Just the Facts, Ma’am: Rebounding and defense keyed a second half comeback for Columbia in their matinee win against Boston College, 68-60. Camille Zimmerman had 14 points and seven assists in the win for the Lions. Georgia Pineau led all scorers with 22 for Boston College.
For missed chances, going the long way around, a lack of creativity, cranky coaches, undisciplined fouls, showcases, and restraining children, join your intrepid and curious blogger after the jump.
Good morning, folks! Your intrepid blogger, two apple cakes later, is back on the basketball grind, doing the twi-night doubleheader, as you do. First it’s off to Columbia for their game against Boston College.
Note to self: stop trying to walk from the C train, it’s not a good plan. Too many hills and my feet already hurt from being on them so much of the day yesterday. Ended up going around the hilly side of the campus and losing track of avenues. I’ve lived in New York all my life, but named avenues still throw me off when I go uptown.
So far this appears to be one of the better-organized kids’ day games I’ve ever been to. They’re loading the groups efficiently, and there are actually seats reserved for those few adults brave enough to dare the screaming. Also, we have band. I am pleased by this turn of events. Now, if the wi-fi would cooperate, we’d really be on a roll.
There was a pregame presentation to honor Camille Zimmerman becoming Columbia’s all-time leading scorer, which is very cool. Records are made to be broken, after all.
This has not exactly been inspiring basketball. At halftime, BC is up 29-27, and it would be more if they could hit a free throw. It’s a miracle that Columbia is this close, given that Camille Zimmerman got called for three straight fouls in the second quarter, cutting her minutes. But BC has been turning the ball over and not capitalizing when they manage to hold on to it. I don’t know how much longer Columbia’s luck can hold, and I feel like it’s going to depend on when Zimmerman picks up the fourth foul.
There’s being agnostic about ticket sales, and then there’s selling tickets behind the home bench to two vocal BC fans. This is not a good plan.
To the kids behind me: I get what you’re saying, and I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong, but could you find something more creative than “You suck!” to yell whenever Columbia makes a stupid mistake? Thanks.
I want a drink so badly, but I don’t think daring the concession stand is a good idea, especially since Columbia has apparently switched to being a Pepsi place. Booooooo.
At LIU, before the home team takes free throws, the band yells in chorus, “FREE THROWS WIN BALL GAMES!” I feel like BC’s coach is going to be doing the same thing as soon as they get into the locker room... and on the bus... and off the bus... and back to Chestnut Hill. For most of the game, the Eagles outplayed the Lions- but they choked at the line, and I think that made all the difference.
Katie Quandt is a load down low, not afraid to muscle her way to the basket for offensive rebounds and either putbacks or free throws. I can imagine how she got the injury that led to the facemask. Milan Bolden-Morris wears her shorts just a little bit too tight for my liking- not short like booty shorts, but tight like they look uncomfortable. She had a good fourth quarter- big shots, big defensive plays. They list her as a guard, but she takes on some of the frontcourt duties when she has to. Martina Mosetti was busy on defense.
Sydney Lowery’s a gunner, or at least she was in this game. But I still like her potential. She definitely had her freshman moments, but I think she can learn from those and develop her judgment. That head fake she threw was sweet. Andie Anastos got most of her points driving the lane, with the Columbia defense parting before her. I don’t get that either. Taylor Ortlepp was out there, but she didn’t distinguish herself. I think she might have been the one who committed the lane violation that sealed BC’s fate, but I’m not sure.
Georgia Pineau was big on the inside, barreling into the paint for lay-ups and pulling down boards. She had quite a few blocks, with especially spectacular ones on Josie Little and Maya Sampleton. Her conditioning needs work- there was a point in the third quarter where she was pulling on her jersey in the time-honored signal of “I need a break”. But when she came down the lane, Columbia defenders either got out of the way or fouled her. Emma Guy was equally tough (I suppose a “tough Guy” joke is expected here), with a nice offensive rebound and putback on a missed free throw. I thought the fourth foul call on her was dubious. They aren’t the best, or the most physical, post tandem I’ve ever seen from BC, but bear in mind we used to get the Carolyn Swords/Stefanie Murphy combo visiting St. John’s. That’s a high standard to live up to. She needs to be more careful with her footwork.
