in the field: andrew haubner of no cap space wbb
No Cap Space is addressing the "lack of imagination" when it comes to covering women's basketball.
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For the latest installment of In the Field, I chatted with
, the editor-in-chief of . The team at No Cap Space, which includes Chaunte’l Powell () , , , and , began publishing together a little over a year ago and they have quickly become my go-to source for all things women’s basketball. The genesis for No Cap Space was “a lack of imagination in covering the game,” says Andrew.“There didn't seem to be a middle ground,” he explains. “Either it was national level coverage that focused on all the wrong things (catering to the lowest common denominator viewer as TV tends to do) or it was hyperlocal to the point where you really had to be 'in the know' to understand the coverage.”
No Cap Space is a perfect blend of the two—providing plenty of in-depth analysis for people who follow the sport closely, while still being accessible to those who are still learning the game. Their coverage places an emphasis on storytelling and amplifying voices that are otherwise marginalized or ignored by wider media (personally, I’m a huge fan of Chauney’s “ethical hating,” which is a term I would like to steal for myself tbh!)
Andrew has been a broadcaster for almost a decade and still works a day job in TV journalism for CBS News in Denver, where he is based. “Writing for and running No Cap Space has been my favorite media endeavor,” he says. “Bar none.” He is also always willing to chat with me about some of my stickier basketball questions, and is generous with his time and knowledge in a way not many journalists are.
The team at No Cap Space has been generous enough to donate a year’s paid subscription to their newsletter to the winner of our Out of Your League March Madness bracket pool, so I thought I’d ask Andrew some questions about NCAA WBB after the first weekend of the tournament.
You can follow Andrew on Bluesky or subscribe to .
Out of Your League: You cover all levels of women’s basketball. There’s obviously been a huge boost in the audience for both the WNBA and NCAA WBB over the last few years. Is that impacting other corners of the WBB world as well, and if so, how?
Andrew Haubner: We're definitely seeing a spike globally in terms of women's basketball. The performance of the French national team was a signal to the world that if you build the infrastructure, you can compete with a Team USA juggernaut that's owned international competition for the better part of 30 years. Obviously, the sports' heart exists within the United States as it does for the men's game. But there are certain countries that are starting to build out their training programs, domestic leagues and national teams to try and compete at the highest level. There's always been a healthy women's hoops ecosystem in Europe and Australia but lately it feels like there's a lot more pride emanating from those places in terms of their stars.
I think, from a capitalistic viewpoint, a lot of wealthier investors see exponential growth in the sport during a time where many other industries are either seeing diminishing returns or incremental ROI. Because of that, the worldwide investment in women's basketball is growing in ways that we sometimes aren't fully prepared to keep pace with. Beyond the international stars, you're also seeing Nike leverage their international brands to position their stars globally. Sabrina Ionescu just wrapped up a tour in Asia, where it appeared she picked up the torch from Kobe Bryant as the shoe brand's continental superstar.
And Caitlin Clark...well, she's Caitlin Clark. Whatever outsized importance has been placed on her from folks who aren't watching the growth of the game closely enough, there is no denial she has a cultural significance that is unlike anything we've seen since Candace Parker or Lisa Leslie. If anything, she's an evolution and elevation of the groundwork set by those two transcendent superstars. So all over the place you're seeing the game build and grow, which bodes well for NCAA WBB and the WNBA in the long term.
OOYL: What’s been your favorite storyline of this NCAA WBB season?
AH: This is a great question. My ADHD brain is going to split this into two because it's mid-afternoon here in Colorado and the Adderall is starting to wear off. [Ed. note: relatable.] My favorite storyline across the entirety of this season has been Norfolk State, who has just capped off one of the greatest regular seasons of all time for a Historically Black College or University. Stats and schedules have to be taken into account but, by my counting, they are the first HBCU to ever finish with 30 wins in a season. It's been about a decade since an HBCU earned an NCAA Tournament seed higher than 14 and this year, NSU was placed 13th and faced off a Maryland Terrapins squad that was a legitimately winnable matchup.
Beyond the story on the court, I love the divergent paths of their two biggest stars. Diamond Johnson was a nationally recognized point guard who transferred away from NC State, fresh off a deep tournament run, to come to an HBCU when she had plenty of high-majors knocking on her door. Conversely, Kierra 'MeMe' Wheeler, was a junior college star that came into a Spartan program looking to make a name for themselves in the MEAC.
Their story opens up a fascinating discussion about the mobility for coaches and players at schools like this. For years and decades, coaching at an HBCU meant you were likely to be passed over for high-major jobs at predominately white institutions (PWI's) and you were in it for the long haul. Beyond that, there was a noble purpose; you were there to be a mentor in a way that went beyond basketball. Now, that's changing as HBCU's are becoming something of a springboard. Good for the coaches but a bit more of a complex component for what HBCU's represent beyond sports. For his part, Larry Vickers told me earlier in the year he's at Norfolk for good. He's an alum, former Spartan men's basketball player, a dyed-in-the-wool Hampton Roads man. In any case, I was rooting for an upset over the Terps and for Johnson and Wheeler to get their just due on a big stage.
