Just the Facts, Ma'am: Auburn withstood a second-half surge from SMU to come away with a 56-43 win. Khady Dieng led the Tigers with 14 points, while Kiani Parker added 11. Alicia Froling had 14 points to lead SMU; Destynee Hives-McCray notched a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
For chariot races, deathly quiet, skipping the cadence, displeasure, a taste of one's own medicine, jostling, and rebounds, join your intrepid and uninspired blogger after the jump.
Hello again, faithful readers! We come to you in stereophonic sound from beautiful Carnesecca Arena, where Auburn and SMU face off in the consolation game of the Chartwells Holiday Classic.
The teams have switched colors from yesterday. Auburn is in their home whites, trimmed in navy and orange, with orange shoes that are unfortunately more of a Volunteer hue. SMU has kept their two-tone blue Nikes and gone to their road blues, with a red stripe down the side and along the cuffs of the shorts. And I will stop channeling John Sterling now.
I like the Auburn-colored tiger-striped scarf the woman across from me is wearing.
At halftime, the halftime clock has not started and it's 35-18 Auburn. SMU has not looked good, and Auburn has gone pretty deep into their bench. Both teams have a lot of energy and are very vocal.
Kiani Parker took out the SMU radio guy. That's how badly SMU is getting beat- even the radio guy is getting his butt kicked.
We're still working out some kinks in the sound system. /crackle crackle squawk
Because Kiani Parker is apparently the source of all face-palm moments today: she blew a defensive assignment, and from somewhere on the Auburn bench there was a call of "Kiani, NO!"
Auburn's defense has forced SMU into two timeouts on the sideline. (Up to four at the end of the game. Rhonda Rompola has no faith in her team.)
No, seriously, it is stunning how little faith SMU's coach appears to have in her players. After they laid that egg in the first half, the Mustangs came out with five reserves to start the second half. Gabrielle Wilkins really rubbed me the wrong way- her on-court attitude was really obnoxious. Cocky on offense, disinterested on defense- this is a combination that is not going to make you any friends. Taylor Brame had a nifty basket on the inside in the first half, but she was most memorable for whirling the red rally towel whenever any of her teammates scored. She wasn't ready for it in the second half, when the starters were back in and Alicia Froling scored SMU's first second-half basket- she had to run to the scorer's table, get a towel, run back to her seat, and whip it around before sitting back down. Stephanie Collins never looked comfortable on the floor- she missed some easy shots down low and let herself get moved around despite her superior size. The freshmen guards, Mikayla Reese and Aurmani DeGar, were unremarkable. Raven Short saw extended time in the second half and seemed to be steadier than her teammates.
I really don't like Alicia Froling. She has some nice moves on the inside, but I'm not a fan of instigators, and she baited Tra'Cee Tanner right out of the game. She bothered me yesterday, and now I know why. Morgan Bolton didn't get a lot of time, or if she did, she didn't do much with it. Keely Froling stepped up after her sister fouled out, but was a late re-entrant into the game in the second half. Destynee Hives-McCray was a little more effective in this game than she was yesterday, getting inside and getting good looks, but she's got to hit those shots on the inside if SMU is going to rely on her. Kiara Perry came up with a couple of big shots, but was kind of all over the place on defense.
I don't know what happened in the SMU locker room at halftime. I don't know if I want to know. But there was some bad body language on that bench in the early going. And I don't think Rompola trusts her freshmen, and I don't know if the upperclassmen trust the underclassmen, or what the story is.
Small thing about SMU that bothered me: their small guards rarely crashed the glass, to the point where I was wondering if they were being told to hang back for the long rebound. Someone needs to tell them that those aren't guaranteed.
