New York Liberty 71, Atlanta Dream 69
The Liberty squeak one out and once again cause their fans to reach for the Maalox.
*phhhhhhhew*
Yeah, that's really the best way to describe this game. To be honest, we probably didn't deserve to win, but we did just enough to keep out of trouble and forced just enough mistakes out of Atlanta that we pulled this one right out of our collective ass.
Not much from pregame; most of the Usual Suspects didn't even bother to show until the gates opened. Leilani's little blue dress was adorable, and should be put in the Torch Patrol's wardrobe effective immediately.
Note to the anthem singer: loud does not equal good. Please moderate your voice and find the proper key before you start your performance. Nice jacket, though.
Note to Anne Donovan: loud does not equal good. Please ceremonially burn that gods-awful jacket at the next game. I'm not sure what was worse, the brightly colored pattern or the fact that it was too small, too tight, and the sleeves weren't long enough. *shudder*
Coco, we barely knew ye. She got the start, but went out quickly in both halves. Still had plenty of time to look like a deer in the headlights when it came to ballhandling, run headlong into Screens of Death, and do other stupid things. She's not her sister. She's not a point guard. She's not a ballhandler. Why Meadors is using her that way, I'll never know. Holdsclaw came off kinda quiet- always in the mix in the paint, but not looking to force her offense. She left the offense up to Sancho Lyttle, and if that woman is not on the All-Star team there is no justice in this world. She brought it in crunch time. She's tough, and she's always on the play, on both ends of the floor. I wish we had someone that determined to never take a play off. Castro-Marques (what's up with the hyphen?) is so fast, and she got her shots off in a hurry. DeSouza played well, and completely overmatched Janel. Watching her and Kia go at it was great.
Lehning didn't impress me, except that by being unremarkable, she proved that she belonged as a rookie, and that's no bad thing. It usually takes players a lot longer to look that comfortable on the court. I'd say the next steps for her are developing a shot of some kind and getting the confidence of her teammates. McCoughtry is so fast- she gets that steal and she's off and running. Beautiful to watch. I'm glad she got out of the doghouse for this game. Snow seems to have taken her place in it, though I can't exactly say that's a bad thing. Still and all, if you're a post playing fewer minutes than Jennifer Lacy for the Atlanta Dream, you might have boarded the failboat, no matter how long you spend practicing your jumpers before the game. Lacy, after all, gets to be the goat of the game because of the foul that gave Cathrine the free throws that gave New York the win. Not completely fair, but what are you going to do. Latta came in just long enough to spell Lehning and take a shot. She seems to have slid back into her spot with her teammates, though; right before the game, when they were doing the traditional "dance around in a circle like dorks" thing that every team does, she was the one I th middle, looking like she was going to be sacrificed to a demon or summat.
Essence: made of win at both ends of the floor. Go towards the hole, people! And she did. Cathrine was really taken out of her game by the foul trouble, but again, she made her living at the line. Shameka stepped up when we needed her, and she, Essence, and Ashley all did their part on defense too. Janel, while she came alive again late in the game, when we needed her most, still has some gaping holes in her game that need fixing. Her ballhandling has gotten extremely lackadaisical (well, okay, that's a problem the entire team is having) and she's trying too hard to be the highlight reel; she's finger-rolling when she should just be laying the damn ball up, which results in missing bunny shots. (Not missed Bunny shots. Those are Leilani's fault.) Her defense was also sorely lacking. Loree still looks lik she's not quite herself yet. She had two speeds tonight: slow and slower. She showed no sense of urgency, which was especially notable and egregious at the end of the game when the Liberty were down and she was still just casually walking the ball past halfcourt.
Kia Vaughn! Oh, yeah, we see you throwing up those nifty shots over your shoulder and Érika deSouza's hands. Oh, yeah, we see you tearing down those rebounds. I might have been against drafting her, but when she kicks ass I'm happy. Tiffany also played well- good to see her get more minutes. See, Patty, this is what happens whn you give your reserves a chance to get in the game- they'll save your ass. Go with the hot hand. Leilani didn't look great, but she ran the offense smoothly enough, though she wasn't so good at spotting her teammates downcourt. Ashley had one of her "I can shoot, really!" nights. She can't, not really. But at least she had the right idea. Go towards the hole.
The refs were WTFish, which is to be expected from a Gulbeyan crew. They weren't quite as bad as the people in my section thought, but the holding was really annoying.
Worst game of Tic-Tac-Toe ever. Strategic fail. And I loathe contests where the arena staff has to cheat to help the contestant win, no matter how small and cute the kid is.
Kia's New York Minute was a hoot, and could also be described as "the interns found Photoshop!" Pregame mix belonged to Cathrine (MSG is related to Fuse, so we get a three-song mini-mix, usually of crap, before the game); hers was more believably hers than most of them.
Glad to hear the crowd into it for the home team, as compared to Thursday.
Now can we all learn from our mistakes before next week so the game can be slightly more watchable? Please?
Sunday, July 12, 2009
July 11th, 2009: Atlanta at New York
Friday, July 10, 2009
July 9th, 2009: Los Angeles at New York
Los Angeles Sparks 69, New York Liberty 60
The Game Notes of Doom and any number of dedicated Liberty fans would like to know what the heck is going on here.
And the day started out so nicely, too. Shame it had to end like this.
No, really, it did. All the Usual Suspects were there, and I got to spend a whole bunch of time talking to another Rebecca-never-Becky who remembered the good old days, which was awesome, especially because she was bubbly and enthusiastic and just a little snarky.
And guys. Guys, you guys, I got to meet The Libertine! He is real! He does exist! And this team's not giving him any incentive to resume blogging! The Spanish-speaking guys behind us were also a blast- they really got into the spirit of things, right down to the cussing (yes, guys, I know what puta and mierda mean).
The anthem was great, too- one of the guys from the Alan Parsons Project and his daughter. Their harmony was excellent, and her voice was very well controlled and refined.
Great LOL moment of the day: Anne Donovan in a Janel McCarville t-shirt. While the most likely explanation is that she just had to grab the nearest item of clothing, I prefer it as a statement about her favorite on the roster. Second place in the LOL contest: "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" with Janel as the Mac and That Fucking Moron as the PC. Made me want to run out and buy an iBook. Third place: Sue Wicks headbanging.
Yes, I am trying to avoid talking about the actual game, thank you for noticing.
So... why exactly is Bobbitt starting? She's cute and all, and being low to the ground allows her to make defensive plays more easily, but Harrower is the more dominant point guard on the offensive end: she's more willing to go to the hoop, and she's not afraid to make herself heard, even up to the green seats. For that matter, Parker's not ready to start yet. She still doesn't look completely in game shape, still looks like there are flakes of rust fluttering off her whenever she tries to make her moves, but of course she gets the benefit of the doubt. Tina Thompson's stroke is still a thing of beauty, and she still has the kind of range that NBA guards would weep for; I don't know whether to be frustrated or resigned that her defender let her take the deep threes. And again, why is Marie Ferdinand-Harris starting? I just don't get it.
Someone needs to get on Betty Lennox. Yes, I know the game is over. But we still have to go out to LA, and considering the epic defensive fail our guards showed yesterday, they can't possibly start too early. Quinn also played well off the bench, and Cooper used her as a change of... not pace, but size. Vanessa Hayden made a cameo. No, people in front of me, Lisa Leslie wasn't there, much less in the game. No, that's Vanessa Hayden, not Courtney Paris; Courtney plays for Sacramento, Ashley Paris was the one drafted by LA and she got cut. BRB, facepalming forever.
So the last game gave Loree the notion she could shoot threes. Yeah, no, that didn't happen so well. And her ballhandling was lackadaisical- well, to be fair, so was the rest of the team's, but I hold point guards to higher standards and I'm not afraid to admit it. The play where she dropped the ball and watched it go out of bounds was one of the nadirs of the game, and the fact that we had multiple really speaks volumes about the game. Janel looked overmatched in the first half, then started the third quarter on fire, then disappeared except for random acts of senseless klutziness. Essence's shot still looks off- are we sure she's not hurt? It's not that she's missing, it's that her motion doesn't look right. At least she was trying to get inside. Cathrine started getting desperate and putting up short shots. I can't really blame her, though, because both she and Shameka logged over 36 minutes, and Cathrine turns the most interesting colors when she's been on the floor too long. So I can't blame Shameka, either. And at least everyone's showing good hands on defense- once they, y'know, actually find their woman.
If anyone has seen Ashley Battle's defense, please call the Garden immediately. It appears to have gone missing, leaving us only with her on the offensive ed, which is is not a good thing. She's still a sparkplug on the boards and on the fast break, but that's not enough for the role we use her in, and if we were just going to keep someone for that role, Lisa Willis was better at that particular form of energy. Leilani didn't play very much and looked a little out of her depth when she did. Tiffany was fairly effective- she matched up pretty well against the array of forwards LA was using with the lack of Leslie and the minimal minutes for Hayden. Kia Vaughn was in just long enough to get in the boxscore, then sat down and was never seen again. Spencer got into the game, but I don't remember if she did anything. Damnit, woman, if you're a three-point shooter, make sure your teammates know your spots and give you the ball in them. Be assertive. You were certainly assertive enough before the game.
Be assertive- that's actually good advice for the whole damn team. I don't know how many times the ball hit the floor on rebounds, but I'm willing to bet it was about the same number of times Liberty players actually went to the floor for loose balls. The fight just disappeared from them sometime in the middle of the third quarter, and the rest of the game was just going through the motions, like someone had punctured them with a balloon or something. They got sloppy, they started taking really stupid shots, and they left everything short (which might have something to do with our coach's inability to go more than one or two players into her bench; hello, McFly!). It was sickening.
The refs didn't help either; a lot of holding went unreported, though Michael Price on the crew didn't help things. Which, by the way, I thought the refs were all being regionalized, so what gives with Price being on the East Coast? Is he LA's pet ref or something? I don't actually expect referees to be able to count steps or seconds in the lane, but the holding was blatant. Guys, come on. That shit is dangerous.
So many Sparks fans. Too many Sparks fans. I'll respect you if you show up in your team's gear, but don't mix gear (I'm looking at you, Miss Parker Jersey and Liberty Cap) and don’t show up without gear and proceed to taunt Liberty fans (I'm looking at you, squatters in section 120). The amount of cheering LA got was despicable. This is New York, people! Thompson I can understand, because she's a legend of the game and enough hard core fans are pissed off about how the Comets went down that she's getting the cheers, but there's no excuse for the rest of the behavior.
All in all, a very frustrating experience, and more so because it started off so well.
Friday, July 3, 2009
July 2nd, 2009: Detroit at New York
New York Liberty 80, Detroit Shock 64
Shameka Christon decides that she's not gonna be in the cellar. Awesomeness ensues.
Oh, that was refreshing and most needed in these unpleasantly sticky times. The win, not the glass of Diet Coke next to me, though the soda's certainly welcome too.
It looked like it was going to be another rough day on 33rd Street when Loree ducked out of the building towards the Duane Reade, and the heavens immediately opened upon our hatless, un-umbrellaed point guard. For that matter, it looked like we'd been rendered even more unwelcome than before when security opened up a new set of railings to keep people away from the usual approach to the side door where players often come in. I wouldn't have minded the new rules so much if the security guy hadn't done it the second it started raining. Hey, man, I'm just working on a story and trying to stay dry.
The Shock looked a lot looser and happier than I'd seen them in a long time. Maybe it has to do with the coaching change, maybe they have a perverse fascination with bad weather, maybe someone spiked the water with happy pills, whatever. I don't care. Anything that makes Taj McWilliams and Barbara Farris dance between stretches, or Olayinka Sanni work it so hard her teammates bust out laughing, or Cheryl Ford be friendly enough that Shavonte Zellous has to practically drive her towards the locker room (and I mean the "hands on waist, scooting her around like a bumper car" kind of driving). And I wish I'd been able to get a picture of Barb and Ashley Battle coming out together, arms draped around waists. It was adorable. It shouldn't have been, but it was.
Katie Smith was extremely frustrated, and I don't know if I blame her, but she let it affect her game. I don't know that I've ever seen her shoot that badly. Or Deanna Nolan, for that matter- oh, she got a decent number of points in the second half, when the defense started to flag (there was one exceptionally gorgeous cut to the basket that showcased her speed and her grace), but she didn't take control of the game as she usually does when she's in New York. Cheryl Ford, on the other hand, looked much improved, though she wasn't always good at holding her emotions in check. If she's not 100%, she's damn close, and if that's not 100%, I'm really worried about having the rest of our Detroit games coming up. Taj McWilliams was solid, but unremarkable, though a lot of the things she did were little veteran things that you learn how to do when you've been playing the game for as long as she has- screens, getting back on fast breaks, trying to get away with jersey grabbing. (Also, with the shorter hair, she looks even more like Michelle Obama than before. The resemblance is kinda uncanny, but made of awesome.) Alexis Hornbuckle was kind enough to sign for me before the game (I approve of that, but then, she picks up auto bonus points for being kin to St. John's). Her rebounding was phenomenal, and she works harder than a lot of players I see out there, but I don't know if Mahorn knows how to use that workmanlike mindset and build properly yet.
Barbara Farris's effectiveness stopped when the actual game happened. Sorry, Barb. Love you, but, um, no. Shavonte Zellous wasn't getting the calls that she's been getting for most of the season, so she was back to being, in Richyyy's immortal choice of word, diabolical- out of control and losing the ball a lot. She fouled out (as did Nolan). It wasn't a great game for the Shock bench in general. I don't think Mahorn wanted to go to Haynie as much as the foul trouble for Nolan and Zellous forced him to. She didn't set the world on fire, but she didn't suck too badly, either. I'm also surprised that Sanni didn't get into the game. Even if she would just be a response to bringing in Larkins, she might have done more than Farris did. Braxton looked like she'd missed being on the floor, so I hope she's developed some hint of responsibility, and maybe even the seed of the maturity she needs to become the dominant force she has all the tools to be.
Shameka Christon, y'all. Shameka fuckin' Christon. Goddamn, look at this small forward. Canning threes, hitting from the midrange, forcing the foul and getting to the line- if she's not an All-Star this season, something is deeply, deeply wrong with the process at all levels, and I will NOT be pleased. If dropping 25 results from magenta hair, then she can steal as much of Janel's hair dye as she wants to. And Loree's shots tonight were amazing! I'm amused that three of Janel's assists were on Loree's threes (and while I had to look up the exact number, I'd gotten the sense during the game that a lot of Janel's assists were to Loree). Janel still doesn't look like herself- her ballhandling and rebounding are still below par- but she didn't look gods-awful. I was also satisfied with Cathrine's shooting for a change, though I'd like to see her put some strength into those screens when she's dealing with veteran players- Taj was getting around her and not allowing her to set the screen, which left Loree or Essence facing a nasty double-team, and Cathrine couldn't get back in time to reclaim her defender. Those plays didn't tend to end well. Essence, other than that one phenomenal layup, wasn't so great on the offensive end. Her shots were missing, and missing badly, and coming off her hands very oddly. From where I was sitting, it looked like there was something wrong with her motion. Makes the need for an offensive-minded (and offensively capable, Ashley) shooting guard even more apparent. But since the Shock guards couldn't get going, I gotta assume Essence played a role in that.
