OMG OMG OMG OMG YOU GUYS *flails*
I can't remember the last time I felt this happy and content after a Liberty game, or the last time I was in a state where the high lasted this long. It's disconcertingly good. It was also much needed, because this week... you don't care, I wish I didn't care, but it was rough and long. Let's just say I was resigned, not surprised, when the strap on my Bag of Holding broke.
I still got to the arena on time- well, on time for me, which is before the gates open- so that I could be the spotter for the Usual Suspects, because without names or numbers, a lot of people aren't sure who's who. I'm also in charge of spare cards, which is a big responsibility with LA. While we were standing around waiting for something to happen, my boyfriend pointed out that Mechelle Voepel was in the house, and, well. I've kinda wanted to be Mechelle since I was a young WNBA fan looking up to sportswriters (before her, I wanted to be Jayda Evans, and before her, I wanted to be Jason Butler from Newsday). I went into full-on fangirl mode the way most people do to athletes.
A momentary aside, not that you'd notice, given that the Game Notes of Doom are built on tangents: while I understand the admiration and adulation of athletes who do things that most fans can't even dream of being able to do, I am in more awe of people who do things that are in my realm of interest, because I know what it takes to be good at them. So the level of respect and admiration I have for Mechelle is... through the roof. So I was as giddy as a schoolgirl after blushingly telling her how big of a fan of her work I was, and being able to talk to her about basketball, just like... well, does it sound weird to say "like an ordinary person?" After that, we could have lost by 40 and I wouldn't have cared, because OMG Mechelle shook my writing hand!
For the record, that couldn't possibly have been Kia Vaughn's music mix. Not a single Beyonce track? LIES.
The anthem was very nice until the end, when the singer got into her head that she was Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston or something. Please don't stretch that note that badly.
Chanel Mokango has dangerously beautiful dimples, but dimples are not a particularly useful weapon on the basketball court. She was a non-factor, but such a pretty one. Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton has a very odd build, almost hulking in a strange way. We matched up better against her than the Sun did, so she was less of a factor for LA than she was last week. Kristi Toliver got a lot of minutes at the point, and she's learning the flashy passes pretty well from Penicheiro, but she still has more confidence in her shot and less defensive acumen than I would want out of a point guard. Andrea Riley really only played when Toliver got into foul trouble. She wasn't impressive, but she is awfully cute in the "aww, lemme pinch your cheek!" sense.
Tina Thompson is really starting to rub me the wrong way. I guess being the last original player and not having to worry about Cooper, Swoopes, Leslie, or really Parker as the stars ahead of her has gone to her head. Her attitude has definitely gotten nastier. Her stroke's still beautiful and she can still put it down from deep, but I'm not as enamored of her as I used to be. Ticha Penicheiro also seems to have more of a chip on her shoulder than she used to. That shiner from the Connecticut game was pretty epic. She wasn't looking to score as much as she did against the Sun, because it certainly wasn't our defense. Noelle Quinn has a nasty habit of reaching in, the same habit that Toliver has, but she's got a sweet little outside jumper. Marie Ferdinand-Harris joined in the celebration of the good old days by shooting like the Marieee from Utah, before the kid and the knee and that sort of thing. Her defensive prowess was not what it used to be, but she knows her positioning.
In general, Los Angeles's defense was interestingly chaotic and disruptive. They did a nice job of rotating to double down on the ballhandler, and collapsed nicely into the paint.
Sidney Spencer wasn't completely awful tonight, I suppose. Donovan left her in too long, in my opinion- the time she went in was a time for a three-point shot, and I thought she was only being brought in as a specialist for that, but she got a longer shift than I felt comfortable with. At least she wasn't Kia Vaughn, who was a matchup we could have exploited if we had players who could throw post entry passes to big posts, and a post who could actually catch entry passes that are thrown to her. The block was nice, but given the lack of height on the Sparks, I'm not exactly impressed. Essence Carson made a couple of cameos, including a stint in a lineup that I really don't like, and didn't do much of anything. Kalana Greene didn't have the kind of games we've come to expect from her, but she was solid and didn't make any major mistakes, and in a game like this, sometimes that's all that matters. Plenette Pierson was about ready to murder DeLisha Milton-Jones out there, and possibly a couple of other people if they continued to look at her the wrong way, and between bouts of anger management issues, she sparkled on the boards and in the lane.
Leilani Mitchell ran a solid game and showed amazing vertical. Tiny. But fierce! Fluffy little bunny has her some hops! Her hands are pretty quick, too. Janel McCarville was, at times, unusually reticent to shoot, which says a lot, given the number of attempts. She needs to be a bigger part of the offense. Taj McWilliams-Franklin must sometimes be the same point guard's nightmare as Courtney Paris- there were at least two plays where she threw up an awful shot, got her own board, and cleaned up the mess. While one might have been to avoid a shot clock violation, I don't know that there's any explanation for a lot of her other misses other than her age. Again, given her line, that's saying something. I applaud Nicole Powell's continued dedication to rebounding, since a woman of her height and build should be able to pull down four boards a game, but given that that appears to be the only thing she remembers how to do on a basketball court- well, that and hit wide-open threes from the corner when she has more daylight than an Arizona summer- I don't think it's really worth lauding that highly. Cappie Pondexter was there when we needed her. Her ballhandling and decision-making left something to be desired, but she hit the big shots.
These refs. I'm not sure what game they were watching, but it probably wasn't this one. There were a lot of late calls, a lot of calls that seemed to be on the wrong player in a situation where there had been a foul, and Kristi Toliver was on the line when she hit that shot that was originally ruled a two and later turned into a three.
I would be remiss in not mentioning that the Holy Trinity of Liberty basketball was in the house. Of course, Kym Hampton works for the team in public relations, but Sue Wicks and Teresa Weatherspoon haven't come around as often anymore. I think it had to do with Spoon's rousing speech causing the team to choke away a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter. Well, she did it again, and things got dicey in the early part of the quarter, but the kids got it together and finished strong. Loved the celebration of the old school afterwards, when DMJ, TT, and Ticha went over for hugs and hellos from the Holy Trinity. (You think I'm exaggerating, and I'll bring out the icons from the Apostles of St. Sue.) I forgot how much fun they were to watch as people, especially when the dance moves made it pretty clear that they were at least a couple of sheets to the wind.
Were there a lot of stupid mistakes in this game? Yeah. But they got past them, and they played as a team, and it was good. The crowd was finally really into it, for the first time in years. There was a sense of urgency and camaraderie in the seats, and it was good. And, hey, I GOT TO MEET MECHELLE VOEPEL.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
July 30th, 2010: Los Angeles at New York
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
July 27th, 2010: San Antonio at New York
Nasty pointy teeth! And a rookie! And a refugee from Tulsa!
