We all know men who love basketball.

We all know men who love women.

Yet for some reason, when we put the two together, a lot of men become terribly angry.

That anger was sometimes palpable this past week when the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team won its 89th consecutive game, eclipsing John Wooden’s great UCLA dynasty for the longest winning streak in Division I basketball.

Rather that recognize the streak, many of my compadres, from fellow journalists and talk show hosts to middle-aged ex-jocks playing pick-up at the ‘Y’ and boys lacing them up for 8th grade practice, denounced not only the achievement, but women’s college basketball as a whole.

UConn’s streak doesn’t measure up to UCLA’s, many believe, because UConn doesn’t face the same quality of competition, and the quality of the basketball in general isn’t comparable to the men’s game.

It is silly to argue men’s and women’s basketball are the same games. One is played above the rim at the collegiate and pro levels. One is played below the rim. One appeals to the masses with strength and athleticism as its main selling points. The other sells ball movement and execution.

With the SportsCenter-ization of our sports culture in the last 25 years, where windmill and 360 jams take precedence over everything, it’s a wonder women even get a minute of highlights anywhere on the tube.

Ironically, it was ESPN’s coverage of the streak that was the subject of a lot of the grousing I heard. Guys felt like the streak was being shoved down their throats by the World Wide Leader.

Normally, I would be the first to agree with that complaint. As one who is always suspicious of ESPN’s agenda, I would point out that the network not only broadcasts the most college women’s basketball games of any network, but also carries the WNBA, which many sports fans view as the ultimate “How can we miss you if you won’t go away” league.

Not that those weren’t part of the network’s motivation, but here was a case of ESPN recognizing what too few of the male-dominated sports world could not — that this was a major achievement, one that raised the level and profile of women’s basketball and one where many of the comparisons between UConn and UCLA were more appropriate than disproportionate, even if the games are different.

The inability or unwillingness to recognize that winning 89 in a row of anything is remarkable, especially in a sport that is the most competitive team sport involving half of the population, either arises from stupidity or sexism. Perhaps both.

I’m always hesitant to theorize or even acknowledge that something is sexist because a) I’m a male and b) the gender card gets played way too haphazardly these days (for example, girls are far more likely to attend college than boys, yet all we hear or see on the news still is how girls are getting short shrift in the classroom).

But I’m convinced there’s something about women in basketball that brings out the misogyny, as if some of us men are trying desperately to hold onto some boys’ club like we’re Hootie Johnson at Augusta.

Earlier this week, I covered a fantastic basketball game in Livermore Falls between Dirigo and the hometown Andies. It wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing basketball, but it was a fascinating game between two teams with some bad blood going back to last season that also featured countless adjustments and counter-adjustments.

On the Livermore Falls sideline was Travis Magnusson, one of the best young coaches in the state. Magnusson has made the extremely difficult transition from Mr. Basketball-level player to top-flight coach, and, in the process, has taken the Livermore Falls program from also-ran to Western C contender.

On the Dirigo sideline was Rebecca Fletcher, like Magnusson a standout player in a previous life, and like Magnusson, someone with a gift for imparting her knowledge of and passion for the game to young people. This is her first season in her first varsity head coaching job at any level.

Fletcher was born to coach. She recognized this fact at an early age. So early, in fact, that she couldn’t wait for her college playing career at the University of Maine at Farmington to end and stepped off the court after three years there to join her old coach at Dirigo, Gavin Kane.

She paid her dues for a decade, serving as Kane’s assistant, often accompanying him to scout or taking scouting assignments on her own, for seven years while also coaching Dirigo’s junior varsity girls. She remained an invaluable member of Kane’s staff while he was coaching both the boys and girls and then when he only skippered the Thomas Knight-led boys’ teams. She stayed on when Kane left to become Cindy Blodgett’s assistant at the University of Maine and helped coach the boys through the summer program.

Dave Gerrish came over from Mountain Valley to take over the program and led the Cougars to their second straight regional title. When he had to resign to take a job in Skowhegan, Fletcher, still in withdrawal from her year away from coaching, applied for the job.

Dirigo’s administration, particularly Athletic Director Charlie Swan and superintendent Tom Ward, decided to take a chance and hire Fletcher. They knew the risk wasn’t based on Fletcher’s coaching acumen or her ability to lead boys. The risk was in how the hiring would be received in a traditional and basketball-crazy community.

Few school districts in Maine love their basketball more than MSAD 21. Everyone in Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru had an opinion on the hiring, and most of those opinions were in the pro-Fletcher column. But some were not.

Were these objections based on Fletcher’s resume? Hardly. Were she male, everyone would have looked at her tutelage under the legendary Kane, her love for the sport and coaching, her work ethic, and her success in coaching and developing both Dirigo’s girls and boys into winning players and young persons and welcomed her back with open arms. Dirigo would have had a hard time finding a more qualified candidate had it scoured the entire state, let alone already leading one of its own science classrooms.

The objections, most of which came directly or thinly veiled from adults, raised questions about Fletcher’s ability to lead boys on the court. The belief was that boys couldn’t respect or wouldn’t feel comfortable being coached by a woman in the rough-and-tumble Mountain Valley Conference.

It doesn’t get much more rough-and-tumble than the recent meeting in Livermore Falls. It was the first game between the teams since last year’s Western C final, and last Wednesday night, the Cougars were in the most hostile gym they will play in this season.

The Cougars jumped out to a quick lead, withstood a third quarter surge by the Andies, then made some critical adjustments, such as switching to a zone defense in the fourth quarter to combat Livermore’s guard penetration, to pull out a 43-41 season.

With the win, Dirigo headed into the holiday weekend 5-0. The Cougars’ schedule hasn’t been terribly difficult so far, but Fletcher has a young team with just two seniors. The starting lineup is completely new, and only two of the starters saw significant playing time last season. Speaking of which, the Cougars beat the Andies with one of those starters, point guard Caleb Turner, on the bench because of the flu.

The Livermore Falls game is the Cougars’ signature win of the young season. They are a talented squad, but also raw and, at least for now, a far cry from the teams that played in the last four Western C championship games.

A win such as last Wednesday’s is a tribute to the foundation formed by Kane, Gerrish, and yes, Fletcher and her fellow past assistants, and her current assistants, father Kip Fletcher and Greg Gagne. Like their predecessors, male and female, the Cougars are well-schooled, cool under pressure and attentive to their coach.

It is also a tribute to Fletcher, whose team showed as much toughness that night as any team coached by a macho Bobby Knight wannabe.

With more success, Fletcher will draw more attention, and some will label her a pioneer. If she had her way, we’d all forget her gender, keep the coach in the background and focus on her team.

Sounds good to me, but too many of my fellow knuckle-draggers keep dragging gender into the picture.