It was so good to see Tiffany Jackson get some extended minutes. While she definitely displayed the weakness in her game (footwork, Tiffany, footwork!), she also showed her tenacity on the boards and her athleticism on the offensive end. If we have a coach who can polish her, I think she can be something special. Get to work, Anne, we don't have that much time left before she comes off rookie scale. It was also nice to see Kia in the game, and I think she played a major role in keeping Cheryl Ford from really taking over. While Kia's still rough around the edges, she brings a bit of grit that we've been lacking, especially with Janel's shift towards a more finesse and flash game, and Cathrine's transition towards being an exceptionally gawky shooting guard; her physicality knocked Ford out of her comfort zone and got into her head a little bit. Not a lot, and not for long, but just enough that when Detroit was making a run, they couldn't keep it up. Leilani chewed up minutes admirably, and with the way Loree was playing, that was really all we needed her to do. If Spencer is to be on this team, and if she is to play any length of time, she needs to ask for the ball when she's on her spots, because if she doesn't, about all she'll be useful for is getting an occasional rebound, emphasis on the occasional. It was good to see Erlana get into a game for a change, and while she didn't do much, she didn't have to do much, and she came in handy at the end of the first half to fight for possession.
While the boxscore doesn't look like it, I really thought Detroit got the short end of the stick from the referees. There were a few things that the Liberty were getting away with all night that Detroit wasn't, and it seemed like every borderline call went against the Shock. Except for one really blatant jersey pull by Taj (Taj, if we can see the jersey get pulled from the upper deck, you're gonna get called, and you're not gonna get away with it, and protesting your innocence just looks dumb), and a couple of almost-elbows from Ford, I really didn't see any of the Bad Girls play that I'm used to.
Anthem was a college girls' choral group. This is the only one of Blaze's fetishes I don't actually mind.
Disappointingly sparse crowd, but Detroit doesn't have the kind of pull a lot of other teams do, even as defending champions (no names stick out, which is what'll draw the casual fan) and the weather was so intermittently bad that I don't think there would have been many walk-ups.
Musical chairs, hardcore edition. When you have someone pulling the chair out from under someone's butt, you have the hardcore edition. You also have a fan with more killer instinct than his entire team. Can we give him a coaching contract, maybe?
It was good to sit with my old neighbors and kibitz about the game. They're very surreal. I missed them.
It was good to see a win. The team needed it and the fans needed it, and the team needed to get the fans off their back. MOAR PLZ.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
June 26th, 2009: Indiana at New York
Indiana Fever 82, New York Liberty 81
Being a Liberty fan is like hitting your head against a wall, except that you feel worse if you stop.
FLAMES. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE. DIAF, PATTY. DIAF RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.
Not that dying in a fire would have been very effective, given the number of firefighters in attendance for the game, including the (operatic, but not very well phrased) anthem singer. But a girl can dream.
What was up with the lady in the Betty Lennox Dream jersey behind the Liberty bench? B-Money has played for six different teams, but none of them were New York or Indiana.
Lin Dunn, what the fuck? Just. What the fuck? I have seen Indiana before, and they'v always been physical, but this was beyond the pale. Whether it was Hoffman tripping, January slapping, Douglas holding, TSB elbowing, or Catchings grabbing, Indiana played like cornered animals. It was ridiculous. And the Liberty let it get under their skins. Shameka is high-strung, but I don't think I've ever seen her ready to fight someone. Janel was getting into it with Douglas and a couple of other Fever players. Loree and Ashley both had their moments with January. It got ugly and remained ugly.
I have to give props to Katie Douglas. Whatever was said at halftime, she found a way to get open and stay open. The Liberty defense helped by somehow forgetting that Katie Douglas is left-handed, and she took full advantage of that. She was scoreless or damn close to it at half, and then BAM. She got rolling. Speaking of BAM, the Tamikaze was back in full force. I think she done lost her mind on defense and on the boards. She's always been reckless, but she was downright mean tonight. She hit the big shots, though, and that's what makes her Tamika Catchings. Hoffman didn't really feel like a factor tonight, except on the boards. "Honey, we're being outrebounded by Ebony Hoffman. No, not by Indiana. By Ebony Hoffman. This isn't good." See prior paragraph re: tripping, though. Tully hit the floor hard a couple of times, and while Dunn went away from her in the second half, she came back in overtime and made the critical defensive and loose ball plays that won Indiana the game. Tully's the only Fever starter I'm not varying levels of pissed off at. Sutton-Brown was much as we've come to know her: she'll commit a lot of stupid fouls, she'll block a lot of shots, and she'll occasionally throw a cheap elbow.
Briann, don't slap people. This is not the Pac-10, and you are not playing Washington. She played a decent game, but I can see why she was moved back to the bench- she's a little too aggressive, even for Dunn's tastes, and makes rookie mistakes. She's getting the time to work on them, though, and assuming she gets a coach as good as or better than CTT, she'll be a solid W player (but Dunn is not that coach). Jessica Moore gave them not-bad minutes, especially when TSB fouled out. Tamecka Dixon looks so different with her hair down that I didn't recognize her. I don't know if blowing by Sidney Spencer proves she still has it or not, but that might just be a matter of the spirit being willing but the flesh being a 13-season veteran. Jessica Davenport got in, hit a shot, got fouled on her next attempt, missed two free throws, and was introduced to the bench for the rest of the game. Stop me if you've heard that one before... Christina Wirth came in as a decoy for two offensive possessions, and helped set up the play that forced the OT. Also, she does a very good impression of a ballgirl.
Shay Murphy gets her own little paragraph because she was nice before the game, and didn't play in the game, so she didn't do anything to make me dislike her. It was very nice of her to say "enjoy the game!" to a Liberty fan. She had no idea what was coming.
Which was more WTFery. Shameka was awesome, but for some reason- whether That Fucking Moron is, in fact, That Exceptionally Fucking Dumb Moron and stopped drawing up plays for her, or Indiana tightened up their defense- she disappeared in the fourth quarter. Meka, you gotta be more aggressive with the staff. Right now you're the closest thing to a star we have- gun-to-the-head-time, you gotta have the ball. Statistically, Cathrine didn't have a great game, but she ws finally going in the right direction- going towards the basket, taking the ball inside, then taking Hoffman outside to extend her range. It was nice to see her crashing the boards, too. Loree was all right early on, but she and January got into it, and I think she lost her head a little- that might be why she was taking a lot of shots late in the game. Essence... just. Not her night on either end of the floor; when defense is your bread and butter, and Katie Douglas starts the ball rolling by roasting you twice in rapid succession, sit yo' ass down. Statistically, Janel played well... except for the eight fucking turnovers. I thought the best part of her game was actually the rebounding she didn't do: she did a great job keeping balls alive so they could be tapped out to her teammates, which doesn't count as a rebound but does maintain possession.
Bench play. What bench? Sure, Cathrine and Janel are both turning interesting colors, but why play your energy post (Tiffany) or your big first rounder who looked good in the short time she was in (Kia) when you can drive your starters to their doom with a game on the road the next day? That would actually make sense! 8:31 for Tiffany and 4:35 for Kia are inexcusable. Hell, Spencer got one long stretch of run and wasn't too bad- when Ashley was running around with a head of steam, why didn't That Moron go back to Spencer? I think the only reason she plays Leilani is because we don't have anyone else who can even do a decent point guard impersonation. And Ashley's the only reserve she trusts, which works out okay sometimes, but not when Ashley and Shameka look like they're keeping each other hot under the collar and not calming down against Indiana. Don't be fooled by the minute counts- what That Fucking Moron did was put someone in for a long stretch, sit them down, and never put them in again. Very bad player management.
Worse referee management. This crew let the game get out of control with some of the non-calls they made... and by the time they started calling things, it was too late, and then everyone was complaining about the stuff that was being called and hadn't been called earlier. When Cameron Inouye is your best ref, you might have a problem, though I noticed she's been working on her communication skills. But Gulbeyan and the other guy- we thought his name was Brady, the boxscore gives it as Breeding- were utter incompetents, and I certainly can't blame Dunn for flipping out at them at the end of the first.
The Liberty All-Star video is kind of cute, but I wish Janel had spent less time flirting with the camera and more time practicing free throws and holding on to the ball.
Lots of Knicks in the house. Maybe that explains the epic fail? Bad karma from the incompetence on the XY side of the building? Also, Kym Hampton chatting away with Renee Brown, and before the game, Blaze and Lin Dunn deep in conversation. I hope Blaze wasn't giving away too much of our gameplan, unless that's part of the master scheme to rid us of That Fucking Moron.
In tribute to Michael Jackson, they replayed "Thriller". I keep forgetting how damn good Shameka was in it. It made me miss Megan Duffy a little, though, which is just sad.
I just don't know what's wrong with this team, whether it's the coaching or players who just aren't in the game. I do know that I'm not happy, and I'm frustrated and disappointed because I want them to be good, I want them to be the team I know they can be, the team I saw last year and especially the year before that.
Monday, June 22, 2009
June 21st, 2009: San Antonio at Connecticut
Connecticut Sun 71, San Antonio Silver Stars 58
The Game Notes spend Father's Day at the casino, appreciate Asjha Jones, and are tempted by cookies (but who isn't?)
And once again, the eleven-woman roster takes a giant bite out of a team's chances of winning. Considering that San Antonio started off both halves even up with the Sun, then faded in the second and fourth quarters, you can't tell me that doesn't have to do with fatigue.
Girl Scout Day. I have got to learn to read the schedule more carefully. I hate kid-themed events. I know it was also Dads and Daughters day, but I tend to ignore that because otherwise I start laughing at the idea of my dad at a basketball game. Not his scene, to put it mildly, and I had to do a lot of groveling to go to this particular game.
Kids, anthem, nothing to write home about, except for the one bass. If it was coming from the stout blond kid, then I think we may have had a crossover from an animated universe, which should not be happening.
So the Stars' bench was even shorter tonight because Crossley's knee flared up. Katie Mattera did better against Tamika Whitmore than she did against the Liberty posts, but that's not saying much. Belinda Snell took a lot of shots, but the biggest one was the one she took from Chante Black's elbow to right under her left eye, which opened a gash 'bout an inch long that bled like the dickens. It took several minutes for them to track down all the blood on the court, since she'd crossed the timeline by the time they could get an injury timeout. Frazee didn't do as well as she did against New York, but I suspect her time will still be considered "quality" minutes, the same way a barely acceptable start is considered "quality" in baseball.
Lawson-Wade switched with Snell, and while the Roaring Rampage of Revenge factor did not come into play, she had a decent game. Sophia Young seems to be over the flu- either that, or her teammates noticed she existed again. With Lawson-Wade's shots not going in quite as much as they did Friday, and with the all-intents-and-purposes absence of Erin Perperoglou, they went to her early and often, and she showed off some real range. Darling- and Lawson-Wade, for that matter- seemed to be defining defense as reaching out and latching onto their assignment whenever she had the ball. I thought Darling ran the team better on Friday than she did on Sunday, but I will grudgingly respect her vocal leadership on the floor- there was one point, either before a timeout, or during the stoppage of play while CSI dealt with Snell's libation to the gods of sport, where she had the team around her and was giving them whatfor. Riley looked good. Though the folks around me were bitching about how she'd become a dirty player, I really didn't see it, except maybe one elbow, and Tamika Catchings will testify to how long Riley's elbows have been flying. But she was hitting that pretty little outside shot, and her teammates actually seemed to be looking for her this time. I'll credit that change in the game plan to Dan Hughes.
Dear Ms. Whitmore: especially after putting on weight, you are most definitely not a 3. Please return to the painted area of the court effective immediately, and remain there until August 19th. It's one thing to take those shots and hit them the way Young or Lauren Jackson does, it's another thing to take them and miss them badly. I did, however, approve wholeheartedly of the wicked pick that sent Darling crashing to the floor like the car hitting the wall in those crash simulations. That's a good use of extra weight. Tan White's settled nicely into the Sun rotation- though I thought she was more of a slasher than a jump shooter? Might just be me being an idiot. I'm good at that. Kiesha Brown was solid but unremarkable. I thought Lauren Ervin played Mattera really well on the defensive end- maybe couldn't get position against her on offense, but taking Mattera out of the play might well be a more important contribution. She also kept a lot of balls alive. She and Black might make a good pairing on the floor. Turner... I just don't know anymore. I suspect Thibault doesn't either.
Whatever Thibault said to Lindsay Whalen at halftime, he needs to say it more often, except when they play the Liberty. The first half was uneventful for her, then she came out and made some amazing defensive plays. She should have been credited with at least two steals. Chante Black looked really good. She was going for putbacks, mixing it up inside, and hitting that pretty little midrange jumper. The injury really freaked me and my neighbors out, because we still have no idea what the hell happened- there was no contact! Phillips came on strong in the second half. So did Gardin, whose game I really like. Her block at the end was the exclamation point on the game. But the night belonged to Asjha Jones, who showed off her range, her power, and her moxie. She looked really good. Really smooth.
I think this was the same crew from Friday, and I don't know whether they were tired, or Dan said something they didn't like the other day, or there were just more reasons to make bad calls in this game, but they weren't so great this time. San Antonio got eight points on blatant procedural mistakes- a three off what should have been an eight-second call, another one on an up-and-down, and a two on another obvious travel. Not quite as much dicey stuff as the Sun fans thought there was, but still not up to the standard they set in Friday's game. Both Thibault and Hughes were hot- funny, I don't remember Hughes having that much of a temper, but Brondello had to guide him back towards the bench on one particular play.
Very quiet crowd, except when there were t-shirts being thrown. I think I did more yelling than some of my neighbors, and this isn't even my team.
Made of win: the contingent of Silver Stars fans in section 17, especially the lady in the Sophia Young shirt and the lady in the Perperoglou jersey. I only saw one piece of Hammon gear, and a couple of Hammonites that I knew from New York; I suppose those who bought tickets just to see Hammon decided either not to come or not to wear their colors.
Post-game included watching Brondello and Lange try to parent an adorable little boy. I'm presuming he's theirs because he looks just like Olaf. Lots of awwwwing ensued, though I can't help but think that kid's going to have an odd accent when he starts talking a lot- German dad, Australian mum, raised in Texas. Also: Megan Frazee at Geno's. The WNBA might be "flush with worldly temptations", but just about the only one a second-round draft pick can actually afford is a big soft chocolate chip cookie at Geno's. Nom nom nom nom nom.
Friday, June 19, 2009
June 19th, 2009: San Antonio at New York
New York Liberty 77, San Antonio Silver Stars 61
Some returns are happy, some aren't, and the Liberty do what they have to do to put a mark in the wins column.
Look, I know San Antonio was hurtin' and lackin' and sick. I don't care. If it takes feeding on carrion and picking on the weakest kid in the schoolyard to get our first win, that's what it takes. Fuck it.
