Just the Facts, Ma'am: Fordham pulled away in the second quarter and staved off George Washington 61-50. Bre Cavanaugh led all scorers with 16, while G'mrice Davis added 14 points and 15 rebounds. Chyna Latimer led George Washington with 14 points off the bench, 10 in the second half.
For homecoming, the bitter cold, dubious officiating, yelling at people, and the slow emergence of freshmen, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.
The end of the calendar year, if not the basketball year, has come. It's December 31st, and your intrepid blogger will finish the year as she has spent most of it- at a basketball game. Fordham hosts George Washington in their conference opener, and we're ready.
I think I should be commended for my self-control in not buying a maroon "Happy New Year" hat and wearing it to the game.
Mei-Lyn Bautista of GW has a large chunk of family at the game. I think there are something like two dozen people wearing "Bautista 21" shirts in the stands.
Damn, Mary Goulding's still got that cast on. That makes me sad. I mean it's only been something like four days, so I shouldn't be surprised, but it still makes me sad.
We have a band today! I don't think it's a student band, if only because most of them look my age or older, but it'll be nice to have music. I wonder if they're going to do that great arrangement of "Seven Nation Army". (They are a guest band called the Patriot Brass Ensemble. Very technically sound, but the tempo on everything is slower than it should be.)
This game was tied at 15, whereupon Fordham said, "haha, LOL" and went on a 15-0 run. It's 33-22 Rams at the half. Bre Cavanaugh and Lauren Holden each have nine points to lead the Rams. Mei-Lyn Bautista, to the joy of her family, friends, and other folks wearing #21 shirts, has nine to lead the Colonials.
Lady, if I want my team to not give up and-1s, I will for damn sure be yelling to hit them harder. And if the other team is at the free throw line, yes, we're going to disconcert the shooter. If Bautista's family is going to start defense chants on the road, we need to defend our house. She seems to have vacated the area, and she's welcome to stay gone.
That was fun. Part of the fun was in competing noise-wise with the Bautista family. Fake-counting the shot clock as a road fan is incredibly tacky, and I'm glad we didn't fall for it. No one comes into our house and pushes us around, and no one comes into our house and stomps our bleachers without paying the price.
Lexus Levy wasn't afraid to launch from behind the line. Her most successful shots were from the corner, if I recall correctly. Kendall Bresee played more in the second half, getting close on D and getting punished by foul calls for it. (I'm not saying they were bad calls, but she seemed to be getting called for stuff her teammates weren't.) Chyna Latimer was left open a lot in the second half, and took advantage of the openings at the elbow and in the lane. I get the feeling that element of her game might not have been on the scouting report.
Sub was in so fast in the first half I honestly wasn't sure whether Latimer got the start or not, but the player who jumped center for the Colonials was long slim Neila Luma, who smacked the taste out of a Johanna Klug shot in the early going. Her shooting was dubious, especially near the rim, but she insinuated herself into the lane for rebounds. She and Latimer seemed to be splitting a lot of time. Kelsi Mahoney was physical. I do not appreciate badly set screens that are excessively pushy. She got caught twice for offensive fouls, and there were plenty of other times she could have been called.
Brianna Cummings had a reverse high off the glass that drew applause even out of us. It was pretty. She was able to intercept a lot of bad Fordham passes and rip away balls from careless ballhandlers. Her jumper's not so hot, but she gets to the lane well enough, and plays good enough defense, that it might just be forgiveable. Camila Tapias got the start, but I honestly don't remember her doing much. She moved the ball well enough, I guess. But Latimer was giving them more off the bench, and I think Rizzotti made the right choice to switch up the lineup. The prodigal returning daughter, Mei-Lyn Bautista, had a good day, with drives to the basket and a three-pointer to beat the shot clock. She's quick, and heady on the floor. I think I'd like her and her large family if we were on the same side, but since we're not... *shrug*
I don't know if I can really peg how good George Washington is off of this game, or their style. They at least know how to defend Fordham, but just didn't have the skills to back it up.
I'm going to need Kendell Heremaia to stop going anywhere near the far sideline. That is not a good spot for her. If she has the ball over there, it's going to end with her stepping out of bounds or getting stripped. I like her heart and her hustle, but sometimes she doesn't have it together. (Which, to be fair, might be a Kendell
thing in general. If the "Ram most likely to" features are to be believed she's a Tari Phillips-level space cadet.) Halei Gillis scored on a putback, and we were all taken by surprise. I think Halei was even taken by surprise. She's not as open as she thinks she is inside, but I think that level of court awareness will come with time. She was solid on defense today. We're going to need more of those kinds of minutes from her down the stretch, especially without Mary.
