January 6th, 2007: Georgetown at St. John's

In the immortal words of Arnold Perlstein: "I knew I should have stayed home today." So should Kia Wright have.


In the immortal words of Arnold Perlstein: "I knew I should have stayed home today."

Every time I think a game is the most frustrating and disappointing experience I have ever had in an arena, another game comes along and makes me think, no, it can get worse. Clearly I have not developed the proper calluses I'm going to need to get through the next few years.

It started out reasonably well: a decent anthem from the pep band with a cute little troop of Brownies holding the flag, although one of the Georgetown players immediately got off on the wrong foot with me by chatting with an assistant coach and one of her teammates during the anthem. I didn't get a good look at her face, but I think she might have been Wheeler or Fuller.

"Thunderstruck" remains in the Red Storm music queue, and once again I am amazed that it honestly took this long for whoever is in charge of the music to put two and two together. God, I love that song.

We even had a lead at halftime, because although we weren't playing well, Georgetown had a lot of unforced errors, and it did help that there had been a lot more calls on the Hoyas in the first half than on the Red Storm. We'll get to the refereeing later, because it's going to involve swear words.

Georgetown impressed me a lot more than I thought they were going to. Their coach knows what she's doing and has clearly watched a lot of Rutgers tapes. (Unfortunately, when I looked up her bio, I discovered that she was on Rene Portland's Penn State squad. I'm trying not to let it color my perception of her, but it's hard.) They're a very aggressive, very quick team that loves to ball-hawk. They run some really intense defensive drills that had me shaking my head before the game; honestly, even though I'm a basketball junkie to the max, you'd never be able to *pay* me to see a Georgetown-Villanova game with these two systems. Although Kieraah Marlow came in as their leading scorer, the players who impressed me most were guard Kristin Heidloff and center Aminata Diop. Heidloff is a real pest with quick hands and relentless stubbornness, like a slightly taller Debbie Black; the only difference is that she can actually shoot a little. Diop has a very soft touch for a post player, and even though she's got a slender frame, she has a way of getting into the lane and making things happen. Katrina Wheeler brought attitude, and a couple of elbows. It's an interesting mix, this team. They've got powerful posts and a coupla sharpshooters.

On the positive side for St. John's, Nikki Jo didn't have any turnovers, which is a big deal when you consider just how horrible her A/TO numbers were (okay, so she didn't have any assists, either, but positive, damn it, positive). Angel also came out of her Rutgers-induced funk, putting up 12 and 12. But Kia's still not back; she couldn't buy a basket, and her timing's still off (1-13 from the field, 9 TOs; this is what we call WTF?!) And I think Monique is hurting, although obviously not seriously enough to be sat out; even though she had wide-open shots, and they seemed solid on the form, they just didn't go down. Monique doesn't usually shoot that badly, and I think having to be *the* woman while Kia was out is taking its toll. Tiina didn't find her stroke until it was too late, and we got a buttload of nothing out of our bench (22 minutes, 3 points {on one shot by Nikki Jo}, 1 rebound {again, by Nikki Jo}, 2 fouls and 2 turnovers {and those would be Recee's bads}). As for my fave, who was poster girl today, Joy fought hard, but fighting hard doesn't get you all that far, and while she had one monster block and some nice rebounds, girl has got to learn to come up with the same authority she now comes down; if she could just convert some of those offensive rebounds into putbacks the way Angel has been, we might have something in the post. But the thing that bothered me most about the team was that they weren't listening to Coach today, which is mind-bogglingly stupid on a clinic day and when you actually have a coach who knows what she's doing. Nikki Jo had another one of her diva moments, after which Coach sat her down and gave her a loud talking-to. More to the point, Joy and Tiina both missed an order to foul in the last minute that killed precious time. Not that it would have mattered, but it bothers me when they don’t listen, especially a veteran like Tiina and someone who's usually relaying Coach's instructions the way Joy does.

So what were the differences between the first half and the second half? For one, Georgetown's threes started falling, which isn't *much* of a difference when they only had three for the game, but they had shot 0-10 in the first half, which would have, logically, made it easier to defend their jump shooters; when Heidloff started canning long ones, we knew we were done for. For two, the energy in the building had changed. I do honestly believe that makes a difference. In the first half, the kids who were there for the clinic were enthusiastic and into the game; by the second half, they were too engrossed in their chips, cell phones, and Sidekicks (yes, Sidekicks, for kids half my age) to care about the game, and the one girl in front of me kept turning around when I was chanting "DEFENSE!" Honestly, if you want a nice quiet experience for the kids, don't take them to a basketball game, and if you do, don't sit them center court, okay? For three, the refereeing changed. Remember beknighted's theory about referees and toteboards regarding Rutgers? I don't think it's exclusive to RU. In the first half, it was 8-4 Georgetown. In the second half? 12-7 St. John's, and three of Georgetown's fouls came on one sequence with under two minutes left, while only two SJU fouls were desperation, get the ball back fouls. I reiterate: the way to call an even game is NOT to call all the fouls on one team in one half and on the other team in the second half. I will not impugn the name of Sue Blauch, no matter how many shittily refereed games I happen to see her name in the boxscore of… who am I kidding, it can't be a coincidence.

It drives me crazy that my team just gave up in the second half. It's not like they were playing a team with any mystique on the women's side whatsoever. It's not like they were going up against UConn or Notre Dame, programs that have national championships and long streaks of tournament play. This is Georgetown. This is a team that hasn't been over .500 since 2002-03, and even *with* Rebekkah Brunson they barely squeaked over that milestone. This isn't a team that should instill hesitation, so why did this team of mine panic? It doesn't make any sense!

I am really reconsidering buying tickets to the doubleheader at the Garden. Even if I'm getting two tickets for the price, $31 is a little steep, especially with the quality of basketball St. John's has been putting up. I don't want to have to sit through Syracuse whipping the boys and UConn whipping the women, knowing the whole time that I'm gonna hear no end of it from the road fans.