Don’t worry everyone, I just wanted you all to know that I haven’t a. thrown myself off a bridge, b. thrown myself in front of a truck, or c. died from spontaneous heart implosion.
In case you haven’t figured it out already, UConn lost to Stanford tonight. Don’t know the final score, don’t care to look it up (I’ll explain why at the end, and actually, if you’d like to skip all this next stuff because you’re not interested in basketball or UConn, I’d still really appreciate it if ya’ll could read the end, just cause I have a question I’m trying to feel out). I’ve been predicting this loss for a while now, but it still hurts. I’m twenty two years old now, and still a Huskymaniac, but I’ve matured to the point that I don’t cry after losses anymore ;). I remember being a senior in high school and not being able to sleep because every single time I closed my eyes, I saw our last second desperation shot rim out against Duke. I cried all night and cried all day in class the next day. What a loser. But anyway, I’m a grown woman now, and I don’t cry (that much) anymore. I just think about what we can do better next time.
But before I get into anything, HUGE props to Tara VanDerveer and her team. UNBELIEVABLE night for Pohlen, who was the best player on the floor tonight. They studied and studied, came up with a game plan, and executed it. Stepped between the lines ready to play, knowing that they should win. And they played their hearts out, from start to finish. This isn’t quite vindication for last April, but I’m sure it still feels sweet as hell. Great game, Stanford!
Oh, and I just wanted to say that I LOVED when Chiney Ogwumike went over to the UConn bench and hugged Geno Auriemma after she fouled out. After this game I’m kind of like, Tennessee who? Well, not totally, but I’m liking UConn/Stanford a lot. I miss the nastiness of the UConn/Tennessee games, but I love how much respect and love UConn and Stanford have for each other. They love playing each other, and it always takes one team playing their best game to beat the other. I had an inkling from the beginning of the season that we might lose this game, and while I’m never happy with losses, I’m glad it came against a team that played their hearts out, a team that played hard, and a team that’s as classy and gracious in defeat as they are in victory. Great kids out on the court tonight, in Stanford and UConn jerseys.
Can I just lawl for a second that it took like 89 wins for Maya Moore to become a trending topic on Twitter, but one loss made “Damn UCONN” and “Standford” (nice one, guys) trending topics within an hour? Unforch, but I guess that’s the way it works. *shrug*
Initial thoughts:
a. I’d like to write a Basketball Love Letter to Kelly Faris. (I know I’ve written Basketball Love Letters to about 32759243875 different players, but it’s still special, I swear.) But in any case, Kelly Faris balled out tonight — big time. Ya girl was continually given open looks by the Stanford D — basically straight dissed! — and even though she missed the first few shots she took, she started sinking ’em. She kept us in the game with her all-out effort on both ends of the court. I’ve always loved everything about Kelly Faris’ game — her D, her court vision, her passing skills, her unselfishness, the way she’s not afraid of anyone (5’11 Faris on what, 6’4 Pedersen?), her willingness to do anything that’s asked of her, the way she GETS the ball, the way she fights … I could go on and on and on. I can’t wait to look at her stat line, because I’m sure it’s loaded. I hope these last two games give her a little offensive swagger to build on for the rest of the season. Work on her shot, work on her dribble penetration … I’d love to see 12+ points out of her every single night, and I’d love to see her improve her free throw percentage. We’re really gonna need her in April.
Sick game, Kelly. Keep balling out. (psiloveyou)
b. I said it when we played Baylor and I’ll say it again — we don’t have a post game. I’m not even talking about having someone to defend Brittany Griner or whatever, I’m talking we just don’t have a post presence at all. Stef Dolson, Heather Buck, Samarie Walker, Michala Johnson — consider the gauntlet thrown. The post game has GOT to develop if we want to win. The same criticisms that I’ve laid upon Illinois applies to UConn, too. We’re primarily a jump shooting team without a beast like Tina Charles in the middle, and when your shooters are ice cold like they were tonight, you have to have another weapon in your offensive arsenal to fall back on. No two ways around it. CD and Marisa — get to working on those girls!
c. Maya Moore is human. What? Stanford didn’t give her any easy looks at the basket tonight, and Maya didn’t create shots. Even after Geno challenged her to get to the line, she took another airball three. It was maddening. Maya’s a much better player than the one she was tonight, and I hope this loss has her hungry to get better and to step up as a leader when the team needs her. I don’t want to talk about DT vs. Maya right now, because there’s still a whole lotta season left to play, but you know Diana would have put the team on her back and found a way. So you too, Maya — I still love you, but … gauntlet.
d. What’s been up with Tiffany Hayes? She’s like the UConn version of Brandon Paul. She’ll light you up for twenty one night, and be completely silent for the next few nights. I just don’t get it.
e. Bria Hartley is growing up before our eyes, America *tear*. She had some freshman mistakes out there tonight, but the kid has fire and I’m so excited to watch her develop.