Was rolling with mom today- God love her, she got a hip replacement fifteen days ago, but she was bound and determined to make it to this game. Of course, then VJ had to miss the game (yes, I know, perfectly reasonable explanation, and my heart goes out to VJ and her family).
It's much harder to tell who's who when they're all wearing the same warm-up shirts. I mean, Katie Mattera stuck out from the crowd, and Janel's hair is fairly easy to recognize, but that's about as far as I could go on first glance.
San Antonio is disturbingly pale, except for Sophia Young. She... stands out, especially with VJ not there. It bothers me.
Man, Shanna Crossley can shoot it. Her shots were almost effortless, the way they went up and in, and she put 'em up fast. I don't know that she does much else, but she's damn good at that. Katie Mattera is good at being big, but that's about all she managed. And while you might take the girl out of the Shock, you can't take the Shock out of the girl, or something like that- one of her fouls came on a play where she shoved Shameka to the ground. We are not amused, Mrs. Mattera. Not amused at all. Megan Frazee played quite well in her time on the floor. I can see why they decided to keep her. But the reserve of the game, who played more minutes than three of the starters, was Edwige Lawson-Wade, who took a page out of the Kiesha Brown Handbook On Roaring Rampages Of Revenge and went all out on the Garden floor. She hit one unbelievable shot-clock-beating three, played tough defense, and distributed well. If it hadn't been for her, I don't want to think about how badly the Silver Stars would have gotten beat. I liked her when she was with us.
Erin Perperoglou looked washed out, and I think she was feeling it too, from the amount of time she spent trying to keep herself limber during stoppages in play. Young didn't look as strong as I'm used to her seeing, though she seemed to get better as the game went on. I hope they thought to pick up some chicken soup while they were in New York. We make the best here. Snell looked out of rhythm. Maybe she's not used to starting. Maybe she put too much bleach in. (Sorry, Belinda, but what works for Lauren does not work for you. Go back to black.) It almost looked like Hughes was setting her up to fail so there'll be a reason why she's buried on the bench when they're at full strength, or possibly even the cut when Wauters finally shows up. Darling looks like she's lost the baby weight, but her decision-making was not the best. Somehow, though, she seems to emit the aura of a baby animal in distress; two different times, Liberty players picked her up off the floor. Clearly, none of them were watching the league when we dubbed her the Headless Chicken. This is a dangerous woman if you let her too close to you. Riley got her blocks, and got open in the third quarter for a couple of those pretty little mid-to-long range jumpers she's been swishing since goddamn Tamika fucking Whitmore was the one not defending them for New York, and then San Antonio promptly forgot about her viability as an offensive option.
Ashley. Oh, Ashley. Whatever's wrong with you, whether it's a shortage of Red Bull or a mysterious mental malady, get it the fuck fixed right the fuck now. I'll gladly help. But the bad decision-making, the horrible dribbling- they need to stop. Leilani, while to so effective at our end of the court, stuck to Darling and Lawson-Wade to keep them from being as good as they previously were at theirs, so that's something to be said. Tiffany- yeaaaaah, that's what I'm talking about. Very efficient game. I'm glad to see her getting back into the thick of things, and glad that Coyle was going sporadic with her for caution, not because of stupidity. Very little Erlana, and none of it great. Very little Kia, and most of it unexciting. Very little Spencer, and none of it memorable.
The starters, on the other hand, mostly kicked ass. Cathrine was the exception. STOP SHOOTING THREES, CATHRINE. GET IN THE LANE, CATHRINE. Sorry for yelling, but I figure you might want to get an idea of what it was like over in section 209 tonight. She had one really nice boxout that I remember, and the last three did go down, but damnit, you'd think a football player's daughter who's six-four and broad-shouldered would go inside more often. Janel kicked ass. I think there might have been a little more of it to kick, but 18 and 6 is nothing to sneeze at, and her teammates were sharing it. Loree really hit the boards- it was good to see her looking strong again. Sista Christon's my pick for player of the game, personally- 18 might be more than 15, but 6 equals 6 and six assists beats three assists. Shameka was back on form, and I couldn't have been happier.
Play of the game for San Antonio: Lawson-Wade's three at the shot clock buzzer. Alas for San Antonio, you only get one of those a game, because she needed a second one.
Play of the game for New York: late in the game, Janel, sitting on 18 points, gets a feed into the post. She goes up for the shot... fake and passes to Kia, who puts it in for her first two of the night. A gorgeous fake, and more importantly, a classy move, giving her teammate a shot instead of going for 20.
The referees did not noticeably suck tonight, which I credit to Denise Brooks. While there were little procedural things that didn't get called, nothing got out of hand and nothing got unbalanced. (As an odd aside, is this the first time there's been an all-African-American crew in the W?)
The Liberty All-Star video is hysterical- a parody of "Single Ladies". The synchronization was surprisingly good. Janel was surprisingly smooth. My brain is still slightly broken, though.
There was a Power Rangers/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover for entertainment. No, not really, just some exhibition group from a dojo, but when one group wields nunchuks, a bo, and sais, and the other has three guys and two girls, what else am I gonna think?
Beautiful anthem- nice clear voice, though the vibrato began to wear after a while.
Woo-hoo, we had a Knick sighting. This is the sound of me not giving much of a shit.
Decent crowd, though the groan that came up at the announcement of VJ and Hammon's absence indicates who everyone was there for. I thought there was gonna be a riot.
It was good to see a win, and good to have mom back at the arena. Clearly this was the missing piece, and now that she's off the IR, we can get on with this whole winning thing.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
June 14th, 2009: Atlanta at Connecticut
Atlanta Dream 67, Connecticut Sun 62
Ennui.
You know, guys, if you didn't want to play the game, you should have told us all in advance so I could have stayed home, slept late, made nice with my dad, and saved $35. No, seriously, that was such a hot mess of a game, in terms of intensity, style of play, and overall quality, that I wondered for the first time what the hell I was doing there.
Not that the day started off well for me, but you don't care about the trials and travails of trying to get on the damn bus. I got there later than I would have liked, and it all went downhill from there. Shame, too, because the Sun at least started the "Heroes and Champions" festivities right. Firefighter rappelling down from the rafters to bring the game ball to center court = made of WIN. The little kids doing the anthem were cute, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they had a British accent while they sang.
Sancho Lyttle, oh my goodness. She was everywhere, and Atlanta did a great job of setting her up in the lane. The Dream absolutely dominated the paint while she was in the game, and I'm pretty sure Connecticut's big runs were while she was on the bench. I do wonder about her stamina, though – is that why she didn't play the kind of minutes you'd expect from her, or is Meadors trying to keep Snow from pouting, or what? Holdsclaw did not look comfortable on the court- okay, except when she was launching that silky fadeaway- but there were a couple of times when I saw her looking like she was hurting on the baseline. She stepped up and kept the pressure on the Sun. DeSouza got yet another pronunciation of her last name- I'm going to need someone who's actually Brazilian to tell me how to say it, because I don't like getting names wrong. I don't think she was as assertive as she could have been, especially given her matchups with Black, but she wasn't bad. I keep forgetting how fast, and how lanky, Izi is- and she seems to just be going by that, if being announced as "Izi Castro Marques" is enough of a hint. Not sure what's up with the hyphen, though. Teasley looks like she's still working her way back up to where she once was.
Dear Michelle: if you want to play more, work harder and don't whine quite so much at the officials. I keep forgetting how much I don't like her attitude until I see her on the court again, just being a punk. Coco was pretty steady, though she almost cost them a possession when she didn't bring the ball up quickly enough. Tamera Young's pigtails are adorable, but she didn't do much on the court- the first play I remember her making was dribbling the ball off her foot. Lacy did not suck as much as I expected her to, and to be honest, I think Atlanta works better together when she's on the floor than when Snow's on the floor, though that might just be the aura of "I've been here before, I have confidence" that was the door prize for surviving Atlanta 2008. Lehning's a nice kid with a pretty autograph, but she's got a lot to learn, and I don't think Meadors is going to teach it to her. Ditto for McCoughtry, who played reasonably well. That elbow to Gardin's face didn't look intentional to me.
I really do think Whalen has decided, "Fuck it, y'all really aren't going to do anything, are you? I gotta do all this myself, don't I?" And in the first half, she was, but she seemed to disappear in the second, but I don't know if that's because she wasn't getting it done or because she wasn't getting playing time. Black did a nice job on the boards. Phillips kept trying to make things happen, but just couldn't. Gardin wasn't much of a factor, though I'm not sure I agree with the implications of her plus/minus. Jones just couldn't get her shots to fall- and a lot of them were good looks that she usually hits, so I don't know what was up with that. I'm not sure what was up with Thibault, either, to be honest; he didn't seem to be on his game the way he usually is.
But if we want to get into fail, let's go to Tamika Whitmore's day. This is starting to turn into a broken record, but at least she's not on my team anymore. I continue to wonder where Turner's basketball IQ has gone, since she's been making a lot of dumb plays lately. Ervin continues to show me why Thibault picked her up- she's got the moxie that a lot of players don't. Kiesha Brown made a couple of good plays, but since she doesn't have history with Atlanta, the Roaring Rampage of Revenge went on hiatus. Cirone wasn't terribly effective. These notes are brief because it's Tuesday, and I really stopped caring about this game sometime in the third quarter on Sunday. Sorry, Sun fans. Not my fault I stopped caring the same time your team did.
Blah blah blah inconsistent referees who can't count and can't make the same call on both ends of the floor. Gulbeyan and Courteau.
Deadest crowd I've ever heard at a Connecticut game. I wasn't sure all of them were even alive. And the way they streamed out the doors before the final buzzer was shameful.
One of these days, I'd like to know what's in the third box. I do wish they'd tell us.
Is it just me, or is Geno's getting more popular? You wouldn't believe the line at the deli.
All in all, if I had known that this game would be so unpleasant to watch that it would take me almost two days to write these notes, and if I had known the rest of my day would plummet down the shitter, I'd have taken the other Atlanta game on my six-game pick 'em plan.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
June 7th, 2009: Connecticut at New York
Connecticut Sun 66, New York Liberty 57
LEILANI MITCHELL YOU GUYS. Wait, what do you mean there's another half to play? Aw, fuck...
Opening Day, done as right as you would expect from this squad. Some hits, some misses, but mostly hits. Well, until the third quarter...
I don't want to say that we were waiting eagerly for this season here, but I met up with the boy for lunch at quarter to twelve- and a few of the Usual Suspects were already in position by the side door. We had another incident of "how the hell do you lose a six-three power forward?" when Tiffany did a vanishing act. Don't worry, she came back for the game. Maybe she got her hair done- she's got a beautiful braid thing going on.
A couple of us were in Comets gear, and a few others were in red. What I find interesting was the amount of black jerseys I saw. A lot of #24s, a lot of #11s, a lot of #50s. Good times. A pretty large crowd, more than I remembered from late last season. More involved than the Connecticut fans were.
Lots of Girl Scouts. They did the anthem, starting off awkwardly but finishing strong. I hope whoever started making a ruckus during the anthem couldn't help himself, because otherwise I'll hunt him down and smack him upside the head. The Girl Scouts were also involved in the ball exchange, though I didn't realize they allowed boys. Also also, they were one of the timeout entertainments.
I like whoever's in the Maddie suit this year. He, she, it has a sense of humor. And the way they punked the Sun fan was hysterical. The contest involved putting on a Velcro-coated suit and rolling around in fake cash while blindfolded. So the first guy, a Liberty fan, did it, and got a fair amount of money. Then the Sun fan put on her blindfold... and the Torch Patrol changed out the sheet for an empty one, so she was rolling around on center court with nothing to show for it, while Mike W. and the crowd shouted encouragement. You can imagine the look on her face when she took off the blindfold and realized she didn't have any money on. I don't know if she was in on it or not, but she was a good sport either way.
LOVE the new video. It's good to see the players involved in the team media again. Now, if only the league-mandated Kat Deluna appearance hadn't put the screeching brakes on the intros, we might have had some momentum. I think it's interesting that with Loree on the bench, Janel's moved up in the pecking order- she's a co-captain now, and she got pride of place as the last player announced.
Dear Erin: this is not Aussie Rules. Please stop trying to tackle people. Your enthusiasm, energy, hustle, and other things that are necessary for chasing loose balls are starting to cross the line towards insanity and reckless behavior. At least some of her shots went in today, unlike yesterday. That was awkward. Lindsay Whalen was rebounding like nobody's business. It was absurd. But she and the Liberty were using the same "drive, then stop driving" playbook. I'm wondering if that would have been the same if Connecticut hadn't played the day before. Chante Black made a cameo appearance, but between foul trouble and rookie jitters, Thibault made it clear he didn't trust her in crunch time. Kerri Gardin continues to offense/defense platoon with Turner, though she got hot in the third quarter. Well, okay, maybe it was just lukewarm, but hotter'n noon on the Fourth of July compared to the Liberty's "offense". Asjha Jones played a very physical game, with some borderline plays at some points. I wasn't exactly happy with her. Neither were the fans; there were a few boos when she was introduced, probably from bitter Rutgers fans.
Whitmore did not have a horrible game off the bench. Kiesha Brown briefly continued her Roaring Rampage of Revenge against another team that cut her. She's really a steadying hand for that team when Whalen or Phillips have to go to the bench. Not that Cirone is doing badly, but she's more of a sparkplug. Situationally, it makes sense to put Brown in when things don't need to change and Cirone when things do need to change. Barbara Turner keeps making boneheaded mistakes. Maybe she was afraid of Anne Donovan. She almost hit a heave at the end of the third quarter, which would just have been ridiculous. Ervin did a great job on the inside. Small but critical plays. I like her. I don't know why Sun fans are bitching about Thibault. If he calls the plays and the players go off and do something else, that's not his problem. And his subbing is situational. He actually looks at matchups, unlike most coaches.
LEILANI FUCKING MITCHELL! I don't care what else the Fluffy Little Bunny did or didn't do, that shot was fucking amazing. She doesn't have the stamina to be the starting point guard a team like New York- with a coach who trusts her reserves as far as she can throw them- is going to need. Janel looked good in spurts, but if she starts thinking she's Elena Baranova and she can can threes on a regular basis, I'm going to learn some new swear words just so I can use them on her. Cathrine was at least rebounding, but once again, she was back to thinking she was a small forward. Dear Cathrine: WE HAVE SHAMEKA FOR THAT. Go set a Screen of Death on somebody. I hope Shameka's gonna be okay. We really don't need another hamstring injury. Except for the third quarter, I don't know what Essence was doing out there.
Loree is starting to walk more and more like Spoon every day, though that may have more to do with the hammy than with the channeling. She still doesn't look right out there, but what the fuck else are we going to do. Ashley made things happen, but they weren't always good things. Sometimes too much energy is a bad thing. I blinked, and apparently Tiffany Jackson was in and out of the game while I did so. Kia Vaughn still looks like a rookie out there. HIT SOMEBODY! The teddy bear wearing #15 shouldn't be making more contact with people than you do! Erlana mostly committed fouls. Spencer was a decent rebounder, but I'm still not sure why we traded for her.
