December 21st, 2016: UMBC at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: After an offensively challenged first half for both teams, UMBC came out strong in the second half to knock off LIU at the Barclays Center, 57-45. Tyler Moore had 17 of her team-high points in the second half to lead the Retrievers. Shanovia Dove came off the bench to lead LIU with 19 points and 10 rebounds, but no other Blackbird cracked double digits.

For clarinets, accordions, mediocre guitarists, excellent Diet Coke, so much dribbling, bad passes, biting the hand that feeds you, and deep concerns about interpersonal relationships, join your intrepid and pensive blogger after the jump.

On the road again, this time off to the Barclays Center for half of a double-header- we'll be watching the Blackbirds of LIU take on UMBC.

(Why only half the double-header? Because I don't care enough about men's basketball to get home at 11:30 when I have a meeting early the next morning.)

We've had fantastic music on this long R ride from Continental to DeKalb. First there was a clarinet player who did beautiful work on some Christmas tunes, then an accordion player who was really good. I love my city sometimes. Most of the time.

We're at T-minus 24 minutes, and there are maybe twenty to twenty-five people in the stands. And I think about a quarter of them are LIU band members. It's weird having a little bit of distance from the team, but I like having some perspective.

Lost Albany fan is lost. The women are playing UMBC; the men are playing Niagara. So think I can ask him for any tips on Imani Tate?

I don't think I like the Nets making all their banners black and white, even from the times when they were red, white, and blue. It just looks wrong somehow. At least the Isles are still rocking the city colors. (White, blue, and orange are kind of a thing with New York teams- see also the Mets and the Knicks. It's a flag thing.)

Looks like we weren't the only ones who made the trip out to Brooklyn from Queens. Hi, Veronica!

At halftime, it's 15-13 LIU. This... has not been an inspiring half of basketball in the name of Brooklyn hoops and the women's game. Six points and five boards for Aja Boyd for LIU; Taylor McCarley has eight out of 13 for UMBC.

The guy across the aisle from us knows his stuff. He agrees that LIU needs to be way more aggressive on offense. There's way too much passing the ball around, not enough attacking. And then Aja drops the ball.

It's kind of cool to have an entrance/intro video for once. LIU's normal scoreboard doesn't allow for one. The whole team was watching in fascination, including the staff.

So, uh. That was a thing that happened. The easy way out would be to say, "Look, I don't want to revisit this game, you don't want me to revisit this game, and Coach Oliver definitely doesn't want me to revisit this game. Let's just talk about the band and the arena and the overpriced but delicious Diet Coke." But I don't take the easy way out in GNoD, so you're going to get the cold hard truth as I see it from the stands.

UMBC's coach is kinda loud and seems fond of using his timeouts. I know you don't get to take them home with you for the next game, but if you're up eight with 11 seconds to go, it might be okay to leave one on the table.

Carly Harris and Kayla Hinderlee only came in at the very end- I think there were 11 seconds left. Come to think of it, that might have been why he called the timeout, which is kinda sweet, but at the same time, is eleven seconds really a reasonable amount of playing time? Hinderlee was so unprepared that she had to be called back to the bench to get her earrings off. Lucrezia Costa was awkward in the middle, picking up three very quick fouls in the second quarter. UMBC's coach went back to her in the second half, with slightly better results.

I honestly didn't notice Emily Russo in the game until the second half, so I don't really have much to say about her. She was probably scrappy on the ball, though- most of the Retrievers were. Taylor McCarley started off like a house on fire- she was pretty much the sole source of offense for UMBC in the first half. She's long and lanky, and used her length and speed to press ahead on fast breaks, slicing through LIU's defense like a hot knife through butter. She started the second half.

McCarley got that start over the other McRetriever, Allison McGrath. I liked McGrath on defense. I'm wondering if she got hurt; she didn't play at all in the second half, and I didn't think she had done anything worthy of being buried on the bench. I didn't see an injury, though. Amanda Hagaman should really have been much more effective- she had good looks at the basket and blew them. She made life difficult on the inside for LIU, though.

