St. John's Red Storm 78, Seton Hall Pirates 57
An ensemble cast brings much-needed awesome back to Queens.
Even in the worst of seasons, every team is vouchsafed one game where things flow well, where everything goes right, and even if it's just for one moment, you can pretend that you're among the greatest teams in the world. St. John's had that game tonight.
Okay, so the anthem was awful beyond all imagining. I have no idea why they keep asking this guy to sing, because while he may work with the team, he has no voice. At all. It's very bad. And he keeps screwing up the words. Now imagine all this in a wannabe R&B falsetto with the rasp of a bad mic behind every word. There's a circle of hell where this is done somewhere for all eternity. I hope never to do anything bad enough to send me there.
That was fail. Epic fail was Monique McLean, making her grand reappearance in a bright yellow sweater that was far too tight and a gray leopard-print skirt that was also far too tight. If you're going to show up after disappearing for three games with various sordid rumors swirling around you, at least do so without looking like you're going streetwalking afterwards.
I'm not quite sure what's happened to Seton Hall since the last time I saw them. They have talent, but they've just gone flat. Noteisha Womack's numbers will look flashy, though we kept her off the boards- but she got a lot of quick points in garbage time, when no one was really guarding her. Shantel Brown did most of the damage for the Hall in the first half. She reminds me of a miniaturized Natalie Williams. Kandice Green showed flashes, but it really did kinda show that she's a freshman tonight, and that she's not quite stepping up a la Da'Shena. Didn't really notice Ebonie Williams except when she popped those threes- really didn't notice Jadis Rhodin at all. I was very surprised to see Kashmere Joseph and Nicole Emery so far down in the rotation- certainly Whitney Wood showed me nothing that would suggest she deserves to be in the rotation. Joseph needs a new bra. Emery disappeared tonight. I don't know what happened to her. I got my first look at Shanai Heber- she didn't play in their game against Marshall. Good distributor, but not savvy on the defensive end, and a bit bloodthirsty in lost cause minutes- near the end of the game, she looked like she was trying to run Sheree Ledbetter down to foul her, with Seton Hall down twenty. I think Green's going to be the next big thing for this team- if Mangina coaches her.
I love ensemble games. Statistically, Da'Shena's 17 and 7 probably makes her the star of the show, but this was a real team game. Da'Shena stepped up her scoring in approximately the third quarter to help us maintain control. Sky played well- one board away from a double-double. Joy was working hard on the boards and inside. Sheree got the start, and while her numbers aren't eye-popping, the offense ran faster with her in the game (though she's got to move her hands on defense, or Coach will try to go out there and move them for her). Kelly hit her shots and made plays on the sidelines. Coco had one of the best games I've ever seen her play- whatever she had for breakfast this morning, I hope she has again on Saturday, because we're gonna need that energy, that effort, and that offense. Recee, facemasked once more, brought nuch-needed physicality against some rough play by Wood and Joseph. Britney was solid, including one incredible rebound that I didn't think any guard who wasn't named Deanna Nolan could pull off, involving high vertical and long horizontal. Kristen came in, hit her first shot, and was solid. We even had a Victoria sighting. Some great team plays, some great heady plays.
Play of the game for obvious satisfaction: Coco gets the ball in the high post. She doesn't have a shot, so she whips a pass to Kelly on the wing. Kelly doesn't have a shot, so she snaps the ball inside to Joy, who's got an easy lay-up. Crisp, efficient, successful.
Play of the game for subtle satisfaction: near the end of the game, Sheree, or maybe it's Britney, is having some trouble shaking off the Seton Hall defenders. Kristen, standing nearby, claps her hands sharply to let Sheree know she's open, and gets the ball.
Got to talk to Sky's mom after the game. She has the kind of dominating, or perhaps domineering, presence that her daughter thinks she has and may yet grow into.
