May 24th, 2008: Sacramento at Connecticut

The Game Notes Of Doom have a bit of a crush on Mike Thibault but are not fond of Husky fans, and Lindsay Whalen continues to be awe-inspiring.


Okay, so maybe Atlanta and Sacramento aren't the greatest tests in the world- not this season, at least- but so far, Thibault looks like a full-fledged genius. And Jenny Boucek looks like she still doesn't know what she has.

I won't bore you with tales of the crazy drunk Russian man who almost made us call the cops to protect the bus driver, so let's start our tale at the arena, with the sheer number of fuzzy, furry, and feathered things wandering around the arena- see, the Sun had declared it Blaze's birthday, so they got mascots from all over New England to help with the celebration. Even if you factor out the sponsor mascots, they got a very impressive group of costumes together. The birthday was celebrated with kazoos (I can't get mine to work, which I'm sure is more my problem than theirs) and a magnificent Blaze-shaped cake that was shown off at halftime. Alas, they did not take the boy's suggestion that the cake be cut up and sold at exorbitant prices at Geno's.

So, Sacramento. Do you guys have to show how much you miss Yo? Because the organization… not so organized. And when is Nicole Powell going to show up and replace the placeholder in her uniform? That was a pretty horrendous shooting display she put on right there. Ticha's lost a step or two, but she's still a far better option at the point than young Miss Franklin, whose name I am afraid I will butcher beyond recognition if I try to spell it. Things seemed better, at least defensively, with Ticha in. I had no idea how small Franklin was, and while she's fast, I don't know if I would have taken the chance on her that Sacramento has. Brunson was exactly what we expected from her, and she added a couple of nice defensive plays with her hands. Adrian Williams-Strong (I'm still not used to her hyphenation) played pretty well, I thought, but that might just be in comparison to the bench, which was. Well. We'll get to that. I've always liked Kara Lawson, so I was glad to see her get her shots and hear her organizing her team. But other than Crystal Kelly, Sacramento's bench was beyond awful. Laura Harper and Kim Smith still have a lot to learn, although Harper has more of an excuse than Smith does. At least Kelly was aggressive inside and drew fouls. Boucek really worked her bench in the first half, but in the second she seemed to have decided to go with an actual rotation. Maybe she'll try that in the first half next time. Fortunately, she wasn't a fashion disaster this time- nothing too tight, nothing too short.

Lindsay. FUCKING. Whalen. I may not like her, but goddamn is she bringing it this year so far. Today she was needed to score, so she put up 21… and five rebounds against Sacto's big front line.. and five assists. She absolutely abused Franklin. Please, please tell me she's in contention for Beijing? And the ball movement was fabulous overall. Any time you get ten assists from your starting frontcourt, you've got your passing game working. Surprised the hell out of me when I looked at the boxscore, because I remembered Whitmore making a couple of passes that were reminiscent of her not-so-good Liberty years- but mistakes are always more noticeable, and she started hitting her shots in the second half- playing her outside took Brunson out of her comfort zone and opened things up inside, especially when Franklin was on Whalen and Whalen could make like she was a forward on the lil bit. So did Barbara Turner, who was canning threes every which way but loose. All of them were, really; there was one point in the second half where Connecticut had hit four threes from straight on at the top of the key. Amber Holt is looking more and more like a brilliant pick by Thibault- as is her second-shift counterpart, Jolene Anderson. (No, seriously, she and Anderson are straight switches, Holt for the first half, Anderson for the second half; he does the same thing with Gardin and Turner.) It's almost a shame that they're all coming in the same year as Parker- the lower-level rookies this year are going to be so overlooked because of the megastars. It was nice to see Page and Swanier come in, and how the Sun immediately ran the first play for Page- I'm just disappointed that Boucek didn't come with Allen in the last two minutes, when the game was out of reach.

I think I would like the Sun a lot better- or at least enjoy the experience of a Sun game more- if it weren't for Husky fans blowing the roof off so disproportionately for Turner and Swanier during introductions. Jones and Raymond, I get, because they both have WNBA track records and Jones is a starter. But when even the PA announcer is showing favoritism towards the UConn alumnae, it's hard to enjoy the game. Where's the love for the actual starters- for Holt, who's giving Blaze a reason to go get his hair done again, or for the hard-working Gardin? Why does a reserve guard who basically serves as the victory cigar get more fan appreciation than the one who flies into the stands for the ball? It's to the point where I don't feel comfortable clapping for Jones or Raymond, even though I've always liked Tamika Raymond and have nothing but respect for Asjha Jones, because I don't want to identify with that element of the fan base.

Matt and Jackie need to tone it down a little, although they're not as annoying as they used to be. Still, don't try to force traditions down fans' throats. As we've already seen in New York, it doesn't work. Connecticut fans are smart enough- or at least I'd like to think so- not to fall for pointless bullshit. If fans can't bring the noise themselves…

I love watching Thibault work- not that we had much of a chance to do so, since our seats were on the Sacramento side. Forget mere killing- I'd commit wholesale massacre to get Mike Thibault as coach/GM of the Liberty.

Ugh, refs. An all-male crew usually guarantees someone who thinks there's a charge circle in the WNBA, much to Kim Smith's dismay. And then there was the offensive foul that was whistled late on Brunson… a) after a Sun player had initiated contact, b) [I]after Connecticut had already gotten the ball back[/I] after the collision. Of course, when they have to redo the [I]opening[/I] jump, you might have a crappy crew on hand. The Connecticut fans were more pissed than I was.

So yeah. I'm going to look pretty damn stupid for having Connecticut fifth in my predictions. Not that I mind, though. :D