in conference play? So what if they're the worst team in the league? So what if two of their probable starters left the team?

This is a football school, and it always will be. Jerry Dunn will never land the best recruits, and the Nittany Lions will never be one of college basketball's premier teams. And yet the Lions show up every day and play hard against whichever team they're matched up against.

Tomorrow at 12:15 p.m. at the BJC, the Nittany Lions will take on No. 15 Illinois, by all accounts a much better team. But in the Big Ten, the home team has a very good shot at winning every time it steps on the court. I don't think the Lions will win a single game on the road this season. Just take a look at their 70-34 shellacking at the hands of Michigan State on Wednesday night. But at home, they'll always have a legitimate chance.

Sharif Chambliss will be swishing threes, Brandon Watkins will be driving to the hoop and popping pull-up jumpers, Dunn will be yelling at players and officials, walk-on Aaron Johnson will be banging down low and Jan Jagla will be ... well let's not talk about that.

The point is, don't go to the BJC and root for the Lady Lions just because they're good. That's called jumping on the bandwagon. Go if you enjoy watching women's hoops.

If you want to see real college basketball, go watch the men.