July 6th, 2003: New York at Connecticut

Connecticut Sun 62, New York Liberty 58

The Game Notes hit the road and the road returns the favor, but Mohegan Sun sure is purty.


Mohegan is a very nice little arena. There isn’t a lot of Sun gear in the stands, but I suppose there isn’t a lot of Sun gear in the first place. There are a lot, a lot of Liberty fans here. We can see lots of blue and white jerseys from here, with very little of the Sun red or their navy blue shirts. We’ve got a pretty decent view; the mamacita and I are just off the center court line.

Arena notes. I like their musical taste. They’ve got some good jams. The seats aren’t as solid as those at the Garden, a little less comfortable too. I still like their logo, though it still seems like a ripoff of the Sol logo. The Liberty fans are mostly to my left, though there’s a few in the section behind the basket to the right and in the other areas. Joe, I can see you from up here, you lucky bastard. The announcer is a bit annoying, and if he calls her T.J. McWilliams-Franklin one more time, I’m going to kill him. They do have a couple of handy add-ons that our guy doesn’t do; possession after timeouts and such.

It’s been a half of runs, really, the last and longest being a long run by the Liberty. McWilliams-Franklin is sharp in the early going for Connecticut; for us, it’s Tari, Elena, and Crystal. I keep looking futilely for a scoreboard so I can find out what happened with the Yankees and the Sox. Not as many amenities, but I really don’t care. They did “Ain’t Goin’ Down ‘Til the Sun Comes up” for one of their dance routines, so I like this place a lot.

Unfortunately, the only thing that improved at halftime was my social life. Kate, LibertyMascot, IMissKym, it was nice to meet y’all. I gave out a bunch of the magnets and spread the good word. Jeez Louise, what happened to them? Granted, there were some bad mistakes on the coaching side (Richie, I’d be looking at you right now), and granted, these refs made Bell and Courteau look qualified to ref the Finals, but what the hell happened? Everything just suddenly fell apart. The offense hit the skids, the defense turned into Swiss cheese, and everyone seemed to forget that there was a lot of basketball to play. Tamika couldn’t throw it in the ocean, and Teresa chose really, really bad times to shoot the ball. Nykesha Sales finally showed up, which was too, too nice of her. If she doesn’t make the All-Star team, Val Ackerman’s an idiot. As mentioned, Richie made some bad decisions, taking out hot hands and waiting too long to remove ineffective players. As mentioned, the refs were calling some truly non-existent fouls and ignoring blatant violations (one comes to mind- Pee-Wee drove, Spoon fell and took out the ref- no call either way; do you get bonus points for hitting a ref or something?). But in the end this was the Liberty’s game to lose, and they did so with style.

Mohegan can get surprisingly loud when the Sun finally get their asses in gear. The place was rocking, literally. And they really like Rebecca Lobo; she got more applause than just about anyone.

K.B. continues to show talent beyond her years with the usual occasional rookie mistake. I was surprised to see Erin in for so many minutes, and a little surprised not to see Linda; Lindsey was a lost cause after her non-showing against Sales the other night. I noticed one trend that bothered the living daylights out of me; they kept shooting three-pointers, even when it was abundantly clear that the damn things weren’t going in. Guys, y’all need to go inside. Make them work, damn it! Make them work! *sigh* If they don’t go inside, they are going to be in deep crap. And Tamika needs to find her game. Now. Along with her enthusiasm. She just doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass anymore.

Unwanted Midriff Sightings: Wasn’t really looking, but Katie Douglas comes to mind.

Becky Watch: Yes, Becky was here. Surprised? So was I when mamacita spotted her. She was all in white, blouse over what I think was a tank top. She was walking around just like she was healthy or something. I wanted to scream every time that she was on her feet. I guess Connecticut isn’t so far; injured players can’t usually travel with their teams. Then again, she’s not technically on the injured reserve, so maybe they have to bring her. Hmm.

Blaze and family were at the game. I saw them coming up the escalator with their little Sun beach pails, and I commented that she was pretty much the last person I’d expect to see with one of those. (I didn’t get a beach pail. *all lament*)

In the end, going on the road with the team is all very well and good, but it’s not nearly as much fun when they lose. I’m fairly sure some of the Sun fans who were leaving were staring at me with pity in their eyes.