This was the kind of game we needed. We needed to win one of those games where we coughed up a lead, and we needed to defend our house against the bitter fans who flaunted their San Antonio gear in the Garden, and we needed to have our bench step up. Now, if some of our starters would recall that the season was still underway, we might actually challenge someone in the East.
There were a lot of people in Silver Stars jerseys and shirts, and more than a few people dragging Hammon jerseys out of storage. It irked me to be surrounded by so many people rooting for the opposing team so ardently. I mean, I got the last laugh as a Liberty fan, but at seven at night, you don't know that you're going to be happy at nine-thirty and giggling about stat lines.
Beautiful operatic anthem. Now, if everyone around me had shut their traps and respected the anthem and the flag the way they were supposed to, I might have enjoyed it even more.
Can I call a technical foul on Sandy Brondello for her blouse? That was a seriously repugnant fashion statement.
Pre-game LOL of the day: there's this woman who comes to Liberty games and really likes taking pictures of the players. (Not like that. She's enthusiastic in ways that I don't think I have the proper cultural base to recognize, but she's enthusiastic, not creepy.) She must have gotten Ruth Riley going one way, because as Riley came off the court, the lady asked her for a picture. Completely befuddled and somewhat amused, Riley asked, "Haven't you already gotten me?" So weirdly adorable.
I'm thinking that Edwige Lawson-Wade suffered some minor but nagging injury, because I recall that she started the season off shooting well, and tonight she just didn't have it. She was still pesky on defense, but something was missing. We allowed two offensive rebounds to Helen Darling, so you can imagine that I was not amused. She was doing or saying something out there to needle Liberty players- they were unusually physical with her, and that's not the first time I've seen that behavior around Darling. Crystal Kelly gave good spot minutes at the post position, and she obviously learned a couple of things while she was ever so briefly in Detroit. (Perhaps she's proof that even Ivory Latta won't be safe from Nolan Richardson's mania about getting rid of Detroit players.) Jayne Appel put in a few minutes of work, and she's got some moves, but she's going to need time to develop, and I don't know that she can get that in the WNBA, not with eleven-player rosters.
As a Liberty fan, I'm quite happy and relieved that Roneeka Hodges decided that she was going to go on a bad streak tonight. Her questionable shot selection kept us in the game all night. The Liberty gave her threes, and she took them, and she missed them with stunning regularity. The Silver Stars fans are saying that Becky Hammon is injured, which is a convenient explanation for her below-par line, especially for her lack of touches. I think the Liberty defense, at certain stretches, also had something to do with her inability to get and use the ball. Ditto on Sophia Young- whatever complaints I might have about the Liberty frontcourt offensively, I don't have them defensively, for the most part. Young really didn't look like she was in her comfort zone for most of the game, except in brief flashes. Michelle Snow's long reach made her deadly against us- I lost count of how many times she was able to just shoot over the defender or sky for a rebound that our players didn't have either the height or the vertical to get from her. She really does need anger management classes, though. Her temper got her pretty close to a tech, or at least a stern talking-to, from the refs. Chamique Holdsclaw looked a lot like the player who terrorized the SEC as a star at Tennessee. Maybe she wasn't as fast, but she was as frighteningly flexible as I've read about.
Does anyone know why San Antonio's being allowed to carry just 10? Does it have to do with Megan Frazee's injury and the way things shook out with that? Or with the weird signing/waiving/theoretical re-signing of Allie Quigley that wnba.com's been sketchy about?
I can't say enough about the miraculous appearance, or reappearance, of Kalana Greene's jumper, not by a long shot. She and her shooting and her defense saved the game for us. She stayed on her assignment more tightly than the players she was spelling, and that helped us with the win too. Plenette Pierson was called upon to play big minutes off the bench, and she gave us much-needed offense along with rebounding tenacity. (Hey, wasn't that coach in Tulsa talking about how he needed a rebounder?) There were a couple of plays where either she was gassed or she just wasn't involved for whatever reason, but that was still a sight better than the other two post players. Essence Carson played a nice, solid game- maybe not any flashy moves, but no big mistakes. Sidney Spencer made a first-half cameo before Coach Donovan realized that this was Kalana's night. No playing time for Kia Vaughn, which would be a bad sign if the trade deadline hadn't already passed, because while I haven't been thrilled with her play, we need more than a three-post rotation if we want to avoid Janel turning interesting colors or Taj falling apart.
Nicole Powell started the game off like she wanted to get out of this funk she's been in, playing with a lot of energy- even if her shots weren't going in, she was working hard on the offensive boards. Then she faded, and that was pretty much the last we saw of her. Felt like she didn't play at all in the second half. Taj McWilliams-Franklin, until a flurry of brilliant veteran plays at the very end of the game, looked like someone who was going to turn 40 in October and had spent most of her life getting paid to get beat up on. She played better defensively for most of her time, but even then there were times she looked slow to react and slower to move. Leilani Mitchell was as fierce as ever, and had a great knack for finding Plenette on the fast break. I'm inordinately pleased that she matched or bettered Hammon's stats. For Cappie Pondexter, this was a quiet night, but she didn't have to look to score, so that was a good thing. She was a little more confident in her ability to get up the shot late in the shot clock when she was playing the old Rutgers offense than I was. Janel McCarville- well, it's almost to the point where I'm hoping she's hurt and just not telling anyone, because otherwise these lapses in defensive positioning and offensive judgment are inexcusable. Things a broad-shouldered 6'2" Wisconsin farm kid should not be afraid to do: take a jumper from the free throw line when Becky Hammon is her defender. She was unusually timid around Hammon, which set the paranoid part of me to going "hmmm".
Donovan's rotations mostly made sense! Well, except for DNP'ing Kia Vaughn when all three of our other posts had stretches where they looked like they weren't sure about this whole basketball thing.
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuue Wicks was in the house, and the Garden forgot to acknowledge her. I'm really not sure what to think about that. I mean, they acknowledged Wilson Chandler from the Knicks, and he never played for the Liberty. Maybe they figured that the people there to cheer on Hammon might have something to say about who wears #23. I know I still do.
Refs were mostly consistent with their inability to count steps and seconds spent in the key. I thought San Antonio got away with a little more hacking than we did, but I'm always willing to acknowledge my bias for New York and against San Antonio.
Almost forgot to mention the loud and awesome guys who the Garden shunted up to the 300s for a better view on camera. They brought signs and lots of volume. We tried to get them to come back for the LA game on Friday, which effort culminated in a rousing chant of "BEAT LA!"
