Just the Facts, Ma'am: Fordham came on strong in the third quarter to win going away against Richmond, 60-48. Bre Cavanaugh led the way for the Rams with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Alex Parson had a team-high 12 points for Richmond.
For unaccompanied majors, the burning need for caffeine, and ennui, join your intrepid and blasé blogger after the jump.
Good morning, everyone! Your intrepid blogger is enjoying her last few days of freedom before starting a new job, which means going to all the morning games. I missed any pregame at Fordham, thanks to getting a late start.
So it's halftime here at Rose Hill Gymnasium, and Fordham is up 34-25 on Richmond. Five threes in the first quarter helps with that. Unfortunately for my sanity, the stupid Simon Says guy is our halftime "entertainment". I don't want to know how cheap he works if he does so many of these events, and if he's working the St. John's game on Friday I may scream, and not in the way the PA guy wants us to.
So far we've been getting the benefit of most of the calls (yeah, that was a big screen by Hinds-Clarke, but I thought it was legal). I don't know how long that's going to last.
I'm just saying, if you're here to support a member of the opposing team, you could consider not sitting across from the home bench, or spending most of the game staring at your phone, including the time that the girl you so enthusiastically applauded for got her bucket. Ugh, I'm too tired for this and my lower left wisdom tooth is coming in. Is there a nap corner I can use?
Still very tired. We'll see just how coherent these notes are, but at least I've now had lunch and some caffeine. Caffeine is love. Caffeine is life. The caffeine must flow.
Richmond doesn't seem to be particularly anything. They're not terrible at defense but they're not great at it; they don't have any extreme tendencies towards three-point shooting or interior play; no one really has an on-court demeanor that stands out, one way or another. Even the coach is unremarkable. I suppose there has to be a team like that somewhere, but boy does it make the GNoD even harder to write than usual.
Imani Mustaf has the physical and stylistic profile of someone who hit a very late, very spectacular growth spurt and was told that she would now be playing basketball. She moves like she's afraid her body will break if she goes too hard or takes too much contact. She definitely needs to bulk up a little, gain some stamina, and get more confident in herself and her ability. Jayana Ervin and Ragan Wiseman only got into the game at the very end; Autumn Truesdale didn't beat them in by much, but had just enough time to make a post move. Kailyn Fee's three came near the very end of the game.
Aniyah Carpenter got off to a fast start for the Spiders, scoring on pull-ups in the lane. She got a lot of minutes, especially in the second half, both because she was scoring and because there was foul trouble for Richmond's starting backcourt. Daijia Ruffin, on the other hand, got off to a rough start, with a couple of shots missed short and a terrible passing turnover. But she settled down in the second half. She's a big, stocky guard, but her speed and smoothness belie her build. Madelyn Neff provided the bulk of the reserve minutes in the frontcourt, but I'd have to review the tape to see what impact, if any, she made on this game.
I'm glad Amy Duggan is all right after coming up limping in the first half. That being said, perhaps that will teach her to watch her feet a little more carefully on both ends of the court- she got called for tripping at least once because of how wide her stance was, and how she had them turned out. She fought well in the paint for rebounds. Jaide Hinds-Clarke came alive briefly in the fourth quarter, with back-to-back steals (including a very impressive pickpocketing of Bre Cavanaugh- that's not easy to do) and tough and-1s in the paint. She spent much of the game in foul trouble, which made her far less effective.
Alex Parson wasn't afraid to shoot, and got on a three-point streak in the third quarter. Her release is pretty quick, and she's got some range. I just don't see that much more to her game, though I'm ready to be proven wrong if this game was an outlier. Claire Holt was slim, and shockingly pale, and did all right for herself going to the hoop. Molly Mraz picked up two fouls early, and with Carpenter producing on offense, I can understand why Richmond's coach went with the lineups he did.
I'm trying to come up with more details, but Richmond was so ridiculously pedestrian, so unrelentingly average, that you'd think they were representing Lake Wobegon or something. If you're going to have no distinguishing features as a team, at least put names on your jerseys. Sheesh.
So Coach Gaitley completely emptied the bench at the end of this one, to the point where players I thought weren't even available were suiting up. Welcome back, Ralene Kwiatkowski! I like how willing she was to take a charge, even right back from an injury. And I thought Edona Thaqi was sitting out a transfer year (she's from UConn... okay, UConn-Avery Point, but the point still remains) but she got into the game at the very, very end. I don't think she's ready yet, and I might not have played her at all this year. The entire bench was ready to get up and get hyped for Katie McLoughlin and Catherine Polisano if they scored, and Bre looked so heartbroken when Katie's shot went in and out. Vilisi Tavui continues to be tall and unsure of what to do with this information. I would really like to see more of Alexa Giuliano. Someone needs to give Lauren Holden a break at some point.
Coach Gaitley put a lot more focus on the inside game in this one- I think this is the most I've seen Megan Jonassen play in one game. She gave us some good tough boxouts. Quiet game for Zara Jillings, and one where she seemed to be getting more Teaching Moments than usual. Maybe she's just not a morning person. I know that feeling. I'm definitely more of a night owl.
Quiet game for Kaitlyn Downey. I'm disturbed by the number of three-point attempts, but I think a lot of them were in the first quarter, or at least the first half, when the team was collectively feeling it, so I can understand her thinking. If that was the shot Richmond was allowing, then it wasn't the worst idea in the world. Mary Goulding cleaned up on the inside- her teammates did a really good job of finding her, both the guards and the posts (I think Megan had an especially nice feed to her on the inside.
I don't understand how Kendell Heremaia and Bre Cavanaugh can do such a good job of connecting on the backdoor cut, and do such a terrible job of communicating on the glass. One day, they're going to go after the same board at the wrong angle, and someone's going to get hurt (especially when you throw Mary's hustle into the mix). That all being said, I don't want anything to change about their shared desire for the ball- just maybe their ability to entrust the other person with it. I love Bre's rebounding, though I'm perturbed that one of our guards is consistently leading the team in rebounding- yes, she's playing a lot of minutes and I haven't crunched the advanced stats, but it feels like the advanced stats are heavily in Bre's favor as well. I love how Kenny's developing. She seems poised to take over as point guard when Lauren Holden graduates, and I can already tell that she'll be a different kind of point from Lauren. I'm okay with that. For some reason, the word "collaborative" comes to mind. Lauren had the three-point shot going from deep early. I'm not always happy about that, because she'll usually start leaning on it even when she goes cold, but she was driving the lane more in this game (even if her floater still needs a lot of work).
Our passing game was pretty sharp in this one. With the guards we have, I shouldn't be surprised by that, but it's always a pleasant surprise when it stands out.
I do apologize for the delay on this, but it's been a bit of a crazy week, and I cannot emphasize enough how relentlessly uninspiring Richmond was. It was close for a while, and then we went on a run in the third quarter, and I'm still not entirely certain how it happened.
Saturday, January 12, 2019
January 9th, 2019: Richmond at Fordham
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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.