Connecticut Huskies 83, Stanford Cardinal 63
Jayne Appel and the Stanford Cardinal are quite singular, Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery are a dynamic duo, and UConn lets up on the gas pedal.
And then it was on to game two. The de facto championship game, or so it was declared. The heavyweight match. UConn versus Stanford. Both teams out for revenge.
And then it turned out that Jayne Appel was really the only Stanford player who actually gave a damn about the fact that this was the Final Four, and even she wasn't as sharp as she could have been. But Pedersen especially seemed to be slacking off (especially in the second half, where the only way she seemed to know how to get involved was to commit stupid hard fouls). Stanford's guards were going to lose the matchup battle with the Huskies anyway, but I wasn't expecting Pohlen and Harmon to be quite so epic in their fail. Ogwumike seemed overwhelmed by the moment for most of the game- it ws only after UConn had, er, called off the dogs, that she seemed to get into her groove. Gold-Onwude seemed to be the only bench player for the Cardinal who wanted to get involved (it's a Queens thing, we don't take shit from people ;)). Though we were at the other end of the arena from the Stanford bench, I'm pretty sure VanDerveer was asking her team what the hell was wrong with them. They tried to force-feed the post a lot, which seemed ridiculous, especially since they were feeding her in the low post, when she's better as a European-style high post, making her plays further out. UConn is not Iowa State, and though Tina Charles isn't quite as big as Appel, she's a helluva lot better than anything the Cyclones were throwing at her in that game. And Uconnc ame with the help a lot more often than ISU did.
Good fucking God, Renee Montgomery. I think she decided that she didn't care what anyone else had in mind, she doesn't plan to lose her last college game. If she weren't so frigging tiny, she'd be the best shooting guard in the draft, but because of her size, she pretty much has to be a point guard, and I wouldn't want my nominal distributor taking that many shots. Being an offensive threat so that the other team can't double down o my top player, yes. Being a shothog, no. And Maya Moore was right alongside her in making sure Stanford was never really much of a credible threat. God, she's so smooth- in that regard, in the way she moves and the smooth silky grace she has- she reminds me of Candice Dupree. And I think she might be psychic on top of everything else- one of her rebounds was on some beautiful anticipation on a missed Stanford FT. Kalana Greene made the Cardinal regret leaving her open, because she has that nice little midrange jumper. McLaren's size made a big difference in the middle- more, I would say, than Charles, though Charles is the more skilled player. I keep thinking of Rutgers last year, when Vaughn was the more talented player but Junaid was getting the big minutes because she was a little more savvy with her body. But I'll get off this Scarlet tangent before the Husky fans come after me with a length of rope and some inappropriate comments about my hair. For all that UConn turned on the afterburners and got the lead up to 30 before letting it slip down to nineteen or so... that was Geno slowing the game up (and Hayes being a very astute freshman and backing the ball out to waste more clock on two different plays). I like that he doesn’t run up the score when he has the talent and the time to do it.
'sup, Denise? Congrats on the big gig! I remember when you were just a linesman on Bonita Spence's crew. Now you're in the Final Four. Sweet. Shame about the crappy linesmen you keep getting stuck with, though. Again, a very inconsistently called game- loose, then tight, then loose again, then, just as we're starting to think they're loosening it up so everyone can go home or to the bar, they tightened it up again.
UConn, as always, traveled exceedingly well, both in their allocation (points for the matching tees!) and in general. Signs your team's lead is so big that the game's a lead pipe cinch: when your semi-official spirit guy starts the chants, your enthusiasm is dimmed to about a third of what it was in the first half. It was kinda funny. And how can you not love the Stanford band and that kooky Tree? I mean, the highlight of the day was watching the Tree and the band kick ass in the Battle of the Bands, then sitting with the band while the Tree participated in the mascot challenge. (The organizers seemed confused as to why the band wasn't leaving the vicinity- they didn't seem to realize that the Tree is part of the band, and they're not going to leave their homie behind.)
