May 18th, 2003: Houston @ New York (preseason)

New York Liberty 67, Houston Comets 64

The Comets come to New York to kick off 2003, the Game Notes Of Doom debut, and I am horribly, horribly wrong about Teresa Weatherspoon and the Liberty's season.



*waves hand eagerly*

I was there! Okay, first things first, I have to apologize to Linda Fröhlich. *embarrassed, grovels* 11 rebounds today. Granted, Thompson wasn't around, nor was Tiffani Johnson, nor was Tammy Jackson, but still. She subbed quite nicely for our All-Star posts (Tari and Elena are, I believe, still overseas. Neither played.). She's a keeper.

The rookies played, as did Lindsey Yamasaki and Maren Walseth. I was moderately to very impressed. Our neoyorquina, Sonja Mallory, made a major impression pretty much as soon as she came in the game; she blocked a shot into the seats, rebounded when the possession continued, showed off some fancy footwork, and proved that she fears no ref or player; she LEVELED Sheryl Swoopes. Sorry, Swoopetastik and the rest of y'all Comet fans, but I loved every second of that. She's a keeper, and I no longer miss Bernadette.

Susan Moran had a season of pent-up hustle waiting to burst out; she was all over the place. She broke up two Comet fast breaks. Her ballhandling is nothing to write home about, but she's not Becky.

Of the three rookie guards- Molly Creamer, K.B. Sharp, and Erin Thorn- I was most impressed by the latter two. Creamer made some stupid mistakes. Sharp was the best of the point guards, and Thorn shows the potential to be a Hammon-type, only taller and with better defense.

Yamasaki was inconsistent but talented. Walseth was quite capable and seems to be a good utility player, someone in the mold of Sue Wicks. Bethany Donaphin, another New Yorker, played well but not well enough; her basket, however, was the one that gave the Liberty the lead in the second half.

Now for the rundowns y'all been waiting for... Spoon was fabulous, simply fabulous; whichever rookies survive the cut will have a helluva fight for minutes, she's playing ten years younger. VJ looks like she's put on some weight, but it might be muscle; she was, of course, herself, except for one pass into a crowd which I like to think of as getting her mistake of the season out. Crystal... Crystal is Crystal, but I thought she was wearing a padded bra. TMI, I know, but she might have put weight on too. Miko looked fantastic, running great, moving well, scoring at will. Becky drilled three threes, but her defense sucked ass- at least seven Houston points could be traced to her losing her assignment on defense. Camille Cooper, on the other hand, SUCKED. Her offense was atrocious, her defense nonchalant, her skills overall lacking; she missed layups, let passes bounce off her hands, and committed bad fouls. I move her up on my cut list, especially with Tari, Elena, Miko, Linda, and Sonja ahead of her on the depth chart.

There were stupid things, but the chemistry seems to be working. Blessedly, Richie sat the starters for about half the game, with Fro' getting a bit more time. My rough estimate, I'd have to check the box for exact numbers.

Moving on to Houston ... Swoopes was... well, she was Sheryl freakin' Swoopes. Cynthia Cooper is in cornrows *shudders all the way to the Finals*. She's lost a step at least; one image ingrained in my memory is of VJ literally freezing Coop in her tracks with a jump-stop before swishing a jumper from about the foul line. She's not the Coop of old. Chancellor played a lot of point guards, trying to figure out which one worked best. The offense seemed to move most smoothly with Ukari Figgs in the game, with Janeth Arcain coming in second. Michelle Snow is improving quite a bit; she backed down Sonja Mallory a couple of times, which is a pretty neat trick when it's 158 versus 210 at the same height. No dunks, sorry. A couple of players with unpronouncable names, Mfon Udoka and Itoro Umoh-Coleman, impressed; looks like they might have a place, which is good since they've been kicking around training camps forever. Tina was injured, so was Tiffani Johnson, so no post game except when Swoopes took it inside or when Snow was in the game. They seemed disorganized and confused. I think Tammy Jackson's departure might have destabilized locker room affairs a little bit; there's no real veteran, calming presence there anymore.

Don't worry, it's almost over. Sue Wicks was at the game, of course, with someone I believe is her significant other; saw the lady once or twice before with her. She was sitting with Kym Hampton and some truck-driver type guy. I wonder if it was a double date? She dressed well and was gracious to everyone around her. Nice to see retirement hasn't changed her. They were front row, right across from the Liberty bench. The Garden was pretty loud. Lot of Girl Scouts. And of course, season subscribers who are stupid enough to scream their throats raw at a preseason game. I'd put attendance at between six and seven thousand.

So right now, my predictions for the Liberty are all sunny. My cut list of four is: Camille Cooper, Molly Creamer, Bethany Donaphin, and Erin Thorn (and the last two or three are quite questionable and either could stay without me screaming bloody murder). Sonja Mallory is a keeper, and I'd love to keep Maren Walseth around. Of course, Tari and Elena throw off these calculations, and of course one game should not decide a player's fate. But if I were Becky Hammon, I'd watch my back in the next couple of years...