Bonita Spence lost weight, but she also seems to have lost competence. I wouldn't be surprised if the play where Shameka was injured gets reviewed by the league. There were some dangerously borderline plays that weren't called that could lead to the axiomatic slippery slope. No full nelsons, please.
Awesomesauce sightings: Billie Jean King, Sue Wicks, Kym Hampton. Also, Kia and/or Essence may have had folks in the stands. There was also a ridiculously tall, skinny blonde who left around the same time as Sue. I mean really tall. She made Sue look short, while wearing flats. Our guess is that she was a former St. Francis player, Katja Bavendam.
I also love the new video for "Gotta Get Up". Ashley's little dance moves! The performance was live today, which was way cool, but I hope it's not live for every game.
Flags! Flags for the starters! Made of win! "Do you have a flag?" "Yes, actually! *plants flag in some other team's ass*"
It's good to be home. It's always good to be home. I just wish we'd had a little more offense after Leilani's shot.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
June 6th, 2009: Washington at Connecticut
Washington Mystics 82, Connecticut Sun 70
Lindsay Whalen can't do it alone, Marissa Coleman kicks ass, and kinks need to be worked out.
Let The Games Begin!
Other than the scenic tour of beautiful West Haven, the ride up for our first game of the regular season was uneventful. We got to Mohegan 'round about two-thirty, having left downtown Manhattan at eleven-thirty. Some young kid was trying to sell tickets in the lobby. He might have done better if he didn't keep asking the people who were going to will call. They already have tickets, you idiot.
Mohegan security really is getting ridiculous. Did they care about our little cameras? No, but I was informed that there were no stuffed animals allowed in the arena and that I would have to leave Kiabear at the bag check. Yeah, no. I stuffed her deep in my bag, brought her out for one photo op, and put her away. I would dearly like to know what the rationale is for that. No, seriously, WTF?
Speaking of WTF, Vicky Bullett didn't seem to be with the team today. What gives? Did something happen in her personal life, or were the Mystics only allowed to bring two assistants with them or something? Weird. Discomfiting. I was really looking forward to seeing her on the sidelines.
"I'm coming back out" is one of the biggest lies a player can tell a fan. Don't believe it.
Interesting anthem, though I note this is the second time Mohegan's used someone who's performing either later that night or the next day. He had better ideas than execution.
So. Jesus Hypothetical Christ, Marissa Coleman. Yeah, I know, skipping past the starters. WTFever. Jesus Hypothetical Christ, Marissa Coleman. She's so damn smooth. And she works. And she fits well with the rest of them- Currie and Coleman spent a lot of time out there together, and she also works really well with Harding. That's a good omen for them.
Okay, back to the starters. Harding seems to be back to herself. She's much faster than I remember her being, so her knee must have healed up. She kept that offense clicking. The ACC connection is really paying early dividends for the Mystics. There's a sense of teamwork on the floor that I'm not used to seeing out of Washington. Beard didn't have to play a lot, which must have been refreshing for her- some decent defensive plays, but nothing spectacular. Melvin pretty well owned the inside. She cleaned up. Sanford kept getting in foul trouble (well, worse foul trouble than her teammates, given the foul situation in the game, but more on that later), and I keep remembering why I don't like her. Currie kept getting to the line, which is her most marketable skill.
Coleman was the most useful of the Mystic reserves. Tasha Humphrey kept riding a stationary bike while on the bench, and she got into it with fuzzy orange Blaze a bit, but that was because he was blocking her view of the game, and she didn't approve of that. I don't think I blame her. Langhorne was really effective against the small lineup the Sun played for stretches (of course, this has about 80% to do with Langhorne and 20% to do with her matchup, but we'll get to that when we get to the Sun's reserves). Ajavon played six minutes, took five shots, and missed four of them. That's the Matee Ajavon I came to know and detest at RU! Brief Nikki Blue sighting. Josephine Owino continues to do a job I could very easily do.
So with this backcourt Connecticut's using, sometime around the second quarter Whalen said, in so many words and actions, "Fuck it. Erin, you're point guard today. I'm gonna be shooting guard. Not like any of you fuckers are doing anything useful." So she started swishing threes while Erin Phillips wondered where the hell her shot went, or Who she pissed off, because some of those shots were in and out. Obviously her good luck got stuck at Logan, or Tweed, or wherever she flew into, and is currently languishing in baggage claim. She's still feisty, though. Remember, kids, it's not a game until the resident Aussie hits the floor. Chante Black showed that she's still very much a rookie, and her early foul trouble hampered the Sun and their rotations. Gardin was a large bundle of bad-free-throw-shooting useless. Asjha Jones did most of her good stuff late in the game, as if someone lit a fire under her ass after the third quarter. Then she started seeking out contact and getting to the line.
I think I'm about ready to give up on talking about Whitmore. Every game is pretty much the same thing. For every good play she makes, she'll make two or three bad ones, she's still flat-footed as hell, and on bad days she flinches away from contact- this one who was supposed to be the banger Thibault was dying for. Catch the ball, Tamika. Drive the ball, Tamika. Do something that doesn't suck, Tamika, as long as it's against anyone but New York. Okay, I'm done with that. :D Kiesha Brown seems to have sworn Bride-style vengeance against the Mystics, except instead of a katana, she has a jump shot. Here's one thing that struck me about her- one play, with the clock running down, away from the ball, I noticed her gaze flick up to the clock and back again. Savvy move. Most players don't remember to check the clock when they do have the ball. Barbara Turner was way off her game on both ends of the floor- she blew two open layups, and she kept misplacing Marissa Coleman. How you do that, I'll never know, but there was one play in particular where she just wandered off, at which point Coleman canned a shot (or maybe it was Langhorne, the assignments got tweaked when Turner was playing the 4, but there was epic attention span fail on Turner's part). The guy behind me remarked that Cirone looks like Carey, and I can see that- but she's less of a placeholder and more of a spark than Carey was. Ervin's got cojones, but she's gone when Gruda shows up.
Plank was really prepared. I'm impressed. Not easy to say about a Mystics coach. Their oncourt chemistry looked great.
Our section, 19, was one section over from the Official Mystics Cheering Section. You could tell because Angela Taylor was there. *g* I suspect, given that it's at an angle to the visiting bench, that we'll be hearing from a lot of visiting fans.
The refereeing was... interesting, though some of the calls the Sun fans were kvetching about were legit calls. (The most egregious example of that was when Whalen got tangled up with Melvin and got called for the foul- the Sun faithful were sure Melvin initiated.) Everything evened out, sort of.
Halftime entertainment was drumming. It sounded pretty cool, and bonus points for giving away the drumsticks.
Connecticut is attempting a train with little kids, a la Seattle. I see absolutely no way this could end badly. [/sarcasm]
The Mystics disappeared after the game. The Northeast Corridor's Usual Suspects staked out the hotel for over an hour after the game, but the only person we saw was Barbara Turner wandering around. Maybe there's some kind of magic in the air after all.
What's in box #1? The world may never know.
It was a good game, and I won money at the casino. What's not to like? If this keeps up, I might even win back the value of my tickets. *g*
Sunday, May 31, 2009
May 31st, 2009: Los Angeles at Connecticut (preseason)
Los Angeles Sparks 80, Connecticut Sun 77
Play for your lives, borderline and mediocre players! Play for your very lives!
That was one of the more interesting preseason games I've ever been to. Both teams came out like it meant something, or at least the personnel on the floor did. Obviously the coaches didn't, or it would have been Jones going on Leslie in the post in the last couple of minutes, not Ervin and Page against Hayden.
Pretty decent crowd for a preseason game on a nice day with one of the marquee Sparks out of commission. And there were a few Parker jerseys running around. Really, I'm surprised so many people were allowed to approve of Tennessee alumnae in the state of Connecticut; I thought that was against state law or something. Bobbitt got a decent round of applause.
Noelle Quinn really needs to talk to Rittenhouse, because her 2008 card looks nothing like her, to the point where the only reason anyone was able to get it signed was because someone asked if she was, in fact, Noelle Quinn. Lots of people brought Leslie's book for Leslie to sign. She worked the crowd professionally and politely.
Anthem singer could probably start a second career (first and a halfth career?) as a Martina McBride impersonator. I liked her. I don't know if I'd haul back out to Mohegan to see her again, but I liked her.
So every time I wonder why I disliked the Sparks, Lisa Leslie throws an elbow or DeLisha Milton-Jones throws her shoulder, and I go, "Oh, YEAH, that was it!" To be fair, they were the only two I noticed for LA with the extracurriculars. In the time she got, though she was being surprisingly well defended, Leslie looked like her old self. She had one fadeaway jumper that was absolutely gorgeous, and she showed her familiar knack for getting the call. DMJ didn't seem to be on the same page of the playbook as everyone else- normally, I'd cut the vet some slack, but it happened a few times, with different combinations of players. Not a great game for Quinn, but Lord, she's tall for a guard, and stocky too. She seems to be buying into this defense concept (along with the rest of the Sparks- talk about lock-down D!). Lennox looked like she was shaking off rust- but it's really hard to gauge the starters in this game, since both Thibault and Cooper were using it to assess their bench. But, okay, also, it's hard to assess Tina Thompson beyond "Did the basket even move?" Someday we're going to look back on her and go, "WOW." Fernandez was going for the highlight reel every time out; Marta, you are aware that there aren't degree of difficulty points in basketball, unless you count the three-point arc, right? I wonder if that's a family trait. Hayden came in and made some plays by dint of her size. Seeing her against Chante Black made me hurt in sympathy for Black, and at one point I did call out, "Please don't break the rookie!" Harrower just looks WRONG in a Sparks jersey. FWIW, I think she ran the team a little better tha Bobbitt did, but neither of them was any great shakes. MFH battened on late free throws for possession, and seems to think she's acquired a jump shot. I fail to see any point in keeping Jessica Moore on the roster. Ashley Paris will need time, but she's got the right idea. Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton, I'm not sure about, and with the rosters the way they are, "not sure" is not a good thing.
Erin Phillips is fucking awesome. What, you want analysis? Okay, fine. She's a maker of happening. If she is in the game, she will be good for her team. She'll hit a shot, or she'll hit the floor, or she'll get a steal, or something. Asjha Jones started off like gangbusters, but went cold very quickly, and with Thibault using this as "play for your career" time (thanks, caune!), she didn't see extended minutes. Tamika Whitmore continues to be the Tamika Whitmore I know and... er, know... from New York- she'll make a bad play, then a good play, then a bad play. There was one point when she tangled with Leslie that I thought someone was going to end up in the stands again- elbows going all over the place, good lawd. Chante Black did not have a good game, though I recall a couple of stealthily brilliant defensive plays. Lindsay Whalen was a non-factor, though see note above about time for starters. Kerri Gardin needs to learn to hit shots again. Any would be nice; her FT% was atrocious. Surprised Turner didn't get more touches, though I suppose Thibault wanted to see what the less sure things would do. Cirone looked very much like she was in over her head. I don't know that she's made a good case for herself in game situations. Hayes did not impress me like she did last time. There's something I like about Ervin, and until I looked at the boxscore I couldn't figure out what it was. I think she might be used to having to be the go-to woman from Arkansas, so she was able to step up at the end of the game. So did Danielle Page, for that matter. And Lyndra Littles, after having some of the worst games I've seen from someone nominally playing for her basketball life, suddenly turned the intensity up to eleven in the last five minutes and was EVERYWHERE. Her shots started going in, she got to the line, she was all over the place on the boards- it was like someone flipped a switch, or gave her Red Bull or something. Swanier was just kinda there.
'sup, Denise? Your linesmen are idiots. Not too many missed calls, though there were some pretty bad out-of-bounds misses. But I kind of realized this was one of those crews when she was all but whipping one of her linesmen over to the scorer's table.
Scout sightings: Anne Donovan and Pat Coyle. Donovan's kinda hard to miss, and kinda telegraphs the Liberty's interest in a game- perhaps they should invest in stilts for some interns so they can fake people out?
Cute moment before the game- while Kristi Harrower was signing autographs, Erin Phillips came up behind her and greeted her warmly.
The first quarter was really exciting- fast-paced, with enough defensive stops to keep it interesting. And the fourth quarter got dramatic in a hurry. However, if the kids behind me who screamed for the Sun to shoot the ball every time they touched it, even in the backcourt, hadn't moved down so they could shrill for t-shirts, I would have snapped before the game got good again. LA's defense really, really locked down starting in the second quarter. Very impressive.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
May 22nd, 2009: New York at Connecticut (preseason)
Connecticut Sun 74, New York Liberty 62
Close to nine hours on a bus, and the Liberty's backcourt decision-making, have the Game Notes of Doom doubting their sanity.
I'm assuming you don't want to hear about the Bus Trip From The Pits of Hell Itself. I left Flushing at eleven in the morning and got to Mohegan at quarter past five. That's six and a half hours, for the math challenged among you. JayhawkNYC shares my pain; however, she didn't have to deal with a pair of whiny old coots.
I'm starting to think Mohegan comps those lower bowl endcourt tickets, because this is the second time in a row someone's been trying to dump those tickets on the line. Not that I care; I get good seats at what I'd pay for upper deck seats. Leilani tended to disappear behind the stanchion, though. Tiny bunny is tiny.
Tiny bunny also did not play very much, both because Coyle was tinkering with the lineup and because she got into a lot of foul trouble. Since Loree was inactive, that left us slightly shy of PGs, to say the least. Abby played a few minutes there, and wasn't great at it. I think they tried having Spencer run the offense, and that went as well as you could expect, though she had a couple of good passes to Jessica. Of all the makeshift options, Essence was the least godsawful, but that's really, really damning with faint praise there. Loree, you're under orders to heal up and stay healthy, damnit. Also, iron, plz to be using it on your pants. The usual suspects started, but Cathrine and Janel both played very light minutes. Cathrine wasn't big statwise, but she's starting to do the things that Erin used to do- she's calling out screens, she's counting down the shot clock, she's encouraging her teammates. You can hear her even when she's not on the floor. It's a good thing. Janel looked good in her limited minutes. Very Janel-like. Shameka seemed kinda discombobulated, but maybe she was up late taking in the Mohegan nightlife. She's a diva, she does that kind of stuff. ;) Abby had her moments, but overall, I don't think she's ready for the next level. Spencer was overall unimpressive. Lisa was up and down. Ashley hustled, but we could have assumed that simply because she's breathing. Erlana... eesh. Lark didn't do herself any favors tonight. Jess looked much better than her line against Washington; the only caveat was that she was mostly playing against the Sun's reserve posts. Kia played all right- a little bit of good, a little bit of bad. She seems to need some warm-up time to get her groove on. It's good to see Miss Jackson again, but she too needs a little time to get back into the flow of things.
