Just the Facts, Ma'am: It took overtime and a record-tying performance from Maya Singleton, but St. John's put on the afterburners in OT to beat Kansas 65-53. Singleton finished with 14 points and 24 rebounds, more than half the Red Storm's total. Brianna Osorio led Kansas with 14 points.
For rebounding, bad ballhandling, disturbing offense, getting buff(ed), a distinct lack of sleep, and the endless looming presence of the black void, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.
The GNoD's whirlwind tour of New York and New Jersey basketball continues tonight at St. John's, as the Red Storm hosts Kansas from the Big XII. Fortunately for the tattered remnants of what I laughingly call my sanity, tomorrow is an off day, which gives me enough time to finish these notes, clean the kitchen, do the laundry, shop for Christmas baking materials, and fall over, not necessarily in that order. Please let Kansas not go too deep into their rotation tonight, I'd love this to be a short set of notes.
It's not that I don't love you, dear readers, but seven players are easier to write about than thirteen.
I think one of the trainers just tried to buff Imani Littleton, and I don't mean in the video game sense. She's holding something that looks like a very tiny fioor buffer and just ran it along Imani's upper right arm.
Kansas very helpfully has their numbers on the right sleeve of their warm-up shirts, but it's somewhat less helpful when the injured player won't turn towards me. (And it's only on the short-sleeved shirts and she's wearing the long-sleeved shirt anyway. Their stuff's pretty nice for adidas. I do prefer Under Armour, and not just because they outfit most of my teams.
Alisha, Tiana, Andrayah, y'all are making me cold, put a shirt on.
A bit early for the occasion, but Santa is in the house. I guess they were worried the kids would swarm him on Thursday.
A strange man, or at least a slightly quirky one, just bought me a drink. Should I be worried? (Nah. It's just my band dad.)
Okay, if the band is adding "Ease on Down the Road" back to the rotation, I will be a very happy blogger indeed.
I so want to know the backstory of the dude with the Kansas jersey.
There is a dude with a violin in the courtside seats, and if this means we get a violin anthem, it's a sign that everything's coming up Queenie.
Public safety has posted an updated list of things that can't be brought into the arena. Nothing we didn't already know about. Nothing I'd either be stupid enough to bring in or careless enough to get caught with. I'm not worried; public safety not only wasn't concerned about my flag, dude asked me to make sure I'd brought it. I think they're worried about flags on poles, not simple fabric flags.
Violinist was okay, but not great.
We've turned them over 13 times, and yet we're tied at 22 at halftime. Alisha Kebbe has eight points for St. John's, and Maya Singleton has 12 rebounds (out of 19- guys, it's okay to pull down a rebound, Maya won't kill you as long as you're on her team).
Our resident Santa has a motorized cart (looks like a seated bike, but without the pedals) with Rudolph on the front. So I guess Rudolph is pulling his sleigh!
Joe Tartamella has been so detached during this game that I'm starting to wonder if someone slipped a little something in the cooler. Dude, share the wealth. Mama needs a drink. Mama needs all the drinks. And this is after we won, mind you. We just shouldn't have needed overtime to do it.
I don't think it turned out to be game-changing, but Kansas blowing a timeout late in the first quarter, on a St. John's shot clock violation, to gain possession of a loose ball that would have belonged to Kansas on the tie-up, is one of the most dubious in-game coaching decisions I've ever been able to dissect.
Tyler Johnson brings a lot of size off the bench, and either has a lot of ups for her build or has teammates convinced that she has a lot of ups for her size- they were throwing passes to her that could easily have been categorized as alley-oops, and she almost made those plays work. She's very light on her feet. She boxed out well down low. That screen was definitely not legal, though. Chelsea Lott was immediately recognizable by her puffy pigtails (somewhere between Nykesha Sales and Tamera Young territory, so I'm not sure if they're puffs or full pigtails) and long arms on the glass. Micaela Wilson made some dubious decisions beyond the arc and on defense.
Eboni Watts liked that corner three- I think all of her attempts were from the corner. She's a tough cookie. She was able to grab rebounds out of the scrum in the paint (and there were many scrums). Sydney Benoit got some brief minutes in the first half, but didn't do much with them, and Kansas seriously tightened their rotation in the second half, so that was the last we saw of her.
It felt like Kylee Kopatich didn't play all that much, even though the box score tells me otherwise. The two fouls that took her out of the game in the first quarter left an impression. She had no business setting up outside, just looking at the long shot she put up today. I think she ran out of energy near the end. Bailey Helgren, the tall freshman who took the opening tip, was the starter who didn't play a lot, and other than solid followthrough on the that opening tip and her general height, she didn't leave much of an impression. Austin Richardson did not endear herself to the room with the shove to Tiana England's back- I understand that Kansas was fouling deliberately, but there's a difference between intentionally fouling and an intentional foul, and she trod that line mighty close. She was physical in general and tough on the boards.