Funny how everyone thought this was going to be the closely contested game and that the first one was going to be a blowout. I think VanDerveer is wondering the same thing, because Stanford's body language about midway into the second half screamed "we've lost already, just kill us and get it over with, and we do mean kill us, because we have to fly back with Coach if you don't, and that's an experience worse than death." Now that the Big East has established its dominance in women's hoops this year, I'd like to see a competitive game on Tuesday- and, hopefully, a more properly filled arena. There were some shamefully empty sections.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
April 5th, 2009: Stanford at UConn (NCAA tournament)
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.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
March 31st, 2009: Arizona State at UConn (NCAA tournament)
UConn Huskies 83, Arizona State Sun Devils 64
The Devils are bedeviled, Renee Montgomery will not let her season end, and Tina Charles has moves on the court.
Hats off to Arizona State. They played unafraid the entire game, and until UConn found the afterburners, the game was closer than the final score would make it look.
Not quite the same crowd as on Sunday, but a goodly number of people were there, including a fair smattering of Arizona State fans. Considering the distance most of them would have had to travel, that's pretty impressive. Also have to shout out to the Cal and Texas A&M fans who came for the second game. They could have scalped their tickets for an extra ten bucks and gone sightseeing, but they stuck around.
Anthem was by the Arizona State band. I'm not a fan of the sped-up renditions, but it was well performed. But on band notes, I really do like the UConn band director. She's very good at what she does.
Oh, Arizona State. If only you could hit the broad side of a barn. If only you knew where the barn even was. So many easy shots that didn't go down. It was horrifying. This would actually have been a single-digit game if Arizona State could hit open shots. Danielle Orsillo played well on the offensive end for the Sun Devils, and I thik she wanted to drag them back by her teeth if necessary. Briann January was trying too hard- making shots flashy that didn't have to be. Whether that was pressure to perform or perceived pressure on her part, thinking the UConn defense was going to kick her ass, I don't know, but it was not of the good if you were rooting for the upset. The big problem for ASU was that they couldn't get anything really useful out of their posts, whether it was because they couldn't hit the aforementioned barn (seriously, Lauren Lacey, 3/10? Who do you think you are, Jennifer Lacy?) or they couldn't stay on the floor ('sup, Sybil Dosty and your foul troubles?) or, well, they were just epic fail. Engelbrecht seemed less scared to shoot than usual, and had a couple of hard plays that might have dispelled her Bambi nickname. I'll tell you who really impressed me and I hadn't heard of before: Nia Fanaika. Not a major boxscore, stat-line game, but somehow she always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. CTT didn't go to the line changes as much in the first half as I got used to during the Texas A&M game, which I think hurt them- they're so used to going all-out because they know there are reinforcements behind them that they started hurrying their offense and slipping on defense. And whoever was supposed to be checking Maya Moore can meet me in the alley out back and I'll thwack them ten or twenty times with my clipboard, because how in the green and orange fuck do you not guard Maya fucking Moore?
Which, speaking of. Setting aside "how in the green and orange fuck do you not guard Maya fucking Moore?", she was a thing of beauty to behold. Those jumpers were so smooth, and she was all over the boards- ASU just couldn't get or keep anyone on her. For a while, I thought Charles was going to get her Jayne Appel on, but then she started getting sloppy and it was more like she was getting her Kia Vaughn on. Love the way she moves, though. Very sleek. Montgomery was going to the hole like she'd decided there was no way on God's green earth this was going to be her last collegiate game. Hayes did not play her smartest game tonight. Lot of freshman mistakes. UConn can't afford that in the Final Four. Kalana Greene was another one of those "in the right place at the right time" players. I think she's officially healed from the ACL tear. Can we say that? Dixon got run because Montgomery had the foul trouble, and it must have torn her up to have to slow the game down, keep the ball in the backcourt, and run clock to negate ASU's tendency to pressure the ball.
I know this is going to sound weird, but for the first time, watching UConn, I felt like I could pick out moves and countermoves on a grand basis. Most of the time, it feels like the two coaches are throwing what they know works at each other, and if it works against the other coach's thing, shiny, and if not, well, life's a bitch. With Auriemma and the Huskies- probably because he has so many things he can throw at an opposing coach- the adjustments are written clearly on the court. Having trouble with posts? Go big. Having trouble with a running team? Slow the game down. Things like that. As a fan of the game, I find things like this fascinating.
