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.
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.