I love watching G'mrice Davis rebound. She took over on offense down low in the fourth quarter, cutting to the basket and hitting swooping shots. GW was doubling and tripling her on defense, and she still found ways to score. Zara Jillings always has her head in the game- if she wants to be a coach someday, she's going to be a great one. She communicates well on the floor. It was nice to see her offense actually get in the groove a little bit too, though I'd still like to see her be more assertive offensively- she passes out too often, even when she has a good shot. Johanna Klug is not fantastically mobile, but she gets low and she gets boards. Even when she doesn't, she boxes out well enough that she sets up her teammates for rebounds.
Lauren Holden's three-point shot often frustrates me, but today it was working. If anything, it was her floater and her drives that weren’t working. She left one pretty badly short. Likewise, we're all pretending the Bre Cavanaugh airball didn't happen. She put up a lot of shots, and they weren't all good ones, but she showed her propensity to make the shot clock roll over and beg by hitting them when it counted at the end of the clock. She took a lot of contact, and I know she has the concussion history, but sometimes I think she overacts to get the call more than she needs to. One of these days it's going ot backfire and she's not going to get the call on a play where she should.
If today's offense was an example of what things are going to look like when we get into conference play, with teams that know our style and know what we do, things aren't going to be as rosy as I thought they would be from the non-con. I know we like to run the clock down, but I'm kind of getting tired of counting down the shot clock every possession. We have to find better ways of getting G'mrice open. Maybe having Mary back at some point will help, but I don't know how long we can survive with our big three all being fairly streaky.
I'll admit we got the benefit of the doubt on a lot of calls. There was light contact being called on GW that wasn't being called on us. Travel calls were a hot mess in general. Counting is hard.
Little kids shooting free throws are cute, but if they're shooting from well in front of the free throw line I refuse to be impressed. Yes, I'm petty.
A good way to end the year. I look forward to a 2018 full of conference wins for all my teams! So far we've survived!
Monday, January 1, 2018
December 31st, 2017: George Washington at Fordham
Saturday, January 24, 2015
January 24th, 2015: George Washington at La Salle
Just the Facts, Ma'am: A 63-38 rebounding edge for George Washington overcame 27.5% shooting in the Colonials' 67-48 win at La Salle. Jonquel Jones led the way for George Washington with 12 points and 16 rebounds. Micahya Owens led La Salle with 12 points.
For ugly, definite articles, delayed reactions, buff and blue, stairs, questionable manners, and so very many missed shots, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.
Hey, y'all!
So we came down to Philadelphia to watch Seton Hall play Villanova yesterday, and to see St. John's play Villanova tomorrow. Today we needed a change of pace. Something different. Something new and fresh.
...so we went to a La Salle game instead.
Normally you would have gotten a lot more pregame blathering about the place and the pregame happenings. However, La Salle does not allow backpacks in their arena, and the security people they brought in were unusually strict about the matter. They were kinda rude about it, too. Fortunately, the ticket office was able to hold my backpack and its attendant computer. Unfortunately, that means my impressions will be a bit more vague than usual.
(Bonus points for that same security person being the ticket-taker and holding up the line a good five minutes because she went to the concession stand and bought herself nachos.)
Everything seemed a little bootleg for the non-game related portions of the program. The ticket office was really slow to react and was printing tickets on an individual basis. There was no band, and instead there were innumerable repetitions of the fight song, which has an unfortunate similarity to something you might hear on a Saturday morning cartoon. The side boards went wacky and showed distorted ad images, so they were eventually shut down, though I kind of want to know what Citizens Bane would be.
Beautiful video of Philly scenes during the playing of the anthem.
George Washington has a lot of very tall, very skinny players with questionable mechanics. The shooting was... it was awful, no two ways about it. This would probably have been a thirty-point margin if the Colonials could hit the broad side of a barn down low. Because the game was non-competitive for about 35 minutes, we got to see a lot of both teams' reserves, so these are going to be relatively long notes.
I'm not sure why Aaliyah Brown shoved the ballhandler out of bounds late in the second half, but it was pointless. Lauren Chase ignited the offense in the first half with jumpers and a nice and-1 in the lane. Alexis Chandler reminds me of a former Johnnie, Greeba Barlow, around the face. That's where the resemblance ends. Chandler took a lot of shots, some better than others, and always seemed to be looking for her shot, no matter what. Dalacy Anderson gave good minutes in the post. Mia Farmer- a Philly kid we'd heard about on the ride home last night- took corner threes, and the third time was the charm (though that first one should have gone down- it was halfway around). Jada Matthews brought some nice size, but not so much touch. Brianna Cummings had some really good minutes- always active, with some good plays on offense. Kelli Prange was the least awkward of GW's tall, awkward players, but not by much. She made some nice little plays in the middle.