Gotta love coaches at the end of blowouts. I think everyone heard her yell, "RECEE! PLAY SOME DEFENSE!" when Womack blew past her on a play. Attagirl, Kim. Never be satisfied. (And never let your kid try to distract you during halftime when you're just trying to get back to the bench. Poor Trevor just wanted to be hugged.)
Dear Ms. Joseph: things may be different in Britain, but the next time you grab Recee like that, you better have bought her a drink first.
I'm still just caught up in the relief of having won a game. Because I had to miss the MSG games, the last time I saw them win was against Boston College, back on December 21st. :(
This was good. We needed this.
Watch this space for pictures.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
February 25th, 2009: Seton Hall at St. John's
Sunday, February 22, 2009
February 22nd, 2009: VCU at Hofstra
Virginia Commonwealth Rams 55, Hofstra Pride 43
The Pride and promise of Hofstra. They're just not quite there yet.
Signs you have moved up the food chain in the conference hierarchy: the arena you're visiting has luxury boxes. I'm not actually making this up. I almost want to be, but I'm not. I feel like a broken record, but Hofstra has one of the nicest arenas I've been in all season- it's like we saved the best for last or something, which is really promising for the NCAA tournament. It's a bit tricky to get to if you don't know exactly what turns to make, but once you figure them out, you'll be fine.
The Pride motif is widespread among the athletic facilities- and there are a lot of them, all top-notch for a CAA team, probably higher in quality than the conference average. The arena's tricky to navigate in, but when you realize that the turnstiles you go through are taken away so that you can go out to the vestibule and pick up your Pride souvenirs or your Pride programs. Said program is a bit pricey, but it's well worth it- very informative and refreshingly free of typos.
Continuing on the squee angle, the anthem was performed very beautifully by a Hofstra junior. Rachel, try out for American Idol- if they won't have you, it's because you're too damn good for them.
As it happened, we hit a Pink Zone game- if I'd known, I'd have worn a more appropriate Liberty tee, either the Arthur Ashe pink one or the one with the permanently affixed pink ribbon. I felt so out of place. Both teams had very awesome t-shirts, VCU rocked the pink socks, both teams rocked the pink laces, Hofstra had a raffle: it was a very well-done Pink Zone. Thumbs up!
VCU plays a very tough, very scrappy defense that drove Hofstra absolutely nuts. The press singlehandedly put VCU in the driver's seat. I'd love to see VCU side-by-side with Notre Dame and see how much of that defense is derived from Cunningham's days at Notre Dame and how much is her own devising. After reading up on Quanitra Hollingsworth and her entrance to the 1000/1000 club recently, I wanted to see how she would perform. She's an interesting player- really bad shooting game today, but that's as much due to Fuller as it is anything else. Very aggressive, though, and good height, though a bit wiry. Someone ought to take a flyer on her in training camp. Radoslava Bachvarova picked up the scoring slack for the Rams, and helped them take control in the early part of the second half. Jennifer Lane also stepped it up in the second half. There's something I like about her manner, though that may just be because she reminds me of a slightly stockier Leilani Mitchell. Even though she's a freshman, she didn't seem rattled when her team was down double digits on the first shot of the second half. Kita Waller had a nice steal and did a lot of work on the boards. Cunningham plays a tight rotation, and I'm of the opinion that Courtney Hurt is very well surnamed.
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy play from Hofstra. A lot of passes went awry, a lot of their errors were unforced or were player-control fouls. Niki Williams- who reminded me of Sue Bird at the outset because of the look of her- let the game slip out of her control. Very bad ballhandling, and questionable decision-making. Joelle Connelly started off hot, and maybe she was trying to help defend Hollingsworth and Bachvarova, but she just disappeared after the first quarter of the game. Fortunately for Hofstra, Jess Fuller started happening and just kept happening until she started getting hit with fouls in the second half (which, more on that later). Natty Fripp was playing some kind of bipolar- one minute she was cringing in the middle of a scrum for a rebound, the next she'd dive into the tall trees and go for the driving lay-up. One minute she'd hustle, the next she was almost running away from the ball. I don't get it. Aamira Terry didn't really show up until the second half, when she started putting up some highlight reel shots- but that's all she was trying for, not the simple shots. Sam Brigham gave them some good minutes, and really gave them a shot in the arm when they were trying to extend their lead in the first half and the early part of the second, but she had absolutely no idea how to go to the ball. Seriously, at least two passes zipped past her and out of bounds.