Brianna Osorio got loose in the second half, going to the rack for buckets and drawing contact. She was exceptionally careless with the ball, even by the standard Kansas set in this game, because both her passing and her dribbling were sub-par. She made up for it somewhat with her on-ball defense, but not enough (clearly, because despite the rebounding edge Kansas lost the game). I'm pretty sure the listed height given for Christalah Lyons includes her hair. She drove the lane hard and threw up some shots that had no business going in; on the other hand, some of the shots that went in and out or hard off the rim had no business not going in, so I guess that evens things out. The rims were both misbehaving all night.
I can't say enough about how bad Kansas's ballhandling was. They were extremely careless with the ball, both while in their offense and in the open floor. Any good defensive team in the Big XII is going to eat them for lunch with room for leftovers.
In desperation in the first half, Joe turned to Kayla Charles for some minutes. They were not the most terrible minutes in the world, but I can understand why he didn't trust her to go back in there. Our rebounding was almost completely terrible, she's theoretically supposed to do something about that, and she did not. Qadashah Hoppie seems to have gotten on opponents' radar already, but was able to shake loose for some threes, none bigger than the one in overtime. I think she's lost some of her initial fearlessness, and that's a shame. (And if that's Joe imposing his slowdown offense and tendency to freak out at single mistakes on her, we're going to have a problem.) Andrayah Adams stepped up on defense and on the offensive glass. She laid a monster block on Osorio. I do wish she'd hone that floater in the lane a little more. When it goes in, you're breathing a sigh of relief, but when it doesn't, that's when the swearing and general questioning of sanity starts.
I feel like I maybe shouldn't be as hard on Tiana England as I want to be. She did intercept passes, and she did make some fantastic ones- her rapport with Akina Wellere is excellent. But her shooting was awful- and most of those shots were right at the basket, including at least one wide-open look on the break. Her defense, at least for most of the first half, was terrible (when you have to take the blame for two breakdowns in a row...) and tentative. And her game management... I blame Joe for that most of the time, if only because that sort of "let's just dribble ten seconds off the clock for no good reason" nonsense has been going on before Tiana ever got here and will probably keep happening even after she graduates. But it's especially prevalent with her, and I can't shake the feeling that her tentativeness is rooted in something more than being unsure what play to run. I hope she shakes it off sooner rather than later. Alisha Kebbe got off to a strong start offensively and helped drop the boom in OT. She faded out a bit in the middle, but was pretty solid overall.
I love when Akina Wellere goes for the three-pointer and doesn't stop too long to think about it. When she gets her feet set for that angle three and just goes for it, it works like a dream. If she tries to think too much about it, then she overthinks it and usually ends up changing her spot and missing the shot. Her lack of speed was exploited on defense. Imani Littleton brought defense and some rebounding. Maya Singleton brought all the rebounding (we figured she was close to a school record, and it turns out she was about as close as you can get without breaking it- she tied one that had been standing since 1976!) to the point where I wasn't sure other Johnnies remembered that they were allowed to rebound. It's okay, guys, Maya won't kill you as long as you're on her team. Huge game for her on both ends of the floor. I don't think we could have asked for much more from her.
We bring in players who are at their best when they're running the ball, and proceed to put them in a very measured, very slow-paced offense. This would appear to be a problem to me, but I'm not a coach.
Officiating was the usual pile of hot garbage, but I'll admit the stink was about equal on both sides.
It is one thing to charge $4 for a small bottle of soda, St. John's. It is yet another thing to keep charging that $4 and downsize the bottle. I mean, seriously, guys.
We did just enough to eke out a win against the likely worst team in the Big XII. Maybe that'll be enough against a good MAC team too. But it's not going to be enough against the Big East, and if we want to have a chance in conference, we need to get our act together.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
December 18th, 2017: Kansas at St. John's
Sunday, December 1, 2013
November 30th, 2013: Rutgers at Texas Tech (Barclays Invitational)
Just the Facts, Ma'am: Rutgers raced out to a big first half lead and held on against Texas Tech to win the consolation game fo the Barclays Women's Invitational, 61-52. Tyler Scaife had 18 points to lead the Scarlet Knights, with Kahleah Copper adding 14 and nine rebounds. Audrisa Harrison and Jasmine Caston each had 11 for Texas Tech.
For mottos, rebounding, sweet fast breaks, winces of pain, and the never ending Rutgers fight song, join your intrepid and impatient blogger after the jump.
Basketball never stops, and neither does your intrepid blogger. It's only six or seven blocks from LIU to the Barclays Center, so after sandwiches and cheesecake at Junior's, we walked from the Turkey Classic to the Barclays Invitational, pleasantly surprised to find out that our tickets were in fact ready during the Texas Tech-Rutgers game. We missed the very beginning, but at halftime it's 36-25 Rutgers. Tyler Scaife has 12; no Lady Raider has more than four.
Another game of bad shooting, in which the urge to shout "guns up, UR DOIN IT RONG" grew ever stronger with every blown offensive rebound. Rutgers does that to teams, but they really need to not do it to themselves. On the other hand, Rutgers fans should really be used to it by now. Coach Stringer's been there for how many years? Brought in how many defensive-minded athletes who can't or won't shoot to save their lives? Relied too much on a single player to do all the scoring while everyone else passed the ball around? I used to be a Rutgers fan. I know what I'm talking about.
