COMMENTARY

When it comes to honors, Longhorns don’t treat women right

As soon as I learned Davis was a former Longhorn hoopster, I immediately asked her what she thought of Durant’s jersey being retired.

“I was kind of like, ‘Really? What’s the criteria for that?’ ” she said. “What do you have to do to be in consideration for that?”

Well, you don’t have to graduate or win much. And you obviously have to be a man.

“He may be the best player ever to go through here,” Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds told me Tuesday. “He won every award they had.”

And those awards were reward enough for a player who spent two semesters in college.

Texas has a men’s and women’s athletics department. The men’s department just announced that Durant, Vince Young and six or seven other men will join Texas’ good-old-boys network of retired jerseys.

Now, I’m going to be honest. I’m not a follower of women’s college basketball. I know Cheryl Miller, Lynette Woodard, Rebecca Lobo and the young women who played at Kansas State a few years ago.

I had to do homework on Clarissa Davis. Again, the research speaks for itself. Davis is the Danny Manning of women’s basketball at Texas. But she’s treated like she’s Angela Davis.

When Conradt retired after the 2006-07 season, Texas gave zero consideration to hiring Davis as Conradt’s successor.

“I wasn’t even given an interview to remain as an assistant coach,” Davis-Wrightsil explained.

Danny Manning could interview at Kansas to be an assistant football coach. Hell, Mangino might even let Danny call a few plays this season in out-of-conference games.

This is sexism. It’s why some women in the sports world seem angry all the time. Because stuff happens to them, and people like me never even take notice. They don’t rate for any outrage.

Texas is taking care of all its boys. Coach Rick Barnes has ushered two of his players’ jerseys into the rafters — Durant and T.J. Ford — without ever winning a national title. Durant stayed for one season, and Ford stuck around for two.

“We talked about that,” said Dodds, who told me that Durant is still pursuing his college degree. “But the great kids are not going to be playing more than one or two years (in college) … It sends a message that we take care of our people if they do the right things academically and are good citizens.”

It sends the message that you can shortcut your way to a “career” with one season, loads of professional potential and a prospective income of more than $20 million.

I guarantee you if Clarissa Davis had several multimillion-dollar contracts awaiting her, Texas would find a way to retire her jersey. Other schools will follow Texas’ lead because they will do everything they can to lure the one-and-dones to contribute money to the universities they were forced to attend for a few months.

When I asked Dodds specifically about Davis, he said that’s a question better answered by women’s athletic director Christine Plonsky, Dodds’ underling, but then he added that Plonsky has stated she doesn’t want to diminish the women’s Hall of Honor.

The reality is Dodds and the good old boys have diminished the women’s Hall of Honor and athletes such as Clarissa Davis with their serial jersey retirements.

Durant gets more respect for a few months of service than this woman gets for 20 years of giving. That ain’t right, and I had to speak on it.

To reach Jason Whitlock, call 816-234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.