Appropriately enough for a hockey school, Boston College used line changes in the final minute or so. I’m used to single-player offense/defense substitution, but BC’s coach was calling on entire three-person units.
It’s a good thing Columbia isn’t one of my usual teams. I’d spend an awful lot of time confused, since the Lions have a guard named Maya Sampleton. She did not get off to an inspiring start (I think she was the player who let a pass hit her in the face and go out of bounds) but came up with some big threes in the third quarter to help Columbia seize the lead. Andrea McCormick saw time very briefly in the second quarter, right around the time when Columbia’s coach was yelling at her bench that someone else had to score and was throwing in pretty much anyone. The three probably calmed the coach’s nerves slightly. Janiya Clemmons was a shot in the arm of offense, hitting floaters in the lane. She played well enough that she got the second half start.
Imani Whittington did not cover herself in glory in her brief time. Ill-advised fouls have a tendency to do that. I barely noticed she was there until she started committing the fouls. Abby Lee was solid rebounding, and hit a three in the second quarter that helped pull Columbia closer. She got the second half start for Madison Pack, but that was due to injury. Not that she didn’t play well, but this was a case where it wasn’t that one player had clearly outplayed another.
Riley Casey started the game, but she was the one benched for Clemmons. I understand the move- she was very hesitant at point guard, holding the ball too long and missing open shooters in the corners. Going to the bench seemed to enliven her, as she scored almost all of her points in the fourth quarter. When her three goes down, it’s a pretty shot, high-arcing. Paige Tippet shut the door with her free throws at the end of the game. Good hustle player.
Why, yes, I did pretty much bury the lede. It’s my standard procedure, build to the good stuff. In this case, the good stuff is Camille Zimmerman, the Lions’ star utility forward. She plays the game at a different level from her teammates. She’s looking for angles they don’t see. She’s making plays before they are. There were at least two occasions where she collided with a teammate on a rebound or a loose ball when her teammate was the one in position to make the play. I recognize that Columbia is a fantastic option for one’s future, but I believe with all my heart that she’d be a far better basketball player at another school, with more talented teammates and a better coach. (And it’s not like there aren’t academic schools out there with strong women’s hoops programs. God, what VanDerveer could do with her.) There are limits to her game- she didn’t seem to have a strong perimeter shot, and she can’t get into foul trouble the way she did in this one. But I love her vision on the floor and her versatility inside the arc. Madison Pack was shot happy from outside, and she rebounded well. I didn’t see the play where she injured her ankle, only that she came off the court limping and didn’t play in the second half (she didn’t even return to the bench until midway through the third quarter). Josie Little was strong on the inside, with a couple of monster blocks, one on Guy, one on Pineau, and she seemed to pick up steam as the game went on. She helped make her team and her teammates better.
Columbia’s coach appears to be very frustrated with her lot in life. She is of the “if I yell at the bench after the players on the floor screw up, magic will happen” school, though slightly less caustic than Coach Del Preore. (Stephanie, if you’re reading this, I really do like you and would love to sit in the stands with you at a game. It’s just that if I played for you I’d try to punch you in the face.)
If Camille Zimmerman’s third foul had been allocated to Madison Pack the way I thought it should have been, this might have been an entirely different game. The officials were lax on three-second calls and got looser on travels as the game went on.
I don’t know if this falls under the referees’ or some other officials’ purview, but there were long delays before tipoff and before the start of the second half. I know the game was on SNY, but the red-hatting seemed excessive.
I expected more out of an Ivy League band. Columbia’s band was very disappointing- competent, but not innovative.
I understand why Columbia scheduled up this year- Camille Zimmerman deserves a showcase. But I don’t think the rest of this team, including its staff, is on the same level. And I don’t know how much room for improvement there is.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
November 29th, 2017: Boston College at Columbia
Thursday, March 26, 2009
March 26th, 2009: Boston College at St. John's (WNIT)
Boston College Eagles 68, St. John's Red Storm 64
The Red Storm go out fighting, Carolyn Swords swings a mean pair of arms, and Stefanie Murphy owns the paint.