I was looking forward to seeing Jonquel Jones- I'd heard a lot about her, and as a Johnnie I'm familiar with the talents of Clemson transfers. But I was very disappointed. Her shot was a hot mess. She rebounded well, but you've got to hit the chippies down low and you've got to hang on to the ball. GW ran a lot of alley-oops early for her and Caira Washington, and none of them were successful. Washington looked like she was still trying to find her feet. She needs to muscle up. She was getting moved around very easily, and La Salle didn't have that much more size. Hannah Schaible didn't look to score, though I think her teammates wanted her to score when they had stretched the lead out and it was time to distribute the points. Shannon Cranshaw was tough from three- she's got a pretty stroke, which is more than I can say for most Colonials today. Chakecia Miller ran the offense well and seemed just comfortable enough calling her own number to balance the duties of the offense well.
So many easy shots. So many missed shots. Ugh.
Oh, La Salle. The passing was horrible. The ball security was virtually non-existent. When the shots missed, they were ugly. They never gave up on plays, but that's the most I can say about them as a group.
Amy Griffin's skill set intrigues me. She has the build of a forward, but she handles like a guard. She's a little reckless, and a little careless, but she's only a freshman. If she gets coaching, she might be special for La Salle. They brought a lot of size off the bench with Indigo Dickens and Ashanti Freeland, neither of whom played a lot, but who both crashed the paint. Jordan Williams handled the ball near the end of the game. Ebony Wells was, I think, physical, but we're getting to the time of night when my memory for mid-rotation bench players starts to fail me.
Micahya Owens was high usage, especially in the first half. She made a lot of defensive plays, disrupting the dribble and playing the passing lanes. Alicia Cropper came up with threes in the second half, as well as some tough plays. Jasmine Alston handled herself like a point guard who runs a good offense. I like her demeanor. Lisa Mintzer, the token local girl, blocked a lot of shots when GW thought they had a size advantage. They did not shoot very intelligently. Siobhan Beslow was the player of the day on the poster, but she seemed irrelevant today.
When La Salle was able to get a shot off, they got decent shots. But they really didn't have a lot of good ball movement and were sloppy with the ball.
Officiating was inconsistent, and it got to the point where you could tell the refs just wanted to get home. I am also not sure which ref she was, but there was referee who needed to visit my favorite corsetorium- by the end of the game, she had, er, lost some of her structural support.
GW has a really loud staff. Everyone seemed to be yelling. (They're also the only team I've heard use something other than the standard "DE-FENSE!" chant- they call and and respond "D UP!"
Worth the trip... but George Washington isn't quite back yet.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
January 17th, 2009: George Washington at Fordham
George Washington Colonials 55, Fordham Rams 52
Growing pains in the A-10, but leavened with promising young talent.
I think it's safe to say that this is a down year for the A-10. George Washington's treading water, and barely doing so at that. Temple's putting itself back together. It really does like Xavier's the only legit threat in that conference.
But we were discussing Fordham. Or at least I should be.
Rose Hill Gym is a lovely place to see a basketball game, although Fordham is not one of those campuses that looks better in the snow. No cheerleaders, no band, and the concessions appear to be focused around the cafeteria. If you're at Rose Hill for a game, you're at Rose Hill for a game, period, end of sentence.
Starting at the top, then. Jessica Adair dominated the game, but she did so more because of her height. She does have the moves, but she doesn't have the stamina or the conditioning to go to the next level effectively. She has the moves, and she has some of the instincts, but those moves are going to come flying back into her face once she steps up in class. She got in close to the basket, and was able to use that soft touch, because she's 6'4" and her defender was 5'11". That's not going to work for much longer. But she dominated in this game because her team needed her to. Can't argue too much with that. I've always had a fondness for Antelia Parrish- I like big girls with range who also aren't afraid to use their size inside the arc- but this wasn't her best night. It seems a little soon to be reissuing Beck's #5 to a freshman, but Myers seems to have a good head on her shoulders- no, she's not Beck, at least not yet, but I doubt that Beck was a hot prospect as a freshman either. Yolanda Lavender wasn't listed on our scorecards, which was one of the primary reasons I didn't want her to do much of anything- it's always a bitch trying to keep stats without a proper card. Nice distribution, though. Bozeman seems to be relying a lot on freshmen to carry the load- makes sense, given that he lost a lot of talent from last year's team. I do like Rivera off the bench, though, always have. She had one especially nifty steal in the second half. Anyone know why Jazmine Adair's fallen off the radar? She used to be pretty high in the rotation, but she didn't play all that much today? I know Abiona's stepped in, and I really like her for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on- the same with Booker, for that matter- but is she that much better than Jazmine Adair that she's taken most of the senior's minutes? In general, we were not impressed with Bozeman's game management, especially near the end of the game- why, when you're an awful free throw shooting team, do you concede rebounds on FTA to a team that's within one possession?!- although I did like the big lineups he ran out there. At least he was aware of the disorganizing effect that his team's vast size advantage had on the Rams.