Laura Castaldo took her turn as the star of the UMBC offense in the early part of the third quarter, hitting from range. She was a demon defensively, leaping on the slow and telegraphed passes of LIU. (There were a lot of those, but we'll get to that.) When she cooled off slightly, there was Tyler Moore, hitting corner threes and scoring on the break. Te'yjah Oliver quietly ran the point and took contact. (There was one play where I thought LIU was backing off under the mistaken impression that Coach Oliver was somehow related to the Retriever guard and thus fouling her would be a Very Bad Idea.)

LIU, I can't even with the extra passing and the bad passing and the telegraphed passing. More importantly, I can't even with the endless dribbling, the cold-blooded murder by strangulation of a perfectly innocent shot clock, and the utter lack of urgency.

I don't know what Brianna Farris did to get buried at the end of the bench, only dredged up in the fourth quarter to take corner threes off the heel of the rim and devour fouls when the Blackbirds tried to extend the game. On the other hand, the way she played would not indicate that further minutes were deserved. DeAngelique Waithe remains my favorite, despite her occasional bouts of offensive ineptitude. I still like watching her play defense, especially when she drops monster blocks.

Shanovia Dove was unafraid to shoot, which was a marked contrast to the rest of her teammates. She was hitting from deep, as well as from the lane. She's always been streaky, and this was a good day for her. Coach Oliver rode her hot hand for most of the game. Stylz Sanders was extremely active on defense, especially early on. She deflected a lot of balls. Drew Winter, when she took her shot, had a good shot, but like many Blackbirds, she was tentative with it and took too much time to even work up the nerve to shoot.

I don't know if there are drills that a player can practice to improve their hands- their ability to catch passes and hold rebounds. If there are, someone please send a link to Aja Boyd so she can start doing them. She had good passes and fumbled them; she had rebounds and lost them. And she has to finish better in the lane. I think the latter is easier for a freshman to fix than the former. Gabrielle Caponegro was playing scared, and this isn't just my assessment- the guy across the aisle from us was talking about how she wasn't like this in high school. She was hesitant to shoot and unsure of her place in the scheme. I think she has a lot of potential. I don't know if she has the makeup to tap that potential at LIU.

Dionne Coe is going to drive me crazy if she doesn't either start hitting shots or stop dribbling. So much dribbling. So much wasted time dribbling, dribbling, dribbling. The problem was that either she would dribble herself right into a steal or throw the ball right to UMBC because the pass was telegraphed. She's not the answer at point- obviously not for the future, since she's a grad transfer, but I don't think she's even the answer right now, despite her experience. Victoria Powell was just as timid, but slightly more accurate, and at least you can excuse a freshman for being timid. Seneca Richards was in to shoot threes, and while her shot was pretty, it was all she brought to the floor. I'm not sure that a single-dimensional player is a luxury this team can afford to have in the starting lineup.

So, this team. We're in the NEC here. This isn't the Big East; this isn't even the higher echelons of the MAAC. You're not going to get players with full skill sets. If you do, or if you get a player who's only missing one piece, she's probably going to climb the ladder. Witness Jasmine Nwajei going from Wagner to Syracuse, or Sofia Roma going from Wagner to Duke. For that matter, LIU has a history of feeding the BCS, with Kim Mac Millan going to St. John's and Valerie Nainima going to South Carolina. At this level, there has to be a lot more teaching of the game. I'm not sure that's being done. Now, I'm only seeing things from the stands, so I'm not even getting one side of the story. I don't know if the coach isn't coaching, or if the players aren't listening, or if there's some other gap that's not being bridged. But there's a fundamental disconnect between what's being said and what's being done on the court. There's a stark difference between what the flow of the game might dictate and what's actually happening.

I want to get behind them. I really do. The game day experience at LIU is great- cheer is enthusiastic, the band's interesting, and nobody brings the noise like LIU's spirit squad. But I feel like the joy is being squeezed out of everyone once the ball goes up. It's hard to keep your own spirits up that way.

So, uh, Merry Christmas? Happy Hanukkah? Joyous Festivus?