If it had to end, I'm glad it ended this way, on our home floor, knowing that we left it all out there in a game that was hard-fought to the last seconds. It's better this way.
Very disappointing crowd. I don't think the rain helped, and St. John's is genuinely crap at promoting events. BC brought some very loud fans, which only spurred the student section and the few, the proud, and the random to get even louder. Also, loved Crawley's suit. Considering the perfect fit and the fact that it matched her team colors, I'm going to guess that it was specially tailored. Well done.
The band did not suck tonight. This is some kind of miracle, but small miracles like that were in plentiful supply tonight. Of course, it figures that they'd save one of their better performances for the last game of the season. ;)
Carolyn Swords appears to have found her cojones. Now, if she'd just stop feeling them, she'd be twice as effective. She picked up four fouls I this game, and three of them were offensive. And they were nasty offensive fouls, too- I'm not sure Coco's seeing straight after that elbow she took to the face in the first half. She turns interesting shades of red- not quite Richie Adubato red, but definitely interesting colors. Stefanie Murphy was the difference-maker for the Eagles. Off the top of my head, I can think of four offensive rebounds that she went up and put back in. We just couldn't stop her. Da'Shena tried, Joy tried, Coco tried, Recee tried, and rarely were they effective. Constant double-teams and ball-hawking made Mickel Picco a non-factor- except that the people defending her then couldn't defend anyone else, which led to open shots for Thoman and Brown. Whitehurst off the bench was a defensive presence- in general, those big forwards and center for BC clogged the paint, which really fucked up our offense, and if we can't make that quick entry pass inside, we really don't know what to do next. Though we were trying to run them so that Swords would continue to turn those interesting colors, Crawley answered by going deep into her bench. They fed the post and crashed the boards, and ta-dah, they came away with the win.
But not without some friggin' amazing shots from St. John's. Sheree Ledbetter opened the scoring for the Red Storm with a deep heave to beat the shot clock. I think she was just as surprised as we were that it went in. And then there was Kelly McManmon's touch-pass putback as the shot clock was winding down, and then there was Britney Murphy's three near the end of the game, which banked off the glass and bounced off the back iron before going in. I'm really not making any of this up. But I'm worried about my girl Joy. Well, I'd be worried if we had more of a season coming up, but since we don't, she has the rest of the year until November to shake herself out of this slump, whatever it is, and I'm pretty sure she can manage that. She's still making a lot of the defensive plays I love her for, but for the last few games, she didn't contribute much on the offensive end. Kelly seems scared to shoot. Come out of your shell, Kelly! We need you! Sky really stepped it up on both ends of the floor, shooting, stealing, and blocking. I'm starting to think she's going to be our big game player for the next couple of years, and I hope she helps Da'Shena develop that kind of nerve. Da'Shena seemed out of sorts, and that might have had to do with the pressure, or that might have had to do with trying to defend those BC behemoths at one end and having them breathing down her neck on the other. Sheree continues to try and make things happen by being in the right place at the right time, with the mixed results you'd expect from a sophomore thrown into the starting lineup after the star senior decides to be a spectacular dumbass. (No, if you think I'm letting McLean off, even now, think again.) The bench played very well for us. Recee pulled her weight in the second half, though I'm starting to be annoyed at how often she goes to the fadeaway instead of taking a simple jumper. Britney got her feet under her. Coco, though her accomplishments won't show up in the boxscore, had a very good game. I'm rough on her, but she was in the right place at the right time a lot of the time.
Who did Bonita Spence and Denise Brooks piss off to get stuck working the WNIT? Not too many bad calls, and surprisingly few travels, given Bonita's propensities. I hope to see this crew, together or in parts, working in Trenton, because if we get stuck with incompetents like Enterline and Price while this crew's working the second-rate tournament, I will scream, and I will scream so loudly that the Scarlet faithful in Oklahoma City will perk up their ears at the cry of one of their own.
So after two false starts, this really is goodbye to Carnesecca for the year. This really was the end of the line. I'll miss my collegiate home court, the place I call my home base no matter how far afield I wander. I'll miss my friendly security guys, who are used to me and my mom and make small talk when we go through their inspections. I'll miss our DJ, no matter how many times he plays the same songs over again and misses the cues half the time. I miss the nice lady at the concession stand who always serves me when I get my pretzel or nachos. I'll miss the televisions, even when they're not on.