I find the difference between this year's hot shit freshman and last year's hot shit freshman to be very interesting. Mahoney seemed much less interested in involving her teammates than Peters is, and maybe that's why Mahoney's team had no wins and Peters's team has seven. In fact, the play of the game was a pass from Peters to Kristina Bell for a hoop. Peters has a good head on her shoulders- the turnover numbers won't show it, but she knows what she's doing on the court. I really like Randall Hurst, though- she's the one who stuck out to me, and if she was just a little bit taller, she'd really be something. As is, she's got nice moves, but she's a dreadful defensive liability; Adair absolutely ate her for lunch, shooting over and around her, despite the screams of the Fordham fans, because there's only so much getting in front you can do in a situation like that. Bell stepped up in the second half, although she has too much of a penchant for needlessly fancy shots for my liking. Takita Earl looks like she's put a little muscle on since the last time I saw her, but she still seems afraid to shoot, even when she has good shots. Zopf's a nice rebounder for a guard of her size. Stokes did a nice job on the offensive boards, given how few minutes she got- seems like Andruzzi was trying to go small and quick against the big and not terribly fast Colonials, a plan that might have worked if George Washington's guards weren't ready for it, or if Parrish weren't a lot faster than you'd think. Andruzzi's endgame strategy also didn't work so well- having fouls to give does not necessarily mean you have to give them, and if you are going to give them, give them as hand-checks on attempted steals, not stupid holds on non-ball-related parts of the offensive player. Hot mess.
Refs didn't help either. The bald guy I remembered from the A-10 tournament as being a bit of an asshole, the young guy looked about twelve and scared to whistle anything on anyone bigger than he was, and the ponytail had the quickest five-second count I've ever seen in my life- we clocked it at three and a half seconds. Look, guys, I'm not asking for competence anymore. All I'm asking for is consistency. If you're going to not know what you're doing, not know it in the same way every time out, that's all I want. If consistency is in fact the hobgoblin of small minds, then you lot should be able to handle it.
New feature for the Game Notes of Doom! Yours truly recently inherited a digital camera, and I thought, hmmm, wouldn't this be fun to take along? It's an Olympus D-380, nice zoom, but not designed for action shots. What I primarily want to use it for is establishing setting, since I go to a lot of different arenas. My goal with the Game Notes of Doom is to make you feel like you were sitting next to me at the game, feeling the highs and the lows, and seeing everything I see. The more I convey that, the better. So this first batch of photos can be found here.
Really looking forward to seeing how these two teams develop, though I think they could both use new coaches.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
March 9th, 2008: Atlantic 10 semifinals
You gotta be tough to survive, and tougher to advance, in the Atlantic 10- just ask Temple and Dayton. But you can have a sense of humor about it too- just ask George Washington and Xavier.
Day 3 (well, day 2 for me) dawned far earlier than it should have, thanks to Daylight Savings Time and insufficient sleep the night before. Nevertheless, we hied ourselves hence to Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse for the semifinals, where we met up with and introduced ourselves to the lovely and dedicated dwalkfan. Had we been just a hair more emotionally invested in Temple, we would have bought the awesome t-shirts- "REPO" on the front, with Hooter on the back clutching a net and the A-10 trophy in his talons.
Because the games were on CSTV, and because attendance had blown several large chunks the night before, one whole side of the arena was closed off (later, Charlotte would settle into there, but I don't think that counts so much towards paid attendance, and I wouldn't want to chase the one upset team from quarters out- isn't elimination enough without insult?) to compress the fan base and make the place look full. The Temple fans and the Dayton fans got into it early and often- oh, not fan-on-fan violence, but competing chants. Lots of noise as background to the broadcast, which I'm sure made the execs happy.
Dayton got a lot of breaks in the game; it seemed like a lot of questionable out-of-bounds calls and block/charge calls went their way. They just couldn't get through the Temple defense to capitalize. I… really don't know what Dayton's coach was thinking, to be completely honest with you. Remember how I said that Kendel Ross was the best player for Dayton in the Charlotte game? She was hitting shots, she was getting offensive rebounds, she was doing her share and then some to carry them over the 49ers. For whatever reason, he didn't give her all that much run, even though I see I missed her initial entry into the game. Still, I would have gone with what worked until she proved that it didn't, you know? This time the hot shooting came from Kiki Lund (who also played well in the Charlotte game), but 'most all of the Flyers were shut down.
