INDIANAPOLIS - As Baylor was knocking the green out of Michigan State Tuesday night at the RCA Dome, it was hard to keep the mind from wandering way off the court to Candace Parker, Tennessee’s slam-dunk king.

Parker’s knee blew out early this season, or else the Lady Vols would surely have been in this women’s NCAA basketball final against Baylor. And then, perhaps, we would have been spared the one-sided spectacle of Cinderella knocking around a pumpkin for two excruciating hours.

Two Rockys, it turns out, are one Rocky too many.

Slide show   Women's Final Click to see pictures from the exciting final game.

You know all our grumbling these past few seasons about the duopoly of Tennessee and UConn, about the eight titles in 10 years for Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt? Well, we were wrong about that.

Women’s basketball is still too young, too immature, to live without its royalty. It needs the Lady Vols or the Huskies, one or the other, to hold down the fort.

Not both. But one. Definitely one.

Parity is a dangerous thing. When UConn is in a down cycle and Tennessee falls apart in the last minute of a semi, you get a flat final like this one. Baylor whupped Michigan State, 84-62, the second worst slaughter in the history of women’s finals. To put this in the perspective of ancient Greek city-states, the Spartans fought more like Athenians.

“Too bad it wasn’t a more exciting game,” said Joanne McCallie, the State coach. “They played great. We played average.”

She blamed the draining comeback effort against Tennessee, in a semifinal two nights earlier.

“Nobody could move,” McCallie said.

You know those rallies we’ve come to expect in NCAA games, from both the men and women? Never happened. Baylor, giving up plenty of pounds in the paint, was far too slick and strong under the boards. Whenever State had a notion, Sophia Young, a fluid low-post player, slid inside. Or Emily Niemann came off the bench to drop some three-point bombs.

By midway through the second half, the lead was zooming past 20 and the dome was eerily quiet. All you could hear was a chorus of mournful moans through the megaphones of the State cheerleaders. Played inside the cavernous dome, this contest had all the drama and buzz of a regional semifinal in Albuquerque.

And then soon enough, all too easily, Baylor was cutting down the net, celebrating the destruction of one underdog by another underdog. It made for a long, dreadful evening, and ratings that ESPN is sure to sweep under the nearest TV monitor.