Also impressive: the UConn cheerleaders. I hope they have permits for those concealed guns, because, seriously, for a squad composed of women with average builds, those three-layer pyramids and extended lifts are fucking amazing, and probably speak to upper body strength that would make a grown man jealous. Mad props to Jonathan for climbing atop one of the pyramids in the second half. It takes nerve for a guy in a mask to trust to a bunch of people he can't see all that well.
The refereeing was inconsistent, and there were a couple of points where I thought Geno was going to get him thrown out... plus one point where I thought Dailey was going to tire of keeping him tethered, because she looked like she was trying to remember her old post moves from RU.
UConn's dancing after the game was so gosh darn cute. And damn, can Tina Charles bust a move or what? The way everything was moving at once- wow. I think one of the benchies was considering tossing her Trenton Regional Championship t-shirt to the band, but she decided against it. If I'd known Geno wasn't planning on cutting down the net, I'd have left at the buzzer, and these notes might have been written a couple of hours earlier. Please blame all incoherency on the fact that it's about two-thirty in the morning.
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.
March 29th, 2009: California at UConn (NCAA tournament)
UConn Huskies 77, California Golden Bears 53
Tiffany Hayes goes off, Geno Auriemma outcoaches Joanne Boyle, and drama is brief.
Well, that was a very good half by Cal. Shame they couldn't keep it up, but most teams can't quite keep up with the Huskies, so it's not exactly a surprise. But it was a glorious, exciting half.
We were in the endcourts, seven rows up, which souds great until you learn that Sovereign Bank Arena was built primarily as a hockey arena and the boards are permanently fixed. There was a lot of space between the front row and the court. Room enough for a large track and two band pits. Nice, but a bit frustrating. We were in the middle of a mixed bag of fans- UConn fans in front of us, Cal fans a couple of rows behind, people in maroon to our right, a ow of Rutgers shirts in the front of the section, and I don't want to know where or why or how the woman in the "Feed the Turtle" Maryland shirt ended up in there. But there were a lot of misplaced fans- but we'll get to that at intermission.
UConn band did the anthem. They did a credible job with it, though I'm not that fond of the steady drum backbeat arrangement (it's one of the things I hate about the Red Storm's rendition). Major points to the UConn band for not needing sheet music, just the prompt sheet from their director. And Cal always brings good band. I think what I like about them is that when they play a tune, it's actually recognizable as the song it's supposed to be. It's not distorted the way most marching bands are.
I really like Ashley Walker, but I think her size is going to be a disadvantage. She did a great job working against Tina Charles, but I don't know if she can do it night in and night out. Great game today for her. I hope Devanei Hampton is getting her degree in something applicable to the real world, because she was really moving awkwardly out there. I know she was never that fast, but she just couldn't keep up, and her shots were crap. Vital was trying too hard, especially in the second half. She was really forcing the offense. Ditto for Gray-Lawson, who hit some shots early like she was trying to restore the Lawson family honor, but who faded down the stretch. Greif didn't get involved much at all. Neither did the Cal bench- Boyle substituted very sparingly, and I think that was a major problem for them in the second half- their key cogs just didn't have the juice left to run with the Huskies.
And Geno did a great job adjusting, too. There's a reason the man's WCBA COY and his team's undefeated. He started the second half big with McLaren for Greene, and that just completely choked off Cal's inside play. No inside play, no points, no rebounds, and it becomes a helluva lot easier to collapse on the outside shooters. Bam. Of course, the fact that Tiffany Hayes had a career game could not possibly have hurt either. She was hitting shots all over the place, setting up her teammates, and I didn't realize how fast she was until she hit the jets like she was at Daytona on a fast break. And then people kept losing Maya Moore in the second half, and I'm screaming words to the effect of "HOW THE FUCK DO YOU NOT GUARD MAYA FUCKING MOORE?! Cal should b smarter than this!" Montgomery is smaller than I thought. Wasn't impressed with her decision-making, but I guess I didn't have to be. Offensively, Charles wasn't much of a factor, though she and McLaren set good screens to get the guards free, but defensively and on the boards, the big Huskies were bigger than the big Golden Bears.