And yet the Pride kept themselves in the game, or at least they tried to. The refereeing was extremely uneven, in terms of what they called, who they called it on, and when they called what. It's true that Hofstra had to play much less disciplined defense than VCU did, since VCU was the stronger team, but some of the calls against them, and some of the calls not made against the Rams, were borderline, to say the least.
Once Hofstra gets a better team- and I know that's a lot to ask for, with the Virginia schools dominating the conference- I'd be more than happy to hike back out to the Island and enjoy their lovely facilities again- but until then, I think I'll give Hofstra a pass.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
February 14th, 2009: Syracuse at St. John's
Syracuse Orange 79, St. John's Red Storm 78
Happy Valentine's Day! Britney Murphy has big brass ones, but Nicole Michael and the Syracuse Orange are bigger in less metaphorical ways.
I maintain, and I suspect that I always will, that a one-point loss is more disheartening, more demoralizing, and more frustrating thay any number of blowouts will ever be. I know in my heart that we really had no chance of winning this game, and that we shouldn't have been as close as we were, but it still drives me up the wall.
Epic fail: Monique McLean was not with the team, and isn't going to be for a long time. Which brings us down to 10 players, only four of them guards, three of whom start. Slim pickings. Not amused.
Hillsman reminds me of a teeny tiny Charles Barkley. That's not a sight I really want to see. His team doesn't have *that* much size, but they used what they had effectively, especially when it came to Nicole Michael- because she's so long-limbed, she was able to reach over our posts and snag rebounds, and when she didn't snag them, she was able to bat them to her teammates. They absolutely kicked the shit out of us on the glass. It wasn't the second chances that killed us- it was the third and fourth chances that got us. Morrow didn't have a great shooting game, but she hit the shots when she needed to. Chandrea Jones went off like a firecracker in the first half- for a while it was her and Kelly going toe-to-toe. She quieted down in the second, but by that point, 'Cuse had gotten their city girls going. What's up with Tasha Harris and the sleeves? Just curious. They got decent bench play out of Troya Berry, who was helpful when Jones got into foul trouble- they could go to a bigger lineup and really drive us up the wall. Gobuty hit a critical shot to help put the kibosh on one of our comeback tries.
Without McLean, we had to start Britney Murphy, who's normally the first guard off the bench. She's a freshman, and there were times during the game when she looked like she was in over her head- but gun-to-the-head time, she showed that she has brass ones like church bells- the three shots she hit were all big ones: one right at the half to put us up four, one to cut Syracuse's lead under double figures, and one with 2.6 left that put us within one and made a win at least theoretically possible (until Syracuse went long and the ball went right to Michael). She needs to not be so tentative when it's not gun-to-the-head time, though. Kelly was red-hot from downtown in the first half, but 'Cuse got on her in the second. Joy tried, God knows Joy tried, but Michael and Murray really exposed how unsuccessful a slender six-footer is going to be at the four in the Big East- she got pushed around and beat up a LOT. Da'Shena Stevens is missing. Goddamn UConn fans must have kidnapped her and replaced her with a Pod Person that doesn't know how to shoot free throws; airballing one free throw is barely acceptable for a post player with a dicey release, but airballing two is completely not on. Fess up, Husky Hardcores- which one of you took her, and what do you want for ransom? Sky had a decent game- not great, and she and Britney both showed that they're not ready to be primary offensive options yet. The two shot clock violations proved that- we just don't know what to do without someone to take the shot, and with Pod!Da'Shena and no Monique, we don't have someone who'll take the shot. Coco continued the trend of not completely sucking, although she committed some very stupid fouls. We can't afford stupid fouls right now. Kristin came up big off the bench. I've always liked her. She has a steady hand and a quirky jump shot that looks like she's throwing every ounce of her soul into it. Recee was critical off the bench too- with Joy and Da'Shena both being ineffective, she had to step up and throw down with the Syracuse posts. Doing so literally, however, was not really necessary- she and Erica Morrow got into it near the end of the game, though from the looks of it, Morrow started it by taking a shot at Recee's masked face. Antagonizing 6'1" of Texas badass=FAIL.