Lady Comfort stepped up big in this game- Shanea Cotton got into major foul trouble in the first half, so she had to be all the muscle. She completely owned the paint against Dayton, and showed flashes of being more than just a goon. Ashley Morris got hers, but she really showed both her Philadelphia roots and her mentoring by Staley in this game- a lot of her passes were too much for her teammates to handle, and she was a little faster with the ball than her feet were. In that sense, she reminded me of a young Staley, although she doesn't have quite the same build. But leave it to a New Yorker to save a Philly team's bacon; in the second half, when Dayton had taken a one-point lead, Lindsay Kimmel hit back-to-back threes to give Temple the lead and room to breathe with it, and that was enough for Temple to survive, because those two threes gave Temple a five-point lead, same as the final spread. I think that put the swagger back in the Owls' step.
Major awesomeness from Hooter today- he seemed much more enthusiastic than he was yesterday, even getting into a routine with the cheerleaders that ended with the Owl up in a lift. That takes big brass ones to do in a mask that completely covers your face.
I don't envy the Dayton fans having to go back to Ohio and that large snow system that's waiting there for them, but they have nothing to be ashamed of. Their team played well, and if they can just make a run at one of those Chaminade-Julienne kids, they might seriously be something someday soon. And if I'm Temple, I'm not real cocky after this game, because they damn near choked it away, up thirteen with three and a half to go. Their opponent for the A-10 crown shows no mercy and will go for the jugular if they sense weakness.
On to game 2, after a TV-mandated 40-minute break (as compared to the twenty minutes that were afforded the day before). This was the George Washington-Xavier matchup, and it was an utter blast more for the fun in the stands than it was for the action on the court. See, both teams had their bands… and both bands were really into the game… and both bands had eclectic repertoires. George Washington won the first sally with their transposition of "Bohemian Rhapsody"; by the end, the Xavier band had their cell phones in the air. Then Xavier gave Kimberly Beck hell for airballing an early shot- she heard the "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaairbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!" chants all night. Of course, at the other end, GW's fans and band were giving Special Jennings all kinds of grief for her name. And then Xavier started in on their rather traditional "spell out your school name" chant during free throws. Well, the George Washington fans weren't having with that, so they did it too. Yes, that's right. G-E-O-R-G-E-SPACE-W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N-SPACE-U-N-I-V-E-R-S-I-T-Y. Yes, they added the university part. Yes, they actually said "space!" between each word. Xavier struck back with their cheerleaders and the routine they have with spelling out the school name with their bodies. The GW fans had no answer for that, and of course, Xavier won the most important part of the whole episode.
At one point near the end of the game, I declared to the world at large that Ta'Shia Phillips could not be allowed to score anymore, as I was running out of room on my bootleg scoresheet to record her points. She went on to add a field goal and a free throw. I was not amused. She had her way in the paint, although some of the bullshit foul calls on the Adairs did not help one bit; by the end of the game, all three major frontcourt players for the Colonials had four fouls. Amber Harris took a hard hit in the second half and came up looking like… well, not so much "who am I and what am I doing here" as "ooooh, pretty colors!" After that, while she had a couple of late shots, she also started racking up stupid fouls. Xavier also got big shots from Jerri Taylor, and Maureen Harter, as she did in the first game, took care of all the team's whining needs- she's one of those players who would swear on a stack of Bibles that she never committed a foul in her life. Perhaps Jennings was disconcerted by the loudness of the George Washington fan contingent calling her name, because she didn't seem to be as much in control of the game as she was against St. Joseph's; of course, GW is also a higher-quality opponent, and she faced a better defender, and she did get her assist numbers.
As mentioned above, both Adairs were hobbled by bullshit fouls- Parrish also had four, but I can think of three calls against the Adairs as a combination that were pure, unadulterated crap. And they weren't effective on the other side of the ball, either. A lot of GW's problems on offense came from trying to force the ball over the top into the post- this is not a brilliant notion when the Musketeers' defense is anchored by a six-five forward with a ridiculous wingspan. Beck didn't play particularly well, I felt; she tried to force too much and let herself get rattled. I don't know if this was a coach's decision or a point guard's decision, but they waited too long to get Lawrence and Allen going, preferring to go into the post instead of onto the perimeter. Why play to Xavier's strengths?
Rule of thumb, dear crew: if you have caused Joe McKeown to swear at you? YOU HAVE MADE AN UNSPEAKABLY HORRID CALL. There were a couple of plays where he got quite animated, and one where I'm fairly certain he dropped the word "bullshit!" Then again, does the name Roy Gulbeyan ring any bells? I thought it might…
I still believe GW was the better team- they just didn't play like it. I'm not as sold on Beck as I was yesterday, but I do think she'd make a great backup for someone in the WNBA.
