Fightin’ Chance
Skylar Diggins & Becca Bruszewski, Notre Dame women’s basketball
I don’t know about the luck o’ the Irish, but I will put my faith in the talent and the toughness o’ the Irish.
HD Quality on your Computer Screen
emcee melmel’s latest single, I Got Bounce, dropped yesterday, complete with HD Quality music video featuring the Stanford team.
It’s not the first time Mel Murphy has released a tune come tourney time — two years ago she introduced us to the party as well. (if she did anything last year though i missed it)
Some screencaps from the latest video to tease you to watch the video:
Jeanette Pohlen in HD Quality on your computer screen
Who got it?
We got it!
Dancing Queen
So after not that much agonizing over this year’s matchups, here’s my 2011 NCAA Tourney bracket. Just a few observations:
Yes, I have UConn winning it all. Simple rule: never bet against UConn and Maya Moore. I may root against UConn, I may pray against UConn, I may be willing to offer up STAN’s first-born for UConn to lose to Stanford in the title game, but I know to write UConn into the box in the middle of the bracket. Trust me, I will do a happy dance should my bracket get busted if UConn loses early, but at least I can find some solace in a successful bracket if the Huskies are hoisting their third consecutive trophy the first Tuesday in April.
I do have all the 1-seeds advancing to Indy, which seems unlikely, but looking at all the teams, I really feel like those four teams are heads and shoulders above the competition. (Although I am always nervous about Stanford, but a lot of that is cause I’m such a Stanford fan that I worry that everyone can beat them. But realistically, they have enough talent and depth and talented depth that they should make it out of their region, and hopefully without even needing last-minute Pohlen heroics.)
I’m a little nervous about having all 9s over 8s and all 10s over 7s in the first round, especially since the rest of my bracket is relatively upset-free. But I’m fairly confident in all of these upset picks, and more importantly, they’re all STAN-approved, so I’ll just blame him if they all turn out wrong. Some highlights:
- 10 Marist over 7 Iowa State. STAN vouches for Marist. Lori saw enough of Iowa State to have not been impressed. When good teams game plan to shut down Bolte, the Cyclones have not proven that they can break it up and get her shots consistently.
- 10 La Tech over 7 Rutgers. Having faith in a WAC school! Really though, I think the Lady Techsters can withstand the Rutgers pressure, and Adrienne Johnson is a beast inside.
- 10 Vandy over 7 Louisville. I always pick Vandy for at least one tourney upset. And it’s not just cause I have a soft spot for the ‘Dores – they always seem to step up come tourney time. That’s the kind of team they are; what they lack in pure talent they make up for in hustle and dedication and discipline. And that makes a difference in the Big Dance. Plus, Jence Rhoads is teh awesome.
- 9 Texas over 8 Marquette. Okay, Texas is kinda the anti-Vandy. They have a lot of individual talent, but more often than not it just does not translate into successful team efforts. Frankly, I was a bit surprised they even made the tourney – they had no good wins, a lot of good losses, and a couple of bad losses (*cough* Missouri *cough*). But, hey, since they’re here, I’m going to have faith that they can put it together for one game at least. A team with Fontennette, Anderson, Nash and Fussell on offense and Gayle on defense should be able to do that, right?
Other first-round upsets:
- 11 Gonzaga over 6 Iowa. Y’know, Gonzaga didn’t really impress me when they were here in November, but this game is at Gonzaga, and I’m not betting against Vandersloot at home in the first round. Plus, the Zags do have a number of shooters, so if at least a few of them are hot and providing good targets for Sloot, it could be a short night for the Hawkeyes.
- 12 Arkansas-Little Rock over 5 Wisconsin-Green Bay. I asked STAN. He said to pick UALR.
all the other girls here are stars; you are the northern lights
Because this is a beautiful song, and every time that first line comes on, I think of Kathleen Nash.
A Kayla by any other name
Had a major duh moment today – wouldn’t it be fun to keep track of the many times that poor Kayla Pedersen gets her name misspelled? For the record, it is officially P-E-D-E-R-S-E-N, which, admittedly, is not the most common spelling, but c’mon, reporters, how difficult is it to check a roster before filing your story? Anyway, I will update this post as I find new instances. Feel free to leave submissions in the comments.
Jan. 29, 2011, Stanford at Oregon State AP recap – “Pederson powers No. 4 Stanford past Oregon State” (spelled correctly in story, but not in headline)
Feb. 14, 2010, Stanford at Washington State AP recap – “Nnemkadi Ogwumike added 21 points and Kayla Petersen 13 for Stanford (23-1, 13-0 Pac-10).”
