March 6th, 2005: Big East tournament

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The Game Notes feel like dancing, dancing the night away, in Hartford.


1st game... 41-37 Villanova over Boston College. It was like a trip to the dentist, and not one of those good ones where they tell you you're a good kid and give you a toothbrush. It grated. It went in fits and starts. I was minimally impressed.

2nd game... 69-48 Rutgers over St. John's. My two teams in the Big East, go figure. Rutgers was just too quick for St. John's, too quick and too talented. The Red Storm played with heart, but they just couldn't make any noise early. Chelsea Newton was on fiyah. I suspect she'll be a Lib pick if she makes it to their second round choice; Marianne was hanging around again, sans Patty. Ajavon was also played fabulously. For St. John's, Kia Wright had an off game (must have been the PA announcer calling her Kia White all night...) but Angela Clark picked up the slack in the second half. She's got a very soft touch and a knack for rebounds. There were some moves in there by both teams that made me think they got those refs out of the WWE.

3rd game... 70-59 Notre Dame over West Virginia. I think. I know it was ND over WVU by double digits, but at that point I was rather fried. ND really controlled that game. WVU has a couple of promising players. Yolanda Paige impressed me. She got called for a couple of BS turnovers ("they called a walk because she changed hands?!") to inflate that stat. She also had some gorgeous passes and discovered that hey, for them to play well she needed to find her offense. She showed a great knack for getting into the lane and hitting her shots. #14 for WVU (Soho?) was also wonderful, and I suspect she'll make into one of Keegan's later-class draft databases. Batteast for ND was quiet but remarkable, and you *never* leave Duffy open!

4th game... UConn whomped Syracuse. We left at the half of this one, with UConn holding an 18-point lead. We caught part of it on the radio; when we lost WHUS, it was 64-39 or something like that, as Mel Thomas canned her fourth three of the night. She was impressive, and it was nice to see Nicole Wolff getting something done as well. Syracuse... Syracuse was orange. That's really all I can think of.