November 26th, 2010: Nicholls State at St. John's

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I'm not sure what to make of this team. It feels like something's going to explode and I don't know if it's in a good way or in a 'someone's going to storm out in a huff' way. We have talent, and we definitely have heart and passion, but I don't know whether we have anyone who can harness all of it and direct it towards the rest of the NCAA. We have players with talent and we have players who need to lead, but not only are they not the same players, the players who need to step up and be leaders are falling down on the job. If you have seniors, you can't lead from the bottom; things will fall apart and the center will not be able to hold. Otherwise I'd say that we should look to the sophomore class.

Well, that was a depressing start to the Game Notes of Doom on this post-Thanksgiving day of rest. Let's talk about happy-making things instead. Let's talk about the garage sale that St. John's had outside the gates, where they usually stash the scorecards and other useful things. They sold off a bunch of sneakers, jackets- and practice jerseys. Words cannot express just how my face lit up and how excited I was when I found Joy McCorvey's #25 in the pile. I was randomly smiling all day whenever I looked down at the folded jersey in my bag. My fiancé and partner in crime bought Recee Mitchell's #52, dubbing himself the "enforcer of loudness". Wonderful memories were free with purchase, and it was nice to see a lot of the old numbers again.

Since most of the band was still at home for the holidays, we got a recorded version of the anthem. Since most of the band was still at home for the holiday, we also got a mix of alumni and students. It wasn't pretty, though the trombonist and his band nerdlet were priceless. The problem is that our band has improved in the last few years, and the old players really aren't up to the challenge.

Nicholls State reminds me of what would happen if you introduced Erin Phillips and Debbie Black, then blended their DNA. None of them are over six-foot. All of them are pesky, annoying, frustrating, persistent, and frenetic. Their 5-11 forwards did a great job of getting their arms up to deflect shots, but we still could have done a better job of going in on them. Jasmine Hoskins was their sixth woman in both halves, snagging a nice block and a few points. They also brought in Kya DeGarmo, who was small and annoying.

LiAnn McCarthy brought fans, if the glittering jersey signs behind the road bench were any indication. I would have thought that was a lot cooler if she weren't prone to holding everyone and anyone who came anywhere near her. I don't mind players with a physical presence. I do mind players who darn near sexually harass my team. Alisha Allen hit shots at what would have been big moments in a game that was closer. Ricshanda Bickham did a nice job of driving the lane and getting to the line on us, but she also canned a couple of threes. Cassie Hearon always seemed to be around in the middle, even if she couldn't throw it in the ocean. (That problem was going around. You'll see what I mean later.) The player who really impressed me for the Colonels was little bitty KK Babin. Listed 5-4, but you wouldn't know it from her rebounding. There was one play where she rose up from among two or three St. John's players to get the offensive rebound and put it back up. Oh, and she was shooting threes like she was Laurie Koehn in the three-point challenge. After about the fourth one, anyone watching the game (possibly even on StormTracker) heard me screaming something along the lines of "ANYONE WANT TO GUARD THE MIDGET? IT'S ONLY HER FOURTH THREE-POINTER!" (All proper respect to people 5-4. My mother is 5-4. I'm about 5-7. If you're shorter than I am, and you're playing basketball, you qualify as a midget.) My hat is off to her.

Nadirah McKenith got herself into Kim Barnes Arico's doghouse pretty badly, so not only did she not start, she didn't get into the game until every other guard had seen time. She took it out on the Colonels with a little extra to spare. How's this for a line: nine minutes, six points, four rebounds (all offensive), one assist, and three steals? You know the play I just mentioned about Babin in the first half? Nadirah did pretty much the same thing in the second half, rising out of the deeps so suddenly and smoothly we weren't initially sure that it had been her shot. That whole mess nudged Amanda Burakoski up in the rotation, and despite her plethora of blonde moments, she was able to make some good plays on defense. Her shot was weirdly off, though- if anything, she needed to take a step back to try and get it down. Briana Brown saw extended time, and though she showed freshman hesitancy, I like her. She canned one three that was a step or two behind the men's line. Keylantra Langley really needs to not pass to the opposing team. That would be useful. Again, she needs to be more confident on the floor. Zakiyyah Shahid-Martin made a couple of brief cameos. Jennifer Blanding made one near the end of the game and was impressively not bad- a couple of good rebounds, a putback, nice presence on the floor. More of that, please, Big Love.