So far, it's looking like the Sun picked up a good one in Chante Black. It's been a long time since I've seen someone use her height so comfortably. She did a great job keeping rebounds alive and blocking or changing a lot of shots. She'll get pushed around because of her build, but she'll be very useful for the Sun in a few years. Everyone, quick, pretend to be surprised that Whalen and Phillips looked ready to play. I hope Phillips is okay, though- she took a pretty hard conk to the head in 'bout the third quarter, and I don't think she went back into the game. Asjha Jones just keeps getting better, smoother, and slicker. Goddamn, look at this fucking power forward, man. Tamika Whitmore looked like the Tamika Whitmore we knew and... er, knew... in New York. Barbara Turner looked to be in over her head, which isn't good for a returning veteran. Danielle Page blocked both Jess and Lark, which is kind of embarrassing for New York. Littles, Gay, and Ervin didn't do themselves any favors. Cirone played very briefly and was all but handed a steal on a really awful pass that resulted in a Sun fast break. Hayes stepped it up later in the game- I don't know what it is, but I like her a lot, and if she doesn't make this roster, I'd like to see her try to stick somewhere else. I think she could do it.
I swear to God, Bonita Spence is stalking me. I don't think I can even count anymore how many arenas I've seen her officiating in. The crew wasn't egregiously awful, although I do wish they'd called Amber Holt's attempt to check Spencer into the nonexistent boards a foul instead of just an out of bounds.
Smallish crowd, and most of the enthusiasm was still for the Huskies on the various rosters. The people all around me were Husky fans, and I got used to reciting, "For Connecticut, #11 is Ketia Swanier, #22 is Barbara Turner, #15 is Asjha Jones, for New York, #22 is Ashley Battle." I befriended themw ith the duplicate Barbara Turner cards in my bag. This is one of the reasons I carry spare cards.
Best plays on the court: for Connecticut, Erin Phillips's twisting lay-up down the lane; for New York, I'm partial to Jessica Davenport's left-handed hook shot.
Favorite moment away from the play: either Ashley, Lisa, or Loree yelling "LET'S GO WEINER!" at Abby. I heard the yell, but by the time I looked over there, all three of them were covering their mouths and laughing. Runner-up: half the bench looking at Ashley like she forgot something when a three was good and she didn't immediately high-five everyone.
Sometimes life just hands you a punchline, and if you're like me, and you have vaudeville in your blood like I do, you can't do anything except grasp it firmly with both hands and pull. At halftime, I walked the concourse because my legs were cramped (see the beginning bit, with the six hours on the bus). I spotted Blaze (the fake blonde, not the fuzzy orange one) and we exchanged polite nods. Not long after, I ran into a friend of mine, and we started chatting about the game. Spencer came up and I asked, "Why did we trade for Sidney friggin' Spencer?" He told me not to ask him. I turned around, and there Blaze was, buying herself a drink. So, being the incorrigible loudmouth I am, I belted out, "WHY DID WE TRADE FOR SIDNEY FRIGGIN' SPENCER?" With as much aplomb as is possible while buying beer, she ignored me, which I don't blame her for doing. Like I said. Sometimes life just hands you a punchline.
So good to see everyone again. Now I want season, damnit.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
April 9th, 2009: WNBA draft
Strange picks, but good times are had by all in Secaucus.
And the "oh, wow" just keeps on coming. Seriously, you guys, you have no idea how awesome things are until you're there.
We got to the offices earlier than we anticipated, since there was no traffic, and everyone at the league office treated us really well- probably better than they were supposed to, but you're not going to hear me complain. They let us up into the reception in what would normally be the viewing room, which was decked out half in NBA pictures and half in WNBA pictures. They also had some memorabilia on display- signed balls, ASG tickets, bobble-heads, that sort of thing. (The offices are actually covered in it, but in this case, it was specifically WNBA.) They served sandwiches and finger foods, including some nummy chocolate-coated things. Families started drifting in- Januarys, Bonners, McCantses, and a few other folk (didn't see everyone's nametag). There was an absolutely adorable sapling from the McCants family tree wandering around. So cute.
Somewhere around quarter to three, the room started clearing out. The folks at my table looked up and everyone else was gone. I was starting to wonder if we'd somehow offended them, but then someone official came over to the table and said that we could watch the draft in the studio, live. I may have set a land speed record for getting out of a chair.
We ended up in two seats in the back row, right by the aisle where everyone was coming in and out, which became very cool because we could congratulate everyone as they came back as official WNBA players. We could also see Rebecca Lobo working with her index cards, which meant that we could actually note the early picks before Orender's official announcement, since she was getting the word the same time Orender was backstage so that she could be prepared for the interviews. That was handy for Tweeting and texting my mom (who threatened my life if I didn't give her the picks), because I could start before the official announcement and be done as soon as Madam President finished her line. (Official type people, relax- I did my best not to Tweet names, and I never got a pick out before it was officially announced.)
I tried to applaud, but with a phone in one hand and a camera in the other, it was a bit difficult, even without factoring in the large handbag, and the, um, teddy bear. (It's a long and, considering my recent draft posts, ironic story.) Sometime in the middle of the first round, our wonderful escort came to fetch petrel for his photo op with Angel McCoughtry, and I tried to take pictures for him, but I don't know how well they came out. Then, in the beginning of the second round, our charming escort brought petrel back and came for me to do my photo op with Kia Vaughn. While I can't say that was the pick I would have made for the Liberty, I was still pumped up for the chance, because, hey, Libkid and a Scarlet Knight to boot. Also, see above re: teddy bear. We got to do one standing shot and then one where we were both holding the jersey- yes, even though the Liberty traded their third-round pick, I made the "local flyer in the third round" joke. I got back to the studio just in time for Brown to come to the podium and announce the pick of Waner.
Lots of movement behind the scenes- not the exciting kind of player movement, the "people going from place to place" kind of movement. I was impressed that Coleman and Toliver stuck around for the second and third rounds. Angel wandered out for a while, but went back in before either of us could work up our nerve to say hi.
The board went really wonky near the end of the third round- it got players' schools mixed up and spat up Anna McLean for triple fail (she's from Iona, not Kansas State, and is taking an extra year of eligibility due to missing a season with a womb, and therefore wasn't being drafted at all, unless San Antonio was considering her, but changed their mind before making it official when someone realized Jesus Christ, Candyce Bingham is still on the board, you guys! and snapped her up).
And then there was more nattering from the commentators, and petrel and I decided we'd heard quite enough of that. Siberia, Nancy? Siberia? So we headed out and met up with our excellent escort to put the capper on a great day and a fabulous week.
So here I gotta give the NBA event people their props- things went smoothly, beautifully, and better than I could ever have imagined. Special thanks to Christine, who was our guide, escort, shepherd, negotiator, and all-around miracle worker, with the patience to put up with us both yesterday and today. This was amazing.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
April 8th 2009: WNBA pre-draft meet and greet
eeee omg eeee omg eeee omg The Game Notes of Doom get the red carpet treatment at the pre-draft meet-and-greets omg omg omg, shoot on par with all-conference players, and enjoy trivia omg yay.
OMG, you guys. My train of thought just keeps turning into eee OMG eee OMG EEEE OMG OMG OMG, so I beg your indulgence if I lack my usual wit and eloquent turns of phrase.
Got to the NBA Store a bit before five in order to properly meet up with Petrel and get credentialed. The folks with the league were kind enough to also allow Happycappie to join the party. Unfortunately, I'm not good in mingling situations, so while the draftees-to-be were out there with hoity-toity hors d'oeuvres, I was hiding in a corner with my homies, wondering how exactly it's possible to lose a six-foot-three blonde. (Answer: you stick her behind a giant bobble-head of Allen Iverson.)
Sue Wicks was our MC, and while I've missed Sue being strange and random a lot, she, um... I think she hit the bar and the bar hit back. She was kinda rambling, and then there was the whole Chante McCants thing, which, um, of all the players to mix up, maybe the Dukie and the Tar Heel weren't the two you should mix up. My favorite bit of the intros might have been Angel McCoughtry, who just kinda wandered out while Sue was still reading her accolades, waved to everyone like someone hadn't missed a cue, and settled in. Sue was quite nonplussed.
Quote of the night, when the seniors were asked about players they were looking forward to playing with or against, from Courtney Paris: "Kara Lawson, because we're both point guards." Though if I'd had a view of whoever said that the thing she'd miss most about college was traveling on the private plane, I'd be able to attribute the quote and that might beat out Paris's line. Most of the questions were traditional pap, so you'll pardon me for not having written down answers. They did manage to, eventually, name the eight original teams. The fact that it took fourteen of them to come up with eight cities should bother me.
Being in with the in-crowd, we got to start collecting the autos early... going the wrong direction, of course. Points to Chante Black for being able to multitask, signing autographs and doing an interview at the same time. Managed to hit three reporters at once. Ashley Paris and Kia Vaughn are not quite as good at the multitasking. Said hi to Angel, but because she was sitting next to Marissa Coleman, I didn't say what I fully wanted to say ("Hi, I'm a St. John's fan, and I wanted to thank you for finishing the job we started in 2006 by knocking off Maryland- it would have been lovely if we'd done it all together, but I'm glad you landed on your feet and helped elevate the game in Louisville.") Points to Lindsey Wisdom-Hylton for actually being with it enough to notice that I was wearing my Final Four t-shirt.
Then we got to take the bus to ESPNZone with the players. Well, they were all gathered in the back and we were closer to the front near security, so it's not like we were interacting with them, but we were on the bus. The interaction happened later, when we were upstairs in the arcade playing Pop-a-Shot with and against some of the players- petrel and I were on a team with Wisdom-Hylton and Shavonte Zellous. I can say with great pride that we held our own against these all-conference draft prospects. I think petrel actually won the round.
Our league contact took us downstairs for dinner, and we joined the main mass for trivia hosted by NBHOFNL. All three of us took home prizes from that- 2008 Rittenhouse auto cards. Petrel got a Lieberman for his correct answer, I got a Tangela Smith for mine, and Happycappie snagged a Jennifer Lacy auto. (Which, come to think of it, we really should have swapped around somehow so the Dream fan got the card of the Dream player. We r smrt.) We couldn't make out most of what was being said at the main table, but I figure it wasn't much different from the softball lobs during the NBA Store portion of the event, so we kept chattering with our contact about our fan stories and Rebkell's.
Fashion notes on the day: damn, Kia Vaughn cleans up nice. She dresses well, and that big smile just totally transforms her face. Kinda like Taj- when she smiles, the whole world smiles. DeWanna Bonner really should not wear knee-length skirts. Go with the pants or the long skirts. She's got some chicken legs on her, and the shoe choice did not help. I liked the pale pink of Wisdom-Hylton's top. Courtney Paris might want to move up a size in the tops department. That shirt was a tad too tight, and I know exactly how unflattering a too-tight top can be on a big girl. Didn't get a close look at anyone else's outfit, so I don't think anyone had any OH DEAR GOD NO moments with their fashion other than Bonner.
Of course, I'll report on fashion from on-site tomorrow, along with other things. :D
April 7th, 2009: Louisville at Connecticut (NCAA tournament)
Victory! Defeat! Tiny adhesive Cardinal heads!
Nota bene: These notes are being written the night of the title game, though I'm unable to post them in St. Louis- I no can haz intarwebs. :(
Either way, this game was going to be historic. Either way, it was a privilege to be there for the game. Either way, it's been a fantastic ride.
Accidentally being booked at the official Connecticut hotel had its advantages. We wandered into the official UConn pep rally. We stuck around for a while, enjoying the cheerleaders and being very confused by the bright orange fountain. But though the cheerleaders' nerves of steel- doing two-and-three-level pyramids on sidewalk is pretty courageous- impressed us, the fans were only moderately involved, so we got bored and wandered towards the arena. Since it was too early to go in, we wandered towards Union Station. Then we heard the dulcet strains of a marching band and wound our way through the mall until we came to the hotel of the Marriott and discovered the Louisville pep rally. This was not moderate involvement. Card fans were revved up for this historic occasion. They brought large inflatable Cardinals and small adhesive Cardinals; one of the latter is still stuck to my shirt.
It's a shame the players couldn't channel the fans' enthusiasm and energy. Angel McCoughtry and Becky Burke seemed to be the only players out there who gave a damn. I honestly think they lost a minute of game time because Deseree' Byrd took five to ten seconds on every possession to get the play. Thank every God there's no ten-second rule in the women's game, or this probably would have been a thirty-point game with the extra L'ville turnovers. I liked the idea of having her drive on Montgomery- she's bigger and stronger, so theoretically, she should have been able to muscle Montgomery out of the way and score. The theory fell flat on its face when Byrd couldn't even find the barn to hit the side of. Same problem for most of the Cards, come ot think of it- I don't have a box score accessible, but I shudder to think of what Louisville's shooting percentage was, especially in the second half, when most of their shots were random flings at the glass. But Byrd was especially guilty. At least McCoughtry hit some of hers, got to the line, and got some steals, and at least Bingham was active on the boards. But the rest of the Cards did a disappearing magic trick behind their two stars. Well, okay. Burke didn't play much of the game, but when she did, she was on top of things. Ditto for Monique Reid, who's going to be a key player for them next year, judging from her play this postseason.
I could be wrong, but Tina Charles might have gotten tired of Geno being pissed at her. She went absolutely nuts out there. Louisville doesn't really have a center, so Charles devoured Candyce Bingham for lunch and had room left over for anyone else who came at her. With Charles in the middle, they didn't need much from anyone else, but Montgomery was more than willing to drive and add some offense, and then Maya Moore started adding her contributions in the second half, and that, as they say, was the end of that. Not to mention that Moore's defense was beautiful. She's so graceful. God. I hate piling compliments on a Husky like this, and I hate having to find new ways to be impressed by her. Make it stop. McLaren was a game-changing weapon off the bench, not in terms of anything she necessarily did, but by clogging the paint and slowing the game up. Louisville was having enough trouble on the boards and, y'know, actually hitting shots, but with two bigs in against the very small Cardinals, Louisville was screwed. UConn's screen-setting led to a lot of ugly mismatches. Byrd on Charles is made of fail. And I liked that both teams deliberately stopped the clock to get their subs in.
Inconsistent refereeing, blah blah blah cakes.
Dear UConn band: please do not jump the other team's turn. Please also learn to coordinate with your loud, passionate fans so that you're chanting the same thing at the same time.
Oh, Geno. Seriously, don't ever change. You're one of the best-written characters in women's basketball; we couldn't make you up if we tried. Going through the de-netted hoop was one of the funniest things I've ever seen on a basketball court.
In conclusion: ladies of Connecticut, ladies of Louisville, ladies of Stanford, ladies of Oklahoma, and the rest of the field, it's been a pleasure and a privilege flying with you this year. Things may not have turned out the way I would have liked, but there's nothing in the world like being at the Final Four when the confetti comes down, the net gets snipped, the trophies are handed out, the winning fans cry with joy, the losing fans cry with grief... and, eventually, the lights go down.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
April 5th, 2009: Stanford at UConn (NCAA tournament)
Connecticut Huskies 83, Stanford Cardinal 63
Jayne Appel and the Stanford Cardinal are quite singular, Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery are a dynamic duo, and UConn lets up on the gas pedal.
And then it was on to game two. The de facto championship game, or so it was declared. The heavyweight match. UConn versus Stanford. Both teams out for revenge.