Auburn went deep into their bench in the first half and still played the high rotation in the second half. Starters were in where it counted, but the bench did a good job of holding down the fort. Cabriana Capers played briefly in the first half, and I don't know if she was ready- by the end of her run, she was pulling at her jersey. Big body, but not quite sure what to do with it. Asia Robeson had a couple of freshman fumbles out there, but looked good in the post. I love her potential. Hasina Muhammad has an awkward-looking shot, but was very disruptive on defense and rebounded well. I suspect her biggest concern is that she's too much of a tweener, size-wise. Jessica Jones played extensive minutes, including some alongside her twin, and while she was prone to freshman fouls, she was pretty solid. Neydja Petithomme ran the offense decently for long stretches, though I questioned some of her shot selection. Katie Frerking came up with a couple of good hustle plays in the second half, and I was amazed that her heave to beat the shot clock actually caught rim- it was better than her next shot!
Kiani Parker, as mentioned above, was the source of a lot of face-palms for her team. Top prize in that regard was getting into the game and immediately committing a foul on defense. She's a bit of a wild thang out there, not so much as a shooter but in general impetuosity. Khady Dieng played intense defense, sometimes too intense. She committed a lot of dumb reach-in fouls. That's something she's going to have to work on. I like her game, though. Brandy Montgomery was kind of up and down all through the game, making good plays and making bad plays. She got a lot of encouragement from her teammates. Jazmine Jones was unremarkable, though she kept getting hit in the head with the ball, once by her own sister during a scrum. Tra'Cee Tanner was solid on the inside, though she missed some makeable shots, and ultimately let herself get het up by Alicia Froling for the flagrant 1 that DQ'd her from the game.
Auburn's defense was solid, but they don't like being at the other end of the backcourt trap and the press.
So here's how it looked like it went down between Tanner and Froling: they were going at it in the post, and I remember thinking that the jersey pull by Froling would have been a ticky-tack fifth foul, but a foul nonetheless. Going back up the court to SMU's end, they were jostling each other- the usual kind of post tactics: shoulder blocks, hip checks, coming up against each other like the chariots in Ben-Hur as they came back to Auburn's side of the floor. I didn't see what Froling did, but she knocked Tanner enough off balance that Tanner flipped her lid and delivered a two-hand shove to Froling's back for the flagrant 1 and the fifth foul. Froling eventually fouled out as well, so I was somewhat relieved, but I felt like Froling should have been called for instigation, or whatever the basketball equivalent to that hockey term is.
Auburn has a lot of complementary pieces, but I'm still not sure that they have a go-to player to complement.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
December 21st, 2014: Auburn at SMU (Chartwells Holiday Classic)
Saturday, December 20, 2014
December 20th, 2014: Auburn at St. John's (Chartwells Holiday Classic)
Just the Facts, Ma'am: Behind 22 points from Aliyyah Handford and 19 from Danaejah Grant, the Red Storm came away with a 56-49 win over Auburn. Khady Dieng and Tra'Cee Tanner each had 12 to pace the Tigers, with Tanner adding 10 rebounds.
For traps, questionable coaching decisions, subtle touches, literary references, mistaken identities, presents, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand twins, join your intrepid and sugared-up blogger after the jump.
Good morning! Well, I'm not a morning person, so any morning where I'm not in bed is not a good morning; on the other hand, any morning where I get to see my team is a good morning, so it's a wash. Anyway. We're at Carnesecca Arena for the first half of the Chartwells Holiday Classic, featuring the host St. John's and the Auburn Tigers out of the SEC.
I like the War Eagle on the back of Auburn's jackets. Small, subtle, but intrinsic to who they are. Oh! It's also on the sleeve of the long-sleeved warm-up tops, near the right cuff.
Not that we got in early, but the scorecards aren't out and SMU was doing their walkthrough. It was a little confusing to walk into Carnesecca and see the scoreboard done up SMU style.
This box-out drill Auburn is running is pretty intense, and I like the concept. Why do other teams always run more interesting drills than my teams do?
St. John's holiday sweater shirt. Not sure if want, but it's pretty cool.
Amber's mom is doing this whole Madame Defarge knitting at the guillotine thing, and it's a little disconcerting. That might be the point, though.
We have Buffalo! I don't know why we have Buffalo, but we have Buffalo. As in, the women's basketball team of the State University of New York at Buffalo is in the next section over. Oh, please don't let this end up like St. Francis did, we don't have a MAC team in the city and I don't want to deal with any more hugging. (No, this time I can't find the degree of separation link. Help me, Kevin Bacon!)
