When I was in high school, I experienced the complete counter narrative to all this. For some reason of culture and tradition, in the state of Iowa in the late 20th century, girls high school basketball became incredibly publicly popular. The statewide girls high school basketball tournament was televised every year, night after night in prime time for a week or more.

The whole state would shut down (I'm exaggerating for effect, of course, but pretty close) for those games. By the time the semifinals and finals aired, it's all anybody was talking about.

The names of the star players were on the lips of practically every Iowan.

The quality of the basketball was pretty good from what I understand, although I wasn't really an objective judge of the matter.

The weird thing is that boys basketball also had a tournament, and it was also televised, but it didn't get anywhere near the attention or the celebration of the girls tournament.

Why the difference? No real reason, I guess, other than tradition and cultural accident. But clearly, girls basketball was very entertaining and there was no reason to say it wasn't. Clearly, sports fans had plenty of reasons to cheer their favorites on and enjoy the quality of the play.

I should know, I was there.