OK, new marketing strategy:

Flying fists!

Open-court tackles!

Cat fights!

Heck, why not? Nothing else has worked for the WNBA. The women’s version of the NBA has been around for, what, 11 seasons now, and it has barely qualified as background noise on the national sports scene.

So if two teams in a scrum at midcourt gets the league some attention … I say, “Go for it!”

Perhaps you saw tape of the Los Angeles Sparks and Detroit Something or Others brawling in the final minute of their game Tuesday night. My impression is that the throwdown led ESPN’s SportsCenter, which might be a first for the league.

Yes, it was a slow night and all, but leading off the show … is leading off the show.

Here is video of the melee, in case you missed it. And the reality being that you probably have not missed it … tells us all we need to know about what garners attention for an overlooked league.

As best I recall, the history of the WNBA marketing itself goes something like this:

1. Come watch us … cuz we deserve equal time! (“We got next, whether or not you want it!”)

2. Come watch us … because we play fundamentally sound, unselfish basketball. John Wooden (some old guy, but apparently he used to be famous) said he would rather watch us than the NBA. (May have to reconsider that “Wow, Coach Wooden is still sharp as a tack” thing.)

3. Come watch us because we have two players who can dunk!

None of that really seemed to work. The WNBA played to crowds in four figures, often in grand NBA palaces with half the seats curtained off to keep the teensy crowd from gazing over acres of empty seats.

Now, however, we have Full Contact Women’s Hoops. And this has a chance to catch on.

You can watch the tape and dispense blame as you see fit (though it would be nice to have an overhead shot, so we could see everyone at once) … but it looks like it started with one of the jealous oldsters on the Detroit roster trying to mug Sparks super-rookie Candace Parker under the rim … followed by someone named Plenette Pierson blocking out Parker on a missed show at the other end of the court … with the apparent intent of hip-checking Parker all the way back to L.A.

Parker drags Pierson to the floor, and then it gets wild wild wild! It involves a Detroit assistant coach pushing Lisa Leslie to the floor.

Funny, how it worked out. Perhaps telling, too. Women’s basketball can’t get a passing nod on the Big Show, then they start behaving badly and everyone is talking about the league. I mean, what sort of message is being sent?

Right: Start thinking “throw down” every night! And we’re not talking dunks here.