On Ball Up Top this week, Chauny, Greer and Tyler posed a fascinating question: What is the next great rivalry in women’s college basketball?

There’s the UConn rivalries, which seem to exist in a tier of their own. Geno vs. Pat was built on the back of a plucky upstart coach with a lot to prove standing toe-to-toe with one of the matriarchs of the sport. Then there was the Philly-based hate of Geno vs. Muffet McGraw which carried the UConn-Notre Dame rivalry for nearly two decades. Dawn Staley vs. Geno, another one with Philadelphia roots, is the current iteration of the Huskies hated opposition.

Beneath that are several historical rivalries that wax and wane with the times. Oregon vs. Oregon State was the pre-eminent battle in the country when I was covering sports in Eugene for the local ABC affiliate. For five years, the two teams were routinely in the top 15 and fighting for pole position in the Pac-12 amid Final Four runs and national title dreams. Sadly, the conference’s utter ineptitude for TV scheduling and content strategy sucked some of the air out of what is still, pound for pound, one of the best rivalries in the game.

What made it great was that, beyond the teams being very good every year, there was some real deal enmity between the programs. Oregon head coach Kelly Graves and Oregon State head coach Scott Rueck didn’t like each other for a good long while throughout this rivalry, now-TCU head coach Mark Campbell was an assistant at both programs which added to the beef, and the backdrop of Oregon’s Nike-flair vs. Rueck’s more homey feel gave us two distinct identities to rally around.

In short, it was great for the game and an underrated part of the Ducks rise to prominence in the Sabrina Ionescu years.

While Arizona vs. Arizona State isn’t on that level, Becky Burke and Molly Miller both showed on Wednesday night that the foundations of a great rivalry are there. If the talent can catch the animosity, we may have a legitimately great classic brewing in Arizona.

Something like this from Burke can be easily read as sour grapes but, to me, it’s just wonderfully ethical hate.

“Yeah you beat us but WE are the show here, not you” is a great piece of cope after you lose in a tight matchup to your most-hated rival on the road.

On the other side, you’ve got Molly Miller doing this.

Cinema.

Stuff like this is why we’ve been so sharply of Texas head coach Vic Schaefer and Ole Miss head coach Yolette McPhee-McCuin as of late. We want you to embrace the challenge. We want you to cope by being shady to your enemy, not blame a shadow cabal for what ails you as a team.

While we’ve seen a variety of old coaches retire, taking their unique and outspoken personalities out of the game with them, we are begging for new showmen and women to step in and take the spotlight. From a media standpoint, I’ve always been of the mindset that coaches drive the game more than the players at this level. With the transfer portal opening up near unfettered movement every offseason, having great personalities at the top of major programs is precisely what the sport needs.

Moreover, coaches are allowed to complain from time to time. It doesn’t do anyone good, especially when it comes to discussion around the sport, for the folks with the biggest pulpits to keep things strictly by the book at all times. Sure, it may open you up to criticism but no one will accuse you of being boring.

And that’s what’s awesome about both Miller and Burke’s displays on Wednesday night in Tempe. There was no concern about cringe content or being dunked on by the internet. Miller wanted a chance to talk her shit in her own barn after topping her rival and re-announcing ASU’s presence on the Big 12 stage. Burke leads a program rooted in a basketball school with a proud tradition and recent deep Tournament runs so of course she’ll lean on the fact that her Cats might be the motion makers in the state.

Ultimately it doesn’t mean anything deeper than it has to be. It’s shit talk. Ethical hate. The type of stuff where you can banter, dunk and return fire without things going to a place where it gets a lot less fun. In short, after a week of discussing which rivalries are poised to become the next classic matchups in the sport, I’m suddenly rooting for the Territorial Cup to become one of prominence. After living through and covering a local rivalry at its absolute peak, I can tell you first hand that the sport is so much better for having it.