September 19th, 2007: Australia at USA

The Game Notes of Doom are fangirled and fangirl in return, Val Ackerman finally gets a good night's sleep, Courtney Paris is slick, and Cheryl Miller may or may not be drunk.


You know that phrase, "I wouldn't have missed it for the world"? I generally try not to use it because it's so over the top, but in this case, it's actually kinda true. Every game is a unique experience, but this one was a little more unique than most.

Took the 12:30 bus from Chinatown- rode standby and managed to get the last seat, which was in the back of the bus and with a party of guys who descended in some way from the Iberian peninsula. One of them was a Spaniard, another said he was Brazilian but had a Spanish-speaking brother. We talked sports part of the way up, and I think if it had been a slightly earlier tip I would have been able to talk them into going. The bus got in a little after three, allowing me to get to the box office and score a seat four rows off the floor for $30. Alas, I won none of it back, but such is life.

Got to meet a couple of Mikes from the boards (well, say hi to SportsPageMike again) at Geno's- mikejofm had the good sense to wear a Rebkell shirt so he would be more easily recognizable. I'd started my lunch/dinner a bit early, so I only got to have my soda with him and his companions before heading into line for the game. If anyone else was there, I was the one in the Rebecca Lobo Liberty jersey.

For once I have to specify that it was her Liberty jersey, because there was a woman there wearing her National Team jersey. We bonded immediately. And then she found out I do the Fan Blog (yes, I know, not as often as I should) and she fangirled me. I think that was a first. It was very gratifying. I walked around the arena with a huge grin on my face for a good long while after that. I felt like such a big shot.

Recorded instrumental rendition of "Advance Australia Fair". Live vocal rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner". We would have been better served by a recorded instrumental rendition.

Aussies look weird when they're wearing regular shorts and their national team gear. It's disconcerting. I thought for a second they were experimenting with a new style of uniform while they were overseas, but no, just part of the warm-ups. This time around, Carly Wilson was activated, Michelle Brogan was deactivated, and the numbers got shuffled around a bit. Wilson put on a bit of a shooting show, especially early in the game and early in the… fourth, I think? You'll have to pardon me if I'm a bit fuzzy. Porter was less stupendous offensively, but I still like the way she moves on the floor. Also, the general consensus among people at the game was that there's no way she's only 27, that she's gotta be in her 30s at least. Then again, everyone seemed surprised at Tully's age. Maybe you're only as old as you feel, or some claptrap like that. Tully, at one point, went flying into the scorer's table… and as she left the game, the announcer gave the substitution and added "She told me she's okay!" Which, okay, you know she'd tell him even if she had just broken three bones and was gushing blood all over the floor, but I thought it was a sweet moment. She runs her team well, and the US is going to need a second point guard just to make sure that Tully and Birdy never match up in Beijing- Tully knows the kid too well. I like watching Rohanee Cox on offense- okay, obviously not if she's playing against my team, but she seems to know when to pick her spots and hit her shots. I will be very surprised if she's not in the W by, say, 2010. Most of the Aussies who came on the trip seemed to be tall, blonde, and interchangeable, and all of them seemed willing to use whatever joints they could on their opponents. Hollie Grima especially put a hit on Seimone Augustus that had the EMT sort of sauntering towards the court in case he was needed, which is never something you want to see at a game.

Anne, whatever plan you were going with that night, don't go with it again, 'kay? That was a little too close for comfort against an Australian side that was seriously lacking in star power. I understand what she was doing; what she did on Sunday worked, but it's nice to see what else might work- or in this case, didn't exactly work and really wouldn't have worked if it hadn't been for Candace Parker. She just went off on the Aussies, hitting every big shot she needed to hit and fighting on the boards- there was also one play where she probably could have dunked but settled for the soft finger roll. Probably for the best ;we might have seen someone's knee get taken out if she'd dunked in an exhibition game. Brilliant as she is, and lucky as the lottery winner will be to have her, though, I'm happy with who my team has- I don't want Ace so much as I want Ice. Wiggins didn't have a great shooting day, but I love her defensive intensity and her intensity overall. Lawson's shooting was a bit off, and she's not a point guard, but she captains that defense most sturdily, and I wouldn't want to be a ballhandler in the same building as her, let alone be a ballhandler she's defending- seeing her up close and personal kind of hammers home just how intense she is. Bird was still shaky- there were some points where I found myself thinking she'd be better off as a two than as a one, which is definitely not an opinion I want to have of our starting point guard. I'm sure that given time with this batch of players she'll develop a proper sense of timing in how they work, but I didn't like the chemistry I was seeing out there. Augustus is getting a pass (for what it's worth, although she was playing well early on) after that hit from Grima put her shoulder out of joint and gave her serious breathing problems. It's never fun to see a player curled up on the court in agony, looking for all the world like someone's going to have to administer the kiss of life any moment. Thompson looked like she left her brain in Trenton- she was completely discombobulated out there, although I liked some of what she did on the defensive end, in the paint. Milton-Jones was not memorable, although she managed to look shorter than I remembered her. Cash played some minutes and looked a little out of place, although I do know she has a lot on her mind. Brunson was Brunson- I swear, she looks more and more like her "mama" every day. Very little of Paris, and Jess didn't play at all, which made me very sad.

