January 2nd, 2007: Rutgers at St. John's

These notes were not included in my private tally- I found them on Rebkell's when it occurred to me there were some large blanks, and so these are out of date even more so than the others.

Heather Zurich is pretty damn cool, we can haz Recee Mitchell naow, and the Game Notes are conflicted.


So this was the game I had been looking forward to all season, and as the season unfolded, it turned out to be much awaited for many reasons. Not only would it ensure that at least one of my teams would end the season with a Big East win, it developed as the first game back for Kia Wright after a six-game layoff due to a sports hernia, as well as freshman center Recee Mitchell's first game at Carnesecca Arena, and also the first time I would see Rutgers close up and as close to full strength as they would ever be. In other words, this was the big one- in some ways, bigger than the game at the Garden will be (because, if nothing else, I mostly didn't *mind* the visiting fans).

The night started well, with a beautiful anthem rendition by one of the few St. John's students who stuck around for winter break. It was quite confusing, keeping track of two teams I know well in red warm-ups, especially since the reds were of similar shades. Never before has my avatar been so true and so frustrating. I *do* bleed red! And at long last, St. John's has decided to use "Thunderstruck" as their tip-off music! It's about time, don't you think? If anything's going to get a crowd going, especially for a weather-themed team, that's the ticket. Now if only they could turn down the bass on the arena speakers. My ears *still* hurt.

Great crowd from Rutgers- two busloads and a fair scattering of others. I didn't necessarily appreciate them singing the fight song, but they were generally well-behaved while being loud. Besides, we all agreed that the referees blew, but that's for a later paragraph. Oh, and if any of you happen to have been in subdued RU colors, accidentally mistaken a St. John's fan for one of you, and proceeded to get a very condescending earful from the St. John's fan, I'd like to apologize for her; she's an utter git when her team is losing, although it does seem rather odd to assume that someone wearing red at the Red Storm's home arena would be a Rutgers fan.

Early on, I was very impressed with Heather Zurich, whose shooting I've been high on since last season's "Meet the Team" event (and its, um, immortal RUTGERS AHTLETICS slideshow), but she cooled late, allowing Essence Carson, Matee Ajavon, and Kia Vaughn to step up in the second half. Though they're still making a lot of freshman mistakes, this Rutgers team has the familiar hallmarks of a Stringer team: the ball-hawking defense, the glorious backcourt trap, and the occasional offensive breakdowns. There were a couple of dagger shots- Katie Adams near the end of the first half to make a three-point lead into a six-point lead and Epiphanny Prince in the second half when St. John's was starting to show signs of life and the shot clock was down to three; somehow, even though it was deep and she hadn't hit a lot all night, I knew Prince was going to put it through. RU wasn't overpowering, but they were balanced, and sometimes that's more than enough, especially when they had a body on Kia Wright all night. No one stood out for the bulk of the game, although I was impressed with Prince as a defender and with some of the moves Vaughn pulled out in the lane. There was one gorgeous pass from Carson to Ajavon after which Ajavon hit a prayer of a shot that made me go WOW. And it's funny, it's really hard to tell the quiet playmakers. I can't remember a damn thing Brittany Ray did on the court, but she led all players with seven assists. You'd think I'd have noticed, right? Yet I remember Junaid's blocks far more clearly.

*sigh* At least Kia Wright is back. She's not herself yet; not right, if you will. Her timing is way off, which one would expect after missing such a large swath of games, especially with the long delay between games during finals week. She doesn't have her wind back. I have faith in her, though. She's a team player. She'll get herself together. As for the much-awaited arrival of Recee Mitchell, she still has a lot of freshman rough edges to work out. She's very physical on defense, and not so much the good kind of physical as the grabbing/holding kind of physical. No! Bad freshman! No PT! Monique McLean, who I was hoping would put on a show for any Liberty fans in the audience so they could figure out for themselves that she was Little Sista Christon, was well covered for much of the game, although she had a way of getting open for threes; according to the box, twelve of her seventeen attempts were threes. There was one play I recall rather strongly; Nikki Jo Rotolo had the ball and was driving. Monique was wide open in the corner and calling audibly for the ball. Nikki Jo ignored her. Nikki Jo went into the lane. Nikki Jo was triple teamed. Nikki Jo coughed up the ball. To add insult to injury, that dumb play was Nikki Jo's only turnover of the night, but she was quiet. Too quiet. Most of the Red Storm were quiet-too-quiet. I was especially disappointed in Joy McCorvey, who has rapidly become my favorite St. John's player. Although she was rebounding well (she would tie for the team lead with eight, going against the big RU centers), she couldn't buy a shot until late, and she missed all three of her free throws. It's always an adventure when Joy goes to the line, but usually you get at least one of the good ending pages instead of all the ones where you die. Tiina didn't start hitting until the game was out of reach, too. Very frustrating. Yes, part of it is due to that infamous swarming physical in-your-face defense of Rutgers's, but there were quite a few good looks that just didn't go down.

I think Bonita Spence is becoming my nemesis. This is the third game she's called at Carnesecca, and it followed a similar pattern to the others: spate of fouls in the first half on one team, spate of fouls in the second half on the other team, spate of fouls in the second half on the first team, but a smaller spate than before. As usual, there was an array of ticky-tack travels and reach-in calls, but Carson checked Nikki Jo into the cheerleaders and there was no call. (I mean, for all I know, Nikki Jo was lobbying for a no-call; maybe she's into cheerleaders, who knows?) I will say this: they let a LOT of nonsense go on on both sides. There was a lot of… um, interesting contact.

I think, in the end, this game says more about Rutgers than it does about St. John's, and what it said is that they're still a bit raw and rough, and they're not the Rutgers that was once to be feared throughout the land, but they are not a team to be underestimated, either. There's a lot of talent, and once it gets the raw bits sanded off, it'll all be fine.