Guess who's back from knee surgery? Lisa Mattingly! Guess who didn't miss her? Me! The refereeing got pretty tight near the end of the game, and she had a lot to do with it. I felt bad for Darryl Humphrey, being stuck with her and Mrs. Enterline. We got the benefit of a lot of borderline calls, though, I'll say that. When I'm making the sign for three seconds at Joy, yeah, not such great refereeing.
Decent crowd, though the sheer number of city girls on 'Cuse's roster might have something to do with that. Very cheesy Valentine-themed contests. I think they're desperate to find fans, though, given that I was offered the seat upgrade for the fourth time this season. Trust me, guys, you don't want my mouth down there.
I think some of the band may have been missing. The sound was lacking something. (Okay, it was also lacking competence, but what else is new?)
I honestly don't know what to say anymore, I really don't.
Photos will be in the SJU album by tomorrow morning. I've got some other red-and-white plans first.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
February 11th, 2009: UConn at St. John's
Connecticut Huskies 77, St. John's Red Storm 64
It could have been worse. It could have been a lot worse. There, but for the grace of Da'Shena Stevens.
That was a much better game than I was expecting it to be. Our personal spread was 35. So losing by 13- especially with Monique having one of the worst games I've ever seen her play- is no shame at all.
It was kind of disheartening to trudge into the arena with my mom and have busloads of UConn fans coming in behind us. I turned to my mom and said, "Right there are more people than are going to cheer for St. John's tonight." We had decided before the game that our usual seats, facing the opponent's bench, would not really be appropriate for this evening, since we didn't really want to be surrounded by UConn fans any more than we absolutely needed to be, so we moved to the one place we knew would be Red Storm country- the section behind the home bench, specifically the top rows, where Kelly McManmon's folks sit, since we've gotten to know them the last couple of seasons. Great. Fine. Right up until a group of UConn fans tried to sit four rows behind our bench. The ushers finally clued them in that, no, just because UConn was warming up there, that didn't mean it was UConn's bench, although you'd have thought the density of people in St. John's gear would have been a hint. It got to the point where the ushers were directing St. John's fans just to that one section and ceding the rest of the arena to the Husky fans, like we were the road team and they were the home team. It was frustrating. It was almost humiliating. (And at that, they weren't completely successful, but that's because the elderly couple we let sit in our row lied to us. And then there was someone in a Taurasi jersey, and I have no idea what Carrie's loyalties are, only that she always wears road gear.)
I don't know if we'll be back over there again, but it was fun sitting with Kelly's parents and Recee's mom (who takes as little guff as her daughter does). Da'Shena's family may have been over there as well. Either hers or Tina Charles's, because I can't think of anyone else who someone could say "My sister did the damn thing tonight" about in that game, as someone did afterwards. Player families are fun.
I swear, I've heard this anthem singer at three different places now, and the acoustics of a larger arena do nothing for his voice. Nothing at all. It didn't help that he was back to screwing up the lyrics, either.