Syessence Davis sparkled off the bench. Her hands were very active on defense, and she hit some big shots in the second half. She rebounded well as well. Precious Person has somehow, inexplicably, along with Essence Carson's number, inherited Essence's inability to recognize the longer three-point line, despite the fact that Essence only figured this out in her W days wearing a different number. I didn't say it was logical. Christa Evans gave some minutes when Rachel Hollivay got in foul trouble, and with an offensive foul proved why she hasn't been getting minutes. Ariel Butts was solid in the middle, setting picks and screens for her teammates to get around and pass the ball to each other through.
Kahleah Copper took the worst of a hard collision with Amber Battle and came up holding her back, walking as if she wasn't sure how the whole walking thing should be working. She got back into the game and proceeded to continue hitting shots, so it wasn't as bad as it looked. (Either that, or she's made of iron, not Copper.) Rachel Hollivay earned the eternal rage of the people behind us for repeatedly missing chippies- she didn't have a field goal in the second half until something like the last two minutes of the game. She made up for it with her resounding blocks down low. Betnijah Laney rebounded well, but couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. The red sleeves make her stick out (yes, I know they have to be the same color as the rest of the uniform, but they become more noticeable when they're red). Briyona Canty couldn't get her shot to fall, but made a couple of nice defensive plays. Tyler Scaife looked fantastic. I think she got the start, but I'm not completely certain. Her passes were slick and quick, and she drove the lane well. In the first half, she looked like the only Rutgers player who wanted to score, which makes sense, given that she's a freshman and therefore hasn't had the idea of offense being anathema drummed into her head yet.
Whittaker changed things up a little bit with the posts, going more with the Schneiders (even before the injury to Shauntal Nobles). Haley Schneider missed entirely too many shots that a woman of her height has no excuse for missing. Ivonne Cook Taylor got into the game and immediately launched a shot. I'm starting to think this is her game. Diamond Lockhart's speed seemed to get away from her- she was a little out of control. Jasmine Caston brought the offense in the second half, firing up threes to keep Texas Tech close.
Shauntal Nobles was rebounding well on the inside before a stray forearm caught her in the face and left her holding a towel over the vast majority of her face as she came off the court after being stuck in an awkward kneeling position for quite some time. It looked like she suffered a badly broken nose, but she was back on the bench (in a new jersey) by the end of the game, though she never went back in. She wasn't able to get her shot to go down, but she corralled a lot of offensive rebounds. Audrisa Harrison was a master of drawing contact and getting to the line. She didn't end up with a lot of shot attempts, but that was because she ended up at the line so often. Minta Spears went inside more than she did in the Michigan game, but that might have been because her threes weren't falling. She took a hard tumble into a couple of the flimsy chairs in the first row. They went down like dominoes. She was the one who insisted on fouling when Texas Tech was down double digits with thirty seconds to go, and those us in maize and blue were just waiting for the game to be over so we could get on with our late tip. Amber Battle's shot wasn't falling, though she was able to get decent shots off, but she rebounded well and got into defensive position. Marina Lizarazu was still taking too many risks, but had her game more under control than the other day.
Rutgers will always make a team play out of control, make them freak out, make them hesitate at the wrong times and hurry things up at the wrong times. Texas Tech fell right into that trap. Only the three-point shooting kept them in the game, and when those didn't fall, they were doomed.
I wasn't thrilled with the officials, but not to the extent that the Rutgers fans were. Of course, they're never happy with officials.
That was a good bounceback game for the Scarlet Knights. They needed a good game, and I think they also needed Scaife to assert herself more for the team's future. She's a talented, creative guard, and she needs to stay that way.
Friday, November 29, 2013
November 29th, 2013: Texas Tech at Michigan (Barclays Invitational)
Just The Facts, Ma'am: Michigan withstood an early challenge and a second-half run from the Lady Raiders of Texas Tech to come away the victors, 82-71. Siera Thompson led all scorers with 24 points, adding five assists. Amber Battle led Texas Tech with 23 points and seven rebounds.
For crankiness, free shirts, a lack of respect, mild confusion, and lots of family, join your intrepid and blue blogger after the jump.
Good morning, Internet! We're coming to you on our usual tape delay, this time bright and early from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the Barclays Women's Invitational.
We are not, however, coming to you quite as early as we would like, as the Barclays Center was not ready for us until 10 AM. Well, we're still not sure about that, given that we were told three different opening times before they finally let us in at 10. One security guard decided to take pity on us and try to let us in, but another one turned around and made us go out again. My legs are still cramped. Then they tried to tell me I couldn't use my laptop in the seating area, but a guest services person named Candice and I negotiated it down to not using it during game play (which, duh, my favorite Michigan women did not hook me up with tickets to stare at a computer during play). Still. Barclays does not seem thrilled at having to deal with fans this early in the morning. Fine, I'm not thrilled with dealing with power-tripping security staff this early in the morning. We're even, and you're not getting money from me.