When all's said and done, I'm well-pleased with this game. I just wish I weren't so tired!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
July 24th, 2010: Los Angeles at Connecticut
GUARD THE THREE
The good news is that the crowd was fairly substantial, and there didn't seem to be too many people there for the sole purpose of seeing Candace Parker (which, yes, I know that would have been a futile exercise, but people are stupid and not everyone keeps up with all the news). The bad news is that I've seen livelier crowds in zombie movies, and when the Sun got down big, they streamed for the exits like rats off a sinking ship. I thought Connecticut fans were honest and loyal and true; I guess they're just front-runners.
There must be something in the water in LA, or maybe it's just the smog. Compared to her days as a Comet, Tina Thompson's got a real attitude towards the fans. Maybe she just doesn't like Connecticut for whatever reason, but she looked like she would rather have been just about anywhere else, doing just about anything else. Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton was pretty friendly. Ticha Penicheiro has a surprising lack of observation skills for a point guard- you'd think she'd have commented on my boyfriend's Monarchs jersey, but no.
The anthem was very interesting, and I really liked the singer's style.
Things I also liked: the way the Sun structured their benefits for renewing. I don't know if there were any additional gifts, but people who renewed early were entered into raffles for cool prizes. One fan got a signed Asjha Jones jersey, a team-autographed ball, and $100 to spend on gas. Another got a road trip to New York. Another got a road trip to DC. Pretty cool. The t-shirt Gatling gun is also a nifty option, but they have to work on the range and send more people to the upper deck for tosses.
I sort of like Gillom's team colors look, though the purple and black had a little bit of a Monarchs thing going on too. She maintains a more poised demeanor than I had expected from her. Her huddles are insanely long- how LA didn't get called for at least three delay of game violations, I will never know.
Andrea Riley was in for long enough to establish that she shouldn't be in any longer, or if she is, she needs to get in early and get into her rhythm or she won't be any use to anyone. She was sloppy and out of sync. Chanel Mokango made a couple of cameo appearances to give DeLisha Milton-Jones a rest and be a defensive stopper. While her physique is similar to DMJ's, that's about where the similarities end, and I don't know that that's how I'd use Mokango. Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton is a pretty smart player on the floor- she didn't do a lot of the things that would pop up in a boxscore, but she did a lot of the dirty work along the baseline that I love to see players do. I see why LA fans are high on her. Kristi Toliver had her moments of defensive fail, and moments of defensive glory (LaTanya White, we are going to have a long talk about you getting blocked by a tiny turtle), and her shot was usually going down- except when it was completely off-line. A creature of extremes, this Terrapin.
Noelle Quinn had a quiet game until the end, when she hit a couple of shots that really put it out of reach for the Sun. She does have a tendency to reach, which got her into foul trouble. Tina Thompson seemed to have taken some of the criticism about her interior play to heart and headed in a little more on the offensive boards. Not that she wasn't dialing them in from long-range, but she seemed to remember she was a power forward for the first itme in a long time. I don't remember a damn thing Marie Ferdinand-Harris did, which means I need to suck it up and write my notes right after, no matter how exhausted I am. DeLisha Milton-Jones was on fire, hitting from long range like I haven't seen from her in years. She looked rejuvenated. She also looked like the D-Nasty we've all come to know and, er, know. Don't get me wrong, Sunshine is one of my favorite people in the league, but D-Nasty is a piece of work. I thought for sure that she was going to drop the gloves with either DeMya Walker or Asjha Jones (or both). Ticha Penicheiro really surprised me- not just with her willingness to score, which was in plenty of evidence, but with a single play near the end of the game. She and Renee Montgomery were going after a loose ball, and as Montgomery hit the ground, Penicheiro kicked her. It wasn't hard, and it looked almost a little playful, and she did allow Montgomery an uncontested lay-up near the very end of the game, but that's a move right out of the Mabika days. I expect a lot better out of a veteran like Ticha.
I like Allison Hightower, don't get me wrong. And someday she might be a serviceable bench plyer in the WNBA. That day is not now. Her defense is somewhat better than her offense, but that's because her offense is gods-awful. I didn't think there was room in the WNBA for projects with the 11-woman roster, but Mike Thibault proves me wrong again. I don't like the pairing of DeMya Walker and Kerri Gardin on the floor together. They don't complement each other well, and are likely to get in each other's way. Walker lived up to her name, but she put in hard physical work defensively. Her lack of speed is catching up to her. Gardin didn't look like much. Renee Montgomery's line looks a lot better than it was because she decided to start really putting in work in the last minute. I remember screaming, "You could have done that five minutes ago when you had a chance to win!" after she got fouled on her third three (it didn't go in, but it could have, and she was fouled pretty hard). Her head wasn't in the game for long stretches. I'm talking about stupid mistakes- fumbles, bad passes, really awful shots that fell short. I expect better out of Huskies. Sandrine Gruda seems to have fallen into relying on her outside shot more. Not a good habit to get into.
Kara Lawson's definitely hurt. She doesn't play so few minutes without being physically incapable of doing more. She definitely doesn't need Anete Jekabsone-Zogota to pull her off the bench at one point during a timeout unless she's very sore. She didn't play badly in the minutes she had, but I think that would have changed if she had tried to play more. And wow, she's loud. It's one thing to hear a player barking out signals- I hear that all the time. It's another thing to be able to hear her through the arena noise. Tan White learned well the art of full body sacrifice from Tamika Catchings. Every time I turned around, she was flat on her back after taking a charge or diving for a loose ball. She really seems to be coming into her own in Connecticut. Well, except for being blocked by Kristi Toliver. How does that even happen? Tina Charles missed entirely too many easy shots, and maybe that's why she didn't play as much in the second half as I would have expected, or maybe Thibault just liked what Walker was bringing more. Or, for all I know, he's trying to get himself fired by letting Montgomery's flaws be shown and keeping Charles on the bench, and therefore putting the UConn backers out of joint, but that's just a conspiracy theory. Asjha Jones looked like she was still feeling the effects of her injury- she was a couple of steps slower than I recalled her being, and her shot was pretty awful. She had a spurt early in the second half where she looked like her old self, but then it faded away.
Who do I have to kill to get Kelsey Griffin in a Liberty uniform? Whoever it is, point me that way and let me loose. I love that kid's hustle and her ability to be in the right place at the right time. The game needs more players like that. So tell me who I have to kill and I'm there.
Los Angeles gets away with a lot of weird procedural stuff. I know this was a televised game, and because of that, timeouts could be stretched, but there were three times that it hought they could have been tagged with a delay of game. A lot of little violations- not fouls, but infractions- went uncalled as well: travels, 3-seconds, some out of bounds moves, things like that. The officials were not on top of their game today in that regard. And Mauer was standing right there when Penicheiro kicked Montgomery, and didn't say boo. Not on.