I can understand why UConn is undefeated- their top three options are among the top twenty or so in the country. I can understand why their fans are nervous- if Hayes and the rest of the supporting cast aren't on, that's all they've got, and while that's worked so far, I don't know if it can come tournament time. I was genuinely afraid of what would happen with Tina Charles coming into our house, given her size, and given our lack of size. The fact that she was slumping coming into the game only made matters worse. And she did kick holy hell out of us inside, because once she got the ball up, none of us were gonna get it down. Moore was going at it hammer and tongs with Da'Shena- it got pretty fierce out there, damn near chippy, and the refs weren't calling much on either of them. She killed our comeback chances with two consecutive threes, because somehow, two possessions in a row, Maya fucking Moore managed to stay open, I don't know how, but I'm surprised I didn't hear KBA protesting it as I left the arena. She really is beautiful to watch when she's not pushing off. And Montgomery's range killed us. Killed us dead. "Sure, leave the lottery pick open!" I kept protesting, because, seriously, what the fuck? Sag off Greene, sag off Dixon, sag off Gardler, sag off who the fuck ever, but the above three players should never ever ever ever be open. Hayes has a really pretty shot, too, and a lot of range. I guess she wears that number for the more traditional reasons, not because of that loudmouth with the big schnozz who wore it a few years ago. ;) Kalana Greene was just... there. I don't remember her doing anything. Lorin Dixon seemed to think she'd found a jumper. Not so much, no. It was fun seeing her out there with Charles and Sky Lindsay, though. I'm sure the folks in the CtK gear were all psyched up for that. Kaili McLaren is really friggin' big. Meghan Gardler committed a surprising number of fouls that I would not expect the daughter of a coach to commit- though I'm thinking now she might have gotten some of those called on her in order to shield Charles, since Charles had three fouls and Gardler was a lot more expendable. And unless you're expecting me to comment on Tahirah Williams's minute of play- which you don't want me to, since the only thing I remember about it was an unnecessarily hard shove- that would be the end of it for UConn.
Da'Shena Stevens. Holy frakkin' shit, Da'Shena Stevens. She decided she wasn't going to be stopped, and that was the end of that. Given her roots, maybe she was just tapping into UConn's mojo, but she was strong and tough and fearless. And she had that thing going on that Fitz has where the ball goes in the basket, period, even if she gets hit- she had something like three three-point plays. Gotta love a fearless freshman. I don't know who spiked Kelly and Sky's Gatorade at halftime, but they need to do it more often. Both of them played indifferent first halves, and both of them came out like gangbusters in the second. My theory is that Sky knew she'd never hear the end of it from Charles and Dixon if she didn't play well tonight, so she turned it up. Some stupid fouls and careless passing marred her game, though- and really, for fuck's sake, shouldn't Sky be the first person to know exactly how stupid it is to try and go in headlong on Charles? It's nice to see Kelly finding her nerve again- we're going to need that if we have any chance at all of salvaging something other than moral victories from this season. We're also going to need Monique and Joy to step up, both as players and as team captains. I don't know what's wrong with Mo, but she doesn't look like much of anything right now- she certainly doesn't look like she could drop 25 or 30 on a team. She's not defending, she's not rebounding, she's not much of anythinging, and I'd love to know why, because I don’t like kvetching about her, because there's got to be a reason her game has gone so far down the crapper. And Joy- Joy's my girl, the one whose poster I've got on the back of my bedroom door, but she hasn't looked like herself in a while either, and while I'd like to take the easy route and blame her sprained ankle, it's been close to a month and a half. Either something worse happened while she was playing on it, or something else is up. And again, I worry. Credit where credit's due, though: Coco didn't suck today. She did a great job fighting for rebounds with the bigger Husky posts and cleaning up on the offensive glass. Yeah, she had her usual mistakes, but she accompanied them with god, solid plays. Recee broke her nose last week, so she took the floor in a mask and proceeded to take no crap from anyone. Unfortunately, her tumbling crown of golden curls had to be sacrificed to get the mask on. *sniffle* I'd like to have seen more of her- and more of Victoria, who also brings size, would have been an unexpectedly different look, and might have helped Da'Shena siphon off that Nutmeg mojo.
Fucking refs. We weren't getting any help tonight. There was a lot of holding that wasn't getting called, a lot of shoving, and the referees' complete inability to count didn't help at all. The two calls that stand out in my mind are one on Sky Lindsay that, as far as I could tell, blamed her for getting hit in the face, and one on Coco Hart that while, yes, technically it's your foul if someone trips over you while you're sprawled out on the floor, might have been avoided if Charles hadn't pushed her to the floor in the first place before tripping over her.