At halftime, it's 32-22 St. John's, in a first half full of runs. Auburn got a 6-0 hole shot, then St. John's ripped off a 21-4 stretch, and then the lack of guard substitutions started to get to us. That, and some really bad clock management. Aaliyah Lewis appears to have forgotten about the 10-second rule.
We've got a few Johnnies around- a couple of the men are here, and so is class of 2014 Briana Brown (she of the three-pointer to beat USC) (among many other things, oh our captain). I kind of wonder if the kid in the 12 jersey realizes she's sitting three seats down from its former owner, but I think she and her sister (?) in the 20 jersey do. D'awwwwwwwww. (Also spotted Nadirah McKenith and classmate Jennifer Blanding in the crowd. Big Love said I could keep her Pink Zone jersey that I bought at the rummage sale!)
I'm not comfortable with how we managed it, but we pulled it out. Joe's got to stop running the starters into the ground and have a little more faith in the bench. It's going to backfire one of these days. This was not that day.
Auburn did their homework on us, and I don't think it was all because Williams-Flournoy knows us well from her Georgetown days. Their defense was strong, and they knew to be ready for Aliyyah Handford and Danaejah Grant on the break. There were a lot of block/charge calls because of that.
I'm not sure if Auburn has a one-Jones-on-the-floor rule, but I think the only time Jessica Jones came into the game, her sister came out. I mean, you could argue that twins who play the same position are redundant, but it still seems kind of strange, especially in contrast to the Froling twins for SMU in the second game. Asia Robeson had an impact in the relatively few minutes that she played- a big post with a nice touch around the basket and good instincts. Katie Frerking appears to be the designated three-point shooter, and we kept leaving her open, and eventually she hit one. I was starting to worry that that would be the start of a hot streak for her, but she missed the next one (pretty badly, if I recall correctly). Hasina Muhammad took a lot of questionable shots, but was a match-up nightmare, playing against our backcourt players with her height. She was better defensively than offensively, and I can see why she killed us last year. Neydja Petithomme played a few minutes in the first half, and was unmemorable.
I was very impressed with Tra'Cee Tanner down low. She was having her way with Amber Thompson, which is not a thing that happens very often, both taking shots and getting rebounds. That is a lot of woman in the middle, and she uses that build well. I thought Jazmine Jones played more than she did, even factoring in the inevitable confusion of twins. Brandy Montgomery's baskets came at key times for the Tigers, but so did her misses. Kiani Parker was solid all-around- I like her for Auburn. Khady Dieng appears to be the designated "someone still has not gotten the memo about hand-checks" player that every team has. (Ours is usually Jade Walker, but Sandie Udobi is also guilty of this when she's active.) She hit some very nice jumpers and was active on defense.
I don't know if Auburn has the offensive firepower to be a strong contender in the SEC. I don't know if they have a go-to player for when the chips are down and the clichés are out. But their defense, especially their press and their backcourt trap, is on point. They'll make a lot of teams' lives miserable at that end of the floor.
Selina Archer got a lot of minutes off the bench because of the foul trouble for Amber Thompson. I like how vocal she is on both ends of the floor, but I cannot get past her inability and/or unwillingness to grab a rebound. It makes me furious. Kyra Dunn was more of the same, except with even less effort. She relieved Selina a couple of times, and went back out just about as quickly for lectures. Tonoia Wade got some minutes at the end of both halves just to give someone some relief, and did nothing of note. Crystal Simmons saw time in the second half when Aliyyah Handford finally got to sit down, which was a decision I was screaming for in the first half- I thought Crystal would give us a better shot of escaping the trap. She looked a little scared of it, but she seemed to handle the pressure better than Aaliyah Lewis.