Temple and Xavier for the title belt. Shanea Cotton and Ta'Shia Phillips should be billed as the undercard; those two deserve each other, with the elbows and the hips they throw, and I wish I could see Morris versus Jennings.
March 8th, 2008: Atlantic 10 quarterfinals
The Atlantic 10's new slogan: We know where our towel is.
I don't want to say that I was psyched up for this road trip, but I was up at three in the morning the day we were scheduled to leave, and I haven't slept yet, except for the occasional catnap in the car. So if these notes are a little loopier, a little less coherent, and a little more oddly phrased than you're used to seeing from this prolific note-taker, there's a very good reason for it- I've been up for almost twenty-four hours straight. At least for the first three games of the fourplay. The balance are being written from the familiar confines of the 718.
Part of why I'm a little disoriented is because the quadruple-header tipped off almost two hours late because there was a leak in the roof that came down right over the lane in front of the high seed's bench, and a secondary leak near the scoreboard. Fun times for all as one brave gentleman went up on a cherry-picker several times to sort out what the problem was. He first attempted to hang a bucket from the rafters, but it didn't stick. Somehow, though, stretching a towel between two rafters seemed to do the trick without sagging into collapse for seven hours. I wish I knew what kind of material that thing was made of…
It was very hard to take the PA announcer seriously, because he sounded like a slightly higher-pitched Bullwinkle J. Moose. Same intonations.
Don't know how many teams sent representatives, but even from a distance, we recognized Catherine Proto and Nick DiPillo from the Liberty's coaching staff. Methinks they were scouting Beck; DiPillo was definitely taking more detailed notes in game 3 than he was the rest of the time.
First game was #1 Temple versus #8 Richmond. Richmond brought a fair contingent, and their mascot (who's revamped their costume and looks more like Jessica Drew than Peter Parker, if you follow what I mean) was very animated. The Temple fans were out in force, of course, what with this being Philadelphia and all. One of them brought a title belt emblazoned with the A-10 logo and they hollered "YOU CAN'T HAVE THIS!" when the Spiders came out for practice. Temple, like the other high seeds in the tournament, brought their band, as well as their mascot. Made for a nice loud crowd.
Richmond found themselves forcing shots against the tenacious and physical Temple defense- but I'm definitely not saying that Richmond was innocent in these matters. There was a lot of hitting by both sides. I got the distinct sense that neither team was particularly fond of the other. Unfortunately, the Spiders got the worst of a lot of the calls. Temple's extremely physical style… well, put it this way: if they weren't coached by a Philadelphia legend who's also an Olympian and a WNBA All-Star, I sincerely doubt the Owls would get the benefit of the doubt as often as they do. I was all set to cheer for Temple- home team of sorts and a Board Junkie on the bench- but I was so put off by the rough play that I threw in my lot with Richmond.
For Richmond, I loved me some Brittani Shells- nice aggressive shooter, filled the stat sheet decently. I also liked Christina Campion's all-around game. Most of the offense went through those two in the first half, and in much of the second half, although Joanna McKnight saw fit to make her presence felt in the second, scoring all ten of her points in the second half. I think Crystal Goring has potential if she can put a little meat on her frame and work on her footwork. Also, dear Spiders, please stop going over the top to people who can't catch passes. IT DOESN'T WORK.
Temple was rough, as I've mentioned; the ironically named Lady Comfort, along with the more normally named Shanea Cotton and Shenita Landry, were throwing their weight around freely. Cotton kept putting me in mind of a loaf of Easter bread with her thick plait of hair that kept coming undone, to the point where she actually had to be subbed out to retie her hair. I was impressed with Staley's careful balancing act in handling her post rotation, as Cotton and Comfort both picked up four fouls early in the second half, while Landry played with three fouls for most of the game. She managed to keep all three of them in play for most of the game until Cotton picked up her fifth on a really stupid attempted block. Ashley Morris, while I like the way she runs her team and fears nothing, is not 5'5". 5'3", maybe. On a good day. With Dawn Staley's stilettos on.
I knew Richmond was done for with about twelve minutes left in the second half, when they had four chances to tie or take the lead on this one possession (I don't remember the exact score at the time) and completely blew it. They would keep drawing closer, and then they would lose it. And they don't have time, because while Shells is only a freshman, Campion is a senior. I think Richmond will stay competitive in the conference, though, because they keep getting players and their coach does know how to use them- of course, a solid coach in the A-10 always has the chance to move up on the ladder, if you know what I mean.