Anne Donovan is here (so ha, my laptop wouldn't be the most view-obstructive object in the seating bowl anyway).
Excellent anthem. Was amused that the color guard was facing the completely empty side of the arena across from the benches.
Michigan is up 12 at the half, on a solid team effort. Siera Thompson has 13, Shannon Smith 11. Amber Battle has been very impressive for Texas Tech.
Funniest moment of the day so far: they played the Michigan fight song, your dashing reporter led a sing-along… and the security guard posted behind Michigan's bench said, "What the [firetruck] was that?" Poor Guest Services Candice... maybe that's why she rotated to another section. Note that the Texas Tech fans didn't reciprocate at the next timeout.
Something smells really good, but I'm still not giving these people money. Even if they do have the hardwood equivalent of a Zamboni. That gives my heart glee, but I'm still not giving them money.
The game got a little too interesting in the middle of the second half, but one good run helped Michigan regain control, and when it got close again it was because Michigan had gone to their reserves. Saw a couple of young players this time around that I didn't see at the Iona tournament.
The Schneiders (who I'm assuming are sisters) are awfully skinny. Everything might be bigger in Texas, but not necessarily thicker. Haley Schneider had a couple of nice defensive tips. Jasmine Caston got the second half start, coming off the bench in the first half, and provided a little boost of offense with both long-range shooting and moves in the lane. She's got pretty good speed. Audrisa Harrison played more in the second half, mostly committing fouls on defense- very handsy overall. Ivonne Cook-Taylor came in when the game was already decided and took a quick three.
Minta Spears started the game shooting well from beyond the arc, but she seemed to press her shot more in the second half- her followthrough was much more exaggerated, and I think it threw off her shot. The one time she attempted to slash to the basket was epic fail, compounded by a bad foul call. Tiny Diamond Lockhart showed a lot of fire and ran her team well. I think they were trying to run the offense through Marina Lizarazu early on, but she was in over her head- bad passes, unnecessary turnovers, poor judgement. Shauntal Nobles was a decent presence on the inside, but she didn't get a lot of shots up. I liked her rebounding. But the one Lady Raider who impressed me on both ends of the floor and drew almost all of my attention was Amber Battle. She went hard after rebounds, hit shots from all over the floor, and displayed impressive foot speed on defense. She pretty much kept Texas Tech in the game single-handedly. In build and playing style, she reminded me a little of a miniature DeWanna Bonner, but with somewhat more awareness of her shot.
Rebecca Lyttle got called for two quick fouls when she finally got in in the second half, the second of which I felt was completely uncalled for. There's something I like about her, and not just her name. Danielle Williams showed good hustle in her second half minutes, but again, got dinged for a foul that seemed to come out of the blue. Don’t break the underclassmen, officials, we're going to need them for tomorrow. Val Driscoll really needs to work on her footwork, but was solid defensively- she had a beautiful block/deflection that led to a Nicole Elmblad steal that I'm pretty sure led to a Michigan fast break. Kendra Seto played late, and was not memorable other than an ill-advised attempt at a trap on the sideline. Paige Rakers had her shot going off the bench, and mixed it up inside on the boards- a lot of the time, only the headband made it possible for us to tell her apart from Nicole Elmblad, who is at least nominally a forward. But Michigan can't rely on Rakers to be their entire bench, especially not wih the injury to Shannon Smith.
I'm starting to wonder if Madison Ristovski hit a late growth spurt and she's still trying to adjust to it. She dribbles like she expects to be about three inches shorter, and it sort of makes her look like a young horse, all arms and legs and falling over. She shot well in the second half, though. Shannon Smith shot really well, both from outside and in the lane. She left in the second half with an apparent shoulder injury after a collision landed her hard into Elmblad's leg. She was holding her right arm absolutely motionless when we saw her after the game, and that's going to be a problem for tomorrow, because she seesm to be the only player with the confidence to bring the ball up the court. Siera Thompson shot lights out, especially in the first half, and always seemed to come up with the big shot whenever Texas Tech made a run in the second half. Cyesha Goree had to deal with some very tough fouls (I'm really not sure what that fourth foul was, other than inaccurate) but seemed to take the right message from the refs getting into her head and took the ball strong to the basket once she got back into the game after the fourth foul. (It also amuses me that she seems to be in charge of carrying young Aricos; that job used to belong to Joy McCorvey at St. John's. I assume Joy gave her pointers on how not to drop Coach's kids.) Nicole Elmblad was solid all around- didn’t necessarily stand out, but didn't screw up.
There were a distressing number of times when Michigan seemed to ignore the play that had been called, ignoring open players and going one-on-one to the basket. Repeatedly ignoring the coach's play calling is not a good plan when that coach is Kim Barnes Arico. She tends to shriek. Use your teammates, guys. Good things happen when you use your teammates.
We were not impressed with the officiating crew. It got really tiresome whenever Whittaker started complaining about the officiating, given that Michigan usually started out in a deep hole, foul-wise. I'm pretty sure one of them was an Enterline, and it was funny when he photo-bombed someone in the front row, but referees aren't supposed to be funny, they're supposed to be ignorable.