Play of the game. Well, first it was going to be Da'Shena setting up Joy. Then it was going to be Kelly setting up Da'Shena under the basket. Then, of course, it turned out to be HOLY SHIT DID DAY JUST BLOCK TINA CHARLES HOLY SHIT YES SHE DID INTO THE PADS FUCK YEAH!
I've discovered that I can't do three things at once. I can't keep score, take pictures, and scream my lungs out at the same time. I have to pick two out of the three. I picked the scorecard and the screaming, so the pictures are limited tonight.
We had a Kia Wright sighting! I'm... really not sure what she was thinking with that shirt, but it was nice to see Kia in the house again. And we may also have had a Greeba Barlow sighting, but if we did, she's lost some weight and done something quite impressive with her skin.
Very proud of our effort tonight- but the close games always leave me wondering what might have been, especially given Monique and Joy. Still, we played UConn close. Not so many teams can say that.
Pictures will be available here by sometime mid-morning, neatly sorted and categorized and all- right now, they're just there in a messy, somewhat non-chronological pile.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
February 8th, 2009: Loyola at Marist
Marist Red Foxes 86, Loyola Greyhounds 53
The Game Notes fall in love and depend on the kindness of strangers.
I think I may be in love. But not enough that I'm gonna spend $27 on train fare on a regular basis.
Note to future travelers from Grand Central Station to Poughkeepsie: HopStop will tell you that it's a mile and a half on foot from the Metro-North station to Marist. Take a cab. That mile and a half starts out in a sketchy neighborhood, involves a lot of hills, and culminates in a patch sans sidewalk right near Route 9. It's doable if you have nerves of steel and good stamina, but you'd be better off cabbing it.
The McCann Center is positively adorable. It's efficiently set up, for the most part, though they could do with another aisle for the center sections. It's obviously meant for sports that require a larger space, but the basketball teams make good use of the excess by setting up the snack carts, sponsor stations, and smoking exit behind the general admission section in the endcourt. The reserved seating is worth the extra $2- o noes, you're paying $7 for Top 25 basketball. Bring a seat cushion, though. The wooden bleachers are hard, and given Marist's crowds, you're not likely to have much room to stretch your legs on the seat in front of you. I do like the wood paneling of the room, and the extra scoreboard in the corner.
Marist has one of the best atmospheres I've experienced all season. Unlike many of the schools I've visited this season, they have a band, and a full band about forty strong, at that, with a very enthusiastic band director. They have both cheerleaders and dance team. They have flags. They have a slightly snarky announcer. They have a fight song. And they have fans. Oh, do they have fans. I can't remember the last time I was at a women's basketball game where I had people on both sides of me, people in front of me, and people behind me. The Brian Giorgis bobble-head giveaway was for the first thousand fans- and they ran out. I'm not used to this. St. John's still has leftovers from their season-opening giveaway.
(As for the bobble-head, I think my favorite parts are the lovingly rendered drawstring on Coach's sweatpants and the precision of the Marist logo on the jacket.)
Marist started off pitching a four-and-a-half-minute shutout, while putting 12 on the board themselves. It took about five minutes for Loyola to get a rebound. I'm not exaggerating here; Marist's scorecards include rebounding numbers, and I tried to keep track. I'm not very good at tallying the boards, though. The sheer magnitude of the ass-whuppin' meant that the reserves got lots and lots of time. Rachele Fitz only played half the game, and still put up 18 and 9; more impressively, after she sat with 13 minutes to go, Marist actually extended their lead by ten points. What I find amazing about her is that she finds ways to ensure that the ball goes in the basket. It just does. She gets hit, ball goes in the basket. It's more surprising when she misses a shot than when she hits one. Viani seemed off her game- again, I think teams are keying on her and forcing the ball out of her hands. Unfortunately for them, her teammates are just as good at setting each other up. She might be better served moving to the two-guard permanently and putting the offense in Elise Caron's hands. I'm really liking Erica Allenspach, who got over the reluctance to shoot that she displayed at Iona, and also showed off her very quick hands, much to the dismay of Loyola's ballhandlers. Laterza was working hard on the boards, and was a big presence inside that I'm not sure Loyola knew how to deal with. But the extent of the lead allowed Giorgis to play with his lineups and really get his reserves into the game. And again, I found myself really enjoying Corielle Yarde's play. She has some of Fitz's knack for making sure the ball goes into the basket, and she never gives up on a play- occasionally to her detriment. If she finds a lower gear to shift into when necessary, she could be the next big thing for the Red Foxes. Very solid bench play, overall. And it's always nice to see the last player off the bench- in this case, Courtney Kolesar- hit one, and the place erupted when she canned a three.