I'll miss Kelly's parents, who stubbornly trucked in from Massachusetts for every game, especially Kelly's friendly, optimistic mom. I'll miss Sky's mom, whose big hair, bigger boots, and even bigger personality make it very clear where Sky gets her personality (and rhythm). I'll miss our one-man noise section (though to be fair to SJU, more people did show up in the student section for some of the later games)- he may not have been very innovative, but he was loud and passionate.
So I guess it's time to say goodbye. Thanks for two years, Kristin Moore. You brought a steady hand to an unsteady backcourt, and your toes-forward, ball-behind-the-head jumper is one of my favorite shots ever. I'd have liked to see more of you, both in terms of minutes and in terms of years. Best of luck in all your future endeavors.
And... I guess, yeah. Thanks for three and a half brilliant years, Monique McLean, even if I do want to take a clipboard to your head right now. When you were on, you really were Little Sista Christon, and you really could have been drafted. Such a beautiful shot, such a sense of style, such a clutch player. Why did you have to go fuck it all up a month and a half before your NCAA career was scheduled to end? As the case may be, try not to be a fuckwit in the future, and good things may very well happen to you.
The rest of you? I'll see you in November, with your new friends. Thanks for the ride, Sky, Day, Britney, V, Kelly, Joy, Coco, Sheree, and Recee. As always, it's been a privilege flying with you.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
December 21st, 2008: Boston College at St. John's (Chartwells Holiday Classic)
St. John's Red Storm 72, Boston College Eagles 63
Joy McCorvey and Da'Shena Stevens earn their scholarships against Stefanie Murphy and Carolyn Swords, while Monique McLean continues to be awesome.
Big win. Big, big win. We needed this to show that we weren't just spanking mid-majors. We needed to beat one of the few major-conference foes we had on the schedule, and we did so. I mean, I don't know if Boston College is actually any good, or if they're cruising for a fall from grace after Inglese's departure, but it's a win that feels good.
Look, guys. If it's a doubleheader without separate admission, you don't need to have a second anthem. Even if you feel you need to, you can use the same recording you did before. Even if you want to change it up, you can pick someone who actually knows how to sing and doesn't fuck up the words. That guy from the staff might be a nice guy, but that was the worst anthem I've ever heard. And the scary part is that he's done the anthem before, and he was even worse than he was the first time he tortured that song.
Crawley really screwed around with her subs today. A couple of players who got big minutes in the first game got few minutes in the second, a couple of players who didn't play the first game played a lot in the second game. She really seems like she doesn't know what she has on her roster, or she's really wedded to playing matchups, and in the eleventh game of the season, she should be somewhat aware of the players she has. That being said, I can't figure out why she benched Veronica Wilson for the first game. She's got good range and good instincts. We did a great job of keeping a lid on Ayla Brown and, to a lesser extent, Mickel Picco. Keeping Brown off the boards and Picco under 20 made the difference. Even though Swords and Murphy were able to take advantage of their size for stretches, it wasn't enough. Swords really looks like she's regressing- far too passive for a woman her size, far too willing to let smaller posts run all over her. And she shouldn't be even up with a 5'9" guard in the rebounding department in the same number of minutes- not when the number of boards is 4. Murphy played okay- nothing to write home about, except for her outside shooting- nice range for a woman her size. Picco's still damn good, and this game could have been a lot more interesting if BC had found her a couple of more times when she managed to shake her defender and get wide open in the corner. Seriously, she was so open that at one point I found myself shrieking "SHIT!" because I thought we were well and truly screwed.
