February 28th, 2009: Rutgers at St. John's

Rutgers Scarlet Knights 65, St. John's Red Storm

We heard you like fail, so we put some fail on your fail, so you can fail while you fail.


Well, that sucked. Certainly not how I wanted the last home game of the season to go. And I'm starting to understand why Rutgers isn't all that popular in the rest of the conference.

We finished brunch around quarter to one, and pulled into the parking lot at St. John's (having rented, ironically, a Kia with Jersey plates) just ahead of the RU bus; the identity of the bus's occupants became a lot more obvious when they started unloading their gear, since fans don't generally roll suitcases along with them. The few minutes before the doors opened made it clear that Carnesecca's security guys haven't had to deal with large crowds in a while, at least not for a women's game. With the kids inside and the folks outside, there was a lot of confusion.

I never thought I'd see the day when I found UConn fans less obnoxious than Rutgers fans. But at least the UConn fans mostly left their chants at home. The Rutgers fans didn't. And trying to set up the R-U call and response within a section is kinda pathetic. Objectively, I appreciate the enthusiasm. Subjectively, if I see that middle-aged blonde woman with the glasses, or the old guy next to her with the Rutgers cap, at the tournament, I'm probably going to deck her without thinking.

It was really nice to see a lot of St. John's people come out, though. We actually made a good amount of noise, more than I'm used to hearing from the home team. Too bad that was the last game of the season- nothing to build on.

Senior Night was sweet- one advantage to having red and white as your colors is that it's really easy to make bouquets. It probably would have been more poignant if Kristin Moore weren't a bit player and Monique McLean weren't a spectacular dumbass. Way to get suspended for DWI less than a month before Senior Day, genius! And way to not wear pink for the PinkZone game! Peacock blue and black plaid? Really, Little Sista? REALLY?

Absolutely beautiful anthem by a group called the Metropolitones. Great harmony. A refreshing change from the crap we've been shoveled.

You know, as much as I've been kvetching about Kia Vaughn's head being up her ass this season, I was kinda hoping it'd stay there for this game. It didn't. She showed the speed and agility that make her a very interesting prospect for her size, and she made it impossible for us to get much of anything done on the inside. She'd be better off laying off the pouting, though, and she and Prince need to switch shorts before someone has a wardrobe malfunction. Rushdan really impressed me- very good instincts on both ends of the floor and a good strong build. Prince didn't need to do much, and she just kept getting to the line in the second half (although I laughed when she crossed herself over- ur doin' it wrong). Zurich got into foul trouble, and always seems to be at the wrong end of Stringer's quick hooks. Ray hit the next to last shot, much to my annoyance- we'd been doing so well at keeping her out of her comfort zone, and it was one of the few things we could take pride in. McCurdy's knee wrap/brace thingy frightens me. It seriously looks like she could take her leg off and beat someone with it. We had freshmen sightings, mostly in line changes. About the only thing I remember about that is that Stringer took the time to ream out Pope and Speed on the floor before she let them go back to the locker room with the rest of the team, which seemed uncalled for- they hadn't done anything so egregious that they needed to be punished immediately. But that's been Stringer's MO this season.

Our free throw shooting did not help us. At all. And inside, we couldn't get much of anything done, which is Da'Shena's and Joy's bread and butter. Da'Shena kept trying threes by the end of the game, either panicking or afraid to take a shot at the Scarlet defense (or maybe she was just tired of being hit), and they didn't go so well. I expect her to improve that in the years ahead if she wants to make anything of herself. Monique really would have been fucking useful, but I'll get over that sometime in the near future. Joy worked her ass off, but when you're 6'0 and skinny, having Kia Vaughn as your matchup is kind of the dictionary definition of having drawn the short straw. There's a reason Vaughn was having a block party. And RU's defense really hacked at Joy's fatal flaw: her utter inability and unwillingness to handle the ball. A lot of St. John's turnovers were on the long passes that were desperate attempts to get the hell out of the trap. That went for Britney and Sheree, too; Britney's just a freshman, and Sheree's never been a good ballhandler. Sky kept trying, but she doesn't know her weaknesses, and while that's sometimes an advantage, it's not when you're launching deep threes as a 21% shooter. Kelly tried to keep us in it in the first half, but we couldn't get the ball to her in the second. I really think Coach should have given Recee more run and Victoria some, at least to get some size in there against Vaughn and Junaid and open up a little space for the rest of the team to work. And I just don't understand why no one on this team doesn't seem to know how to set screens and picks. Work with your teammates, people. Help them out. You're supposed to be able to work with them, remember?

The refereeing sucked. I've said this once and I'll say it again: at this point, I'm no longer asking for competence, just consistency. If you call a hack on one end, call it on the other. If you call a play a travel on one end, call it a travel on the other. Although, if we're going to get into competence, I think the one play where Coco was trying to box out Kia Vaughn and suddenly levitated backwards might be the worst no-call I've seen in a long time. Or, well, one of the worst, but more on that later. I really don't like the deterioration of RU's style- they've always been defensive, and always been physical, but they're getting dirtier and nastier. More holding, more hitting. I don't know if it's just the rough edges showing for a team with limited veteran presence, or if they're just frustrated at the way this season's gone, or if this is one of the ways where Stringer seems to be losing her team, but I don't like this direction, and if I didn't have tickets to the first two rounds at the RAC, I'd have handed in my fanship card for good after this game.

No pictures. There were people in front of me and the Senior Night/Day/WTFEver ceremonies weren't facing me.