Eugeneia McPherson got the start for Nadirah, and she looked like she wanted to make the most of it. She went to the rack with some regularity, though she's slipping back into her old habit of trying to force the refs to make the call instead of trying to make the shot. I wasn't thrilled with her defensive placement, either. She gambled too much, and since her assignment was Babin, that didn't work out too well. Coco Hart looked like she was working off a tryptophan hangover, no matter how active she was on the offensive glass. Centhya, you are listed at 6-1. No one on Nicholls State is listed over 5-11. Go towards the &*^&(*^&%ing basket and put the ball in the basket. That goes for you, Da'Shena Stevens. Day really looked out of it. I'm worried about a habit she's started picking up in the last couple of games. She's started hooking the arm the way Plenette Pierson does, and with Day's fragility, I don't think that's a good habit to get into. That's the one thing that keeps Da'Shena from being a real star: she has no real durability. If she's not sick, she's got a lingering injury of some kind. Sky Lindsay looked sluggish (again, tryptophan, or so I hope), but she got her shots up and in, which was important. It sounds strange with a 25-point margin of victory, but without Shenneika Smith, we don't win this game. She put the team on her back on both ends of the floor, stroking that silky jumper from all over the place and going to the rack with grace. She also had one emphatic block that we heard up in the bleacher seats. We also saw her being more vocal on the floor (which sort of led to a sort of hilarious moment that at the same time was deeply disturbing). She looked like the elite player she was in high school.

Sort of hilarious yet disturbing moment: when Babin hit her fourth three, Kim yelled, "Shenneika! While you were coaching out there, she hit a three-pointer!" Sort of hilarious because of the sarcasm, sort of disturbing because Shenneika put the team on her back and Babin wasn't her assignment anyway, so why was Kim singling her out?

We were back in our seats by the band, where the Aricos sit. Young Mr. Arico brought a group of friends with him, and we were a very bad influence on them with our noisemaking. No profanity, nothing like that, but I don't know how thrilled their parental units will be the next time they're at a game. Young Mr. Arico definitely takes after his mother. He's a very observant watcher of the game, and a very passionate one. Someday, if he wants to be, he's going to be a great coach.

I'm thinking that at some point since last season, Dennis DeMayo lost it. Last season, he called a great, solid game. This year? He's been awful. I don't get it. There's a difference between letting them play and being physical, and "show us on the doll where the power forward touched you" physicality. There were also an unusual number of missed calls on the baseline. Um, Mr. DeMayo? If a player is almost sitting on Tamika Louis's lap, she might be out of bounds. Just saying.

We needed this to be a blowout, and it was, but not in the right way. This was supposed to be a game where Kim could experiment and get her bench some reps. Now, Nadirah's infraction, whatever it was, played into that and caused the slow start that led to us having to play more conservatively, but we still shouldn't have to come from behind against a team like Nicholls State.

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December 10th, 2006: Nicholls State at St. John's

The Game Notes of Doom approve of Joy McCorvey and Monique McLean, but Bonita Spence does not approve of the Game Notes.


That was the least pleasant victory I have ever had the dubious pleasure of attending in my life. Even though St. John's did eventually pull it out of their butts, it was in spite of the way they played, not because of it. Nicholls State was simply messier than we were and that was that.

Nicholls State brought a very short team- they have only one player on the roster who's listed at over six feet, and she didn’t play. Their post presence was 5-10 Dominique Washington. Knowing this lack of height, they focus heavily on defense and ball-hawking, a tactic that's especially effective against a team like St. John's, whose best ballhandler was stylishly dressed in black on the bench today and whose primary ballhandlers without Kia Wright are, um, given to silly fumbles (Monique, I'm looking at you) and needless showing off (a-HEM, Nikki Jo). They also try to work with speed, although that wasn't as effective today as it could have been- one of their players, a Bronx native- spent a couple of fast breaks trying to show off for family and friends in attendance (of which there were many, but that's a topic for a different paragraph). Not great court awareness, but they only run two seniors, so I wasn't surprised, and it's not like I can stake a claim to my team being so much more aware of what's going on. None of their players really stuck out to me, although I had marked Jamie Octave as a player to watch, not just because she came in as their leading scorer and rebounder, but also because she has a really cool nickname. She strikes me as top-tier Southland, but not much beyond that. The only other player I have any clear memory of is Katherine Plummer, and that was because she got me glared at by a ref. We'll get to that.

Now, knowing that Nicholls State is running a team out there that my D-III could reach over, one would think that there would be a lot of plays run for the post. As much as I complain about the two frosh we lost both being inside players, the fact still remains that we have four players at or above six-foot on what's left of our roster: Tiina, Angel, Allie, and Joy. If I were a coach, I would be drawing up plays for all four of them and making sure every play at least involved an interior pass, even if it ended with an outside shot. While Tiina and Joy worked it inside, Angel and Allie… not so much. Although Allie is listed as a guard-forward, and seems to have a preference for the perimeter, Coach talked about her in the yearbook as having post moves. I'm not holding my breath on those. Sloppy, sloppy game, though. 25 turnovers, 15 in the first half. Wasn't like the Colonels were all that great with the ballhandling either; 17 Tos, 9 in the first half. I said this was an ugly win.