Monique, you're amazing. Just. Again, she was getting to the line, and not just in garbage time situations, and that really says a lot about her game. She's turning it up right when we're going into the BEast season, and yea, verily, fearsome is the BEast. Joy does exactly what we need her to do- she gets the boards, she plays defense, and she hits the shots we need her to hit. She and Da'Shena did a brilliant job on the much taller and much broader Swords- Joy gives up six inches, Da'Shena five, and college teams don't give weights, so I don't want to think about how much girth Swords could throw at them Joy looked like she was being bent backwards, but she was consistently getting position on Swords. And Da'Shena smashed two awesome blocks, one on Swords, one on Murphy that we're expecting to see on the highlight reel. Day impresses me more and more every time I see her; if she can become a consistent shooter, she'll tear the league apart by the time she's a senior. Sky played a good defensive game- so did Monique. Kelly was feeling her stroke, but she had a dreadful habit of losing Picco on defense, and no one should be out of it enough to commit a five-seconds-one-position violation. I love her work on the press, though. Ditto for Britney. She's starting to remind me a little of Tully Bevilaqua, in terms of playing style- very defensive-minded guard, a real ballhawk, not much of a scorer, but a good distributor. She's growing on me. She's just wearing the wrong number. Coco was hit and miss- sometimes very good and very fiery, sometimes very stupid.
Between the loud screaming guy for St. John's and the BC family we were sitting near (I think they may have been Veronica Wilson's, but don't hold me to it), it could be established that no one was happy with the refs. Surprising, given that Brooks-Clauser and DeMayo both worked this game, but they all got caught up in the stupid little infractions and had a tendency to ignore the big fouls that were going on. Britney got more armbars to… um, a place one would not want them, and Da'Shena keeps getting hit. And I don't like what Crawley's doing with BC- they threw an awful lot of forearms to the throat, though in the case of their posts, that might be a result of height.
The crowds for both games blew, and one of the things I don't like about doubleheaders is that the fans of the two teams in the first game leave after the game, and the fans for the second game don't show up until the second game. For Buffalo and Houston, I felt like I was the only St. John's fan in the building.
All-tournament team: Ephesia Holmes of Buffalo (good choice), Courtney Taylor of Houston (good choice), Mickel Picco of BC (really fucking good choice), Carolyn Swords of BC (um, wtf?), Joy McCorvey of St. John's (good choice, but I'm biased), and Kelly McManmon of St. John's (um, less wtf than Swords, but I wouldn't have picked her). MVP was Monique McLean (really fucking good choice, what with the 49 points, 10 boards, seven assists, and four steals she put up in the two games {on approximately 50% shooting, against only two fouls and three turnovers}). Shiny objects!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
December 20th, 2008: Houston at Boston College (Chartwells Holiday Classic)
Boston College Eagles 62, Houston Cougars 56
Just when Houston thinks they have it in the bag, enter Mickel Picco, and let the butt-whooping begin.
I'll tell you, I think we were the only St. John's fans not directly related to players who actually stayed for the second game. Not that there weren't fans- Boston College and Houston both traveled pretty well, considering the weather in New England and the distance from Texas. (Kelly's mom cheerfully reported eight inches in Massachusetts and more expected tomorrow. Bless her heart for coming out here as religiously as she does- and the rest of the family, too.)
The Houston folks were really nice to us. My mom's got bigger cojones than I do, and it was driving us absolutely nuts where we thought we'd seen one of their assistants before. I'm now relieved that I didn't completely hallucinate recognizing Amanda Barksdale's name (from "Nice Girls Finish First"). We thank them for their patience with the strange St. John's fans next to them.
Brittney Scott reminded us both a lot of Vickie Johnson, in terms of style, look, and ability to keep her team together. Courtney Taylor brought the offense. And the rebounding. And some very powerful blocks. I rather liked Jasmine Johnson, too. We were sort of rooting for Roxana Button, because we were sitting by her family, and she did have a nice steal to set up a bucket by Johnson. For a freshman, she's not bad. Not bad at all. Landry seemed to be pushing too hard sometimes. They have some really big girls on that team- Ashlee Joseph and Cobilyn Hill both made me go o.O "wow, everything is bigger in Texas!" I like Hill, despite her penchant for fouling- she's got a good head for the game.