f. Tonight was the first night in a long time that I’ve had a gripe about our defense. I’m not happy about the way we played D tonight. Not happy at all. When I saw that play where Nneka got wide open for an easy layup and Maya had just lost her and was standing there with her hands at her side … man. How many times did we leave Pohlen and other shooters open for the three? How many times did we let Stanford players drive around and past us for easy layups? How many times did we get burnt on backdoor cuts for easy layups? How many times? I caught myself doing the Geno Hair Rub multiple times this game. That was NOT UConn D.
g. How many times did we recklessly drive into the lane and throw a shot up, hoping for a whistle? I mean, there’s a difference between driving into the lane trying to get a shot, and driving into the lane praying for a foul call. I felt like we lost so many scoring opportunities by just driving in there and throwing something up, hoping to hear a whistle, and instead it was just a shitty “shot” and Stanford would get an easy rebound. Just … MADDENING.
h. Can we hit some free throws? DAMN. Scoring when the clock’s stopped, great way to help a comeback. But DAMN. Nothing free about ’em, ya’ll.
i. I hope Geno makes practice absolutely hellish from here until April. Just have like two guys draped all over Maya, shoving her around and being physical as hell. Make her fight through it. Shit, put three guys on her. Make her pissed as hell, make her work and fight for her shots. Cause if tonight was tough, Baylor and Stanford in March and April are gonna be even tougher.
j. All of that said, 90 was nice, but the National Championship is what you’re working for. I’ll take three in a row over ninety in a row any day, if yaknowhumsayin. You know what it feels like to lose now. You know what it feels like to hear someone else cheering and exploding with happiness at center court while you walk off the court with your heads down and an “L” on your back. So take this and learn from it. Take this and get hungrier. Take this and get back to work, harder than before. Work hard, dream big, and leave nothing. Heads up, Huskies.
And I’m sure none of you were wondering, but I’ll always bleed Husky Blue (and Orange and Blue, but a different shade of blue). No matter what.
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[Okay. So here’s my question. I don’t mean to come off as a man-hating feminist (because I’m not … ask ANYBODY who knows ANYTHING about my dating history and you’d know that I’m basically the worst feminist of all time), but I have to ask, at the risk of being totally insufferable and ridiculous, cause I’m legit curious.
After the game I got on Google to look up a picture of Kelly Faris (cause y’know I had to give a shout out to my girl in profile picture form), and immediately got little live Twitter updates on Google about the game. I forget the exact wording, but some guy tweeted something along the lines of “In non-sports news, UConn loses to Stanford”. Also, I got on IllinoisLoyalty to finish reading the Illinois/Baylor thread, and saw that someone had posted a “THANKS STANFORD” thread in the “other sports” forum. I know that I have GOT to grow up and stop letting those comments get under my skin the way they do, but anyway, here’s my question: Why do these guys (most, but not all, of the comments like those I’ve seen are from guys) have to trash women’s sports? Why can’t they just ‘not care’? I think there’s a difference between not caring (i.e. I’m not gonna watch or talk about women’s sports) and trashing (i.e. I’m gonna talk shit or belittle/make fun). It’s just like, damn, I’m not mad at you for wanting to see guys dunk and stuff, and I’m not trying to lobby for you to watch women’s basketball. Do what you wanna do! Pers pref, as Sarah would say! But dang if you don’t wanna watch, you don’t have to, and you don’t have to talk garbage, either. They’re showing women’s basketball on SportsCenter, then change the channel for a few minutes! That’s what I do when they talk about hockey or something that I’m not into. No big deal, other people are into it, so it’s on there for them. I sit and wait through all of Baseball Tonight just so I can see the Web Gems and the White Sox highlights. When they’re showing a team I’m not interested in, I just read or switch the channel or something. Not that hard.
And I gotta wonder (because the guy who said UConn/Stanford was “non-sports” news also said he was a dad in his Twitter bio): What do the guys who have these opinions do when their daughters want to play sports?! Discourage them? Tell them that they’re not real athletes? Value their daughter’s efforts less because they’re not playing “real sports”? I’m not trying to be mean or to be caustic or anything, I legitimately want to know.
Personally, I think it’s pretty cool that little girls who are growing up hooping now have women like Maya Moore and Nneka Ogwumike to look up to and watch. I didn’t really know women’s college basketball was available to me until I was eleven and saw my first UConn game, and until then I grew up watching Michael Jordan (who wasn’t a bad player to watch growing up, obviously). But y’know, it’s cool to see a girl do the things you wanna do and to be able to look up to her. But anyway.
So those are my questions in bold: Why do guys have to hate if they don’t care, why can’t they just be content with not caring? and What do these guys who have these opinions do when their daughters (or girlfriends or wives or nieces, etc. etc.) want to play sports?
Eh, just wondering.]