Obviously, it's hard to judge the talent and quality of a team when that team gives up 12-0 runs and loses by 30. The scoring tends to be limited, as do the rebound chances. That being said, Loyola seemed to depend on the three-point shot- perhaps they figured that having an on day was the only chance they had at coming into McCann and defeating Marist. And it sort of worked, with Siobhan Prior notching four treys and Ashley Alexander putting in three of her own. Marist was daring those two to shoot, and that was really the end of the story. I thought Kaitlin Grant did a pretty good job rebounding in the time she had- she picked up her third foul early in the second half and had to sit for a long time. Either she or Candice Walker was fairly hot-tempered when it came to foul calls- understandable, since Loyola did kinda get shafted in the first half. Melissa Bangay, off the bench, got some good looks inside- of course, the fact that the 6-1 forward was being defended by 5-4 guard Kristine Best might have had something to do with it, and credit Best with cojones. Loyola's coach seemed pretty desperate for answers- he called three or four timeouts when Marist was on their various runs, and I almost wanted to go down there and tell him that there really wasn't any way to stop what was coming.
Nice timeout management by the Red Foxes, as an aside, though it's a habit they shouldn't get into for close games: Yarde and Allenspach each used a timeout to maintain possession on what would otherwise be a jump ball, and both times Loyola had the arrow. Hey, you're up 25 and you don't get bonus points for keeping them, might as well use them strategically.
I had forgotten how much I missed the pageantry that is supposed to come attached to college basketball. It makes me wish St. John's had a clue.
But let's end this entry in a happy place. The people on both sides of me were very nice, especially the ladies on my left who, when I asked for a recommendation on what taxi company to call to get back to the Metro-North station (because, see above re: mile and a half hilly walk through sketchy neighborhoods and across highway) offered me a lift instead. My heartfelt and sincere thanks once again go out to them, and I hope to see them again during March Madness.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
February 1st, 2009: Marist at Iona
Marist Red Foxes 69, Iona Gaels 60
The Game Notes of Doom take in a classic clash of MAAC teams, and come away quite impressed with Rachele Fitz- and with the Iona Gaels' style.
All right. Now this is how you do it right, as compared to St. John's, where the ultimate goal seems to be finding out how wrong they can do it. Hold your heads up, Iona, if you aren't already. This is a reloading year, not a rebuilding year.
Iona has a very lovely campus, surprisingly old-fashioned for a school that was founded in 1940. So far, it's the only one I've been to that you really do need to grab a taxi to get to from the nearest train, though there's a bus that runs once every blue moon. And the arena is very nice, with a few practical amenities I could wish for BCS facilities. The auxiliary stat board, for one thing; throughout the game, it showed all the basic stats. I want one for Christmas. I'd also like a scoreboard team that actually uses the graphics panel on the main scoreboard for topical graphics and salient statistics for players at the line.
Signs you might have arrived at the game a little earlier than you should: the taxi you're in cuts off the road team's bus on the way there. Also, while you're waiting for the ticket office to open, Brian Giorgis wanders by, worrying that the bus driver has left because he had a card in the bus for someone.