Best little moment of the game: Sandrine Gruda almost committed a lane violation on Renee Montgomery's second of three free throws- except that Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton pulled her back. I'm not sure if that was a good deed or a sophisticated psychological ploy to make sure that Gruda was late off the line for the third free throw (which didn't matter, since Montgomery hit it).
I was disappointed in Connecticut's game-planning. You'd think that after the seventh or eighth made three, they'd have stopped letting the Sparks get open behind the line, but no. They stayed in a zone, or were slow on their rotations, and no one seems to have remembered that it's a good idea to stop the ball when Penicheiro is the opposing point guard. She makes things happen. Shouldn't Kara Lawson and DeMya Walker have remembered that?
Sunday, July 18, 2010
July 18th, 2010: Indiana at New York
Missing: one All-Star small forward. Answers to "Nicole". If found, please return to Madison Square Garden. No questions asked.
Never have I seen such powerful greatness countered and defeated by such epic failure. I was at the Portland game in 2000 where the team got booed off the court. I was a season subscriber all through 2003, the Year That Hammon Tore Her ACL And It Was All Downhill From There, and all through 2006, the Year Of Unmitigated And Undiluted Fail. And I don't think I've ever seen a game where I could pinpoint so exactly where things went wrong and who to pin the blame on so squarely.
And it started off so well, too. Indiana does a great job of reminding their players to be friendly and approachable. The eight players who came out for shootaround were all ready and willing to sign. Tully Bevilaqua was hugging people. That sort of thing. Special mention has to go to Jené Morris's winning personality. She sparkles. Gauging from that and her playing time, she may be in the wrong business.
I may have been the only person in the building wearing a Jessica Davenport shirt. Well, other than Jessica Davenport, but she would sort of be a given.
The anthem singer was all right. She had a nice voice, but she didn't seem interested in training it professionally, just enough to sound halfway decent. I have little or no talent for music, but I know what to listen for.
Briann January played a lot of second-half minutes, and that surprised me. I really didn't think of her as Indiana's back-to-the-wall, gun-to-the-head time point guard. She's gotten better about finding her teammates, but I still question her court smarts in Lin Dunn's system, and her ballhandling is still suspect. That was a vulnerability we failed to take advantage of that we could have. Jessica Moore was a long defensive presence, but more of a double-down presence than a post presence, if that makes any sense. She wasn't stopping our posts (they were doing a pretty good job of that themselves) but she was there just in case anyone thought going towards the hole was a good idea. Jessica Davenport disappointed me. I always hope for her to have a breakout game at the Garden and show the brass what kind of mistake they made by letting her go, but she always seems a step slower here, and never seems able to put the chippies down. She did have a beautiful shot to end the first quarter. That's the Jessica I know and admire despite her being an Ohio State alumna. She showed an unexpectedly nasty edge on defense, though. She clocked Janel McCarville pretty good with an elbow to the head, and she was all up in Taj McWilliams-Franklin's grill like she wanted to start something. Starting something with Mama Taj may not be the brightest thing you can do. Shavonte Zellous was instant offense for Indiana, but her judgment was occasionally lacking. Committing a tag foul after losing the ball, then complaining to the ref about it? We all saw you do it, Z. Come on.
NEWSFLASH TO THE WNBA'S DEFENDERS: Katie Douglas is sort of good at shooting three-pointers. You might have seen this skill at, oh, I don't know, Mohegan Sun as she shellacked the competition in the three-point shooting contest. Or over the last nine years in the WNBA. There is absolutely no excuse for anyone to leave Katie Douglas open beyond the arc. Of course, she wasn't just canning threes, although one of the early ones she hit had us oohing and aahing as the net didn't even quiver. She had some incredible drives where she just flicked the ball up and it went off the glass as the shot clock expired. What I really admired about her game was her ability to pressure the ball. She never let up. Indiana never does in general, but it's so easy to get blinded by Douglas's offensive prowess that her defensive play gets lost in the shuffle. Ebony Hoffman was lighting it up from downtown, and she took advantage of her build to set some great picks for her teammates. Tamika Catchings wasn't her usual reckless self- I only saw a few bodies go flying, and the ball only went wild once or twice- but she was just as effective as ever. She hit the boards hard and was unusually accurate, as compared to her career numbers. Tammy Sutton-Brown was... Tammy Sutton-Brown, the player fans across the Rutgers sphere of influence have learned to know and despise with wails of despair. Tully Bevilaqua, in the seemingly limited minutes she played, was as pesky as you could ask for from a small Australian point guard- all up in her opponents' business and unafraid to go toe-to-toe with even the big girls. Besides, I can't help but love a point guard who throws up a hook shot and gets it in off glass.
Sidney Spencer hit a shot, and managed to keep her assignment from hitting their first two shots- first Catchings, then Douglas- but Catchings exposed her total lack of foot speed, and I do think she was a little hesitant to shoot when she could have. There were still points when we were yelling at Anne Donovan to put her in the game. There's a reason for that, but you've probably noticed that I do reserves, then starters. Kia Vaughn wasn't much of a factor, and that disappointed me. I thought this was a matchup she could get up for, but apparently going up against a former Rutgers center, a former Husky, and the woman she was fighting for a job with last year wasn't enough. Essence played briefly, mostly as a spot defensive player and didn't do much worth noting. Plenette Pierson hit the boards, and I think she was starting to get into the Indiana players' heads a little bit. She was always in the middle of things. Kalana Greene was one of our best players again. She stepped up defensively, and all her plays came at the right time and were the right move. We wouldn't have been in that game without you.
The imposter claiming to be Nicole Powell struck again, unable to hit even the most open shot, though she was at least able to snag a few rebounds in between bricks. Nicole, wherever you are, we miss you- send up smoke signals if you need a rescue! We're here to help! Taj McWilliams-Franklin had one of those games where she looked like a woman well past 39 and hurtling towards the big 4-0 with inexorable speed- and while her big block could have been the play of the game, she blew it by missing her assignment on the out-of-bounds play and letting Tammy Sutton-Brown get a lay-up. Janel McCarville put up a good line, but I'd really like for her to remember that she's six-two and broad-shouldered, and should perhaps use those traits to go towards the basket instead of settling for little jump shots. I don't mind it so much when the jumpers are going down, but it still irks me. Guards and reserve forwards should not be matching the starting power forward in rebounding. Leilani Mitchell wasn't as feisty as I had come to expect (though there was the following exchange after a play: "Did she just challenge Sutton-Brown?" *nods* "Isn't she five-five?" "According to the media guide..." "Isn't Sutton-Brown six-four?" *nods* "Tiny. But fierce!") She chose an excellent time for her one rebound. Cappie Pondexter tried to win the game single-handedly, and I know people are going to think my bias is showing if I start to critique her lack of court vision and her questionable time management skills after she put up a franchise-record 40 points to go with seven assists and six rebounds. Near the end of regulation, though, she really didn't see her teammates- it was almost as if her tunnel vision was too narrow, like she thought the only thing she had to do was go to the basket. Yes, I know Donovan's game plan is to go to Pondexter, but sometimes the pass wins the game just as well as the shot does.