The best story of the current NCAA WBB moment is Oregon State. The Beavers made it to the Elite Eight last year in storybook fashion, with their stars eschewing the transfer portal after a bad 2023 season to become America's Team. Then, as the Pac-12 was dissolved by the forces of collegiate capitalism, all their players understandably made their own choices about what was best for them. Within a month of that Tournament run last year, Oregon State lost 75 percent of its' roster. The only starter to remain was AJ Marotte, who was surrounded by some role players that hung in and an army of transfers that simply weren't as good as the people they were replacing. Over the course of this season, the Beavs were just kind of okay. Then, in the West Coast Conference Tournament, they went on a magical run to secure the WCC's autobid and return to March Madness.
[They obviously didn’t] upset North Carolina, the No. 3 seed in their bracket, but their inclusion at all is remarkable. This is a program that was dead to rights not two months ago but, in spite of every odd possible, is dancing again. Plus 1 for collective action in the face of vulture capitalism. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
OOYL: What do you think is the most exciting thing about the college women’s game right now? What are the aspects of it that you think should be driving in new viewers?
AH: The most exciting thing, to me, is that the sport's bottom end is starting to catch up to its top end. To me, the best players of every era could play with anyone. But the reasonable critique of women's basketball over the years is that the talent pool just isn't as deep as we'd like to think it is. The small size of the WNBA and the 144 roster spots sometimes obfuscate that fact but, generally, there's been a bit of a chasm between the top 15 players in the WNBA and the other 129. Lately, we're starting to see that change.
Oddly enough, the biggest advantage girls basketball has at the youth levels is that the biggest stars still play in public or private high schools. The predatory ecosystem of "basketball academies" hasn't destroyed the prep landscape the way it has in the boys game, at least not yet. Because of that, we are seeing the top players intermixed with everyone playing instead of sequestering them away in remote locations or with traveling AAU teams. That allows for them to be leaders, teachers and models for little girls watching prep games, their own teammates and others in the school. It builds the mythology of "I watched them play in high school!" that carries to college games and then to the pros.
Because of the robust youth systems that keep stars within their communities, we're seeing a more vibrant array of talented players come up behind these stars. Not everyone will be a JuJu Watkins but there's a lot of players that can be a Division I contributor. To me, that grassroots growth is what we should be pushing viewers towards. The connectivity that we still have with women's basketball players is becoming a rarity within sports. Men's athletes, from an early age, are being whisked away from their communities, drawing a line between them and their fans and turning them almost into something like musicians or actors. Fandom has been replaced by standom because the evaporating points of contact force people to become increasingly parasocial.
As the sport continues to develop its' depth, it also maintains connective tissue to the communities that they came from and that, to me, is the biggest advantage we should be hammering home. You may not be able to see the next great NBA superstar in your local high school league, but you very well could see the next WNBA superstar there.
OOYL: We’ve seen NIL come into play and now there are ongoing legal cases that are attempting to ensure that college athletes are paid. How do you see these changes impacting the on-the-court product?
AH: The biggest concern I have, especially with this current administration, is how at-risk Title IX is. I don't think that they'll just wholesale bag it and take away women's sports. But attacking the margins is a very clear strategy of theirs and I wonder how it will affect revenue shares for women's sports and women's basketball specifically. If you think back to the original fight for Title IX in the late 1960's and early 1970's, the biggest opponents were college football coaches who felt that it would eat into their budgets. In 1982, when the AIAW (the governing body for collegiate women's sports at the time) and NCAA were locked in a fight over who would control women's athletics, legendary Arkansas football coach Frank Broyles was in favor of women governing themselves. But it wasn't out of altruism. He just pragmatically believed that it would allow them to be on an island and the men's sports could continue to operate as is. So it wouldn't surprise me if we end up hearing some of these talking points again, especially as women's basketball players start to assert their value in the transfer portal and on the NIL market.
The big story in WBB recruiting circles right now revolves around Aaliyah Chavez, the No. 1 overall player in the class of 2025. Allegedly, her team is asking for an NIL package of $1.5 million for one year. While they've denied that report, I can tell you based on what I've heard in that space there is a pretty high dollar figure being shopped around to schools vying for her services. In that respect, it's clear that there is a legitimate market for women's basketball players to be paid and paid a lot. But, in a world increasingly hostile to women's sports, I'm wondering if or when the pendulum swings and we get bad faith talking points of "why should they be paid like that?"
As far as impacts to the on-court product in general, it feels like run-of-the-mill capitalism. The rich programs will get richer because they'll be able to offer NIL packages on top of revenue sharing payments. In some cases, the money allocated towards NIL can be targeted towards individual players in the portal because now you have rev-share that allows you to take care of some of your bench players without having to expend any of that budget. Collectives will obviously close up shop but just because the payments are coming above board doesn't mean that teams won't do what they have to do to get the best players on their team. There's a legitimate worry that it could bankrupt some of these mid-major programs but I'm of the mindset that it won't fundamentally alter a lot about the landscape. The inequity already exists in regards to player payments.