And then it turned out that Jayne Appel was really the only Stanford player who actually gave a damn about the fact that this was the Final Four, and even she wasn't as sharp as she could have been. But Pedersen especially seemed to be slacking off (especially in the second half, where the only way she seemed to know how to get involved was to commit stupid hard fouls). Stanford's guards were going to lose the matchup battle with the Huskies anyway, but I wasn't expecting Pohlen and Harmon to be quite so epic in their fail. Ogwumike seemed overwhelmed by the moment for most of the game- it ws only after UConn had, er, called off the dogs, that she seemed to get into her groove. Gold-Onwude seemed to be the only bench player for the Cardinal who wanted to get involved (it's a Queens thing, we don't take shit from people ;)). Though we were at the other end of the arena from the Stanford bench, I'm pretty sure VanDerveer was asking her team what the hell was wrong with them. They tried to force-feed the post a lot, which seemed ridiculous, especially since they were feeding her in the low post, when she's better as a European-style high post, making her plays further out. UConn is not Iowa State, and though Tina Charles isn't quite as big as Appel, she's a helluva lot better than anything the Cyclones were throwing at her in that game. And Uconnc ame with the help a lot more often than ISU did.
Good fucking God, Renee Montgomery. I think she decided that she didn't care what anyone else had in mind, she doesn't plan to lose her last college game. If she weren't so frigging tiny, she'd be the best shooting guard in the draft, but because of her size, she pretty much has to be a point guard, and I wouldn't want my nominal distributor taking that many shots. Being an offensive threat so that the other team can't double down o my top player, yes. Being a shothog, no. And Maya Moore was right alongside her in making sure Stanford was never really much of a credible threat. God, she's so smooth- in that regard, in the way she moves and the smooth silky grace she has- she reminds me of Candice Dupree. And I think she might be psychic on top of everything else- one of her rebounds was on some beautiful anticipation on a missed Stanford FT. Kalana Greene made the Cardinal regret leaving her open, because she has that nice little midrange jumper. McLaren's size made a big difference in the middle- more, I would say, than Charles, though Charles is the more skilled player. I keep thinking of Rutgers last year, when Vaughn was the more talented player but Junaid was getting the big minutes because she was a little more savvy with her body. But I'll get off this Scarlet tangent before the Husky fans come after me with a length of rope and some inappropriate comments about my hair. For all that UConn turned on the afterburners and got the lead up to 30 before letting it slip down to nineteen or so... that was Geno slowing the game up (and Hayes being a very astute freshman and backing the ball out to waste more clock on two different plays). I like that he doesn’t run up the score when he has the talent and the time to do it.
'sup, Denise? Congrats on the big gig! I remember when you were just a linesman on Bonita Spence's crew. Now you're in the Final Four. Sweet. Shame about the crappy linesmen you keep getting stuck with, though. Again, a very inconsistently called game- loose, then tight, then loose again, then, just as we're starting to think they're loosening it up so everyone can go home or to the bar, they tightened it up again.
UConn, as always, traveled exceedingly well, both in their allocation (points for the matching tees!) and in general. Signs your team's lead is so big that the game's a lead pipe cinch: when your semi-official spirit guy starts the chants, your enthusiasm is dimmed to about a third of what it was in the first half. It was kinda funny. And how can you not love the Stanford band and that kooky Tree? I mean, the highlight of the day was watching the Tree and the band kick ass in the Battle of the Bands, then sitting with the band while the Tree participated in the mascot challenge. (The organizers seemed confused as to why the band wasn't leaving the vicinity- they didn't seem to realize that the Tree is part of the band, and they're not going to leave their homie behind.)
Funny how everyone thought this was going to be the closely contested game and that the first one was going to be a blowout. I think VanDerveer is wondering the same thing, because Stanford's body language about midway into the second half screamed "we've lost already, just kill us and get it over with, and we do mean kill us, because we have to fly back with Coach if you don't, and that's an experience worse than death." Now that the Big East has established its dominance in women's hoops this year, I'd like to see a competitive game on Tuesday- and, hopefully, a more properly filled arena. There were some shamefully empty sections.
April 5th, 2009: Louisville at Oklahoma (NCAA tournament)
Louisville Cardinals 61, Oklahoma Sooners 59
Angel McCoughtry cranks it up, the Cards D up, and alas, Courtney Paris will have to pay up.
Oh, what a game. This is what you pay the big bucks for.
We started our day out at Hoop City, where we saw lots of people and lots of different teams, sort of rubbed elbows with a bunch of coaches, got autographs from Nell Fortner, brought home souvenirs (I outshot him on the five-bar shootout, but we both got the same prize :(), watched the Battle of the Bands (Stanford got screwed because the fans were strictly partisan on their voting), the Mascot Challenge (the Louisville Cardinal won), and soaked in the experience.
After that, it was off to the Scottrade Center to join the rest of our fanbase. We were up pretty high, since we went through the lottery and didn't know people, though there was a woman giving out tickets for lower deck seats on the concourse. The people two rows behind us, who were nearly back into the wall, took full advantage of that.
A nicely performed anthem by the Louisville band, who seem to be enjoying their experience. Though it's technically improper, I do like their tradition of holding hands during the anthem- even with the mascot. They came out slow in the first half- really bad, looking like they didn't know what they were doing. They kept themselves in it with their defense, and it probably should have been a warning sign for Oklahoma that they'd kept two starters off the scoreboard and limited McCoughtry to four free throws, but they were still only up twelve. Then the second half started, and Walz, having screwed with his lineup in the first half, brought the players I think were his usual starters back in, and Hines especially played like someone had set a firecracker under her butt. And McCoughtry just up and decided that this wasn't going to be her last game, that if her team was going to make school history, they were going to keep making it. She was making plays she hadn't been making in the first half, and that really fired her team up. Bingham was the only relative constant, and I think she played her way up the draft board as a three, though someone is going to have to work on her shot so she doesn't do a split every time she shoots. Byrd showed questionable decision-making when it came to her shooting, but she set her teammates up well. Reid gave them good minutes when the wrath of the refs came down on their pivotal players- I think that was a critical part of what allowed them to come back. Becky Burke's threes were the back-breakers. I really liked watching Walz play chess against Coale, especially when McCoughtry, Bingham, and Byrd were all saddled with four fouls- he kept playing strong defense, but sent Burke and Reid after the ball instead of Byrd and his forwards.
I do have a soft spot for the Sooners, and I don't know that this was the way I'd have wanted them to go out. Courtney Paris just seemed off her game tonight, which I guess we can credit to the Louisville posts. I mean, don't get me wrong, she was a force inside on the boards, but she didn't seem to be fighting for her shots as hard as she usually does. Ashley was more effective as a scorer, but Louisville keyed on how to stop her in the second half. Hand's hot shooting early opened things up, but she couldn't replicate it in the second half. And though they deflected a lot of balls and got after a lot of boards, they weren't able to effectively convert them. In the first half, their offense was clicking, and that passing drill I mentioned in the notes from the open practice would come in very handy as they patiently chipped away at the Louisville defense until a shooter finally got open. In the second half, I don't know if the Cardinals were reading the passing lanes better or they were starting to panic, but they weren't moving as crisply and things just fell apart for them.
Refs sucked. Again, all I ask for is consistency. It doesn't even have to be competence anymore. It just has to be consistent incompetence.
Louisville traveled really well. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting them to, but they were loud and proud. Oklahoma was also well represented, though I was't amused when they all hied for the hills after the game. I can understand wanting to get away from this building of despair, but y'all did realize you basically threw $40 in the trash, right?
As a fan of the game, I'm disappointed for Oklahoma that it ended this soon, that the Parises didn't get to take one last shot at their title, that they crumbled under the pressure. As a fan of the game, I'm ecstatic that Louisville is extending this sparkling run, that Jeff Walz is really showing that he can shine as a coach, and especially that Angel McCoughtry has one more chance to strut her stuff on the national stage. I live for this.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
April 4th, 2009: WBCA All-Star game
Everything's bigger in Texas, the referees really don't know what they're doing, and Skylar Diggins does.
And then it was off to the WBCA high school All-American game, in the company of the lovely ladies from Full Court Press, some folks from Purdue, one woman who I accidentally hit in the face while putting my jacket on, and a few other miscellaneous people. Oh, and a bus driver who had to have done his initial lessons on a horse and buggy. Good LORD. He had no idea where he was going or what he was doing. Still, there's nothing quite like the feeling of looking out the window and going, "Hey, that's Coach Staley." (Or, for that matter, "...did I just walk past Carla McGhee?")
Washington University in St. Louis has a beautiful little gym. Very crisp and clean. The seat cushions wouldn't fit in my bag, but they would have come in really handy on those hard bleachers. Really big crowd, all things considered, because I don't think they were prepared to open the upper deck. I think we were actually sitting in the wrong place, but the Big East pad that t6w gave me probably made me look convincing, even though I was mostly using it to keep track of gear I'd seen or schools I could otherwise prove had been in the house (I mean, I didn't see anyone in South Carolina gear, but I consider Dawn Staley and Carla McGhee to be successful representatives of the Gamecocks). I'm going to continue being starstruck liek woah, because OMG we were four rows behind Pat Summitt and OMG we were a section over from Sylvia Hatchell, and OMG was that Marissa Coleman who just went by? In case you have not figured out yet, a) "eeee omg eeee omg eeee omg" has been my train of thought for most of the last week, and b) there were a lot of familiar faces at the game.
I know everyone's got themselves squeeing their pants over Brittney Griner, and she has the tools to become a star player, but right now, she's not an immediate OMG type player. Yes, she's a defensive presence because of her height and wingspan, and she changes shots both directly by blocking them out of bounds and by forcing people to shoot over or around her and therefore take some godsawful shot, but so does DeHaan, and DeHaan's not talked about as a superstar. I think Griner will develop- Mulkey will force her to- but right now she looks unsure of herself when not shot-blocking, and really has to work on the fundamentals of her game. I wasn't really impressed with any of the players on the blue team. I know Griner put up the big numbers, and I know Williams got to the line, and good Lord, is everything bigger in Texas? Damn, they got some posts. Clarendon's got a nice shot, but a dreadful tendency to exaggerate her falls.
White team had the players I was most intrigued by. Ruffin-Pratt may be, well, a bit of a prat, but she's ahead of her peers in one way: I could hear her on the court, communicating screens and whatnot, which is something I know college players who have trouble with, let alone incoming freshmen. I like Tinkle- she reminds me of a slightly scaled down version of Jayne Appel, so I suppose Stanford is a good fit for her. *g* Walker's got a nice stroke. A lot of players took their turns to shine- Tinkle, Ostarello, Oliver, Walker. But the player who impressed me most, the one who almost single-handedly pulled her team out of the hole, the one who showed the most hustle on both ends of the floor, the one who made me swear like a sailor when I realized my teams would have to deal with her four times each, was Skylar Diggins. If it weren't for the fact she'd be making my teams' lives hell, I could watch her all day. She's very smooth.
But Lord, were there missed shots and missed shots and missed shots, and for good measure, a few more missed shots. Unfortunately, the women's game isn't quite ready for primetime. Some nifty plays, but most of them were negated by missing the damn shot afterwards. I know it's an All-Star game, and those tend to be about as organized as that mythical herd of cats, but this was an exceptionally hot mess.
The refs didn't help either. First they were calling nothing, then they called two in a hurry on Greene defending Williams (which just made me think of that commercial- you know, 36 in a 35 zone?), then it got tight, then it got loose, then it got tight, then it got loose. They learned how to call travels with about twelve minutes left in the game, after everyone and their Aunt Sadie took three extra steps (Tinkle's footwork was especially egregious, but Vanderveer will knock that nonsense out of her).
They did little ceremonies for the junior college, NAIA, and Division II and III championships, and for the four All-Americans who weren't otherwise occupied. While Toliver, Lavender, and Bonner made themselves scarce afterwards, Coleman worked the room, signing autos for some of the young girls in attendance- she even worked her way up to the upper deck and hung out there. I like her more and more the more I see her, both as a player (the Vandy game) and as a person (the L'ville game and today).
It was nice to see Yo and the Warrior Princess serving as celebrity coaches. TT looks good.
I'm going to go collapse now. But this has been so much fun. Pictures will be up someday.
April 4th, 2009: NCAA Final Four open practices
Teams vary their atmospheres, and the Game Notes of Doom are starstruck.
OMG. OMG I'm actually here, so help me God. It's real. I'm in St. Louis. I think I may die of squee.
So my Final Four experience actually started on the flight to St. Louis, with a plethora of UConn fans, a temporally confused LSU fan, a small group of Stanford fans, three NEC basketball players, Phyllis Mangina (presumably on her way to the WCBA convention), and Rita Williams (presumably on her way to Geno's Final Four party). I think there were a couple of other people on the flight I should have recognized, but I was already operating on one hour of sleep (which I'm still operating on, so please don't be surprised if my accounts from this beautiful Saturday lack my usual eloquence and ability to make sense).
We checked into our hotel and found ourselves confronted with the UConn band and more than a few Husky fans. Orbitz picked a lovely hotel for us- shame about the infestation. ;) It was a bit of a hike to the Scottrade Center, which is a very pretty arena, but nothing too bad. Probably not something that could be done from Hoop City, though.
Oklahoma practiced first. It was a very dry, business-like practice. Started with loose stretching, some shooting, some post moves, then moved to inside-out plays, then perimeter shooting. Then the team split up and did a couple of shooting contests. I don't know the scoring rules, because it seems like they went twice, and after the second time, one group did sprints. My favorite part was the next drill, which involved using a set number of passes before taking the shot- seven or eight passes were the minimum. I liked the idea, especially the way some of the players executed it, with faux-penetration and backing away as if the defense had come in on them. Then it was on to more traditional drills- shooting, then shooting and defending, more shooting, and then a two-shots-at once drill.
Then we went to the Oklahoma autograph sessions, which is not so much "get your poster signed" as it is "wave hi to the nice ballers while you rush to the end and pick up a signed poster". It was kind of like being on a conveyor belt. Abi Olajuwon got a bit of a kick out of my shirt- I was rocking the Narbonne tee that Sass sent me. Wished them all luck and thanked them kindly.
Because we were on the Oklahoma line, we missed part of Louisville's practice, and I'm starting to regret that, because what we saw of it was hysterical. When we entered, they were doing dribbling drills and some individual shooting. Their band and cheerleaders, like every team but Oklahoma's, were involved in the festivities as well. They practiced free throws and did some more shooting. Then the dunks of great LULZ began- each Cardinal taking her turn running for the basket and being lifted to the hoop (or not- Coach and his loyal assistant did miss a couple of approaches) for a resounding (or not) dunk. We were rollin'. Then they scrimmaged. They finished up by stripping down to their compression bras and taking halfcourt heaves. They must practice those a lot, because there were something like four hits out of twenty shots- including one that was nothing but net, and one from Coach Walz himself. He was very satisfied with himself afterwards.