Amber Thompson didn't look 100% out there- she wasn't going as hard or as strong for rebounds as she usually does, and near the end of the game she looked like she was about to be sick on the court (sadly, this is a thing I have seen in my life). I suspect some of the rebounds she was credited with were... generous. Aaliyah Lewis should not have been playing the full 40 minutes on whatever foot injury had her wearing a boot halfway up her calf after the game. She had a lot of trouble seeing around the taller Auburn defenders in the backcourt, and I lived in fear of a ten-second violation- we came close a few times. Jade Walker came up big early on offense and pulled down some good boards in the second half. She brought it today, and we needed her. Danaejah Grant was an outside threat and a tough rebounder (well, when Kyra let her be- part of why Kyra got benched was because she kept impeding Danaejah, and don't impede Danaejah). And Aliyyah Handford continues to be awesome, though she's lost a step on defense from the beginning of the year, which is what happens when you overburden your starters.
Officiating was so-so, but I'm used to it.
In addition to the subtle touches of War Eagle on different parts of the uniform, Auburn has amazing letter jackets with a retro Aubie on the sleeve. We wished them luck and urged them to beat Alabama. (Which is probably overkill in that rivalry, but seriously, Alabama can go kick rocks with no shoes.)
I hope we're sufficiently rested for tomorrow, and that Joe shows a bit more willingness to work the freshmen into the rotation.
Monday, March 23, 2009
March 23rd, 2009: Rutgers at Auburn (NCAA tournament)
Rutgers Scarlet Knights 80, Auburn Tigers 62
Rutgers plays a complete game, Epiphanny Prince puts on a show, and Brittany Ray and Heather Zurich put the screws to Auburn.
Holy shit, man. I mean. Holy shit. I didn't even think we were going to win this game, much less blow the hell out of Auburn. Maybe there was something in the air tonight. Maybe there was something in the water. Whatever it was, OMGYAY.
It's quite disconcerting to have Rutgers not be Rutgers and someone else be Rutgers. Hmm. Maybe that explains Auburn's offensive fail. They thought they were Rutgers. ;) (Because Auburn was the higher seed, they wore white and were treated as the home team, at least officially. But, well, as hard as Aubie, the cheereleaders, and the band tried, the Tiger faithful didn't have enough flags and signs to properly take over the RAC.)
I give Auburn's band the edge for coordination, synchronization, and repertoire. I give Rutgers the edge for extemporaneous enthusiasm. Auburn does have what's becoming one of my favorite cadences: a fast "D-up, D-up, D-up!" followed by three claps. It's an unusual rhythm. If I ever start my own franchise, that will be one of the scoreboard chants.
My word, that KeKe Carrier's a big woman, isn't she? Shame she doesn't have the endurance to play a full game. Fortner could have used her a lot more against Vaughn and Junaid. That forced Bonner into some really bad matchups, and though Bonner hit some amazing leaners in traffic (my viewing partner referred to those shots as "like shooting marbles" for someone of that height and lack of girth), that really took her out of her game, though the other big factor in her being out of her game is named Heather. Boddie looked out of sorts most of the night, though, again, the primary reason for that might have been wearing Scarlet. Smalley, though I absolutely love the quickness of her release, just couldn't hit water if she fell out of a boat today. Sherell Hobbs was really getting cranky. I was afraid she was gonna go after someone. Foul trouble kept Jackson and Hilliard from really getting into the flow of things, which was a major difference from the Lehigh game, since (at least in my mind) Hilliard was one of the best Tigers on the floor when they chewed up the Mountain Hawks. I think Fortner was just as disconcerted and confused as anyone that Rutgers was scoring so much, and didn't know how to adjust.
Epiphanny Prince stole the show with flashy offense, but Rutgers would not have won that game without the work of Brittany Ray and Heather Zurich. Ray was on Boddie, Zurich was on Bonner, and together they made life hell for the two Tigers. Bonner got very few uncontested shots, and she was almost scared to shoot at some points. And meanwhile, Zurich and Ray each put up 12 points. Solid game for Vaughn. Yes, a few of the usual "don't make me go down there and yank on your ponytail!" errors, but she did exactly what we needed her to do. Rushdan looked a little like she was forcing things, but she was nice to see on the break. Did have a freakout moment when she went down holding her knee, but she popped back up, so a sigh of relief was breathed. Stringer went all in for this game, with Junaid being the only reserve to see serious minutes to match up with Carrier- and for one stretch, go to a double-post lineup, with both Vaughn and Junaid in. It was interesting.