Anyway. Charisse finally started getting her groove back; hopefully this means she'll be a little more confident and a little more willing to shoot when she gets the ball, instead of dribbling like a panicked high schooler, passing off like the ball was on fire or, as she did on one possession today, completely and utterly not noticing the shot clock. Angel, I think, is hurt; she didn't play very much today, and I had noticed her limping after the Syracuse game. This hasn't been an easy week- wouldn't be an easy week for a pro team, four games in eight days, and this is a college team with four freshmen, which means at most they've played twice a week for the last four years, right? They're not ready for this, and I've been harping on Angel's conditioning all season especially- girl is NOT ready to be a starting center in the Big East. Tiina started slow, with a lot of really close misses, but started hitting her stride later. She's a great Robin, but we still need a Batman. Monique had a very off day- her ballhandling was very casual and she didn't seem to be paying close attention. I know it's finals month and all, but if I could put my tests out of my mind for two hours, I'm sure she could too. She padded her stats with some late points. We saw far too much of Allie, since Angel was hurting. Someone needs to give her an infusion of basketball IQ, stat. Every time she makes a good play, she immediately makes a bad play to screw it up, and that's not including various and sundry other bad plays. She did get to the line for the first time this season, though, so that's a bright spot. Not Nikki Jo's day- too cute with the ball, too out of control on the offense. She needs to breathe and to listen. Coach was reaming her out again, and Nikki Jo is in no position to screw around. Okay, maybe she is, because what's Coach going to do, have Charisse handle the ball? But if she were a good teammate, she would shut up and listen so that her team would be better off.

And the hero of the day? Why, the one player I've hardly mentioned. Joy had the first St. John's basket of the game and those were her only points of the first half. She heated up big time in the second half, driving inside and cleaning up garbage against the shorter Colonels. She scored 17 in the second half and added six rebounds for a double-double. She was also part of the defensive effort on Octave, although I'll admit that's something I wouldn't necessarily be proud of, since she did score her average.

Refereeing was surprisingly awful for a crew that actually had a name I recognized. Most egregious call of the day? Well, 5-4 Katherine Plummer went rather blatantly over the back on 6-0 Joy McCorvey, not quite 'wanna wanna WANNA PIGGYBACK RIDE' but close. No call. Eventually, St. John's did get the out of bounds call, but I was quite irritated at what seemed to be favoritism- yes, short people can go over the back, too- and shrieked, "WHAT GAME ARE YOU WATCHING?" in the general direction of the court. Forgetting that most of the building was empty, and that the rest of the attendance was either friends and family of the three Tri-State Colonels or parents of the prostitot dance troupe that performed at halftime, my voice, um, carried. A lot. And I tend to sit six rows off the court. Unsurprisingly, the ref, who I believe was Bonita Spence, glared at me as she ran back up the court. Hey, lady, I wouldn't be bitching you out if you stopped checking your stopwatch on three-seconds and started calling the wrestling matches on the rebounds. At least this crew could tell the difference between Angel Tate and Monique McLean…

Vocal rendition of the anthem, by a guy who looked like Ryan Seacrest and sounded like he'd in fact been watching too much American Idol. Still, it was better than the band's version, because while they're amusing dancers, they're not, in fact, a very good band.

I have often in these spaces paralleled the Liberty and the Red Storm, simply because that's a thing I tend to do as a basketball fan. Watch long enough and everyone looks like someone else. Seriously, though, there are three very clear parallels, and two of them are actually reasons for the average Liberty Board Junkie to be hauling out to Queens on a regular basis to watch this team. Granted, the third parallel is that Angel Tate seems to want to grow up to be Iciss Tillis, and honey, no, you can't pull it off on so many levels. On the other hand, I've been calling Monique McLean "Baby Shameka" or "Little Sista Christon" since halfway through last season, and she does remind me of a raw Shameka. Some days she looks like the 2006 model, some days she looks like the 2004 model; some days she looks like the version who just scores and doesn't think about defense, some days she looks like the version that Crystal Robinson got her hands on and taught about that whole defense bit. She's only a sophomore, and if the pattern of this season continues, she'll be All-Big East. Meanwhile, Joy McCorvey hustles for rebounds, is our defensive ace off the bench, and can heat up on offense if her shots are utterly needed. She's clutch. Ashley Battle come to mind? I don't know if AB has had the chance to demonstrate leadership skills, since I wasn't paying attention to the 2005 Huskies, but Joy, as a freshman, is already the one speaking up in the huddles, not Monique or Tiina (well, Tiina a little bit). She relays the plays and the defensive alignments. She's a lot more mature than her year would indicate, and her freshman mistakes will be wiped out in time. Love that girl. Love her.

Come on, Liberty fans in the New York City area. $7 general admission tickets, lots of open seats, plenty of free t-shirts, Big East opponents to watch, a blonde Euro who actually shows up on a regular basis, and baby versions of Shameka Christon and Ashley Battle. Why am I not seeing far more of you people at games? It's not like you're not used to seeing our team lose, right?

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