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I know it's not feasible for a major reason-- men and women play in the same arena's at pretty much every level-- but I've always thought you lower the rims to 9 feet for the women's game. They use a smaller ball, supposedly because it makes ballhandling and shooting easier. But what are the strengths of the women's game already? Ballhandling and shooting. I highly doubt that, given the time to acclimate to the regular (mens) sized ball, women wouldn't be able to shoot and handle just as well. As a matter of fact a good friend of mine was a manager at Uconn, and one day we watched Diana Taurasi shooting around with a men's ball. She did fine, including hitting several from NBA 3-point range.
But if you could lower the rim, everything would improve. It would counter the two biggest disadvantages women have compared to men, height and leaping ability. You'd make the inside game easier, leading to more emphasis on pounding it inside (and better action if you ask me.) There would be more of an advantage to getting it down low.
And, yes, you'd have more dunking. I understand the arguments for not trying to make the women's game into the men's game. But the fact is that dunking would greatly increase the interest of the average fan. At 9 feet, many WNBA and top college players would be able to dunk, and some would be able to dunk in traffic. A fastbreak would be that much more exciting, and the first time a player crams on a player from a rival team in the tournament-- that would really get people interested.
I know it's not likely to ever happen, and it would take time for current players to adjust their shooting. And you would need many many more adjstable rims out there. But I've been thinking about it for years and I bet it would be great for the women's game.