Iona takes their team colors very seriously. Everything there is maroon and gold, except for the dance team- they wear gold with black pants in order to differentiate themselves from the cheerleaders. Bonus points for putting netting over the pipes on the ceiling. I can't believe none of the other arenas I've been to have done this. Such a simple precaution...
They does their introductions very snazzily- though I don't think they can actually shut the lights, they dim them, and the dance team goes into the stands and shakes their collective moneymaker. It's very professional-level. Hell, except for the Unfortunate Implications of having an all-female dance team performing to "Dude Looks Like a Lady", Iona puts together a better show than the BEast schools I visit on a regular basis. A PA announcer with a smooth voice, a kickin' sound system with great taste in music... if it weren't for the $12 train fare, I might shift conferences and become a MAAC momma.
Good fucking Lord, Rachele Fitz. She doesn't quit. And she seemed to love my camera; every time I took a picture of her taking a shot, she made it. I know she's more of a power forward at this level, but I think she's got the skillset to make the transition to the three in the pros. Not a great game for Viani, but since Iona predicated their first line of defense on getting the ball out of her hands as soon as possible, I can't really judge her. Maria Laterza's got good size, but she makes mistakes she shouldn't be making in the second half of sophomore year. She started, but Brandy Gang played more minutes and made more of an impact- she had one great block in the second half, and like many of her teammates, spent a lot of time diving on the floor. Allenspach seemed scared to shoot the long ball for some reason, even though she had quite a few open looks; only in the second half did she start taking those shots- and hitting them. I liked what I saw out of reserve Corielle Yarde, though that's one of those things I can't put my finger on. Marist's shooting, especially in the first half, sealed this win; you hit more than half your shots in the first half, and you get to the line often enough, you're going to pull most games out no matter how many times you turn the ball over.
Because Marist got turned over a lot. Give credit to Iona- they play one hell of a defense. They keyed in on Viani and Fitz, and for a while it worked. Then Fitz started really getting loose, and it was downhill from there. But their guard corps swarmed Viani, with Kristina Ford, Naeemah Ricketts, and Marissa Flagg all taking turns at her. Ricketts and Flagg were especially tough on her, and Ricketts runs a mean fast break. This game might have been a lot different if Kristina Ford had been able to hit the broad side of a barn; she finished 2/19 from the field, and a lot of those shots were very difficult ones- yes, a lot of them because of Marist's defense, but she seemed to be going for degree of difficulty a lot of the time. I like her instincts, though; she looked like a good player who was having a really, really bad game. I remembered Thazina Cook from Iona's occasional visits to St. Joh's, and she didn't fail to disappoint: very solid game for her, with a great knack for getting to the line. I thought Suzi Fregosi ran a good game- the team definitely struggled on offense when she was out. Iona seems to have built the basic MAAC template of bruising posts and small guards. They've got a Serbian center with a lot of potential, Milica Paligoric. She's only a freshman, but she's fierce on the boards. And fierce, period; there's something to be said for a woman who wears eyeblack for an indoor game. The former Yugoslavia has been fertile recruiting ground for Bozzella's team, since he starts a Serb and a Croat. Ivkovic is a damn good shooter, though her primal screams unnerved me a little bit. I'll credit Iona with a lot of class- since Marist dove for a lot of balls, they spent a lot of time on the floor, and there were two occasions when the nearest player to a fallen Red Fox was a Gael and the Iona player helped the Marist player up. We just don't see that kind of class often enough anymore.
Play of the game: Marist beat the shot clock a couple of times- once with Allenspach under the basket, making the extra pass to Fitz, once with Fitz returning the favor by feeding Allenspach for a three. I love when things like that happen. It seems like a sign of good chemistry to me.
Unsurprisingly, Marist brought a large contingent. Given that the schools aren't that far from each other, and given that Metro-North runs to both New Rochelle and Poughkeepsie, I would have expected more. A nice, loud bunch, though complaining about fouls not being called when the differential is 9 Iona fouls to 3 for Marist is a bit much.
The camera decided to cooperate this time, so pictures are here.