There were a lot of UConn fans in the house. In other news, the sun rose in the east. They really do a great job of taking over arenas and bringing their customs along (which didn't exactly thrill the boy- see remark above about UConn fans in front of us, and consider that Husky fans stand until the first basket). Good pockets of support for Cal, too. For some reason, the RU fans got behind them. Yes, a lot of people in Scarlet- they'd bought those tickets and they were going to use them, gosh darn it. And since the last major sticking point in shared neutral space for UConn and RU is conference loyalty (see: Storrs pod), the Scarlet stuck with the Blue and Gold.
Inconsistent refereeing, but I'm too tired to bitch. Besides, the difference in the game was UConn adjusting and Cal... not... not the officiating. I hate praising UConn, both because it goes against my grain as a hater of hype and because I'm a Rutgers fan, but there's a reason they're undefeated. Several reasons. And they showed 'em all off against Cal in the second half.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
November 11th, 2007: Stanford at Rutgers
Stanford Cardinal 60, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 58
It's good to be back at the RAC, but Epiphanny Prince needs a smack upside the head and Stanford is pretty good.
There is something to be said for home openers, no matter the result of them. It's good to be home again, even if the RAC is at best a third home for me (after the Garden and Carnesecca Arena). It definitely helped that it was a competitive matchup. And there's definitely something to be said for the new banner hanging over the offices.
That being said, even a day later, I still want to give Epiphanny Prince a good smack upside the head. Actually, several good smacks upside the head.
We had general admission tickets and got there at 7:30 or thereabouts. We were still able to get decent seats- row M, approximately center court. Good crowd, though; a lot of people must have gotten snarled in some of the same traffic we did. More to the point, I liked the people around us: to one side, there was a very nice, if quiet, lady; to the other side, there was a guy who spent his timeouts reading; behind us was a guy who sounded like he knew his shit; in front of us were a pair of very loud, very enthusiastic guys, one of whom had clearly been following the women's game for a while when he declared to the world after another Stanford sub, "Who are they going to bring in next, Kate Starbird?" We did, however, find his lack of faith in the WNBA disturbing.
Anthem was done by the president of the Cagers Club- I suppose, as this was my first RU home opener, I should ask whether this is a tradition or not. I certainly hope it was, because otherwise there was no excuse for letting him near a microphone. Good power, I'll give him that, and he held the last notes beautifully, but he didn't have the range, and some of his phrasing was odd, to say the least.
What's up with Stanford wearing black uniforms? I'm pretty sure black doesn't appear anywhere in the Stanford color scheme, and I'd be inclined to think that they might want to emphasize the color that, oh, they're named after. I do like that they had names on, though. Made it easier to tell who was who. Jerseys with the name on seem to be a lost art, which is a shame.
I went in with the intent to keep an eye on two players: Candice Wiggins, because I devoutly hope I'll be seeing a lot of her at the Garden come May, and Jayne Appel, because one of my friends talks her up a lot. I came out impressed with both of them, but also with Kayla Pedersen. Stanford's got a damn good team this year. Wiggins- well, I'll say that the Ice nickname serves as more than a way to differentiate her from Parker. She doesn’t seem to fear anything. I wonder sometimes if she gets her calls on reputation (although we will get into the black hole of suck that was the refereeing later), but she works her ass off to get in position where a call can be made. I like the way she moves, too, although her footwork might give her some trouble in the W- she made a couple of really nice moves, but also got caught traveling a couple of times. Appel- damn, that is a big girl. I didn't even think Stanford recruited that kind of size. The way she worked on Kia Vaughn- who's no slouch herself- was damn impressive. She knows she's a big girl and she seems to be loving every second of it. Nice soft touch. Still a little awkward- late growth spurt?- but that'll work itself out in time, since she is only a freshman. Pedersen is fierce, and she's got a nice outside touch for someone her size. Gold-Onwude… I wasn't really impressed, although I got the impression that the Stanford offense ran more smoothly when she was in. West Coast folks might know better than I do- is she one of those point guards who doesn't appear to make an impact because she doesn't put up stats, but who runs her team well? For all that VanDerveer played the daylights out of her bench against Yale, she didn't give them that much run last night, and they didn't do much with the run they did get, which might have been why. I mean, Appel and Wiggins both went 40 minutes. I know VanDerveer prides herself on the conditioning of her teams (excuse me while I ponder Jennifer Azzi for a moment… okay, I'm back), but that might be asking a lot, especially from a big like Appel.