Coach Crawley was rocking a very nice suit, which says a lot for a woman as tall as she is. I was disappointed in Carolyn Swords- she played really well against us last year, but she seems to have become a lot more passive, consistently getting beaten to balls that she should have without contest. Murphy wasn't so hot on the offensive end, but late in the game, she did a great job of forcing the Cougars to change their shots. Lauren Whitehurst might actually have been the best defensive post to play for BC today, or at least the most interesting. Ayla Brown, for much of the game, seemed to be the only Eagle who was into the game. Brittanny Johnson looks so disconcertingly like St. John's Coco Hart that there was a point late in the game where I- sleep-deprived and exhausted from four hours of basketball- genuinely wondered what the fuck Coco was doing checking in for Boston College. Jasmine Gill did her damnedest to keep Boston College in the game in the first half, but she just wasn't enough, and they were getting doubled up at halftime, 28-14.
And then the second half started and Mickel Picco took over. I've been to WNBA games, I've been to college games all over the place, I've seen some of the best players in the world. And in all the games I've been to, I've never seen a player completely dominate a stretch of the game and singlehandedly wrench the tide in her team's direction the way that redheaded firecracker did in the first 10:08 of the second half. She had two points at halftime. She finished with 29. Looking back at the play-by-play, 22 of her points were in those ten minutes; her two steals in that time also resulted in three points for the Eagles.
I still think Crawley climbed the ladder too fast. In that first half, she looked completely lost, and there were a couple of situations where no one was sure who was supposed to be coming into the game. Maybe it was just a one time thing, but I'd worry about that, and about Swords's game, if this goes on tomorrow.
Dennis, you disappoint me. Your crew did a crap job today, especially in the first half, which could best be described as slop-and-go. After two great games, this is below your standards.
Play of the game: Mickel Picco from the far corner. Kinda happened a lot.
So I'm really looking forward to the shootout tomorrow between Little Sista and Picco.
Monday, April 21, 2008
March 27th, 2008: Boston College at St. John's (WNIT)
Kia Wright refuses to let her season end, Carolyn Swords is quite impressive, and Monique McLean is Little Sista Christon.
Kia Wright just doesn't want her season to end, does she? Not that I can blame her; none of the rest of us want to see her season end either. These second-half heroics, though, they're certainly coming at most interesting times. There's just no quit in these kids, and I'm loving every extended second of it.
Either I hadn't known or I had suppressed the fact that Nancy Darsch is an assistant for Boston College. Ye gods, that brought back some memories I could have lived without. She was much more animated than I remembered her, and very involved in the coaching, especially of the big girls- and those posts for BC are BIG, no getting around it. Carolyn Swords looks freakish in NCAA play- 6'6" with a thick body, she looks like a woman among girls. It took until the second half for BC to think, 'hmmm, she's three inches taller than the tallest Red Storm player, four inches taller than the tallest Red Storm player who will actually go into the paint, and six inches taller than the tallest Red Storm starter- hey, let's pound the ball to her and have her wreak havoc inside!' But once they did, the Eagles made it close in a hurry. She impressed me more than Stefanie Murphy, though I'm given to understand that Murphy gets more press. Both of them are physical, but more easily knocked out of the lane than one would guess from their build. BC seemed to depend a lot on the inside-out game, passing it in only to get open looks on the perimeter. Not what I'd do with big post players, but what do I know? Brittanny Johnson came up big in the second half. Other than Jaclyn Thoman, they didn't really get that much from their bench, which was their undoing.
St. John's, on the other hand, got plenty of contributions from non-starters. Granted, that factors in that Tiina didn't get the start (which, also, kind of confusing, because at this point, Coco doesn't bring that much more to the table than Tiina, and certainly isn't going to jostle big players out of place). Recee decided that she didn't give a damn how tall anyone was, and threw her body around indiscriminately, both for good and for ill- she had the difficult task of checking either Swords or Murphy all night, and she still managed ten points. Off the bench, Kelly also hit a couple of big threes and brought some very tenacious defense. The more I see her develop, the more I like her, because she has a knack for making big plays at the edges of the court, and her shot is one of the most fundamentally sound on the team; now she's learning to play defense, which makes her more useful than just a designated bomber. Sheree didn't score off the bench, but she brought energy- there were two plays I remember where she just kept fighting for a rebound, one on the defensive end where she evaded two BC players trying to get the tie-up, and then on the resulting offensive play, where she tapped the ball back out to Kia. Tiina came off the bench like she had something to prove, which I guess makes sense. Would that we had gotten the production from our starters that we got from our bench. Coco and Joy were both very ineffective. Joy got into early foul trouble and spent most of the game on the bench. Sky was also really quiet, and while I understand the need to train a point guard for when Kia graduates, I don't think she should be running the point while Kia's in the game. Just a thought, of course. Monique went off in the first half, and while the Boston College defense seemed to do a better job on her in the second half (or maybe she was just taking worse shots), she still got to the line. And with the late block, she was definitely doing her Sister Christon impersonation. Kia, in the first half, seemed to be looking to involve her teammates- which worked really well when Monique, Recee, and Tiina were hitting shots. In the second half, when the Eagles were trying to make a game of it, she took over, driving the lane and making some unfreakingbelievable shots. Bigtime, bay-bee. God, I'd love to see the Liberty bring her in for a look, and at least for her to make it to the preseason game against Washington. Is that too much to ask?