As Stringer pulled the seniors from the game with a minute left and RU firmly in control, the crowd started chanting Kia and Heather's names. It was a nice touch. It was also nice to see them goofing around on the bench. I like to see a team having fun, especially when they've just scored a big win. There's a time to be serious, and that wasn't really it.
Here's the move by Fortner that might well define how she coached this game: Rutgers is up 19-4, Carrier in the game. Stringer moves Junaid to the scorer's table to match Carrier almost immediately. Brittany Ray cans a three to extend the lead to 22-4. Fortner calls her second timeout of the half. Complete panic move, because if whatever you said when RU started 9-0 didn't work, it's not gonna work when you're down 22-4, and by calling time, that allows Junaid into the game to quickly counter Carrier's huge size advantage.
Officiating was... interesting. I think that might be the best word for it. There were a lot of odd calls, and a lot of make-up calls for the odd calls to try and even things out. I thought a tightly called game would be in Auburn's favor, since Rutgers is a more physical team, but it was fairly tightly called, and, well. If that was Auburn's favor, I shudder to think of what the margin would have been for a loosely called game.
My ears are still ringing. Have I mentioned that part yet? Because the RAC is an acoustic dream for noise from the stands.
We're going to need that Rutgers team in Oklahoma City, and we're going to need the bench to step up as the rounds wear on.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
March 21st, 2009: Lehigh at Auburn (NCAA tournament)
Auburn Tigers 85, Lehigh Mountain Hawks 49
DeWanna Bonner impresses, the Auburn band rocks out, and at least Lehigh travels well.
What, you were expecting competitive balance in a 2-15 game? In the women's tournament? What do you think this is, 1998?
Auburn traveled surprisingly well for a team from Alabama- they had a lot of distance to cover. Lehigh traveled very well. They brought signs, and guys with body paint. It's tourney time, bay-bee!
Two very good bands with very different styles. Lehigh brought a traditional pep band and a lot of enthusiasm. Auburn went all brass, except for a drum kit. I liked them both, but I give Auburn the edge. They performed an excellent anthem.
Lehigh looked out of sync, out of sorts, and out of luck. Alex Ross couldn't get a lot of good shots, and the ones she did get mostly didn't go down. If they didn't have that, they didn't have much at all. Erica Prosser only really found her cojones in the second half, driving and either scoring or drawing fouls like Suzie McConnell-Serio had shoved game tape of Merlakia Jones down her throat. Haly Crites is nuts. I really thought she was gonna start a fight by the end of that game, as physically as she was playing. They really didn't get a lot from their starters, especially in the first half, when one of their reserves was tied for the team lead in scoring. I think they were genuinely stymied by Auburn's size and speed. Trying to think back on that game, I just get the mental image of a lot of brown blobs with ponytails. There were no spectacular plays by them. No phenomenal moves noted down. Just a lot of missed shots and turnovers.
DeWanna Bonner scares me a little. There's skinny, and then there's "did someone stretch her out on a rack before the game?", and Bonner is the latter. In terms of build and the way she moves, I found myself thinking of one of my Red Stormies, only Bonner is way taller. She's got some nice moves, a long lanky grace, and the ability to really screw with a team's game plan. Boddie's shooting is... yeah, I'm going to be diplomatic and go with "interesting" here. Good hands, though, especially on the defensive end today. Unfortunately, Lehigh's boxscore is fucked up, so I'm trying to match a bunch of random names to a bunch of random numbers and another bunch of names I don't know all that well. There's something I like about Chantel Hilliard, but I just can't put my finger on it. As you can tell, I say that a lot about players.
As you can also tell, it's been a very long night, and I'm tired, and I really don't remember much about this game, and honestly, I'm not sure I want to. I mean, there's only so much you can write about a 36-point ass-whipping, right?