Minimal timeout entertainment, so no real commentary on that.
Depth worries me for Michigan tomorrow. For Texas Tech against Rutgers, I'd be concerned about their shakiness at the point and how one-dimensional their offense seemed to be.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
December 11th, 2011: Baylor at St. John's (Maggie Dixon Classic)
Just the Facts, Ma'am: 23 points from Eugeneia McPherson and a halftime lead weren't enough for the St. John's Red Storm to overcome the Lady Bears of Baylor. Brooklyn Pope led Baylor with 19 points in the 73-59 win.
For dizzying heights, depressing lows, hustle, pride, and supporters' scarves, join your intrepid and drained blogger after the jump.
Good morning, everyone! (Words that should never open a game report from a sporting event. It is too early for this.) But we're tipping off early due to a Ranger game at 7PM, making this the only time I've ever hated my Blueshirts.
I'm not sure I like the new Garden yet. It's very slick and very professional, but I miss the whimsy of the old Garden. The navy seats with their mahogany-colored armrests are very dignified, but depressingly dark. I'm sure it'll develop a soul over time, but right now it's... sort of generic.
A fair number of Baylor fans are here, though I'm not sure how much of that is connected to last night's Heisman presentation. Fortuitously, the Liberty section is right over the home tunnel. Hiiiiiii, St. John's band! Hiiiii, St. John's! You thought you'd escape us, didn't you? You thought you'd get a little peace and quiet, didn't you? Fuhgeddaboutit. I've seen a lot of orange, not enough red, and not a lot of blue. Maybe the flight from Chicago is late.
Baylor is tall. Not just that Griner kid, either. And there's a lot of them!
Very nice anthem by Maggie Dixon's cousin.
WE ARE LEADING THE NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE COUNTRY AT HALFTIME. This isn't the best moment of my life, but that's only because I was at the Bethany Donaphin game and I was there when we beat Notre Dame. And we may get slapped around like a red-headed stepchild in the second half for our audacity, but we'll always have a two-point margin on the scoreboard at the half. St. John's is playing fearless and tenacious. Nadirah McKenith and Eugeneia McPherson and Shenneika Smith and all of them- my team, I love them. I love them so much.
This game breaks your heart. That's what it does. That's what it's meant to do. I'm sitting here near tears not because we lost, because I can take losing with dignity, I can take showing effort and pride, because we gave Baylor much more of a fight than we rightfully should have. No, I'm about to cry because I can't get the image of Nadirah crumpled on the court, holding her knee, being carried off, out of my head. It's not fair. It's not right. It's not fair. And it breaks your heart. I've seen ACLs. I was there for Rebecca Lobo and Meg Bulger and Becky Hammon and Stephanie White, and I know what it means if a player stops in a stretch and crumples to the ground holding her knee, what it means if they're testing the knee for flexibility and she has to be carried off the floor with no weight on her leg. I know what it means. And it hurts. (I mean, it hurts more for Nadirah, since it's her knee.)
So I don't know how to put the thoughts into words. I don't know how to talk about X's and O's and lay-ups and WHY ARE YOU SO TENTATIVE MARY and players I've never seen when I'm looking around the stands to see if Nadirah's back, if she's okay, if she's moving all right. It also doesn't help that the Maggie Dixon program had no scorecard, so I wasn't able to keep track of stats by half the way I usually do, with color-coded pens for each half and squiggly arrows connecting steals to assists to field goals, with running foul counts for both halves and starters marked. I had to make do with the back of a spare piece of paper and my trusty four-color pen. So if I'm a bit vague about who did what, it's because I couldn't balance both the makeshift scorecard and the program on my lap. And then there's the whole distraction of a point guard holding her knee, and I've seen that on the Garden floor before, I've heard that silence and wanted to pop someone for laughing during it.
Sorry. I'm dwelling, and if you're in Waco, you probably want to hear about your team. I was surprised that Kim Mulkey didn't take the opportunity to go deeper into her bench; I suppose she was expecting to do so in the second half, forgetting that past performance is not an indicator of future results. Sune Agbuke came in briefly for a lay-up, maybe for a little size. Apparently Destiny Williams went out a wee bit too late last night and got suspended for the first half, but I'm inclined to think she was showing the effects in the second half. She did a good job matching up athletically with Shenneika Smith, but Shenneika matched up equally well with her. I'm going to give Makenzie Robertson the benefit of the doubt and assume she's a better player than she showed today, because otherwise, I'm going to scream “NEPOTISM!” at the top of my lungs. Scrappy hustle players who play a little defense and not much else should not be your primary bench players.