As negative as that assessment sounds, I think the issue here is more getting used to each other and less having the talent. Once we get the team together that we're going to take into competition, and they start getting used to who zigs, who zags, and who does the jitterbug. We'll also have the more vocal players back, which we really don't have right now- I was struck by how little talking the US players did to each other. Oh, they'd make a ruckus to distract the Aussies, but they hardly ever communicated with each other. Compare to Trenton, when there was a whole lot of playcalling and signaling coming from Jess. Now, somehow, I doubt Taurasi will put up with quiet on her floor, so that's a problem easily solved, but we need to not make everything reliant on one player.

I had the pleasure of sitting with a couple of very well-informed, knowledgeable, and very long-time followers of the women's game who were familiar with the international nuances and knew the game inside out. We all concluded that the US needs at least one more point guard, and I took rather vindictive pleasure in dissecting Bird's mistakes while the UConn faithful cheered the things she did well. One of them also said that Hammon had declined for certain, and she claimed a pretty damn good source at USA Basketball, so I'm inclined to believe her. So with Loree injured, Lawson playing well, and Hammon a decline, can we just shut the door and lock it tight on the whinging there?

After the game, 'twas off to the hotel lobby. Mohegan Sun is the only place I do this, and that only because it's the only reliable spot and it's part of the complex- within the arena, it's touch and go because of the narrow space and high rail (though I did net about half of the Aussies). A couple of the folks I've come to know as Connecticut's Usual Suspects were around- also got to say hi to Rothum and #1Margofan, and one of my fellow Liberty Usual Suspects was around, although she didn't have her iconic backpack. Dan Hughes paced across the lobby several times- I finally jokingly asked him if he was waiting for someone to recognize him. The Aussies were the first team up, still in uniform. Michelle Brogan seemed surprised that someone recognized her from her W days- I probably should have mentioned to her that there was someone wandering around in a Michele Timms jersey, too; she might have gotten a kick out of that. Our former Madam President, Val Ackerman (looking like she at long last got a good night's sleep), came through. A few of the US players did, too: Bird, who was in a bit of a mood (then again, if I had a bag of ice half the size of my head taped to my knee and I'd just had Tully down my shorts for an hour, and I just wanted to get to my hotel room, I'd be pretty cranky, too; hell, I'd be downright antisocial, so props to her for stopping), Parker, Davenport (who I probably should have told I was wearing her shirt under my jersey), Milton-Jones, and Cash. Courtney Paris went around us, which ought to earn her full points for disguise and concealment, since we didn’t see her until she was at the elevator to the hotel, and how does one miss a 6'3", 250lb center? Thompson signed for some people, but she was on the move, and with her son and possibly her mom.

Cheryl Miller was in the house again- she's changed over the years; she looks a little softer around the face, although that might have been a function of the hairdo. She had a Reggie shirt on. She was very genial, although one of my companions wondered if she might have been a bit sloshed. Well, it's certainly a Mercury tradition…

I also got to do something I've always kinda wanted to do ever since I read The Same River Twice, and it's going to sound absolutely silly to most of you. I almost didn't get Cash for the scorecard that's going to a friend of mine in Australia, because she was deep in a long conversation with someone, an older woman elegantly dressed. Turned out that that woman was Chris Dailey, she of the many myriad rules UConn players must follow- including this thing she has where she'd like them to sign a legible autograph. As a collector, I too appreciate the finer points of penmanship, and I always told myself that if I ever got the chance to meet her, I was going to thank her for making sure that there would always be at least some presentable signatures in the league. So I did, and I did.

(As an aside, one of the things I really like about WNBA fans, as compared to the stories you hear about fans in other sports: pretty much everyone, except for a couple of kids, waited for Cash to finish her chat with CD {and then Bird and Jamelle Elliott}- and gave them a clear bubble of space for privacy when it became clear that Cash *was* in fact pouring her heart out.)

One of the best plays of the game was by the Aussies- Porter (I think) got a rebound, zipped a pass to Poto, who barely touched it over to Wilson in the corner, who then buried a three. Parker and Thompson did some great work on the boards. My scribbled notes indicate that Cox and Porter also had great assists, but I can't remember what they were. I know Lawson had a nifty recovery that led to one of Parker's many buckets.

I think one of the things I found so fascinating and compelling about that night was how it brought together the past (Val, Cheryl Miller), the present (most of the players on the floor), and the future (Parker and the young Aussies). It felt very cyclical and deeply right.