Dwalkfan did a superb job mopping up during a set of free throws when the towel dripped slightly. Excellent job camouflaging the Richmond-blue sweater with that jacket, chica.
Gulbeyan worked this game as crew chief, and I think that did affect the officiating in Temple's favor, as mentioned earlier. I'd love to take apart Temple's record and check out the foul differential in wins and losses, see whether that's one of the critical factors.
Game two of the fourplay was #5 Dayton versus #4 Charlotte. From a fashion standpoint, I almost wished Charlotte had been the lower seed, if only because their road uniforms are far more attractive than their home whites. But then they wouldn't have been able to bring their most excellent cheerleading squad and a band that could transpose "Iron Man" into something for marching band and still make it recognizable, so there's that to be said for tiebreakers.
This was a much faster-paced game than the first- it was one of the fastest of the four. Both teams liked to run it a lot. Made it more interesting. Unfortunately, the refs did their damnedest to make it less interesting as a game and more interesting in terms of tournament seeding. Not amusing.
Charlotte goes full throttle in everything they do. They brought a sizeable, if not very loud, fan base; their cheerleaders were the most athletic out there (and at one point, they proclaimed themselves to be fuckin' metal); their band was among the most enthusiastic; their team, until approximately the fourth quarter of their game, left it all on the court. Remind me again why the Sting couldn't draw in the same effing town? The 49ers, at least in the first half, went after every loose ball and played tough, sticky one-on-one defense. I loved senior forward Sabrina Gregory, who had a way of running her team and was the linchpin of their defense. Guard Shannon McCallum also impressed me; I liked the way she looked for her shot. In general, though, Charlotte played a very balanced game; everyone scored, and looking at the boxscore, everyone played at least ten minutes, so there's that to be said for their coach's style. On the other hand, Charlotte doesn't seem to know what to do when things go bad. They got a lot of crappy calls against them on the offensive end, and when Dayton started to pull away on the strength of free throws and three-pointers, they just wilted. You could almost see the intensity level drop. It was a sad, sad thing.
Dayton looked like they weren't quite sure what to do with prosperity. Even at the end of the game, when they were running away with it by damn near thirty, they were taking threes with time on the shot clock. This is not on, people. This is not on. Running up the score on Charlotte is not going to make Temple quake in their sneakers; it's going to make Lady Comfort flatten you against the stanchion. Dayton looked to be a "live by the three, die by the three" team, and they survived by the three. That being said, I loved sophomore forward Kendel Ross, who came alive in the second half on the offensive boards- she had two that spring to mind as fierce follows, and one amazing pass to Nikki Oakland that resulted in an assist. I think she recognized the urgency that her senior teammates were playing with, recognized that Dayton needed this game to be even seriously considered as a tournament at-large, and kicked it up a notch, and I like that in a player.
Sometime during the game, the refs just turned on Charlotte like the 49ers owed them money or something, and it got ugly fast. At one point, when the foul differential was something like 8 to 3 with a lot of time left in the second half, I caught Gregory looking at the scoreboard and shaking her head in frustration. That was about the time that Charlotte took it down a notch, and it's a crying shame to see a team brought that low that easily, though I'm sure the onus is as much on the coach as it is on the uneven calls.
The worst part about the way the first half of the fourplay shook out is that I don't want to root for Temple, I don't want to root for Dayton, and I can't even root for the flaming abyss, because I don't want to end up in the flaming abyss myself, and also, where would they play the second game? I like GW. I don't want them to end up in a flaming abyss.
Speaking of George Washington, game three pitted the #2 Colonials against #10 Rhode Island (who, fortunately for GW's sanity, knocked St. Bonaventure out in qualifiers). GW does things right, man. Their band has jerseys with their class number on them, and they rocked out pretty hard. A big loud fan base came down for the game- makes sense, because they were pretty certain that they'd be around for the whole weekend- but it's still pretty damn awesome. They brought their mascot, and while they didn't have their cheerleaders, they did have their dance team, and strangely enough, I can see parallels between the dance team and the basketball team: they go about their business competently and classily, they're very good at what they do, they work well with each other, and there is a minimum of wasted motion in everything they do.
Rhode Island was in over their heads, and I think they knew it, but that didn't keep them from trying to make it interesting, and I salute them for that. Definitely didn't help their cause that their leading scorer was held to 1-12 shooting and got into foul trouble early. That all being said, I loved LaQuanda Brandon, who decided in the second half that she was going to do her level best to make this a respectable game. She seemed to be everywhere. This is a good thing. They also got great shooting out of Amanda McGrew, although GW seemed to figure her out after her third three. I enjoyed the bench play from Rhode Island more than their starters, actually; Brandon, Sierra Cooper, and Ebony Evans brought a lot more intensity and passion than the starting five.