OOYL: I’m ready for coaches like Kim Mulkey and Geno Auriemma to retire and let the next generation take over and move their programs forward. What say you? And which of the two do you think will retire first?
AH: I think Geno and Kim still have a bit left in the tank and I'd like to see another coach arise alongside Dawn Staley before I'm okay letting them ride off into the sunset. While fandom is increasingly player-driven, particularly in basketball, the reality in the college ranks is that the coaches are the ones that have the staying power. They're the people there every single year, they typically have a larger than life presence and represent their program as well as themselves. Just look at men's college hoops. Among the litany of issues with the game is that the only coach I recognize as a personality is Rick Pitino, who is 72 years old. The juice just isn't the same.
There are some contenders who can carry the torch. Kim Caldwell at Tennessee plays a fun brand of basketball and can give you a fun presser soundbite here and there. But she's brand new to Knoxville and needs to build some bonafides and build a rivalry with South Carolina. Yolette McPhee-McCuin at Ole Miss seems to really want to be in that Dawn Staley tier of coach-as-program-identity but she probably needs to go deeper into the tournament before we can start affixing that label to her1.
It's a little trickier when it comes to male coaches. Geno has always gotten slack for being kind of an ass in a women's space and I don't know if guys like Jeff Walz or Kelly Graves -- who share his, shall we say, occasionally combative energy -- can find support without 11 titles to fall back on. Mark Campbell is a winner, and has proven so at every level, but is a pretty by-the-books guy and strategic with the media. Plus, you know, the whole he-has-Sedona-Prince-on-his-team thing.
Ultimately, coaches are asked to be something different in today's world and if the both of them hang it up soon, I think there will be a lot of coaches so in awe of the incredible work Dawn Staley's done that they'll just kind of let her be the Queen of the game. Fine by South Carolina fans, I'm sure. But I like a little spice and rivalry. So until we get heirs apparent, I'm okay with those two sticking around. What's wild: I don't know who retires first. Geno wants to pad that all-time wins record and Kim is just a competitor to her very core. They still have the energy and are adapting to the new world so it may be another 3, 4 or 5 years until one of them hangs it up2.
OOYL: BONUS: What are you most looking forward to about the upcoming WNBA season?
AH: I'm really interested in one on-court and one off-court storyline.
On the court, I'm really interested in this new look Indiana Fever. I know interest in Caitlin Clark might be an eye-roller to some but, at the end of the day, she ended up almost as advertised when you look at her back half of her rookie year. For the first time since maybe high school, she's had a full offseason to rest, recuperate, get in the gym and get physically right for the W. On top of that, her team got a new coach, added some major pieces at key positions, shedded a player that I would argue was a bit more trouble than she was worth and seem to be much more cohesive going into this season.
What does that look like for the player pre-ordained to be one of the greatest to ever step on a WNBA court? We clearly saw the flashes of the player that she was billed aS last year. What will she be in year two? The thing with Clark is that two things can be true: the hype brought with it a lot of bad faith arguments that the game might as well have not existed before she showed up. But at the same time, she...kinda lived up to the hype. But what the stans need to understand is that if you're gonna take those mid-to-end of season numbers and start GOAT talks early, you will be graded on the GOAT scale. Go out and make a deep playoff run and scare the hell out of the Liberty. Ball's up top now.
Off the court, I'm fascinated by how this labor discussion plays out as the union tries to iron out a new collective bargaining agreement with the WNBA. There has never been more leverage for the players than right now, in this very moment. But before we even get to the table, we're getting conflicting messages from top players. Angel Reese joked on her podcast with DiJonai Carrington that the players are prepared for a lockout.
Not even 24 hours later, A'ja Wilson, one of the faces of the league, basically spiked the idea before it even could gain traction. I understand this is one band with 144 different sounds but if the Players Association doesn't get everyone singular messaging, this could get really ugly really fast. The fact that Wilson, who typically has some very upright stances when it comes to collective action and social justice, turned antilabor for a hot second is alarming. You can't be one of the biggest names in the WNBA and already signal that you aren't trying to expend every option to make sure every player gets theirs. It quietly gives "I got mine, so I don't need to worry", which is typically an issue when it comes to labor negotiations of any type.
How the PA reins in that behavior or opinion will be key especially with so much money potentially on the table. To be clear, I'm a pro-union guy who has covered this sport for a long time. If there was ever a time to truly stand on business, it's now. And considering this class of rookies are being paid on a far-below-market-value scale, I'd be surprised if they didn't lead the labor charge. I just hope they don't end up clashing with more established stars who are comfortable forgoing salary increases for individual concessions that benefit smaller groups instead of the whole.
I’d also say that her hiring of Quentin Hillsman after he resigned from Syracuse amid abuse allegations was not a great move, either.
An interesting note: after chatting with Andrew, Seimone Augustus, who is Mulkey’s assistant coach at LSU, hinted at the fact that she could be training to be Mulkey’s replacement when she eventually steps down. I’d love that for her and for LSU, tbh!
This was great! Subscribing to No Cap Space too. Thanks!