I don't think Geno was taking the practice seriously. He spent most of it shooting the breeze with Lobo, Burke, and a couple of the other ESPN blondes. Jonathan performed with the cheerleaders. They came out lapping the court a la the Liberty. Unlike the other two teams, they did their stretching as part of the practice- I guess they wanted to kill as much time as possible. They did some disorganized shooting. The bigs worked on their pivot moves. More shooting. Then there was a shooting contest of some kind, but I'm not sure what the split was. Loved the fast break sequences, especially when Moore got slick with the passes. Then they ran a few plays, but probably not ones they plan on using very often. More shooting. Shooting contest- posts took twos, perimeter players took threes, and the bigs won.
Stanford's tree is freaky, and needs another layer of foliage to be decent. They did some dribbling and ballhandling drills, ran a layup drill, did some halfcourt stuff, did a contest of some kind where the losers did pushups, and shot free throws. Then Sass distracted me, but I don't think we missed anything exciting.
I don't want to say the Huskies were popular, but the line for their autograph session was as long as the one for Oklahoma... two hours before UConn was scheduled to go. Crazy.
We changed seats after the autograph session, and ended up sitting behind some young coaches-to-be and in front of Joanne Boyle. I think I spent as much time scanning the crowd people-watching as I did watching the actual practices.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
March 31st, 2009: Arizona State at UConn (NCAA tournament)
UConn Huskies 83, Arizona State Sun Devils 64
The Devils are bedeviled, Renee Montgomery will not let her season end, and Tina Charles has moves on the court.
Hats off to Arizona State. They played unafraid the entire game, and until UConn found the afterburners, the game was closer than the final score would make it look.
Not quite the same crowd as on Sunday, but a goodly number of people were there, including a fair smattering of Arizona State fans. Considering the distance most of them would have had to travel, that's pretty impressive. Also have to shout out to the Cal and Texas A&M fans who came for the second game. They could have scalped their tickets for an extra ten bucks and gone sightseeing, but they stuck around.
Anthem was by the Arizona State band. I'm not a fan of the sped-up renditions, but it was well performed. But on band notes, I really do like the UConn band director. She's very good at what she does.
Oh, Arizona State. If only you could hit the broad side of a barn. If only you knew where the barn even was. So many easy shots that didn't go down. It was horrifying. This would actually have been a single-digit game if Arizona State could hit open shots. Danielle Orsillo played well on the offensive end for the Sun Devils, and I thik she wanted to drag them back by her teeth if necessary. Briann January was trying too hard- making shots flashy that didn't have to be. Whether that was pressure to perform or perceived pressure on her part, thinking the UConn defense was going to kick her ass, I don't know, but it was not of the good if you were rooting for the upset. The big problem for ASU was that they couldn't get anything really useful out of their posts, whether it was because they couldn't hit the aforementioned barn (seriously, Lauren Lacey, 3/10? Who do you think you are, Jennifer Lacy?) or they couldn't stay on the floor ('sup, Sybil Dosty and your foul troubles?) or, well, they were just epic fail. Engelbrecht seemed less scared to shoot than usual, and had a couple of hard plays that might have dispelled her Bambi nickname. I'll tell you who really impressed me and I hadn't heard of before: Nia Fanaika. Not a major boxscore, stat-line game, but somehow she always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. CTT didn't go to the line changes as much in the first half as I got used to during the Texas A&M game, which I think hurt them- they're so used to going all-out because they know there are reinforcements behind them that they started hurrying their offense and slipping on defense. And whoever was supposed to be checking Maya Moore can meet me in the alley out back and I'll thwack them ten or twenty times with my clipboard, because how in the green and orange fuck do you not guard Maya fucking Moore?
Which, speaking of. Setting aside "how in the green and orange fuck do you not guard Maya fucking Moore?", she was a thing of beauty to behold. Those jumpers were so smooth, and she was all over the boards- ASU just couldn't get or keep anyone on her. For a while, I thought Charles was going to get her Jayne Appel on, but then she started getting sloppy and it was more like she was getting her Kia Vaughn on. Love the way she moves, though. Very sleek. Montgomery was going to the hole like she'd decided there was no way on God's green earth this was going to be her last collegiate game. Hayes did not play her smartest game tonight. Lot of freshman mistakes. UConn can't afford that in the Final Four. Kalana Greene was another one of those "in the right place at the right time" players. I think she's officially healed from the ACL tear. Can we say that? Dixon got run because Montgomery had the foul trouble, and it must have torn her up to have to slow the game down, keep the ball in the backcourt, and run clock to negate ASU's tendency to pressure the ball.
I know this is going to sound weird, but for the first time, watching UConn, I felt like I could pick out moves and countermoves on a grand basis. Most of the time, it feels like the two coaches are throwing what they know works at each other, and if it works against the other coach's thing, shiny, and if not, well, life's a bitch. With Auriemma and the Huskies- probably because he has so many things he can throw at an opposing coach- the adjustments are written clearly on the court. Having trouble with posts? Go big. Having trouble with a running team? Slow the game down. Things like that. As a fan of the game, I find things like this fascinating.
Also impressive: the UConn cheerleaders. I hope they have permits for those concealed guns, because, seriously, for a squad composed of women with average builds, those three-layer pyramids and extended lifts are fucking amazing, and probably speak to upper body strength that would make a grown man jealous. Mad props to Jonathan for climbing atop one of the pyramids in the second half. It takes nerve for a guy in a mask to trust to a bunch of people he can't see all that well.
The refereeing was inconsistent, and there were a couple of points where I thought Geno was going to get him thrown out... plus one point where I thought Dailey was going to tire of keeping him tethered, because she looked like she was trying to remember her old post moves from RU.
UConn's dancing after the game was so gosh darn cute. And damn, can Tina Charles bust a move or what? The way everything was moving at once- wow. I think one of the benchies was considering tossing her Trenton Regional Championship t-shirt to the band, but she decided against it. If I'd known Geno wasn't planning on cutting down the net, I'd have left at the buzzer, and these notes might have been written a couple of hours earlier. Please blame all incoherency on the fact that it's about two-thirty in the morning.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
March 29th, 2009: Arizona State at Texas A&M (NCAA tournament)
Arizona State Sun Devils 84, Texas A&M Aggies 69
Takia Starks presses, but Tanisha Smith impresses, and Briann January takes over.
So, to the credit of the UConn fans, many of them stayed around for the first half of the second game. They were in strange company. Here's a sampling of the gear we saw while surveying the arena. Bear in mind that while some of these are local schools, others are... not.
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am, but you're in the wrong region/round": Maryland, Tennessee, Prairie View, Notre Dame, Villanova, Virginia, Gonzaga, Ohio State, Texas, Pittsburgh, Duke, Rutgers, UNC, Temple
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am, but you're in the wrong tournament": Boston College, Georgetown, Syracuse, St. Francis, Penn State, Princeton, Penn, Mount St. Mary's, Clemson, UCLA
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am, but you're in the wrong division": Caldwell, TCNJ, Pace
"Excuse me, you're doin' it so very wrong": the guy in the Sonics jersey.
"Excuse me, ma'am, do you want to die?!": the women in the shirts celebrating Summitt's thousandth win. In Rutgers country. Surrounded by UConn fans. In one of the foulest cities on the East Coast. I wouldn't be surprised if they *hadn't* gotten back alive.
"Excuse me, you're doin' it awesome": the Lobo jersey that was not mine, the old school UConn #23, the Sun cap, McHuskyfan and JJ.
Now that we've done a survey of the crowd, on to the game. Major style points off for the ASU mascot running around without his head on. If you're not going to have it on the whole time, don't come out in the mascot jersey. Liked the ASU band, though. Upbeat and very much into the game. A&M didn't seem quite as loud, but it was hard to tell, given that they were at the other end of the arena, and unlike Cal's band, I hadn't heard them before. The maroon velour was interested for the A&M dance team, but they bore an unfortunate resemblance to harem girls.
I'm selling my draft stock for Danielle Gant. She put up a nice line, but she's not gonna be able to pull those moves off at the next level, and I don't think there's that much room for defensive specialists on the 11-woman rosters. I think Starks let the importance of the game get to her a bit- she seemed to be pressing a bit, though that might have to do with A&M's style as much as anything else. (Is #3 a coincidence, or is she into bad puns?) Micheaux's weird hairstyle kept distracting me from her game, and when that didn't do the trick, her attempt at Lisa Leslie shorts did, especially since she had the Charde Houston saddlebagged shorts going on. Didn't much care for her. Was very impressed with Tanisha Smith, though. Nice shot, great defense. She was all over the place. White and Carter also left good impressions.
Who knew I'd been pronouncing Briann wrong all these years? I get the feeling a lot of people are going to learn the proper pronunciation very soon. Big game for her. She kept the ball rolling for that busy Sun Devil team. Engelbrecht actually shot. I think I heard caune dying of shock from my seat. Sybil Dosty looks like and plays like a woman who would like to know what the hell her parents were thinking when they named her Sybil. She gave them a really good first half. Lacey gave them a really good boost off the bench, for a given value of bench, since Arizona State plays everyone but the team managers. Orsillo showed a great knack for getting to the basket and drawing fouls. Lots and lots of really good bench play. And I approve of any team with a Becca, especially when Becca Tobin played well and did honor to the name. I have to admit, especially as late as this is, it's hard keeping track of everyone. Especially when there are so many numbers, and they're white numbers on yellow jerseys, which, no, just no. I liked the one Sparky was wearing better. Can we go back to the maroon for the sake of my virgin eyes.
It was a very interesting game, with an exciting pace, but damn, it was sloppy. Whether that was forced slop or speed slop, I don't know enough to tell. A lot of great defensive reads by both teams.
Dim recollection of confusing officiating, but the box score tells me Michael Price was involved, so -_- this is my surprised face.
I think Arizona State will at least make the UConn game entertaining, if not competitive. I certainly *hope* they make it competitive. I love Cinderella stories.
March 29th, 2009: California at UConn (NCAA tournament)
UConn Huskies 77, California Golden Bears 53
Tiffany Hayes goes off, Geno Auriemma outcoaches Joanne Boyle, and drama is brief.
Well, that was a very good half by Cal. Shame they couldn't keep it up, but most teams can't quite keep up with the Huskies, so it's not exactly a surprise. But it was a glorious, exciting half.
We were in the endcourts, seven rows up, which souds great until you learn that Sovereign Bank Arena was built primarily as a hockey arena and the boards are permanently fixed. There was a lot of space between the front row and the court. Room enough for a large track and two band pits. Nice, but a bit frustrating. We were in the middle of a mixed bag of fans- UConn fans in front of us, Cal fans a couple of rows behind, people in maroon to our right, a ow of Rutgers shirts in the front of the section, and I don't want to know where or why or how the woman in the "Feed the Turtle" Maryland shirt ended up in there. But there were a lot of misplaced fans- but we'll get to that at intermission.
UConn band did the anthem. They did a credible job with it, though I'm not that fond of the steady drum backbeat arrangement (it's one of the things I hate about the Red Storm's rendition). Major points to the UConn band for not needing sheet music, just the prompt sheet from their director. And Cal always brings good band. I think what I like about them is that when they play a tune, it's actually recognizable as the song it's supposed to be. It's not distorted the way most marching bands are.
I really like Ashley Walker, but I think her size is going to be a disadvantage. She did a great job working against Tina Charles, but I don't know if she can do it night in and night out. Great game today for her. I hope Devanei Hampton is getting her degree in something applicable to the real world, because she was really moving awkwardly out there. I know she was never that fast, but she just couldn't keep up, and her shots were crap. Vital was trying too hard, especially in the second half. She was really forcing the offense. Ditto for Gray-Lawson, who hit some shots early like she was trying to restore the Lawson family honor, but who faded down the stretch. Greif didn't get involved much at all. Neither did the Cal bench- Boyle substituted very sparingly, and I think that was a major problem for them in the second half- their key cogs just didn't have the juice left to run with the Huskies.
And Geno did a great job adjusting, too. There's a reason the man's WCBA COY and his team's undefeated. He started the second half big with McLaren for Greene, and that just completely choked off Cal's inside play. No inside play, no points, no rebounds, and it becomes a helluva lot easier to collapse on the outside shooters. Bam. Of course, the fact that Tiffany Hayes had a career game could not possibly have hurt either. She was hitting shots all over the place, setting up her teammates, and I didn't realize how fast she was until she hit the jets like she was at Daytona on a fast break. And then people kept losing Maya Moore in the second half, and I'm screaming words to the effect of "HOW THE FUCK DO YOU NOT GUARD MAYA FUCKING MOORE?! Cal should b smarter than this!" Montgomery is smaller than I thought. Wasn't impressed with her decision-making, but I guess I didn't have to be. Offensively, Charles wasn't much of a factor, though she and McLaren set good screens to get the guards free, but defensively and on the boards, the big Huskies were bigger than the big Golden Bears.
There were a lot of UConn fans in the house. In other news, the sun rose in the east. They really do a great job of taking over arenas and bringing their customs along (which didn't exactly thrill the boy- see remark above about UConn fans in front of us, and consider that Husky fans stand until the first basket). Good pockets of support for Cal, too. For some reason, the RU fans got behind them. Yes, a lot of people in Scarlet- they'd bought those tickets and they were going to use them, gosh darn it. And since the last major sticking point in shared neutral space for UConn and RU is conference loyalty (see: Storrs pod), the Scarlet stuck with the Blue and Gold.
Inconsistent refereeing, but I'm too tired to bitch. Besides, the difference in the game was UConn adjusting and Cal... not... not the officiating. I hate praising UConn, both because it goes against my grain as a hater of hype and because I'm a Rutgers fan, but there's a reason they're undefeated. Several reasons. And they showed 'em all off against Cal in the second half.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
March 26th, 2009: Boston College at St. John's (WNIT)
Boston College Eagles 68, St. John's Red Storm 64
The Red Storm go out fighting, Carolyn Swords swings a mean pair of arms, and Stefanie Murphy owns the paint.
If it had to end, I'm glad it ended this way, on our home floor, knowing that we left it all out there in a game that was hard-fought to the last seconds. It's better this way.
Very disappointing crowd. I don't think the rain helped, and St. John's is genuinely crap at promoting events. BC brought some very loud fans, which only spurred the student section and the few, the proud, and the random to get even louder. Also, loved Crawley's suit. Considering the perfect fit and the fact that it matched her team colors, I'm going to guess that it was specially tailored. Well done.
The band did not suck tonight. This is some kind of miracle, but small miracles like that were in plentiful supply tonight. Of course, it figures that they'd save one of their better performances for the last game of the season. ;)
Carolyn Swords appears to have found her cojones. Now, if she'd just stop feeling them, she'd be twice as effective. She picked up four fouls I this game, and three of them were offensive. And they were nasty offensive fouls, too- I'm not sure Coco's seeing straight after that elbow she took to the face in the first half. She turns interesting shades of red- not quite Richie Adubato red, but definitely interesting colors. Stefanie Murphy was the difference-maker for the Eagles. Off the top of my head, I can think of four offensive rebounds that she went up and put back in. We just couldn't stop her. Da'Shena tried, Joy tried, Coco tried, Recee tried, and rarely were they effective. Constant double-teams and ball-hawking made Mickel Picco a non-factor- except that the people defending her then couldn't defend anyone else, which led to open shots for Thoman and Brown. Whitehurst off the bench was a defensive presence- in general, those big forwards and center for BC clogged the paint, which really fucked up our offense, and if we can't make that quick entry pass inside, we really don't know what to do next. Though we were trying to run them so that Swords would continue to turn those interesting colors, Crawley answered by going deep into her bench. They fed the post and crashed the boards, and ta-dah, they came away with the win.
