December 29th, 2007: Fordham Holiday Invitational

Rose Hill Gym is beautiful, the Fordham Rams need a lot of help, and Fairfield is all over the offensive boards.


Rose Hill Gym is one of the most beautiful places to go see basketball that I've ever been. The whole campus gives the impression of being archetypal: time is immaterial, and the hubbub of the Bronx is left behind, replaced by a hush as the stone buildings and wide spaces absorb the sound. The gym is small, but surprisingly comfortable. One side of the seating offers actual seats, while the endcourts and the side behind the benches offer bleachers. Unsurprisingly, the seats are the most popular.

I don't know if Fordham normally has a band, or if they were at some other event, or they refrained from using theirs to not show up the other teams in this holiday tournament they hosted. Whatever the situation, the music was canned, and not very well piped. They had a half dozen cheerleaders who were as perky as they could be while maintaining the world-weary sense that they weren't leading much at all. The crowd was surprisingly male-dominated, what there was of it- not very loud, except when Fordham (or, for the visiting fans, Fairfield) made a run. I hope they're more enthusiastic when Fordham doesn't suck, because Rose Hill Gym deserves to have passionate fans rocking it.

Mount St. Mary's started off very balanced, providing an interesting counterpoint to Fordham's one-option system, but when they needed someone to step up on offense, it was Lauren Howell, a sniper from New Jersey who looks disconcertingly like Nicole Wolff (and just to confuse matters even further, one of her teammates looks disconcertingly like a shorter, wider Ann Strother). Tiffany Green was their firestarter, a small, quick guard with very good hands on defense- there was one play where Fordham had a sure fast break that she disrupted with a well-timed deflection. She had a tendency to overdramatize contact, which irked me slightly, because Mount St. Mary's really needed no help from the referees that they weren't already getting- for the record, this isn't a slight on the crew, since I thought it was actually a pretty decently called game, but more a reflection of what Fordham seemed to believe was defense. They got some solid post play out of what bigs they had- Mary Dunn (the super-sized Strother) was especially effective, I thought, in getting position and denying the inside to the Rams.

Fordham, on the other hand, relied on freshman phenom Megan Mahoney. She doesn’t look a thing like her namesake in Connecticut, but there are definite similarities in their playing styles. Young Miss Mahoney plays all out all the time- much like the line about Jessica Bibby, she only knows one speed, and that's 90 mph. Sometimes it's to her advantage, such as when she's diving for loose balls or on the fast break. Sometimes it's a disadvantage, such as when she gets ahead of her passing or loses control of the ball. If she can learn to play within herself, to rein in some of that speed and enthusiasm, she can be a prospect, because the girl definitely has game. Of course, judging her solely on a game against Mount St. Mary's isn't fair. She and Raina Spencer did yeoman's work on Brianna Gauthier, who came in as the top scorer for Mount St. Mary's, but only managed five points. The player I really liked was Takita Earl, who had ten rebounds and a gutsy attitude. She needs to be a little more willing to shoot, though- the people next to me were screaming for her to take some of the open outside shots she had. Also, she may be the first player I've ever seen who's developed her upper body but not her lower body- she's very solid up top, but she's got the thinnest little shins I've ever seen on a post player. The not shooting thing, though, that may be a coaching decision, because the other two people in the general vicinity of six feet tall who played also didn't shoot much. (Actually, I liked the third string center, Alex Zamora, more than I liked the second-stringer, Kassie Humphries- I liked her hustle better and she seemed to have a better idea of what she should be doing on the floor.) On the other hand, one of the starting guards… lord, but I have never seen a player as clueless on the floor as Annie Zopf. She had no idea how to get out of a double team, no idea what she was supposed to be doing during some of the plays… when she was in the game, things ground to a halt and everything seemed to go wrong, not just with her, but with everyone else on the floor. I'd love to see her plus/minus…

Fordham seemed to have issues with not committing fouls. They committed a lot of stupid ones, that's for sure. I don't think they were ready for post players who would provide resistance. At 0-11, I'm not sure why…

I found out after getting to the arena that this was a tournament, and thus a doubleheader, which soothed my soul after seeing the ticket prices (yes, I know, historic gym and all, but the price differential between the A-10 and the BEast should be more than $1, yanno?). Good thing I decided to stay for the second game, because Troy and Fairfield provided a much more interesting game to watch.

Bonita, we must stop meeting like this. I'm serious. I'm starting to think either she's stalking me, she thinks I'm stalking her, or we've both decided to tour D-I basketball in the New York metro area. This is, what, the fourth venue I've seen her at this year alone? Sheesh. I didn't recognize any of the other officials.

Rebounding. Holy hell in a handbasket, can Fairfield rebound and create on second chances. According to their recap, they had 27 second chance points. They had 23 offensive rebounds… out of 45 total, and out of 43 missed shots. They just did not give up. I'm pretty sure Baendu Lowenthal got all her points on putbacks, and Stephanie Geehan had to have gotten at least half her points the same way. Sabra Wrice seemed to be their firestarter- she can actually create for herself, which in turn sets up either a scoring opportunity for her or a second chance for her teammates. The only thing that would worry me, were I a fan of Fairfield, was that once you get past that top three or four (if you toss in Tara Flaherty) there wasn't much on the floor for the Stags. Yeah, three solid players will get you past most of Fairfield's schedule, and probably even past most of the MAAC, but I think they'll have trouble with Marist and Iona. That being said, I think Frager can take them pretty far- it'll be interesting if he starts competing with Hartford for UConn's sloppy seconds.

I was primed to absolutely adore Troy. I mean, come on. Five Aussies in one place that isn't Australia. How cool is that? The funny thing is, though, that the player I walked out with an immediate fondness for and interest in was not one of the half dozen "not from these here parts" players, but forward Audrey Muse: if she could hit half the open looks she creates for herself on the inside, she'd probably be playing at Florida or Florida State instead of Troy. Both visually and athletically, she reminds me very much of Tina Thompson- she doesn't have the outside game, but she's a warrior through and through. Oh, I liked the Aussies, or at least hearing the Aussies- there's something very reassuring about that Aussie twang on the floor, like the universe has been rearranged properly- because Amy Lewis has a nice little shot and Kylie Morrissy has a knack for getting to the line. But Troy seems to be a live by the three, die by the three type of team, and when you play a team that rebounds as fiercely as Fairfield did today, you're going to be shit out of luck if the threes don't fall. They played a stubborn, sticky, man-to-man defense- but only on the first opportunities. They didn't go after the boards, and Fairfield took full advantage of that. Their coach also seemed to be trying to channel Geno. This isn't going to be a successful tactic when you play a team from Connecticut. Frager's Thibault-esque cool served much better.

I saw four different possession reversals in this game, and a completely inexplicable shot clock reset that led to a Fairfield shot hitting iron, a Stag getting the offensive rebound, and Sabra Wrice hitting a three-ball. I've never seen so many possessions reversed. Tres strange.

I thought to myself that the female commentator for Fairfield looked awfully familiar. At first I thought Doris Burke was slumming, but then I got a look at her profile and said to myself, "Hey, that looks an awful lot like Maria Conlon. Huh. I thought she was busy in the world of high finance and higher heels." But such is not the case- she might also be in the financial advising business, but she's doing the Fairfield color gig. Can't help but wonder if anyone else there recognized her.

All in all, though, I'd have to say that my favorite player on the day was actually the little girl from the first biddy game who spent much of the first half of Mount St. Mary's-Fordham wandering around the arena with a WNBA tucked under her arm. Woo for the second generation!