Youth About Business, you have a LOT of explaining to do. Under no circumstances do you do the Wave while your team is shooting free throws. Those geniuses disconcerted Pondexter for the only missed Liberty free throw of the game, a shot that would have tied the game. I blame them partly for the loss. Not that the bulk of the blame doesn't fall on Nicole Powell looking like she would have been hard-pressed to compete in the Big West, or on Anne Donovan for not noticing how badly Powell was playing, or on Taj for missing easy shots and not knowing when to get out of the way, or on Janel for not hitting somebody, but come on, guys, it's not rocket science!
Referees did an unusual amount of reviewing shots- I think there were four announced reviews during the game. As always, there were a few calls that made me scratch my head, and a few times when I wondered if they knew how to count, but it seemed to cut both ways- if anything, we got the benefit of more sketchy calls than they did, so I shouldn't complain about the officiating.
It's a bad sign when you're just grateful that the people in the tic-tac-toe contest are neither ringers from Bowling Green nor completely unaware of the basic defensive strategies of the game. Someone actually remembered to block!
Tasha Humphrey was in the house, and had warm hellos for Plenette and for Shavonte Zellous. Once a Bad Girl, always a Bad Girl, I guess.
I have to say, this is the first time I was actually into a game this season. I've been trying to disengage myself from this team, because it doesn't feel like my team and because it doesn't seem like they want fans to be emotionally attached to them, but for the first time in a long time, I was chanting along and cheering for them. (Well, most of them.) Tuesday's game on ESPN2 is going to be huge. Enormous. Giant. Crucial. Critical. Etc.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
July 15th, 2010: Washington at New York
I hate kids. Clarke Stevens hates people who mock his lack of hair.
I'm never having children. Never. Not in a million years. I understand that I'm contributing to the problem by choosing not to be the kind of responsible parent I'd like to see others be, but I don't care. I really can't stand kids for that long.
Especially when ushers are seating them in the wrong sections. No, I don't think the woman in the 1998 t-shirt is squatting, given that she was in the last row of the 200s, at an angle. There's no point to squatting there. (The kids were supposed to be in the next section over.) It irked me the emphasis they were putting on the kids. Yes, I understand that it was camp day, but you still shouldn't let the kids run rough-shod over the season subscribers and regular fans who took time off from work to see their team.
We got a shrill kiddie rendition of "God Bless America" to go with our shrill kiddie rendition of the national anthem. And these kids were from a school for the arts. That's the frightening part. (Dear kids in front of me: national anthem means get up and shut up. You fail etiquette forever.)
I nearly died of laughter before the game even started. You know that song about "it's your birthday"? Now, imagine Katie Smith dancing very enthusiastically to it. In front of the other wing players, who are encouraging her. She's a better dancer than I thought she would be.
Ashley Houts made a brief cameo and didn't seem to be completely awful, though she didn't do anything worth remembering. Marissa Coleman looked like she had found her stroke and her groove again, and I was surprised at her rebounding numbers. Matee Ajavon was her out-of-control self, but instead of her shooting being out of control, her whole body was. Her drives were very aggressive, but not very controlled, and the way she dove for loose balls was downright reckless. There are no tackles in basketball, Matee. Chasity Melvin played so badly that I had to look at the boxscore to remember that she was there- the only thing I remember about her was her hair, because I kept thinking she was Nakia Sanford; I haven't adjusted to Sanford's hair being long and Melvin's being short.
The chemistry between Lindsey Harding and Katie Smith on the court is beautiful, and I wish more teams had it. Communication, people. It's a good thing. Whenever they were both on the floor, they were both talking and keeping each other apprised of what was going on. That all being said, poor Smith got her bell rung and her nose broken by a Liberty elbow. There were about four different reports about whose it was, so I'm refraining from comment. I think we got lucky that she couldn't find her stroke, because no lead is safe if Katie Smith can find her stroke. Harding ran a pretty solid game. It intrigues me how much she penetrates- with Currie's slashing tendencies, Ajavon's drives, and Coleman's occasional urges to go to the basket, that gives Washington a much more aggressive and driving backcourt than I think any team in the league has. Yeah, Smith and Coleman- and to a lesser extent the other wings- can open it up from outside, but for the most part, these guards prefer the inside. Beard doesn't change that formula much either. Nakia Sanford is going to pick up the nickname Sharpie if she isn't careful, because if you share the name of the company that makes Sharpies, you shouldn't throw elbows. I'm just saying that's not going to end well. Foul trouble kept her out of the game for long stretches. Monique Currie was in fine scowl-and-foul mode today, and her drives to the basket were not as successful as she would have liked. Crystal Langhorne's hustle can never be doubted, but I think we somehow managed to expose her lack of size. How we did that when our tallest player on the floor was Sidney Spencer, I don't know, but she did her work very quietly. I come home thinking Langhorne had a bad game, and I look at the boxscore and she had a double-double. I don't know if this tells you more about me or about Langhorne, but I thought I'd share.
Kalana Greene looks like she's been taking flying lessons from Renee Montgomery. She was speeding up the court like nobody's business, and her work on the fast break was critical to the Liberty's success in the second half. Her vertical was also astounding. I think the break did her good. We also had an Essence Carson sighting, and apparently she just needed to get her hands on a piano to find her touch again. She needs to speed up her release a little bit- not everyone's going to give her the kind of time she needs to go into her full wind-up. For the first time in a while, it also looked like her head was in the game defensively, and we need a lot more of that from her. Plenette Pierson did less than nothing, other than commit fouls, which I can assure you made at least two people in the arena absolutely furious with her: Anne Donovan as a coach and me as the sucker who took her in Pick One. Seriously. A couple of those were bad calls, but most of the fail was on Plenette's part. Sidney Spencer did not make any mistakes. She didn't do anything great, but she didn't make any mistakes, either.