I was surprised Brooklyn Pope got so much support from the crowd as she did. Given the way she left Rutgers, I would have thought the crossover fans (the confused folks in section 105 with the Rutgers gear on) would have told her to stick it where the sun don't shine, but she got bigger cheers than anyone except Griner. She played well in the first, but faded back a little in the second as Williams and Griner stepped up. Brittney Griner is an amazing player- I hesitate to use the term 'freak of nature' because someone's going to think I'm alleging something along the lines of what got Jordan Barncastle popped in the face, which I most certainly am not and would not. But that combination of speed and height is amazing. She did a great job on the boards simply by being able to reach up and pluck rebounds out of the air or tip them away from opponents. That being said, she won't make your jaw drop if someone plays her without fear. There's something about Kimetria Hayden that I like that I can't quite put my finger on. Well, other than the flop. I don't like that. But she was in the right place at most of the right times and took most of the right shots. Jordan Madden has an appropriate name for sports, and she just kept shooting. I'm not sure if Odyssey Sims is Baylor's point guard or not, or if they really have one, or if they really need one, but even the Baylor fans behind me were wondering why she was in the game at some points.
Zakiyyah Shahid-Martin came in, got a couple of offensive rebounds, and proved that she couldn't shoot over someone that much bigger than she is. Tesia Harris came in for a couple of stretches when we were a bit short on guards, but did nothing of note. Keylantra Langley played the bulk of the minutes off the bench, and Lord, I hope she's ready if Nadirah's injured. She played the passing lanes well, but I do wish she'd work on her shooting form if she's going to shoot at that kind of pace.
You know what I like most about Amber Thompson? She's not afraid of anyone. She's only a freshman and she's going toe-to-toe with Brittney Griner. She's going into the paint and taking opportunities when she can find them. And I repeat: she's only a freshman. I'm so looking forward to watching her mature and develop. She might be something special. Eugeneia McPherson stepped up, and I'm starting to think she might be turning into one of those people who steps up in big games. (Which is good. We need someone like that.) Shenneika Smith had a flashy defensive game and hit a couple of big shots, but she's more of a slasher, and there was a 6'8” presence in the paint who might have gotten in the way of her usual route. Nadirah McKenith was up and down at points, sometimes a step slow and a thought behind the defense, but she was starting to heat up when there was a confusion of bodies and a black and green blur and Nadirah on the floor holding her knee. She got a little fancy sometimes, but she was fearless. They were all fearless, except for Mary Nwachukwu, who needs to be less tentative. Don't tell me you're scared of Brittney Griner when you used to scrimmage against Shields and Swords, okay? Not getting the rolls didn't help, either.
It would not be reasonable to blame the referees for a 14-point loss. Baylor has more talent and more height than we do. I can accept that. To be honest, I can even accept bad officiating. I'm used to it. But I cannot abide uneven officiating. I cannot abide undercutting, hammer blows, and tripping not called on one end and ticky-tack calls made on the other. I cannot abide 20-4 free throw differentials and 16-7 foul differentials. You're going to tell me it's okay for people to get slammed with no call? And Dee Kantner let this go on, that's what shocks me the most. That, and I'll say the same thing I said after one of these debacles last year. Baylor is a very good team, currently the best in the country according to the polls. They don't need the officials' help to score. They can do it all by themselves. Don't let the way things “should” be dictate what you do.
All in all, we did exactly what I wanted us to do: we impressed a bunch of potential, neutral fans. We proved that, yes, there's a team out there worth watching that's a lot closer to most Liberty fans than Rutgers is. We showed heart and fire and passion and grit and talent. We made it a much closer game than it should have been according to all the stats, brought it under the spread, even led them at halftime. People know we exist now. People are interested. I should be happy.
But I just keep seeing Nadirah on the Garden floor...
Sunday, April 5, 2009
April 5th, 2009: Louisville at Oklahoma (NCAA tournament)
Louisville Cardinals 61, Oklahoma Sooners 59
Angel McCoughtry cranks it up, the Cards D up, and alas, Courtney Paris will have to pay up.
Oh, what a game. This is what you pay the big bucks for.
We started our day out at Hoop City, where we saw lots of people and lots of different teams, sort of rubbed elbows with a bunch of coaches, got autographs from Nell Fortner, brought home souvenirs (I outshot him on the five-bar shootout, but we both got the same prize :(), watched the Battle of the Bands (Stanford got screwed because the fans were strictly partisan on their voting), the Mascot Challenge (the Louisville Cardinal won), and soaked in the experience.
After that, it was off to the Scottrade Center to join the rest of our fanbase. We were up pretty high, since we went through the lottery and didn't know people, though there was a woman giving out tickets for lower deck seats on the concourse. The people two rows behind us, who were nearly back into the wall, took full advantage of that.
A nicely performed anthem by the Louisville band, who seem to be enjoying their experience. Though it's technically improper, I do like their tradition of holding hands during the anthem- even with the mascot. They came out slow in the first half- really bad, looking like they didn't know what they were doing. They kept themselves in it with their defense, and it probably should have been a warning sign for Oklahoma that they'd kept two starters off the scoreboard and limited McCoughtry to four free throws, but they were still only up twelve. Then the second half started, and Walz, having screwed with his lineup in the first half, brought the players I think were his usual starters back in, and Hines especially played like someone had set a firecracker under her butt. And McCoughtry just up and decided that this wasn't going to be her last game, that if her team was going to make school history, they were going to keep making it. She was making plays she hadn't been making in the first half, and that really fired her team up. Bingham was the only relative constant, and I think she played her way up the draft board as a three, though someone is going to have to work on her shot so she doesn't do a split every time she shoots. Byrd showed questionable decision-making when it came to her shooting, but she set her teammates up well. Reid gave them good minutes when the wrath of the refs came down on their pivotal players- I think that was a critical part of what allowed them to come back. Becky Burke's threes were the back-breakers. I really liked watching Walz play chess against Coale, especially when McCoughtry, Bingham, and Byrd were all saddled with four fouls- he kept playing strong defense, but sent Burke and Reid after the ball instead of Byrd and his forwards.
