November 27th, 2009: Georgia Tech at Seton Hall (LIU Turkey Classic)

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 57, Seton Hall Pirates 51

What we have here is a failure to communicate. Namely, that the round thing should go through the orange thing.


Game 2 brought more repetition from the blue nano, a shuffling of fans, and an influx of people in really bright blue. I admit, I love the Hall's blue. It's much more striking than most teams' blue.

Apparently we were sitting by LIU family, because a bunch of them came into the stands briefly and chatted before wandering off. Palmer, Johnson, and Evans stayed for the whole second game, and I think I saw a couple of the others as well.

Georgia Tech's uniforms disconcert me. It's not that they're ugly, but I'm not used to bare shoulders. I kind of have this urge to take some of the fabric from the enormously huge shorts and use it to cover the bare shoulders. They run some of the most intense practices I've ever seen, though my traveling companion pointed out that that might just be because they wouldn't have had a chance to do their usual morning practice, so they made up for lost time during shootaround. Whatever the case may be, I've never seen a player knock one of her teammates to the floor during shootaround. That's some intensity.

Sharena Taylor had a nice stroke. So did Alex Montgomery, although she was ineffective for stretches when she got into foul trouble. Chelsea Regins has the most aggressively regulated dreadlocks I've ever seen. I think she shaves part of her scalp to delineate things more clearly. She was in a lot of places, trying to make things happen. Georgia Tech was very frenetic, in general, so if you don't see notes on a specific player, just assume that she was running her ass off in the trap.

I really like the Aussie they have, Brigitte Ardossi... at least on offense. She's not so good at staying with her assignment on defense, but she did a lot of good stuff on offense. ("Good stuff." This is why I shouldn't be letting the Internet distract me so that I'm only getting to these notes six hours after the end of the game.) Yeah, four steals, but much like Sherill Baker, either she'll get the steal or the other team will get the basket. Metra Walthour's sense of timing was impeccable- she hit a couple of early shots for GT, then put in the third one during a Seton Hall run. Mo Bennett was off and on. So was Deja Foster, who needs to learn that cute is for the team picture (and with a team like this, even that statement's debatable- tough as this team is, I don't think they do cute). Goodlett shows promise- I'm so used to the lower rung of the ladder that 6'5" makes me do a double-take. She needs to know a little more about the game, but otherwise she'll be right.

Seton Hall's running short-handed, with only 11 on the roster and only 9 playing. I don't even know anymore. (Confusion here: my notes say the starters were Booker, Emery, Wood, Curry, and Green, while Seton Hall's site has Williams instead of Wood; I'm thinking I misaimed my starter star, in which case you can smack me.) If so, then this is the right place to mention Whitney Wood's earning of the Coco Hart Memorial Award For Epic Fail on an open lay-up. Shanai Heber played starter's minutes for Booker, but still came off the bench. Nice job rebounding, but she picked up a lot of fouls. More of the officiating later. Terry Green had some enthusiastic fans behind us, but I'm not impressed with Mangina's recruit. Kashmere Joseph's really fallen down the depth chart, which, when the depth chart is as shallow as the Pirates' is, is kinda pathetic. I mean, it's not like I was ever terribly impressed with her, but c'MON.

Booker barely played. I'm going to have to go on Seton Hall's site to confirm dimensions, positions, and hometowns, because the roster at LIU was jacked up, but if the numbers I have are accurate, Booker only started because of her build. Ebonie Williams was really the only reason they ever got into the game- she got them off the schnide with a three, and she was hitting pretty consistently once she got going. Nicole Emery and Kandice Green joined the party in the second half, and that was enough to save the team. Emery was at least getting to the line- that's the only way Seton Hall could score for a large chunk of the game.

I don't have much to say specifically about the players from either side because of the way the game shook out. At the beginning, Georgia Tech looked like something out of a defensive maven's wet dream. They were trapping hard ad pressing harder, forcing bad shots and contesting most shots. Seton Hall couldn't buy a bucket. It took almost thirteen minutes of game time for them to finally register a field goal, but once that happened it was like the floodgates opened. Six field goals in seven minutes isn't a bad clip. Once the Pirates got going, the Yellow Jackets' lack of discipline really showed, more on the offensive end than on the defensive end, but they started to fall apart in the halfcourt defense as well. As long as they were able to hawk the ball, they could disrupt Seton Hall's offense, but once the Hall got into a rhythm, assignments were blown and open shots were found- and in the second half, Seton Hall wasn't missing the open shots they were blowing in the first half.

It was an ugly game, plain and simple. The refs didn't help either. The calls got oddly inconsistent near the end of the game, because I think the three guys were overwhelmed by the physicality of the mess.

Here are the two plays, both near the end of the game, that seemed ot encapsulate the fail that the Pirates brought to the yard: with about fourteen seconds left, Seton Hall was down 54-51. This was after fucking off about nineteen seconds from the clock. Instead of going for the three, Emery drove the lane for two. Except that she got called for the charging foul on a sketchy call, her fourth, and possession went back to Georgia Tech, who sank two free throws. Now Seton Hall, down 56-51 with about four seconds left, decides to try a three from the corner closest to the bench. It goes up... and gets wedged between the rim and the backboard. Jump ball, alternate possession gives the ball to Georgia Tech. As hot a mess as that game was, I can't think of two more jacked up ways to end a game.

Seton Hall, OMG, you made my conference look bad, stoppit. Georgia Tech, don't rest on your laurels, because that almost lost you the game.

GNoD DISapproved!