Nicole Powell, where are you? This person who put on your uniform after the first two shots went in for you is clearly not you. Please come back and remove the imposter, because otherwise I'm going to assume that you're a fraud. Janel McCarville was apparently waiting for someone to tell her that she was their Pick One player of the day, since she went off and showed a lot of the old aggression that she'd been lacking lately. Taj McWilliams-Franklin looked like she had killed a small animal and put it on her head as a trophy, but I can actually excuse it for once, after seeing the pictures from the charity event the two teams did earlier: that hairdo was never meant to be pulled back into a ponytail. Quiet game, by the standards we've come to expect from Mama Taj, but she did her job, and I don't think it's a coincidence that the opposing centers only mustered up two points between them. Cappie Pondexter put in another of her games where the basic stats look good and a slightly deeper look at the stats shows some troubling tendencies. Her shooting wasn't that great, and she was taking a lot of off-balance shots. She committed some really dumb fouls, too. But I can't say enough about Leilani Mitchell. "Tiny. But fierce!" She was all over the place. Her hands on defense kept us in the game every time Washington made a run or we decided that making shots and passing the ball to our teammates in ways that they could actually receive it. (Seriously, kids. Nicole can't jump and Leilani's not that tall.)
Things to make a mental note of if I ever end up in an entertainment position with a WNBA team: don't tease Clarke Stevens. Maddie made fun of his bald head, and I don't think he appreciated it very much. We hardly got any calls from him all day. Gulbeyan did a better job than he did, and the West Coast fans can tell you that that's probably not a ringing endorsement. Then again, Gulbeyan was the man on the scene when Harding knocked Janel out of bounds and first he called it off on one, then the other, then called the whole thing off and said jump ball. No one was happy with that call.
Racking my brain for anything else interesting that happened during this game, but the only other notable thing I can thing of is the control runs. Not control of the game runs, control of the ball runs. There were stretches when New York couldn't hold on to the ball, and stretches where Washington couldn't hold on to the ball.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
July 11th, 2010: Chicago at New York
pretty awesome, y'all.
That may have been the most emotionally satisfying game that ended without either team breaking 60 that I've ever been at, though I could be wrong.
First of all, thanks have to go out to colleague Helen at the Women's Hoops Blog, who gifted us with a pair of tickets in the section behind the Liberty bench. Of course, this did rather ruin my plans to root for the Sky, since I'm not tacky enough to root for the opposing team from behind the home bench. I've yelled at people for doing that before. I'm not going to turn around and do it.
I'd love to know what Janel McCarville and Erin Thorn were talking about before the game. Given Erin's peculiar sense of humor and Janel's sense of fun, it could be just about anything, and it would certainly be worth the hearing. In semi-related news, blonde is not Christi Thomas's color, sorry to say. Talk about things you didn't want to see up close.
The anthem was absolutely beautiful, and I'm glad we were down low enough to hear it when the sound went out- they only found the switch for the microphones halfway through so everyone could hear the sweet harmonies, but we were low enough that we could hear them a capella.
I never got to see Kalana Greene dancing along to the music from the intro video before. Somehow, I'm not surprised that she does, though.
We kept yelling at everyone we could not to let Erin Thorn get the ball whenever the clock started to run down. A combination of good Liberty defense and lousy execution by the Sky made sure that it didn't happen. I thought it was unusual, and strangely amusing, that when she went to foul Leilani Mitchell, there were overtones of the BYU-Utah rivalry in the intensity of the foul. I get the feeling that Erin is frustrated by her teammates sometimes, and sometimes frustrated at herself, for not being able to do the things she knows should be done. Cathrine Kraayeveld showed why she's been relegated to the bench. A lot of the little things got done, but the little things don't mean so much when you can't rebound, can't score, can't defend, and your best on-court quality is your "WTF just happened here?" face. Sorry, Cat. I've got your shirt and I believe in spelling your name correctly, but there's only so much I can do to defend your play. I'm not liking Epiphanny Prince's hair all that much, and her game didn't impress me, either. She seemed more in tune with her team on defense than on offense, which seems strange, but strange is par for the course with Chicago.
Tamera Young has one of the funkiest effective- or maybe one of the most effectively funky- shots I've ever seen. The angles are all wrong and her footwork would make most coaches weep, but the shots go in. There's a definite disconnect between what she wants to do and what she ends up doing. If today was any indication of her usual play, she might go down as one of the great might-have-beens of our generation- what could she have become with a coach who could force her into a more fundamental game, while still allowing her athleticism to shine through? Dominique Canty has fallen off the cliff, hit the wall, come to the end of her rope- whatever turn of phrase you think best describes a player who has completely lost any and all of the skills she once possessed, that would be her. She has no clock management ability left, her handle is suspect, her shot is gone, and she doesn't seem to know her teammates from a hole in the ground. Given that one of her teammates is the center for the national team, this is not a good sign. I'm sorry, but if you see a point guard fumble the ball off her thigh and almost cause her team an eight-second violation, it's time to let her go. It's been a good run, 'Nique, but enough is enough. Mistie Bass didn't play great, though I still love her toughness on the boards, but she played better than Cathrine, which would be a logical explanation for the change in the starting lineup. (Yes, sometimes things in Chicagoland make sense.) Sylvia Fowles was a force inside, though she really does need to work on what happens when the ball is a bit low. Everyone's shorter than you, Sylvia, they're used to getting the ball that low. If her teammates had gotten her the ball a bit more often, Chicago might have pulled that game out of its... hat. Jia Perkins was nothing shot of amazing. All the shots that weren't going in when they played us the first time? This time they went in, for the most part- there were a couple of misses that seemed like answered prayers for New York. She also had a spectacular steal where she read the passing lane like a champ. Amazing.
Sidney Spencer got a rebound! And that's the only positive thing I can remember her doing! And yet she was almost better than the starter! Kia Vaughn came in when Taj got into early foul trouble, but pretty much stunk up the joint. I wonder if she wished she were in Connecticut with the national team, getting a look from USA Basketball, instead of contending with Fowles. Plenette Pierson brought some of the edge and fire that we needed, and she definitely made life a little harder for the Chicago posts- there was one play where I thought she and Cathrine were going to throw down right then and there. Kalana Greene looked like seeing her old teammates again had reenergized her. She was back to being in the right place in the right time and playing solid defense. I like this version of Kalana much better than the one we had right before the break. That, of course, means that Essence Carson saw less playing time, and again, I think I'm okay with that. As long as Anne can adjust her lineups, I can live with the choices she makes.
