December 19th, 2008: Lafayette at Rutgers

Rutgers Scarlet Knights 61, Lafayette Leopards 29

The Game Notes are wroth with the Rutgers athletic department, yet still feel love for the freshmen.


I really want to compliment my team. I really do. And I shouldn't be upset at a 61-29 victory, because it really does say a lot about the team, and a lot of it is good. But at the same time I get the weird and conflicting feelings that we should have won by more because Lafayette couldn't get out of their own way, and that we should have won by less because the bench should have had more time to work out the kinks. I don't know. I'm just confused.

I'm really not thrilled with Rutgers University right now. Ticket hikes are one thing, but I shouldn't have to bootleg a scoresheet at a BEast school. LIU, Columbia, St. Francis- there I can get scoresheets, but not at the premier WCBB school in the New York metro area? Are you kiddin' me? Also, please feel free to get your PA system fixed so that we can actually make out the names of the opposing players. The RAC is a wonderful arena, but it deserves more than cut corners inside.

But I did miss the band. They rock.

So, Lafayette. I don't know if it was the stifling defense- they certainly had trouble getting the ball over to each other- or their own ineptitude (since they graduated their biggest offensive threat from last season), but they were really lost out there on offense. I thought their opening drill for warm-ups, a hand-off drill, was a really good idea, but it didn't seem to do them a lot of good in actual game action. RU must have been marking the hell out of Wright, because she was a big scorer for the Leopards last year, but only got four points, all in the first half. She also set up the unfortunately named Elizabeth Virgin for a first-half bucket. Garner and Spicer had nice steals- I remembered Spicer from my trip to Kirby Gym as a ball-hawk, and there she was. Virgin and Wright also had nice plays on the defensive end. Plus, hey, any time you can see Lauren Jackson play… all right, all right, this Lauren Jackson was a brunette guard from Texas who showed a lot of hustle and not much else, but you take your amusement where you can.

Stat that stands out in the game: RU missed 32 shots, 38 if you count missed free throws. They picked up 23 offensive rebounds. So yeah, pretty impressive percentage there. Nice shooting by Piph, but I can't help but wonder if it was really necessary to not only keep her in the game for 37 total minutes (when no other starter topped 30, and the only one who came close was Kia Vaughn, who had to come back into the game late because Junaid was a wreck), but keep her shooting down to the last minute of a game that had long since become a blowout. At least feed one of the freshmen or something. She was also really aggressive on defense, more than she usually is, and I think she should have been called for a couple of more holds than she was. I did like her plays on the sideline, though I suspect Melissa Downey will disagree with me on that. Vaughn was solid inside, with pleasingly few of the glaring mental errors I've come to expect of her. (She does, however, have to learn to go before she leaves- there's nothing quite as disconcerting as seeing your starting center run pell-mell for the locker room.) Heather Zurich started getting into a groove, then started getting into foul trouble, and that was, as they say, that. She and Ray both took their turns on LaKeisha Wright, and both had success on her. Ray didn't really need to get into the offense. McCurdy, I honestly don’t remember, and that's frightening, given that she's one of my favorite Scarlet Knights. I'm really liking Rushdan's hustle and work on the boards. Like, a lot. Sykes has good instincts, but she needs to learn when not to pull the trigger. C'mon, April. You're a big, badass young woman. Take it inside. You don't need to be popping MCBB threes from the top of the arc. I'm liking Nikki Speed. It was nice to see Lee and Pope, and I liked Lee's screen to set up the two by Rushdan.

Best play of the game: Rushdan's interception at midfield returned for a touchdown steal at halfcourt that resulted in a Prince three.

Most awesome play in the history of ever: the absolutely bone-crushing screen thrown by the girl in the #10 jersey during the halftime ballkid two-on-two game. I swear to God, if I were Kim Barnes Arico, I might have tried to offer her a scholarship right then and there. The Red Storm don't set screens that solid. Hell, some Liberty players don't set screens that solid. We're talking damn near Screen of Death here.

You know how I mentioned that I hadn't seen Bonita Spence in a while, before the game at St. John's on Tuesday? Yeah, guess who showed up again. Does she hibernate until December or something? Because if she does, she's doing it wrong. So wrong. This was great hibernation weather. Some truly horrible calls- travels that were caused by fouls, fouls that were called as travels, some textbook holding not whistled… Bonita, really, I expect better of your crews.

The weather was absolutely disgusting, but a surprising number of people made it out. Probably not that many fewer than would actually consider Rutgers-Lafayette to be a match worth checking out. I do wish the guy in the scarlet sweater who was obnoxiously rooting for the Leopards the whole game and then "Rah rah Rutgers rah!"ing after the game hadn't been able to make it. Does that make me a bad person?

So yeah, we won, and we won big, but really, relying on one player to score the bulk of your points is so mid-major. She's got to learn to trust her young players, and at least in this game, she did give Sykes and Speed chances. Baby steps. Baby steps.