I do have a soft spot for the Sooners, and I don't know that this was the way I'd have wanted them to go out. Courtney Paris just seemed off her game tonight, which I guess we can credit to the Louisville posts. I mean, don't get me wrong, she was a force inside on the boards, but she didn't seem to be fighting for her shots as hard as she usually does. Ashley was more effective as a scorer, but Louisville keyed on how to stop her in the second half. Hand's hot shooting early opened things up, but she couldn't replicate it in the second half. And though they deflected a lot of balls and got after a lot of boards, they weren't able to effectively convert them. In the first half, their offense was clicking, and that passing drill I mentioned in the notes from the open practice would come in very handy as they patiently chipped away at the Louisville defense until a shooter finally got open. In the second half, I don't know if the Cardinals were reading the passing lanes better or they were starting to panic, but they weren't moving as crisply and things just fell apart for them.
Refs sucked. Again, all I ask for is consistency. It doesn't even have to be competence anymore. It just has to be consistent incompetence.
Louisville traveled really well. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting them to, but they were loud and proud. Oklahoma was also well represented, though I was't amused when they all hied for the hills after the game. I can understand wanting to get away from this building of despair, but y'all did realize you basically threw $40 in the trash, right?
As a fan of the game, I'm disappointed for Oklahoma that it ended this soon, that the Parises didn't get to take one last shot at their title, that they crumbled under the pressure. As a fan of the game, I'm ecstatic that Louisville is extending this sparkling run, that Jeff Walz is really showing that he can shine as a coach, and especially that Angel McCoughtry has one more chance to strut her stuff on the national stage. I live for this.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
April 4th, 2009: NCAA Final Four open practices
Teams vary their atmospheres, and the Game Notes of Doom are starstruck.
OMG. OMG I'm actually here, so help me God. It's real. I'm in St. Louis. I think I may die of squee.
So my Final Four experience actually started on the flight to St. Louis, with a plethora of UConn fans, a temporally confused LSU fan, a small group of Stanford fans, three NEC basketball players, Phyllis Mangina (presumably on her way to the WCBA convention), and Rita Williams (presumably on her way to Geno's Final Four party). I think there were a couple of other people on the flight I should have recognized, but I was already operating on one hour of sleep (which I'm still operating on, so please don't be surprised if my accounts from this beautiful Saturday lack my usual eloquence and ability to make sense).
We checked into our hotel and found ourselves confronted with the UConn band and more than a few Husky fans. Orbitz picked a lovely hotel for us- shame about the infestation. ;) It was a bit of a hike to the Scottrade Center, which is a very pretty arena, but nothing too bad. Probably not something that could be done from Hoop City, though.
Oklahoma practiced first. It was a very dry, business-like practice. Started with loose stretching, some shooting, some post moves, then moved to inside-out plays, then perimeter shooting. Then the team split up and did a couple of shooting contests. I don't know the scoring rules, because it seems like they went twice, and after the second time, one group did sprints. My favorite part was the next drill, which involved using a set number of passes before taking the shot- seven or eight passes were the minimum. I liked the idea, especially the way some of the players executed it, with faux-penetration and backing away as if the defense had come in on them. Then it was on to more traditional drills- shooting, then shooting and defending, more shooting, and then a two-shots-at once drill.
Then we went to the Oklahoma autograph sessions, which is not so much "get your poster signed" as it is "wave hi to the nice ballers while you rush to the end and pick up a signed poster". It was kind of like being on a conveyor belt. Abi Olajuwon got a bit of a kick out of my shirt- I was rocking the Narbonne tee that Sass sent me. Wished them all luck and thanked them kindly.
Because we were on the Oklahoma line, we missed part of Louisville's practice, and I'm starting to regret that, because what we saw of it was hysterical. When we entered, they were doing dribbling drills and some individual shooting. Their band and cheerleaders, like every team but Oklahoma's, were involved in the festivities as well. They practiced free throws and did some more shooting. Then the dunks of great LULZ began- each Cardinal taking her turn running for the basket and being lifted to the hoop (or not- Coach and his loyal assistant did miss a couple of approaches) for a resounding (or not) dunk. We were rollin'. Then they scrimmaged. They finished up by stripping down to their compression bras and taking halfcourt heaves. They must practice those a lot, because there were something like four hits out of twenty shots- including one that was nothing but net, and one from Coach Walz himself. He was very satisfied with himself afterwards.