Dear WNBA: I feel cheated. My team's All-Star small forward is clearly defective. No points and no rebounds in a game, resulting in our coach needing to use a rookie two-guard at the three to spell her? I'm sorry, I want a refund. Come on, Nicole Powell, I know you're better than this. Leilani Mitchell was her fierce little self- nothing says cojones like trying to body up Sylvia Fowles when you're a foot shorter and much more slightly built than she is. She took advantage of being low to the floor a lot. Janel McCarville played like she was still working off partying at the casino last night. Still trying to be too fancy with her shots and still not working on her fundamentals. Of course, I am somewhat more frustrated with that than usual because I had Janel in Pick One, figuring that Big Syl would be a bit tired from the game on the 10th. Taj McWilliams-Franklin looked a little out of sorts, but asking her to guard Fowles was asking a lot, no matter how much old age and treachery can do against youth and skill. A lot of her shots started going short, especially when she decided to try and take Chicago outside. Bad plan. We don't win this game without Cappie Pondexter starting off red-hot while the rest of the team was colder than ice, and we don't win this game without Pondexter suddenly getting her groove back near the end of the third quarter and into the fourth.
The weird thing about that? I can appreciate it as a virtuoso performance- but I didn't enjoy it, even though it propelled my team to a win. I just can't shake the feeling that she's proving Blaze right, proving that it's totally okay to hand someone the keys to the castle just because they say they want to live near the castle, proving that trying to rely on one star and one star alone is a valid strategy. I don't know if I don't like my sensibilities being offended or if I just dislike being wrong too much to handle. But this is a bias that I felt my readers should be aware of.
Story time! A few years ago, the Liberty did a timeout contest based on tic-tac-toe- you had ot hit a lay-up before you could put another letter on the board. This contestant was exceptionally skilled at shooting. No wonder- she was Amber Flynn, who was a rotation player for Bowling Green. Today's contest, however, really took the cake in that regard. Just because there aren't that many people who would hear the name Brittany Wilkins and go "Hey, didn't she play at Iowa State? And in the WNBL? And the NWBL? And, oh, yeah, for the Sacramento Monarchs? With Nicole Powell?" that does not mean that putting a ringer in the contest is a good idea. I couldn't see whether Powell was laughing during the timeout or not.
Checking the rule book- when is it not acceptable to inbound into the backcourt? The Liberty got called for an over-and-back when they inbounded from the endline into the backcourt, and it didn't look like anyone had touched it in the frontcourt. That was the worst of the calls, though there were a few head-scratchers.
It was an exciting comeback, and it was sparked by defense and hitting the right shot at the right time. (Okay, and Dominique Canty. Thanks, 'Nique! We wouldn't have won this game without you!)
July 10th, 2010: WNBA versus USA Basketball
The somewhat sleep-deprived and eccentric adventures of a WNBA fan at All-Star.
An All-Star game, no matter how it's packaged, is never quite the same without the pageantry of a fan fest and an open practice that adults can actually go to without having to give up vacation time. I don't know how it is for other people, but given the inevitable inexplicable All-Star or two, I find that All-Star is just a great excuse for fans from across the country to get together, meet up, exchange gossip and localized items, and deepen the network that separates us from fans of bigger leagues. The game almost never lives up to expectations. But then, I'm also in love with defense- I would have been a Miami Sol fan if I hadn't started out in New York. I get antsy when players get to hot-dogging too much.
They announced a sell-out and I can believe all tickets were sold, but the distribution of empties makes me think they've got to crack down on scalpers somehow. Would have been nice if they brought people down from the upper bowl after halftime, but since I was in the last row of the endcourt in the upper deck, I might be a teeny bit biased.
The projection screen on the court was a great idea, but they needed to figure out a way to rotate it so that the rest of us could look at it the right way around. I spent the entire intro sequence looking like an O RLY owl. Strategic planning was not Mohegan's strong point today. Please don't hit people in the head with t-shirts, especially when they are with team officials. (And especially not when they are possibly Bridget Pettis.) Please do not present a member of the Liberty dance team as an amateur in your dance competition. Please provide rosters of some kind. Please provide better merchandise. Please do not sic security and the tribal police on autograph collectors who have not overstepped the usual bounds in the hotel lobby area. (Please do not change your rules on vouchers mid-stream. Please do not give people grief about replacing damaged cards.)
I liked the anthem, but the thing with the bedsheet was a bit ridiculous. We skipped halftime for a walk around the concourse. I love people-watching at All-Star.
Favorite fans: the guy in the LeBron jersey with a sign: "LeBron Wishes He Were This Good- GO WNBA!" The guy with the Angel McCoughtry sign he made after running into her in the airport. The woman in full Mystics kit- "all I need is my sneakers, and I'm ready to play." She had the visor, the jersey, the warm-up jacket, and the shorts. The guys in the next section over, wearing an array of Champion jerseys (and their friend in the Tari Phillips adidas jersey). It takes guts to wear a Penny Toler jersey. Mystics fans showed out in this game. So did LA fans, much to my surprise. I was disappointed that there wasn't a better showing from the rest of the East- the three Northeastern bases sent fans, but I saw only two pieces of Catchings gear and an old Dupree jersey. Lot of Bird and Taurasi gear, obviously, along with the Sparks fans and the woman in the Augustus jersey. Of course, I have to give props to the other people in Swoopes gear. No, Donna, you can't drop the Comets down the memory hole, as hard as you try.
I think Agler must have gotten a lot of requests from his colleagues to be careful with players. That's the only reason I can think of for some of those lineups, especially the starters for each half and the weird splits for Penny Taylor. I don't think he was taking this game as seriously as USA Basketball was, or even as seriously as some of his players were. Maybe he forgot that they played fast and loose with the rules about the national team pool, and half his players were trying to prove themselves to the committee.
Jayne Appel didn't look like she belonged. She was a step slow and not used to playing in the sort-of improvisational nature of an All-Star game, where you've only been practicing with most of these people for a couple of days, and I noticed that Agler wasn't playing the teammate groups together very often, so there was no chemistry for the Stars or the Mystics to work from. Iziane Castro Marques didn't have a good day. Not such a great score in the Skills Challenge, a really out-of-control game in the All-Star game (though she might have suffered less if she had Sancho Lyttle to pass to), and the second-most unfortunate hair in the arena. Izi, next time you ask your teammates for styling tips, make sure the teammates you ask are not Millers. Michelle Snow started off hot, the way Kara Braxton did when she was an inexplicable All-Star, then remembered that she's not as good as she usually thinks she is, and disappeared in her inimitable way. Katie Douglas's stroke was pure in the three-point competition, though not quite up to the Laurie Koehn bar, and it was kind of hilarious when Catch fouled her hard during the game, but her shot disappeared for most of the game. Rebekkah Brunson was as fierce as ever on the boards, contesting most rebounds like her life depended on them. Lindsay Whalen did not impress me, no matter how warm a welcome she got and how wry her comments on the three-point contest were. Someone asked her her strategy, and she said something along the lines of "hit more shots than Katie". Yes, thank you for that trenchant observation, and for treating a stupid question for what it is. Penny Taylor only played in the second half, and she seemed determined to prove that this game mattered to her for so many reasons. We unleashed an "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!" in the upper deck for her after she hit the three. Sophia Young was so-so, in All-Star terms. Looked like she was having fun, but didn't bring her A-game, and I'm starting to be okay with that. Monique Currie needs to remember that a shot only counts as a three if both feet are behind the line. She got three or four shots disqualified during the shootout because she was over the line. And then she kvetched to the refs about her score. Take shots that count, Monique, then you'll get the call. I don't honestly remember what she did in the game. Crystal Langhorne was at least trying to rebound, but she was a step behind the team USA posts. Lindsey Harding put together a good run in the Skills Challenge, but not good enough.
