Plenty of people wanted to make Skylar Diggins the face of women's basketball. Diggins is the beautiful one, the one who made Lil' Wayne and Chris Brown fawn after her on Twitter, the one who captures the hearts of marketers who see Danica Patrick "crossover" potential in her every move.

When Diggins powered Notre Dame to the national championship game last April, she received more attention than anyone on the team that actually won the championship (Texas A&M). She became a bigger name than the best player in college basketball too — getting the back-of-the-magazine long-form feature in Sports Illustrated, the Pardon the Interruption banter, the glamour invites.

As for the best player in college basketball . . . she just went back to work.

"Brittney Griner comes to work every day," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey is saying in Denver with the confetti already having fallen from the ceiling and 40-0 in the record books. "A lot of great players think they're all that.

"That child comes to work every day."

The final task in Griner's work brings her and Diggins, the player you still get the idea many would prefer to be the face of women's basketball, onto the same court. And it's no contest. Not just in dominance and impact on the game. But in drive too.

It's obvious that no one wants to win this game — the biggest game of all in women's basketball (let's face it a NCAA title tilt in the women's game draws way more attention any WNBA Finals) — as badly as Brittney Griner does.

When it's over, when Baylor's 80-61 bullying of a much more fragile, flashy Notre Dame team is complete, Griner sprints off to borrow a marker from someone and cross off the "Unfinished" one of those "Unfinished Business" posters that drove the Bears ever since they lost to Texas A&M one step from the Final Four last season.

With Condoleezza Rice, Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III and country music star Trace Adkins in the stands (though Adkins would tweet about how Southwest almost caused him to miss everything) at the Pepsi Center, Griner's win is one for women's basketball and sports in general. For it validates substance over style, shows that what you can do with that basketball should trump any photo shoot.

But it's a win for Houston too.

Griner is a product of H-Town and the former Nimitz High School star showed many of the traits that tend to define this city in her run to the top.

Houstonians keep working through disappointments. They find a way to get things done. And they don't fall as easily for flash as cities like Dallas and LA. That's Griner. Sure, she can dunk. But mostly, she'll just sap your will, minute by minute, possession by possession.

That's what happens to Diggins and Notre Dame.

The Irish hang around for a half, pull within 42-39 early in the second. Then Griner exerts her will. She hits eight of her nine second half shots, despite a Notre Dame defense that can best be described as have two or three players hit Griner and hope. She blocks five shots, gets credit for altering five more. The final stat line is more than worthy of one of the greatest women's basketball players in history — 26 points, 13 rebounds and only two turnovers and one foul in the face of those constant double and triple teams.

But it's the way that Griner grabs the game with her 88-inch wingspan and never lets go that defines her shining moment.

As dominant as Kentucky forward Anthony Davis was in the men's national championship game the night before, Griner is even better. She causes even more flinches and misses on defense while scoring a whole lot more.

"She might be the most dominant post player in history," her coach tells ESPN afterwards.

Wish Upon A Star

And where's Diggins in the national championship game's telling moments?

No where to be found. Oh, the Irish point guard will finish with good enough stars (20 points on 7-for-17 shooting). But there's little sign of any real fight. Diggins' stats look better than she plays.

For anyone who watches the game quickly realizes that Baylor sophomore point guard Odyssey Sims completely outplays the ultra-hyped pretty player. Sims (19 points, seven rebounds, four assists) controls the game in every way a point guard must. Diggins never comes close to doing that.

"I think you saw the best point guard in the country tonight," Mulkey says.

Is that a backhanded knock at Diggins? Yes. But it's also absolutely true.

If Griner takes extra satisfaction from squeezing the will out of the player that the marketers would like to elevate above her to win the title, she'll never show it. This proud 6-foot-8 woman's shrugged off too much, powered past too many ignorant insults (many centered on her own looks) to admit to any such drive publicly.

Brittney Griner just wants to live up to her own expectations.

"Just staying focused, sticking to our plan," Griner tells ESPN's Rebecca Lobo in an on-court interview, "I was able to dominant."

There is no doubt about that. Dominant. Driven. Dogged.

Brittney Griner will not let anything stand in her way. Now that's a sports picture to admire.