I don't think Geno was taking the practice seriously. He spent most of it shooting the breeze with Lobo, Burke, and a couple of the other ESPN blondes. Jonathan performed with the cheerleaders. They came out lapping the court a la the Liberty. Unlike the other two teams, they did their stretching as part of the practice- I guess they wanted to kill as much time as possible. They did some disorganized shooting. The bigs worked on their pivot moves. More shooting. Then there was a shooting contest of some kind, but I'm not sure what the split was. Loved the fast break sequences, especially when Moore got slick with the passes. Then they ran a few plays, but probably not ones they plan on using very often. More shooting. Shooting contest- posts took twos, perimeter players took threes, and the bigs won.
Stanford's tree is freaky, and needs another layer of foliage to be decent. They did some dribbling and ballhandling drills, ran a layup drill, did some halfcourt stuff, did a contest of some kind where the losers did pushups, and shot free throws. Then Sass distracted me, but I don't think we missed anything exciting.
I don't want to say the Huskies were popular, but the line for their autograph session was as long as the one for Oklahoma... two hours before UConn was scheduled to go. Crazy.
We changed seats after the autograph session, and ended up sitting behind some young coaches-to-be and in front of Joanne Boyle. I think I spent as much time scanning the crowd people-watching as I did watching the actual practices.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
March 29th, 2009: Arizona State at Texas A&M (NCAA tournament)
Arizona State Sun Devils 84, Texas A&M Aggies 69
Takia Starks presses, but Tanisha Smith impresses, and Briann January takes over.
So, to the credit of the UConn fans, many of them stayed around for the first half of the second game. They were in strange company. Here's a sampling of the gear we saw while surveying the arena. Bear in mind that while some of these are local schools, others are... not.
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am, but you're in the wrong region/round": Maryland, Tennessee, Prairie View, Notre Dame, Villanova, Virginia, Gonzaga, Ohio State, Texas, Pittsburgh, Duke, Rutgers, UNC, Temple
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am, but you're in the wrong tournament": Boston College, Georgetown, Syracuse, St. Francis, Penn State, Princeton, Penn, Mount St. Mary's, Clemson, UCLA
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am, but you're in the wrong division": Caldwell, TCNJ, Pace
"Excuse me, you're doin' it so very wrong": the guy in the Sonics jersey.
"Excuse me, ma'am, do you want to die?!": the women in the shirts celebrating Summitt's thousandth win. In Rutgers country. Surrounded by UConn fans. In one of the foulest cities on the East Coast. I wouldn't be surprised if they *hadn't* gotten back alive.
"Excuse me, you're doin' it awesome": the Lobo jersey that was not mine, the old school UConn #23, the Sun cap, McHuskyfan and JJ.
Now that we've done a survey of the crowd, on to the game. Major style points off for the ASU mascot running around without his head on. If you're not going to have it on the whole time, don't come out in the mascot jersey. Liked the ASU band, though. Upbeat and very much into the game. A&M didn't seem quite as loud, but it was hard to tell, given that they were at the other end of the arena, and unlike Cal's band, I hadn't heard them before. The maroon velour was interested for the A&M dance team, but they bore an unfortunate resemblance to harem girls.
I'm selling my draft stock for Danielle Gant. She put up a nice line, but she's not gonna be able to pull those moves off at the next level, and I don't think there's that much room for defensive specialists on the 11-woman rosters. I think Starks let the importance of the game get to her a bit- she seemed to be pressing a bit, though that might have to do with A&M's style as much as anything else. (Is #3 a coincidence, or is she into bad puns?) Micheaux's weird hairstyle kept distracting me from her game, and when that didn't do the trick, her attempt at Lisa Leslie shorts did, especially since she had the Charde Houston saddlebagged shorts going on. Didn't much care for her. Was very impressed with Tanisha Smith, though. Nice shot, great defense. She was all over the place. White and Carter also left good impressions.
Who knew I'd been pronouncing Briann wrong all these years? I get the feeling a lot of people are going to learn the proper pronunciation very soon. Big game for her. She kept the ball rolling for that busy Sun Devil team. Engelbrecht actually shot. I think I heard caune dying of shock from my seat. Sybil Dosty looks like and plays like a woman who would like to know what the hell her parents were thinking when they named her Sybil. She gave them a really good first half. Lacey gave them a really good boost off the bench, for a given value of bench, since Arizona State plays everyone but the team managers. Orsillo showed a great knack for getting to the basket and drawing fouls. Lots and lots of really good bench play. And I approve of any team with a Becca, especially when Becca Tobin played well and did honor to the name. I have to admit, especially as late as this is, it's hard keeping track of everyone. Especially when there are so many numbers, and they're white numbers on yellow jerseys, which, no, just no. I liked the one Sparky was wearing better. Can we go back to the maroon for the sake of my virgin eyes.
It was a very interesting game, with an exciting pace, but damn, it was sloppy. Whether that was forced slop or speed slop, I don't know enough to tell. A lot of great defensive reads by both teams.
Dim recollection of confusing officiating, but the box score tells me Michael Price was involved, so -_- this is my surprised face.
I think Arizona State will at least make the UConn game entertaining, if not competitive. I certainly *hope* they make it competitive. I love Cinderella stories.