Dec. 30, 2009, Stanford at Fresno State AP recap – “Kayla Pederson added 14 points and 11 rebounds for Stanford (10-1), which outrebounded the smaller Bulldogs 53-29.”
Nov. 30, 2008, Stanford at Hawaii, K5 television broadcast – Kayla was listed as “Kayla Penderson” in the starting lineup. This broadcast was also aired in the Bay Area, btw, and K5 also listed JJ’s name as “JJ Holmes.”
Streak, what streak?
You mean Stanford’s consecutive home winning streak?
Cause that’s the only one I see!
My girl Jeanette fuckin’ Pohlen, baby!
And I just would like to direct you to something I wrote just a few months ago:
Judy Mosley 2.0
That’s a pretty presumptuous thing to call Kamilah Jackson.
But after her 31-point, 25-rebound performance against Cal State Bakersfield last night, I let myself consider it seriously for more than a few moments.
Now, I don’t want to put too much pressure on the 5-11 freshman leading Hawaii in scoring and rebounding this season. But from the Bows’ exhibition games against Chaminade and BYU-Hawaii, I had a feeling Jackson had the potential to be much more than the next in a long line of undersized Wahine posts.
Again, I tried to be cautious in my excitement about Jackson considering those were exhibition games against D2 teams (and that may be a generous descriptor for Chaminade).
But now 11 games into her freshman season, Jackson is proving her worth against real D1 competition, averaging 14.5 points and 12.3 rebounds per outing. And since moving into the starting lineup, those numbers have gone up to 20.0 points and 15.2 rebounds over those five games.
And Jackson has put up good numbers against more than just the transitional D2 teams (that’s a real slight to Bakersfield to call them that, sorry ‘Runners). She put up a decent 10 and 8 on 4-of-6 shooting against UCLA, and dropped 10 and 10 off the bench against North Carolina, both highly ranked teams with quality posts.
Hopefully Jackson can continue to succeed as the competition grows more familiar with her. (Her lack of size shouldn’t be too bothersome in the WAC.) And while I don’t really think Judy Mosley’s career records of 2,479 points and 1,441 rebounds are in danger of falling, I do believe that in four years, we should be adding just the second ever member to our 1000-1000 club.
A Warm Western Welcome
Coach G (UCSB’s, not UT’s) extended a warm Twitter welcome (back) (excuse her, she hasn’t been at UCSB long) to us today:
I’ve mentioned I’m excited to be going home, yes?
Miss us, Big West?
Just jumping in quickly to excitedly say: We’re going back to the Big West!!!
See ya, WhACk!
EDIT: Yes, they did!
Jumping on the Batmobile
Breanna Arbuckle is winning me over.
I know I’ve made more than my fair share of exasperated noises at the young woman they call “Bat” (for her love of Batman) the last two years. But the development she’s shown so far this season is making me happy to recant every time I said she was an athlete, but not a basketball player.
In my defense, I am not a fan of showy, especially not at the expense of sound basketball. And I’ve always agreed that Arbuckle has mind-blowing athletic ability and probably could clear me from a standing leap. But while everyone else oohed and aahed when she made yet another amazing, twisting leap, I only groaned as the ball she awkwardly hurled banged hard off the backboard or sailed out of bounds.
But this year, Arbuckle has reined in her pure athleticism and played under control, and her bettered basics have shown up in her stats. Through three games, she is leading the team with 14.3 points per game on 56 percent shooting on her way to earning tournament MVP honors last weekend. And while her turnover numbers are still higher than I’d like (but same could be said for all the Wahine), she is quickly becoming the keystone player for the ‘Bows, AND is getting the job done.
Take for example Saturday’s game against Eastern Michigan. The Wahine kept it close to the Eagles for the first 10 minutes, thanks in large part to great play by Arbuckle on both ends of the floor. I even tweeted a Breanna Arbuckle appreciation tweet, and this was before I wrote up a blog entry that admits I’ve been far to harsh on Bat in the past.
But then Arbuckle subbed out, and EMU began to pull away. True, the Wahine’s downfall in that blowout rested heavily on our backcourt’s inability to keep up with the faster, more agile Eagle guards, but momentum certainly shifted when Arbuckle left the game, and the Wahine never recovered.
But all this is not to say that Bat is not still wowing the crowd with incredible displays of athleticism. She still gains air with the ease of a different superhero who is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. And when her soft fingerroll sweetly swishes through the bottom of the net, even I jump up and clap and ooh and aah.