Speaking of 40-minute efforts, I think the only reason there were more bench minutes for RU than for Stanford was because Heather Zurich got her face rearranged and because Ajavon got herself in foul trouble with way the hell too much time to go. Essence and Epiphanny both went the full 40, and even with the four fouls, Ajavon played 32 minutes. I can almost understand it- it's not like we were playing a gimme, but have a little faith in your bench, you know? God, I sound like a broken record. I've been kvetching about the same thing for three different teams over the last five years. Anyway. Memo to Ajavon and Epiphanny: you see those people who are wearing clothes very similar to yours? It's okay to give them the ball. Good things will happen. Coach Stringer will not yell at you. Essence also had that problem a little bit, though less than either Ajavon or Epiphanny, who both showed a disturbing willingness to go into triple teams and try to throw up something that might have a prayer of drawing a foul (if, you know, this wasn't Rutgers). Find your shots. Take good shots. 8-13 is one thing, and Epiphanny did a great job on the break. 5-10, somewhat better. 6-18, less so, especially when the last of those shots was a three with too much time on the clock that gave Stanford a chance to have a decent possession. Kia was… some of those blocks were pure beauty, and Appel was giving her all she could handle. Still. As a St. John's fan and a Rutgers fan, I am perhaps more qualified than most to quote timber's mantra: "Give Kia the ball." I'd like to see what happens if Myia and Brittany are given a little more run, because though I can't put my finger on what I liked, I know that I liked having them on the floor. The problem is that we really don't have a lot of size, a lack that Stanford exploited rather glaringly. I'm really not looking forward to Sylvia Fowles's return to the RAC, and I may be thanking my lucky stars I'll be at St. John's that day when all is said and done. The intensity is still there- I doubt it will ever leave so long as Stringer is coaching there- but the teamwork seemed to be lacking. 12 assists on 23 field goals… that makes me a bit queasy. There's no excuse for it, either- all of these players played together last season.
Referees, oh, wow, they were special. I've gotten used to the array of missed calls and phantom calls in women's ball- and I'm not disputing the last foul, just to let you know; my issue with it was the mind-boggling stupidity of charging the damn ball in the backcourt with that little time left- but last night's crew made me shake my head. There was one point where I saw one official call a carry even as the official turnover was a three-second call (which was something they didn't seem all that capable of calling most of the night, but I'm not so sure refs can count). There was a play where Ajavon went barreling into two Cardinal defenders and correctly had an offensive foul called on her- except that the signal the ref made indicated push off when it was a pretty clear charge. I'm not quite sure how you can commit a travel without moving your pivot foot- in fact, I'm fairly certain that's the definition of what a travel is NOT- and yet they called one on Kia. Je n'comprende. They got worse and worse as the game went on; truthfully, I think they could use a session of conditioning with either of the coaches, along with a good lecture.
I always worry about chemistry, and while this year will be fine, I really worry about next year. We might actually see Kia grab Epiphanny by the throat and yell "GIVE ME THE BALL!" in the middle of a game. Oh, and I'm really looking forward to the St. John's game on January 5th. Ajavon and Prince can go two-on-two with Monique McLean and Sky Lindsay while the Kias sit on the sidelines and kvetch about their teammates.
Can I say how much I'm loving the information added to the boxscore this year? Score notations include whether a shot was in the paint or on a fast break; foul notations include both how many the player has and how many the team has. I don't know how long this has been going on, but it rocks my socks.
Does anyone know what the hell happened to Dee Dee Jernigan? She seems to have disappeared again. Damn it, if she's left, we should get Tudy Reed back! ;)
On our way out, we saw a Queens private car parked in the lot, driver waiting. Either someone has a helluva lot of money to blow or someone's related to a driver who took the night off to see his kinswoman. In either case, I salute *you*, Mr. Private Cab Driver.
But, as the avatar says, I bleed red, come hell or high water. My next game is Maryland- I already bought my ticket.