But not without some friggin' amazing shots from St. John's. Sheree Ledbetter opened the scoring for the Red Storm with a deep heave to beat the shot clock. I think she was just as surprised as we were that it went in. And then there was Kelly McManmon's touch-pass putback as the shot clock was winding down, and then there was Britney Murphy's three near the end of the game, which banked off the glass and bounced off the back iron before going in. I'm really not making any of this up. But I'm worried about my girl Joy. Well, I'd be worried if we had more of a season coming up, but since we don't, she has the rest of the year until November to shake herself out of this slump, whatever it is, and I'm pretty sure she can manage that. She's still making a lot of the defensive plays I love her for, but for the last few games, she didn't contribute much on the offensive end. Kelly seems scared to shoot. Come out of your shell, Kelly! We need you! Sky really stepped it up on both ends of the floor, shooting, stealing, and blocking. I'm starting to think she's going to be our big game player for the next couple of years, and I hope she helps Da'Shena develop that kind of nerve. Da'Shena seemed out of sorts, and that might have had to do with the pressure, or that might have had to do with trying to defend those BC behemoths at one end and having them breathing down her neck on the other. Sheree continues to try and make things happen by being in the right place at the right time, with the mixed results you'd expect from a sophomore thrown into the starting lineup after the star senior decides to be a spectacular dumbass. (No, if you think I'm letting McLean off, even now, think again.) The bench played very well for us. Recee pulled her weight in the second half, though I'm starting to be annoyed at how often she goes to the fadeaway instead of taking a simple jumper. Britney got her feet under her. Coco, though her accomplishments won't show up in the boxscore, had a very good game. I'm rough on her, but she was in the right place at the right time a lot of the time.
Who did Bonita Spence and Denise Brooks piss off to get stuck working the WNIT? Not too many bad calls, and surprisingly few travels, given Bonita's propensities. I hope to see this crew, together or in parts, working in Trenton, because if we get stuck with incompetents like Enterline and Price while this crew's working the second-rate tournament, I will scream, and I will scream so loudly that the Scarlet faithful in Oklahoma City will perk up their ears at the cry of one of their own.
So after two false starts, this really is goodbye to Carnesecca for the year. This really was the end of the line. I'll miss my collegiate home court, the place I call my home base no matter how far afield I wander. I'll miss my friendly security guys, who are used to me and my mom and make small talk when we go through their inspections. I'll miss our DJ, no matter how many times he plays the same songs over again and misses the cues half the time. I miss the nice lady at the concession stand who always serves me when I get my pretzel or nachos. I'll miss the televisions, even when they're not on.
I'll miss Kelly's parents, who stubbornly trucked in from Massachusetts for every game, especially Kelly's friendly, optimistic mom. I'll miss Sky's mom, whose big hair, bigger boots, and even bigger personality make it very clear where Sky gets her personality (and rhythm). I'll miss our one-man noise section (though to be fair to SJU, more people did show up in the student section for some of the later games)- he may not have been very innovative, but he was loud and passionate.
So I guess it's time to say goodbye. Thanks for two years, Kristin Moore. You brought a steady hand to an unsteady backcourt, and your toes-forward, ball-behind-the-head jumper is one of my favorite shots ever. I'd have liked to see more of you, both in terms of minutes and in terms of years. Best of luck in all your future endeavors.
And... I guess, yeah. Thanks for three and a half brilliant years, Monique McLean, even if I do want to take a clipboard to your head right now. When you were on, you really were Little Sista Christon, and you really could have been drafted. Such a beautiful shot, such a sense of style, such a clutch player. Why did you have to go fuck it all up a month and a half before your NCAA career was scheduled to end? As the case may be, try not to be a fuckwit in the future, and good things may very well happen to you.
The rest of you? I'll see you in November, with your new friends. Thanks for the ride, Sky, Day, Britney, V, Kelly, Joy, Coco, Sheree, and Recee. As always, it's been a privilege flying with you.
Monday, March 23, 2009
March 23rd, 2009: Rutgers at Auburn (NCAA tournament)
Rutgers Scarlet Knights 80, Auburn Tigers 62
Rutgers plays a complete game, Epiphanny Prince puts on a show, and Brittany Ray and Heather Zurich put the screws to Auburn.
Holy shit, man. I mean. Holy shit. I didn't even think we were going to win this game, much less blow the hell out of Auburn. Maybe there was something in the air tonight. Maybe there was something in the water. Whatever it was, OMGYAY.
It's quite disconcerting to have Rutgers not be Rutgers and someone else be Rutgers. Hmm. Maybe that explains Auburn's offensive fail. They thought they were Rutgers. ;) (Because Auburn was the higher seed, they wore white and were treated as the home team, at least officially. But, well, as hard as Aubie, the cheereleaders, and the band tried, the Tiger faithful didn't have enough flags and signs to properly take over the RAC.)
I give Auburn's band the edge for coordination, synchronization, and repertoire. I give Rutgers the edge for extemporaneous enthusiasm. Auburn does have what's becoming one of my favorite cadences: a fast "D-up, D-up, D-up!" followed by three claps. It's an unusual rhythm. If I ever start my own franchise, that will be one of the scoreboard chants.
My word, that KeKe Carrier's a big woman, isn't she? Shame she doesn't have the endurance to play a full game. Fortner could have used her a lot more against Vaughn and Junaid. That forced Bonner into some really bad matchups, and though Bonner hit some amazing leaners in traffic (my viewing partner referred to those shots as "like shooting marbles" for someone of that height and lack of girth), that really took her out of her game, though the other big factor in her being out of her game is named Heather. Boddie looked out of sorts most of the night, though, again, the primary reason for that might have been wearing Scarlet. Smalley, though I absolutely love the quickness of her release, just couldn't hit water if she fell out of a boat today. Sherell Hobbs was really getting cranky. I was afraid she was gonna go after someone. Foul trouble kept Jackson and Hilliard from really getting into the flow of things, which was a major difference from the Lehigh game, since (at least in my mind) Hilliard was one of the best Tigers on the floor when they chewed up the Mountain Hawks. I think Fortner was just as disconcerted and confused as anyone that Rutgers was scoring so much, and didn't know how to adjust.
Epiphanny Prince stole the show with flashy offense, but Rutgers would not have won that game without the work of Brittany Ray and Heather Zurich. Ray was on Boddie, Zurich was on Bonner, and together they made life hell for the two Tigers. Bonner got very few uncontested shots, and she was almost scared to shoot at some points. And meanwhile, Zurich and Ray each put up 12 points. Solid game for Vaughn. Yes, a few of the usual "don't make me go down there and yank on your ponytail!" errors, but she did exactly what we needed her to do. Rushdan looked a little like she was forcing things, but she was nice to see on the break. Did have a freakout moment when she went down holding her knee, but she popped back up, so a sigh of relief was breathed. Stringer went all in for this game, with Junaid being the only reserve to see serious minutes to match up with Carrier- and for one stretch, go to a double-post lineup, with both Vaughn and Junaid in. It was interesting.
As Stringer pulled the seniors from the game with a minute left and RU firmly in control, the crowd started chanting Kia and Heather's names. It was a nice touch. It was also nice to see them goofing around on the bench. I like to see a team having fun, especially when they've just scored a big win. There's a time to be serious, and that wasn't really it.
Here's the move by Fortner that might well define how she coached this game: Rutgers is up 19-4, Carrier in the game. Stringer moves Junaid to the scorer's table to match Carrier almost immediately. Brittany Ray cans a three to extend the lead to 22-4. Fortner calls her second timeout of the half. Complete panic move, because if whatever you said when RU started 9-0 didn't work, it's not gonna work when you're down 22-4, and by calling time, that allows Junaid into the game to quickly counter Carrier's huge size advantage.
Officiating was... interesting. I think that might be the best word for it. There were a lot of odd calls, and a lot of make-up calls for the odd calls to try and even things out. I thought a tightly called game would be in Auburn's favor, since Rutgers is a more physical team, but it was fairly tightly called, and, well. If that was Auburn's favor, I shudder to think of what the margin would have been for a loosely called game.
My ears are still ringing. Have I mentioned that part yet? Because the RAC is an acoustic dream for noise from the stands.
We're going to need that Rutgers team in Oklahoma City, and we're going to need the bench to step up as the rounds wear on.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
March 21st, 2009: VCU at Rutgers (NCAA tournament)
Rutgers Scarlet Knights 57, VCU Rams 51
The Rams throw down, Epiphanny Prince takes over, and there's a whole lot of ugly going on.
*ding ding ding* Let the fight begin!
Rutgers is a hard-fighting, tough defensive team that isn't afraid to get physical. So is VCU. Anyone who didn't think this was going to be a rough game for either team clearly hadn't done their homework.
So what was it with the crazy #23s today? While I do like Jessica Taylor's ram's-horns hairdo, I thought she was going to attempt to kill someone by the end of the game. Maybe we can have her and Crites duke it out at halftime of the Rutgers-Auburn game for everyone's entertainment. Hollingsworth stepped it up in the second half for VCU, taking advantage of some of Vaughn's mental lapses. If Radislava Bacharova had been able to hit the broad side of a barn, I think VCU would have pulled the upset, but with Ray and Zurich taking turns in her face, she wasn't getting a lot of good shots, and most of the ones she did get didn't fall. Such is life. Waller couldn't hit a free throw to save her life, and she was really starting to get chippy by the end of the game. Lane did a good job controlling the Rams' offense. Rorie spent a lot of time in foul trouble, forcing VCU to go to their bench. (For that matter, Hollingsworth and her replacement Courtney Hurt [a very well-named young lady if ever I saw one] also spent a lot of time in foul trouble. It's a tribute to Cunningham's juggling ability that neither of them fouled out, though Rorie, whose trouble started this parenthetical aside, did.) A very physical team, a very physical game. Not much came easy for either team. Lot of elbows thrown, lot of hard screens, lot of bumps, lot of falls.
No, here's a slightly better illustration of how physical and hard it was: by the end of the game, Myia McCurdy was wearing #30 and Brittany Ray was wearing #40 because their real jerseys were bloodstained. (I thought Ray coming out in Linda Miles's #40 was a declaration of war, to be honest- "Okay, fine, you wanna hit? Well, guess what? We have people who can do that professionally. Bring it on.") But blood, sweat, and fistfights aside, this was Epiphanny Prince's game. When it got close, she pretty well decided that she wasn't letting this upset happen on her floor, and she turned on the jets. I keep forgetting, or maybe today was just exceptional, just how quick her hands are- she got a lot of her rebounds by stealing them away from bigger players, and then there were the straight-up steals on defense. Vaughn played all right, although I'm not enthusiastic about her constant forays out of the post on defense- she doesn't quite have the foot speed to make the cut back inside to get back on her assignment when the ball goes back inside. And if I start on the free throw shooting, I'm gonna barf all over the computer, and this computer's been through more than enough crap. Ray and Zurich had the busy tasks of stopping Hollingsworth's sidekicks, so any offense from them was a nice little bonus. Rushdan looks recovered (though there was one heart-stopping moment when she landed awkwardly and her braced knee bent oddly- she was fine, though), even if she couldn't quite keep control of the ball. McCurdy's giant, strappy knee brace makes her look like she's being assimilated by the Borg, starting at the bottom and moving up. It's actually kinda scary. Speed got some good minutes, and though she did make a questionable decision or two, she didn't play too badly, and with the RU freshmen, I'll take what I can get. (Baby steps. Baby steps. Not everybody can be Da'Shena Stevens. ;)) I'm terribly afraid I'm going to spend the next four years mixing up Lee and Pope unless one of them gets into high rotation. Junaid just didn't have her head in the game.
The refereeing in this game was loose and very inconsistent. I think the elbow-throwing/trash-talking incident that led to the two techs at the end could have been avoided if some of the other extracurriculars had been called beforehand. It seems like the refs are letting them play- at least that's the impression I got from the two games I saw- but there's letting them play and then there's letting them brawl. If that's the officiating style for the tournament, then I like Rutgers's chances against Auburn on Monday, because I don't think Auburn can bang that long unless Carrier stays miraculously out of foul trouble.
Shame on the fans behind the home bench for not showing up until the second game. That swath of seats that stayed empty throughout the first game, visible with every sweep of the camera, could not in any way have looked good.
Auburn versus Rutgers is going to be a very interesting game, and I look forward to seeing it. The strategy should be very, *very* exciting, but I'm a dork like that.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
March 21st, 2009: Lehigh at Auburn (NCAA tournament)
Auburn Tigers 85, Lehigh Mountain Hawks 49
DeWanna Bonner impresses, the Auburn band rocks out, and at least Lehigh travels well.
What, you were expecting competitive balance in a 2-15 game? In the women's tournament? What do you think this is, 1998?
Auburn traveled surprisingly well for a team from Alabama- they had a lot of distance to cover. Lehigh traveled very well. They brought signs, and guys with body paint. It's tourney time, bay-bee!
Two very good bands with very different styles. Lehigh brought a traditional pep band and a lot of enthusiasm. Auburn went all brass, except for a drum kit. I liked them both, but I give Auburn the edge. They performed an excellent anthem.
Lehigh looked out of sync, out of sorts, and out of luck. Alex Ross couldn't get a lot of good shots, and the ones she did get mostly didn't go down. If they didn't have that, they didn't have much at all. Erica Prosser only really found her cojones in the second half, driving and either scoring or drawing fouls like Suzie McConnell-Serio had shoved game tape of Merlakia Jones down her throat. Haly Crites is nuts. I really thought she was gonna start a fight by the end of that game, as physically as she was playing. They really didn't get a lot from their starters, especially in the first half, when one of their reserves was tied for the team lead in scoring. I think they were genuinely stymied by Auburn's size and speed. Trying to think back on that game, I just get the mental image of a lot of brown blobs with ponytails. There were no spectacular plays by them. No phenomenal moves noted down. Just a lot of missed shots and turnovers.
DeWanna Bonner scares me a little. There's skinny, and then there's "did someone stretch her out on a rack before the game?", and Bonner is the latter. In terms of build and the way she moves, I found myself thinking of one of my Red Stormies, only Bonner is way taller. She's got some nice moves, a long lanky grace, and the ability to really screw with a team's game plan. Boddie's shooting is... yeah, I'm going to be diplomatic and go with "interesting" here. Good hands, though, especially on the defensive end today. Unfortunately, Lehigh's boxscore is fucked up, so I'm trying to match a bunch of random names to a bunch of random numbers and another bunch of names I don't know all that well. There's something I like about Chantel Hilliard, but I just can't put my finger on it. As you can tell, I say that a lot about players.
As you can also tell, it's been a very long night, and I'm tired, and I really don't remember much about this game, and honestly, I'm not sure I want to. I mean, there's only so much you can write about a 36-point ass-whipping, right?