Lib Fan, I'm never talking to you again, you lucky bastard. I'm sure you've got more to contribute than I do, given how close your seats were. I've been down there. It's a funky view, but you must have heard and seen a lot more than I ever could have.
I don't want to say that Bonita Spence has fallen down the totem pole since Clockgate at TBA, but she was calling the game last night. How do you go from calling one of the biggest games of the regular season to working the WNIT? Then again, I'll also grant that it wasn't actually conflicting with a tournament game, that there's less of a need for refs with fewer games, that in NIT terms it actually was a marquee matchup, and that Spence has got to live in the metro area, considering the number of totally random matchups I've seen her work this past season. Still. You should have heard my primal scream when she emerged from the locker room.
As soon as the game was over and it was determined that NC State had host-rights, Sky's mom was on the phone ordering a bus. Like mother, like daughter, I suppose. At least that game will be a little easier for Monique's folks to get to than these two games in New York have been. We're still on the fence- a lot's going to depend on how much access we have to that bus Sky's mom ordered. I'd also rather go to the NCAA tournament than the NIT if I'm going to North Carolina, but then again…
Hold on tight, boys and girls. The ride's not over yet.
Friday, February 29, 2008
March 6th, 2005: Big East tournament
scroll down for March 6th results
The Game Notes feel like dancing, dancing the night away, in Hartford.
1st game... 41-37 Villanova over Boston College. It was like a trip to the dentist, and not one of those good ones where they tell you you're a good kid and give you a toothbrush. It grated. It went in fits and starts. I was minimally impressed.
2nd game... 69-48 Rutgers over St. John's. My two teams in the Big East, go figure. Rutgers was just too quick for St. John's, too quick and too talented. The Red Storm played with heart, but they just couldn't make any noise early. Chelsea Newton was on fiyah. I suspect she'll be a Lib pick if she makes it to their second round choice; Marianne was hanging around again, sans Patty. Ajavon was also played fabulously. For St. John's, Kia Wright had an off game (must have been the PA announcer calling her Kia White all night...) but Angela Clark picked up the slack in the second half. She's got a very soft touch and a knack for rebounds. There were some moves in there by both teams that made me think they got those refs out of the WWE.
3rd game... 70-59 Notre Dame over West Virginia. I think. I know it was ND over WVU by double digits, but at that point I was rather fried. ND really controlled that game. WVU has a couple of promising players. Yolanda Paige impressed me. She got called for a couple of BS turnovers ("they called a walk because she changed hands?!") to inflate that stat. She also had some gorgeous passes and discovered that hey, for them to play well she needed to find her offense. She showed a great knack for getting into the lane and hitting her shots. #14 for WVU (Soho?) was also wonderful, and I suspect she'll make into one of Keegan's later-class draft databases. Batteast for ND was quiet but remarkable, and you *never* leave Duffy open!
4th game... UConn whomped Syracuse. We left at the half of this one, with UConn holding an 18-point lead. We caught part of it on the radio; when we lost WHUS, it was 64-39 or something like that, as Mel Thomas canned her fourth three of the night. She was impressive, and it was nice to see Nicole Wolff getting something done as well. Syracuse... Syracuse was orange. That's really all I can think of.