Ask the average person who Dean Smith is and you would probably get a puzzled look.

Ask a knowledgeable sports fan and he will tell you that he is the former North Carolina men’s basketball coach who holds the Division I record for most career wins.

At least he used to.

On March 22Pat Summitt topped Smith’s record of 879 wins with a NCAA tournament second-round victory over Purdue.

Summitt is the coach of the Lady Volunteers from the University of Tennessee. And not only is Summitt coaching on the woman’s side of the sport, but Summitt is also a woman.

That’s right, not only was Smith’s untouchable record beaten, but it was beaten by a woman. Several sports agencies did report the impressive news and paid some attention to the event.

But most gave Summitt little more than lip service for what should be considered one of the most important wins in college sports history.

After the win, ESPN conducted an online poll asking which win record was more impressive, Smith’s or Summitt’s?

Not surprisingly, voters overwhelmingly agreed that Summitt’s 880 wins, which took her five less seasons than Smith, was no where near as extraordinary as Smith’s mark of 879.

Last time I checked, a win is a win.

And last time I checked, we are in the year 2005.

So why do things such as this make it seem like we are back in late 19th century?

Is it really that inconceivable that a woman just might be better than a man at something?

Did the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs teach us nothing?

Call me a progressive, but I thought the system of patriarchy died in the 80s with the Reagan administration.

Popular sports talk moron Jim Rome continued the Summitt bashing just the other day on his ESPN opinion show “Rome is Burning.”

Taking on the topic of Summitt’s record-breaking victory, Rome stayed true to his notorious dogma, assuring his loyal fan base that men are better than women at everything, especially in sports.

For those of you unfamiliar with Rome, he is known for three things: his sexism, his homophobia and his sexism.

As far as I’m concerned, the only reason they keep him on the air is because he stirs up controversy.

His daily verbal abuse of professional women’s sports, namely the WNBA, has become infamous and is his best attempt to discredit women’s athletics.

Rome’s negative depiction of the women’s game is first and foremost inaccurate. It does nothing but create false impressions in people’s heads, hurting the sports world as a whole.

In regards to women’s basketball and his discussion of Summitt’s wins being next to meaningless, like many other naysayers, he usually talks of the lack of competition in the women’s game and their inability to dunk and make the game exciting.

To that, I say strap ’em up big boy.

I’ll bet you get dominated in the low post by the Lady Vol’s Shyra Ely.

She is a 6’2″ All-American senior power forward.

I’ll level with you though. Women’s professional sports are few and far between. They are very obviously less popular than men’s games.

For instance, offer someone, myself included, the option of free tickets to go see the Denver Nuggets or the Colorado Chill, a non-WNBA professional women’s basketball team.

I’m sure you’d run out of Nuggets’ tickets long before you ever gave out a single Chill seat. Additionally, put the Chill up against the Nuggets in competition, and I’m sure you could predict the outcome.

However, the point here is this.

Although women’s sports are less popular and perhaps not quite as skilled, the gender gap is closing.

Women are getting bigger, faster and stronger because they are being offered access to sports at the same age boys are.

For those that still don’t believe me, how do you deal with the fact that women are moving in on the most holy of holy in men’s sports?

They have learned to dunk.

During the 2002 WNBA season, Lisa Leslie made history as she slammed down her first ball. And in 2004, a woman beat all the boys in the McDonald’s High School All-American Slam Dunk contest.

Again, examples such as these happen irregularly. But mark my words, women will continue to get better in and at athletics the longer they compete.

And as examples such as the momentous defeat of Smith’s record by Summitt prove, sooner or later, the gap will be closed entirely.