Angel McCoughtry at the two is not an experiment I would like to see Geno Auriemma try in a game of any importance whatsoever. She usually got Pondexter and vice versa, and I don't know that that necessarily works. Sylvia Fowles was unstoppable, in her sort of quiet and painstaking way. She still needs to work on getting the chippies to go down the first time, even if she's in position for the offensive rebound and putback, and her free throw shooting needs to improve if she's going to get to the line this often, but still, I don't think other countries have much of a solution for her. And if they do, they're not going to be able to use the same one on Tina Charles. At one point, the two of them were out there together, and you could almost see Jayne Appel's life flashing before her eyes. Renee Montgomery looked a little out of control out there, and she and Lindsay Whalen got into it a couple of times. The block was pretty sick, even if she sent Whalen to the line for it. Maya Moore had moments where she looked like the Maya Moore who has dominated every game she's played, and moments where she looked like an excellent college senior playing against the cream of the crop and was a little overmatched. She started lighting it up in the second half, and it was like someone had busted open a can of church service in the arena. Tamika Catchings played very sparingly- she started, and I think once she sat down, that was the last we saw of her. I guess that makes sense if you know what you're going to get out of her. Cappie Pondexter sort of blended in with the team- didn't stand out, but was part of a lot of the great passing plays that characterize Auriemma's style. Diana Taurasi was in her element, though the box doesn't really reflect it. The game played to her balance of serious competition and light-hearted fun. Candice Dupree quietly made things happen, though these are not the random acts of Candice Dupree you were promised before the jump. Sue Bird- same as Taurasi, fit right into the system and the style like a hand in a glove. Swin Cash's athleticism impressed me. She was in the middle of a lot of the rebounding plays.
The officials were as inconsistent as ever, and that was dangerous. Early on, when there was a clearer difference in the level of intensity between the WNBA team and the national team, there were some rough plays that the referees let go because they were letting them play for exhibition purposes. That's how people get hurt, officials, and do we really need players getting hurt in exhibition games? They seem to be doing enough of it in the games that matter. They called it a little more tightly in the second half, but then the fans got restless because- gasp! they were calling fouls against UConn players. I'm sorry, but you have to set the boundaries early. Players this competitive and this intense will forget their manners.
Cynthia Cooper was in the house and got a special acknowledgement during a timeout in the first half, for her accomplishments as a player and for her resultant induction into the Hall of Fame this summer. It's been a long time since I saw Coop raise the roof. I forgot what it could do to my blood pressure as a Liberty fan (even if I was a Liberty fan in a Swoopes jersey, because All-Star is a good time to remind the league that it can't drop its history down the memory hole that easily).
There were a lot of current and former WNBA players in the house. Essence Carson came with a couple of friends. So did Katie Smith, who had some good long chats with Nancy Darsch (from the Ohio State days), Brian Agler (from the Lynx days), and her Mystics teammate Lindsey Harding (after the Skills Challenge- facial expressions suggested that Smith was telling Harding how she screwed up). Kara Lawson and Asjha Jones were working the room in the lower bowl, glad-handing every Sun fan they could. So did Erin Phillips (presumably without mentioning the holdout bit). Belinda Snell was on the concourse, and I presume there were other Aussies there I didn't recognize. We spotted Cynthia Cooper before the initial announcement, and clearly the jersey must have gotten to my head, because I stood there and gawped instead of going, "OH MY GOD! Can I have your autograph?" I was pretty sure I saw Kalana Greene, but if I did, she needs to explain why she had a Sun jersey slung over her shoulder. Definitely saw Ashley Battle, though. We told her we missed her in New York. "That's what I keep hearing," she said. "This team has no personality, no soul, and the defense is so-so," I went on. "That's what I keep hearing," she repeated. She was in the company of Rita Williams and a few friends, proving the truth of the UConn bond across the generations. Both Orender and Ackerman were in the house- oh, if they had run into each other, what I wouldn't have given to be a fly on the wall. New York, Phoenix, and Washington (at least) sent their GMs- Angela Taylor did a lot of socializing. A lot of baby Huskies were in the house, too, but I don't know enough about collegians to know who's who- if you didn't make it in the W, I'm not going to recognize you in street clothes, sorry. Ebony Hoffman was there too- we saw her long after the game with Catch, presumably explaining to Catch that it is not a good idea to foul your professional teammate when you're in an exhibition against her.
And then there was the close encounter of the Candice Dupree kind, which just put a capper on the night. We got a really late jump back because I forgot my camera at the hotel, so we missed our bus. As we waited in line, Dupree and a couple of (familiar-looking) friends wandered out- I think they may have been looking for a hotel shuttle or something, though admittedly, my first thought was stuck back in 2009 and I was all, "Man, Chicago's cheap- they're sending her back to New York on a Chinatown bus?" But as we all stood around, a guy came up to us and asked if she- pointing at Dupree- played basketball. We said yes. He asked us if he could borrow a Sharpie and get her autograph. "You might want to know who she is first." I did my best to get him to the game tomorrow, but I wasn't able to persuade him to take my extra ticket. So, finally, I pull a Sharpie out of my bag and tell him, "That's Candice Dupree, she wears #4 for the Phoenix Mercury." He goes, gets his autograph, and returns my marker as he goes about his business.
Two beats later, Candice looks at us and says, "He still asked me if I was Candace Parker."
Somehow, that was just the perfect ending to things. Crazy, fun, interactive, but with an undercurrent of cluelessness from people who should have known a little bit better. Now, WNBA, can we please go somewhere outside the Northeast Corridor for next year's game? I want to travel! I want to be the visiting fan that people point at and go, "Wow, you came all the way out for this? Awesome!"