December 14th, 2007: Maine at St. John's

Cindy Blodgett can't coach, Maine can't dribble, the St. John's posts rock, and there's a little Arico on the way.


Important lesson learned today: having two WNBA players on your coaching staff doesn't guarantee a damn thing about the quality of the coaching. Other interesting thing inferred today: there must have been some kind of party after the Final Four.

Dear pep band: please stop fucking up the anthem. Please. Just stop. I'm begging you here. Play a recorded version. Have someone sing it. Have someone sign it. Do an interpretive dance. Just stop butchering the melody. You guys do kind of suck at what you do, and also, you choose really obnoxious times to interject yourselves into the proceedings.

In all of my born days, I never saw a Division I team take such bad care of the ball as Maine did tonight. Oy. It was brutal to watch. Elena Baranova dribbles better than the Black Bear guards. I'm not really surprised that a black hole like Blodgett and a… whatever Kelley Gibson is… had no real way of imparting the ability to pass and dribble to the players in their care. I'm not impressed with Blodgett as a coach at all. For a lot of the game, her bench players did as much coaching as she did. While I'm sure that teaches them important qualities of leadership that they'll need in their post-college lives, I was always under the impression that coaching was, you know, the coach's job. Not that she doesn't have some talent on that roster- there are some promising big bodies on that roster, including a player who looks like a miniature Cathrine Kraayeveld. But I'm not sure she knows what to do with them.

Maine's offense operated most efficiently when they went inside to Brittany Boser, then were able to swing it outside to stretch the defense. When they could get their inside-outside/outside-inside game working, they didn't look half-bad, but it didn't happen often, because, again, lousy, lousy ballhandling. Christina Mosher provided well in her limited time, but she played most of the game when it was completely in St. John's hands (er, when it was *really* under control). They put on a good press a couple of times, but they didn't use it enough- I think Blodgett's problem is that she just doesn't adjust fast enough. (Her other problem is dry, bleached spikes- she looks like a cougar on the prowl, and 31 is no age for a cougar.)

(I really can't wait for conference play, or at least for Baylor. I'm tired of being so unimpressed by teams that I can't put together appropriately doomtastic game notes.)

St. John's brought a balanced attack, balanced more than usual, because Sky couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, and neither could Kelly when she came off the bench- for at long last the day came that Kia Wright returned to the starting lineup. She's got such quick hands, Kia- and Joy, Monique, and Recee aren't so bad in that regard themselves. Granted, maybe they looked better than they are against a Maine team that wasn't completely sure about this whole dribbling concept, but Joy was at least able to even her turnovers committed/turnovers forced ratio again. Kia's court sense was also much welcomed, and I think it brought up the whole team's court vision as well. It also allowed Sky to shift to the two and Monique to the three, insomuch as a difference exists between the two positions at the collegiate level, which only heightens the likeness between Monique and Shameka. Recee was also especially tough- eight rebounds, double-digit points, and a block, all in thirteen minutes. She and Joy were models of efficiency, and Coco wasn't so bad herself. Kelly had the worst luck with her shots in the first half, but she made up for them in the second half with a beautiful spin move and a flying layup- she and Monique both hit crazy circus shots. About the only player who noticeably played awful basketball and looked completely out of place was Tiina, who needs to get her head together and also lay off the bleach, because her hair is rapidly approaching the color of her skin, and that's just not healthy.

Lately, my mom and I have been sitting in the same row as Kelly's parents, and we all agreed that there seems to be another little Arico on the way. (Making a quasi-serious guess at the timing, it looks like that the WBCA throws a helluva party come tourney time.) If such is the case, then congrats to Coach and her family.

This happened to be the annual autograph session game, and I happened to have bought a media guide (it looked so much more informative, and it was women's only- no using half the space on men's stuff). Naturally, I decided to get the headshot page signed. Naturally, while it still has Angel Tate, it does not have Sheree, one of our freshmen, and she was good-naturedly disappointed about it. Joy and Coco had some great by-play- it doesn't surprise me that they would get along off the court,since they seem to have similar philosophies on it (that philosophy being "get the ball away from the other team, make sure the ball stays with our team"). Sky was very charming, and was by far the last to leave the table. She was down at the same end as Kia and Monique, and I'll gladly bet that we'll see one of those ladies at the Garden in the not so distant future, and not just as part of a doubleheader.

Angel was at the game, and she looked so lonely trudging back towards the parking lot. But I suppose she had her reasons for leaving the team- I'm sorry to see her go and I hope she's okay. I think Danielle Chambers was there, too- certainly someone who looked a lot like one of the school's leading rebounders was there.

Black Bears, Lady Bears, Bears- we should have been the ones to play Cal, shouldn't we? Ah, well. I suspect Baylor will put up more of a fight than Maine did.