November 11th, 2007: Stanford at Rutgers

Stanford Cardinal 60, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 58

It's good to be back at the RAC, but Epiphanny Prince needs a smack upside the head and Stanford is pretty good.


There is something to be said for home openers, no matter the result of them. It's good to be home again, even if the RAC is at best a third home for me (after the Garden and Carnesecca Arena). It definitely helped that it was a competitive matchup. And there's definitely something to be said for the new banner hanging over the offices.

That being said, even a day later, I still want to give Epiphanny Prince a good smack upside the head. Actually, several good smacks upside the head.

We had general admission tickets and got there at 7:30 or thereabouts. We were still able to get decent seats- row M, approximately center court. Good crowd, though; a lot of people must have gotten snarled in some of the same traffic we did. More to the point, I liked the people around us: to one side, there was a very nice, if quiet, lady; to the other side, there was a guy who spent his timeouts reading; behind us was a guy who sounded like he knew his shit; in front of us were a pair of very loud, very enthusiastic guys, one of whom had clearly been following the women's game for a while when he declared to the world after another Stanford sub, "Who are they going to bring in next, Kate Starbird?" We did, however, find his lack of faith in the WNBA disturbing.

Anthem was done by the president of the Cagers Club- I suppose, as this was my first RU home opener, I should ask whether this is a tradition or not. I certainly hope it was, because otherwise there was no excuse for letting him near a microphone. Good power, I'll give him that, and he held the last notes beautifully, but he didn't have the range, and some of his phrasing was odd, to say the least.

What's up with Stanford wearing black uniforms? I'm pretty sure black doesn't appear anywhere in the Stanford color scheme, and I'd be inclined to think that they might want to emphasize the color that, oh, they're named after. I do like that they had names on, though. Made it easier to tell who was who. Jerseys with the name on seem to be a lost art, which is a shame.

I went in with the intent to keep an eye on two players: Candice Wiggins, because I devoutly hope I'll be seeing a lot of her at the Garden come May, and Jayne Appel, because one of my friends talks her up a lot. I came out impressed with both of them, but also with Kayla Pedersen. Stanford's got a damn good team this year. Wiggins- well, I'll say that the Ice nickname serves as more than a way to differentiate her from Parker. She doesn’t seem to fear anything. I wonder sometimes if she gets her calls on reputation (although we will get into the black hole of suck that was the refereeing later), but she works her ass off to get in position where a call can be made. I like the way she moves, too, although her footwork might give her some trouble in the W- she made a couple of really nice moves, but also got caught traveling a couple of times. Appel- damn, that is a big girl. I didn't even think Stanford recruited that kind of size. The way she worked on Kia Vaughn- who's no slouch herself- was damn impressive. She knows she's a big girl and she seems to be loving every second of it. Nice soft touch. Still a little awkward- late growth spurt?- but that'll work itself out in time, since she is only a freshman. Pedersen is fierce, and she's got a nice outside touch for someone her size. Gold-Onwude… I wasn't really impressed, although I got the impression that the Stanford offense ran more smoothly when she was in. West Coast folks might know better than I do- is she one of those point guards who doesn't appear to make an impact because she doesn't put up stats, but who runs her team well? For all that VanDerveer played the daylights out of her bench against Yale, she didn't give them that much run last night, and they didn't do much with the run they did get, which might have been why. I mean, Appel and Wiggins both went 40 minutes. I know VanDerveer prides herself on the conditioning of her teams (excuse me while I ponder Jennifer Azzi for a moment… okay, I'm back), but that might be asking a lot, especially from a big like Appel.

Speaking of 40-minute efforts, I think the only reason there were more bench minutes for RU than for Stanford was because Heather Zurich got her face rearranged and because Ajavon got herself in foul trouble with way the hell too much time to go. Essence and Epiphanny both went the full 40, and even with the four fouls, Ajavon played 32 minutes. I can almost understand it- it's not like we were playing a gimme, but have a little faith in your bench, you know? God, I sound like a broken record. I've been kvetching about the same thing for three different teams over the last five years. Anyway. Memo to Ajavon and Epiphanny: you see those people who are wearing clothes very similar to yours? It's okay to give them the ball. Good things will happen. Coach Stringer will not yell at you. Essence also had that problem a little bit, though less than either Ajavon or Epiphanny, who both showed a disturbing willingness to go into triple teams and try to throw up something that might have a prayer of drawing a foul (if, you know, this wasn't Rutgers). Find your shots. Take good shots. 8-13 is one thing, and Epiphanny did a great job on the break. 5-10, somewhat better. 6-18, less so, especially when the last of those shots was a three with too much time on the clock that gave Stanford a chance to have a decent possession. Kia was… some of those blocks were pure beauty, and Appel was giving her all she could handle. Still. As a St. John's fan and a Rutgers fan, I am perhaps more qualified than most to quote timber's mantra: "Give Kia the ball." I'd like to see what happens if Myia and Brittany are given a little more run, because though I can't put my finger on what I liked, I know that I liked having them on the floor. The problem is that we really don't have a lot of size, a lack that Stanford exploited rather glaringly. I'm really not looking forward to Sylvia Fowles's return to the RAC, and I may be thanking my lucky stars I'll be at St. John's that day when all is said and done. The intensity is still there- I doubt it will ever leave so long as Stringer is coaching there- but the teamwork seemed to be lacking. 12 assists on 23 field goals… that makes me a bit queasy. There's no excuse for it, either- all of these players played together last season.

Referees, oh, wow, they were special. I've gotten used to the array of missed calls and phantom calls in women's ball- and I'm not disputing the last foul, just to let you know; my issue with it was the mind-boggling stupidity of charging the damn ball in the backcourt with that little time left- but last night's crew made me shake my head. There was one point where I saw one official call a carry even as the official turnover was a three-second call (which was something they didn't seem all that capable of calling most of the night, but I'm not so sure refs can count). There was a play where Ajavon went barreling into two Cardinal defenders and correctly had an offensive foul called on her- except that the signal the ref made indicated push off when it was a pretty clear charge. I'm not quite sure how you can commit a travel without moving your pivot foot- in fact, I'm fairly certain that's the definition of what a travel is NOT- and yet they called one on Kia. Je n'comprende. They got worse and worse as the game went on; truthfully, I think they could use a session of conditioning with either of the coaches, along with a good lecture.

I always worry about chemistry, and while this year will be fine, I really worry about next year. We might actually see Kia grab Epiphanny by the throat and yell "GIVE ME THE BALL!" in the middle of a game. Oh, and I'm really looking forward to the St. John's game on January 5th. Ajavon and Prince can go two-on-two with Monique McLean and Sky Lindsay while the Kias sit on the sidelines and kvetch about their teammates.

Can I say how much I'm loving the information added to the boxscore this year? Score notations include whether a shot was in the paint or on a fast break; foul notations include both how many the player has and how many the team has. I don't know how long this has been going on, but it rocks my socks.

Does anyone know what the hell happened to Dee Dee Jernigan? She seems to have disappeared again. Damn it, if she's left, we should get Tudy Reed back! ;)

On our way out, we saw a Queens private car parked in the lot, driver waiting. Either someone has a helluva lot of money to blow or someone's related to a driver who took the night off to see his kinswoman. In either case, I salute *you*, Mr. Private Cab Driver.

But, as the avatar says, I bleed red, come hell or high water. My next game is Maryland- I already bought my ticket.