Kimberly Beck. Mother of mercy. WANT. SO MUCH WANT. She could do with some muscle, especially on her toothpick legs, but WANT. She's one of those players who, as soon as she walks on the court with her team, owns the game and is clearly and totally in control of her team. Love her court vision. Love her defense. Love her shooting- she had one amazing clutch three as the shot clock was winding down, although I hesitate to use the word clutch when it comes to a game that was won by 27. Love her hustle. Love her intensity. I hope she's around with our second first-rounder. I think she'd be a great complement to Loree Moore. But George Washington brought a full team effort, and I think Whitney Allen may have played herself into the attention of WNBA scouts with her shooting and rebounding. Sarah-Jo Lawrence started off hot, but she got hurt in the second half and never came back in (though, granted, that might just have been because there was no reason to bring her back, but we'll know more about that during the semis). The Adairs are… well, the boy described them as a poor man's Paris twins, and I suppose that's true in a sense, but McKeown seems to have a rule that there must always be an Adair on the court, but almost never more than one; either that or he likes to screw around with PA announcers, because they were almost constantly in and out for each other. I think the better one came off the bench, but both of them seemed to be in the mold of big girls who are simply just big. I also don't think GW is going to lose as much as people think in terms of point guard play when Beck graduates, because I like Rivera; she just needs to get some of the rough edges smoothed out.
On to game four, Xavier versus St. Joseph's. If you're exhausted from reading these notes, don't worry; I was just as exhausted the day of the game, and by the time this matchup rolled around, there were kids asleep in the bleachers. This was a game that I thought St. Joseph's had a decent chance of stealing, since I wasn't sure how good Xavier was, and St. Joseph's has pulled interesting upsets on their home floor in the A-10 tournament before. The crowd wasn't as big as I would have expected it to be, but then again, there was that giant delay, and Hawk fans might have considered it a lost cause. Besides, a fair number of GW fans stuck around, so the arena looked halfway decent.
I really don't like the way these Musketeers handle themselves. I don't remember them having this kind of arrogance the last time I saw them, in the A-10 tournament two years ago. I'll admit that I'm a little biased because I don't like the way Xavier's been recruiting lately- the Purdue situation, the transfers from Rutgers- it all makes me uneasy about what McGuff is doing or promising. But they seem to carry themselves with a large chip on their shoulders. Honestly, if I were a Purdue fan and I saw this team, I'd be relieved that Ta'Shia Phillips wasn't on my team. She's nasty. Talented, don't get me wrong, but she plays dirty. She and Amber Harris seriously seemed to have it in for one of the Hawk forwards, and I don't understand why. Harris… she's freaky. She looked so out of place on the court because of her size that it was frightening. She reminded me a little of Garnett in her build. St. Joseph's had no answer for her, or for Phillips. Bear these words in mind. I liked the backcourt tandem of Taylor and Jennings, especially Taylor's shooting. On the other hand, while I enjoyed watching her on the court and the way she ran her team, I cannot take anyone named Special seriously. Yes. Special Jennings. I wish I were kidding.
Most of the Hawks had been wandering through the building throughout the elongated quadrupleheader, so I grew quickly fond of the tall, eccentric redhead who spent a lot of time shaking her booty to the music coming over the sound system. She turned out to be the hustling and oft-whacked freshman center Sarah Acker, who did her best against the bigger, stronger, and more aggressive Harris and Phillips. I'll say this for St. Joseph's: they embodied the essence of their school, the whole "The Hawk will never die" thing and the motto on all the banners around the campus- "The faith and strength to dare". They never gave up, even when Xavier was up big at the end of the game and showboating. Amy Wold's shooting and Loschiavo's playmaking impressed me- I think St. Joseph's, if they didn't have the rest of the Big Five to compete against in terms of recruiting, could do very well for themselves with the coach they have, if she doesn't decide to leave for a better position.
So after the second day, four teams were left to dance for the A-10 title: Temple, Dayton, George Washington, and Xavier.
Awards for the first day, from yours truly:
Best players: Ashley Morris, Temple; Kendel Ross, Dayton; Kimberly Beck, George Washington; Amber Harris, Xavier
Best coaching job: Dawn Staley, Temple
Best cheerleaders: Charlotte, by a mile- their squad was classy and athletic.
Best band: George Washington by a hair- the jerseys put them over the top. But all four top seeds brought great bands.
Best mascot: Richmond. Spidey actually worked with the Richmond cheerleaders on a couple of routines.
Best fan contingent: Close between Dayton and GW. Sorry, Philly fans, but you're going to have to do a lot more than you did to get the award.