December 1st, 2009: Stetson @ St. John's

St. John's Red Storm 87, Stetson Hatters 51

The Game Notes see you, baby, shaking that ass... oh, sorry, no, you're kicking it, not shaking it.


There's no place like home court. There's no place like home court. There's no place like home court. *clicks Red shoes*

They've renovated the place since last season. Finally, they updated the WNIT banner. Only took them two seasons, but what the hell. It's not like it's something important like the CBI. So much shiny! We have a notreallyJumbomorelikeMediumtron! And an entrance video! And graphics! I'm tearing up here.

This team is much looser than I've seen from them before. They laugh and tease each other a lot during warm-ups and stretches. The seniors don't get much involved in it, but everyone else does. No one else dances the way Sky does, though.

The band does not suck. This is, like, a great revelation for me. It is joy. (But not Joy. This is why capitalization matters.) However, cheerleader third from the left, pull your skirt down, the bottoms of your asscheeks aren't that interesting.

Buzz, you're adorable and we know you love your team, and you seem like a nice kid, but, um, some of your family members appear to have been raised in a barn. Please remind them not to talk during the anthem, especially when ROTC is presenting colors.

Stetson knows the game- they just had a lot of trouble executing. There were a lot of crisp passes that were too fast, too strong, or not well-timed. They kept it close through the first few minutes, and that's with St. John's pitching an eight-minute shutout to open the game. Then we remembered how to rebound and Kelly remembered how to shoot. End of story.

Daphnee Frieson gave us a lot of trouble down on the block, because of her size. She wasn't afraid to body up on our slim posts. Janelle Mills tried to do the same thing, but being slightly shorter and somewhat less talented, she had less success at it. Simone Taylor jump-started their offense off the bench, somewhat aggressively. Don't leave Ashley Dennis open- we're lucky she only put in two triples on us. Hell, even the St. John's men were yelling for her to shoot it. Dashauna Truss also put up in a couple of triples.

I seem to recall Stetson's starting guards doing a lot of stupid things, driving into multiple players and throwing up prayers. (Not smart when the refs are calling it pretty loose.) Ashli Jackson was the only player to break double figures for the Hatters, doing it with a mix of shots. But yeah. Lots of fail and stupid from Jessica Conner, Tierra Brown, Kerri Simpson, and Lyllique Roman.

I'm sorry, Stetson. I only have two plays starred for you, and they both belong to Daphnee Frieson, a nice block and a hard rebound.

Getting up twenty in the first half and stretching the lead further in the second meant that we got to see a lot of the bench. I wish Britney had gotten into the game (no, not that one, where do you think we are, Colorado?), but I'm glad the freshmen got a chance to strut their stuff. Eugeneia was a little over her head, and she didn't play much. Buzz got the bulk of the guard minutes off the bench. She really needs to work on her timing on her defensive plays, but she's got the right instincts and lots of moxie. Her shots were falling tonight, though when they weren't it was obvious why- she uses every bit of the rim and glass that she possibly can- I don't ever want to get into a game of HORSE with her. Kelly found her shot again and it was glorious. We've discovered her problem: if she tries to shoot a women's three, she'll shoot it too long. She was canning them from behind the men's line all night, though. Jennifer, who I keep referring to as Not-the-Kia!, got some time, shoots free throws with too much spin, and managed to foul out in ten minutes. She is also the loudest player I've ever heard. Yeah, Not-the-Kia! needs a bit more polishing, and fast, so we can hit somebody in conference play. Coco's gotten a little stronger, it looks like, and she's crashing the boards well, but she still engages in acts of epic fail that do not amuse.

Sky really dominated the ball today, and in a good way- she scored six early, quick points, including one shot off a carom off the side of the backboard from a truly heinous shot from Da'Shena. Can't make it up if I tried. She set up Joy on a gorgeous fast break, and got one back on a steal from Nadirah in the second half. Joy took a while to warm up- she looked really out of it in the first half, then started going inside again in the second ad doing her thing, tipping balls and getting easy buckets. Nadirah committed some awful freshman mistakes- dumb fouls, sloppy ballhandling- but found her teammates well. She really makes things go smoothly, which opens things up for Sky, which makes everyone happy. Da'Shena had a quiet game, and a lot of the shots she missed were easy ones. But we didn't need her to have a big game, which is a refreshing change. Okay, it was only Stetson, but having such balance is a good thing.

I've seen this crew before. They called it pretty loose. I can't complain too much, since if there was any favoritism, it was towards St. John's, and while I might comment on bias towards my team, I'll never complain about it.

The crowd seemed bigger than I remembered, but they were giving away free t-shirts to students. Whatever. I'm happy with my magnetic schedules. *covers everything*

It was good to be home. GNoD approved!