Tag Archives: ncaa

Vandersloot and Half of Final Four

29 Tuesday Mar 2011

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httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp7h0iPhIrk

I blame my location and lack of coverage of Gonzaga games. Also work coz it devours time. And the frakking Tohoku Earthquake for throwing our lives in disarray when I could have focused on basketball. Okay, just for throwing our lives in disarray and wiping out cities and killing thousands and causing rolling blackouts and nuclear cores melting and radioactive isotopes escaping into every-fucking-where, never mind the fact that I couldn’t watch my basketball games. People have lost everything and some people are still risking their lives to solve the whole nuke thing and babies are seriously not allowed to drink Tokyo tap water because radioactive particles were found in the filtering plant and ugh, I know it’s been all said and done but when is this ever going to stop?

So anyway, to distract myself from the daily worries (it quaked again earlier, epicenter was at Fukushima, M6.4), I should have found out about Courtney Vandersloot earlier and probably have waxed poetic about her point guarding skills more than what’s necessary. You know, because my fave player on earth is still Sue ‘D!e B!tchez’ Bird and we all know that girl is in a league of her own when it came to being a point guard. Vandersloot’s draft stock had been upped since the Zags won the WCC Tourney and she set a record or something (2000 pts 1000 asts in all of NCAA Ball and most assists in a single season, I think). Will she be an early pick? I hope so. And I also hope that someone from the Western Conference drafts her — I gotta watch her play against the best of the best and, sorry you guys, coz I’m always wearing Storm goggles, that would be Birdy.

 

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Fortunately for me I didn’t create my bracket at the start of the tourney (because of everything else that was happening here in Japan). If I did, I would have been dazed the whole day coz I scored an amazing 0 for 2 today. LOL. I picked the Lady Vols in Dayton because, really, if Simmons got it together, there was a chance, right? But she choked, the poor kid. And Skylar Diggins and Notre Dame was on a freaking mission so bracket broken there. And then, of course, Stanford just had to be awesome, right? With Pohlen finding her shot and the Ogwumike sisters doing just about anything right, Courtney Vandersloot couldn’t beat the Cardinal without her teammates, and so the Zags lost. Bracket fail again.

Ugh. I hope I get the last two later. Or at least the Philly Region. Coz if my pick in the Philly Region loses, Imma boycott the rest of the Final Four LOL.

 

UConn to Elite Eight

28 Monday Mar 2011

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March Madness \o/

Whew. Georgetown gave us quite a scare there. Of course practically all their shots had to fall, right? It also didn’t help that the Huskies looked like they were practically clueless on offense. Maya Moore’s shots weren’t falling early, Tiffany Hayes wasn’t dominant, Stefanie Dolson was being pushed around by the Georgetown “posts”, and Bria Hartley was going from left to right and looked really tentative most of the time.

And then, Lorin Dixon happened. The senior sparked the run that made the Huskies recover lost ground (down 7 or something), executed key defensive plays, and hit a baseline jumper. Credit must also go to Bria Hartley who looked like she gained confidence from whatever Dixon had made happen. Maya Moore was relatively quiet except towards the end where she did important plays to ensure the win. And of course, no one would be able to discount everything that Kelly Farris did to guard the Hoyas’ leading scorer Sugar Rodgers. Farris reminds me of Mel Thomas, a kind of a do-everything scrappy player that can guard almost anyone.

Bracketology

[Philadelphia Region]
Connecticut (35-1) vs Duke (32-3)
Pick: UConn. ‘Nuff said. Although they’d have to play harder and better than their game against Georgetown. Also, depth will be an issue but I’ll gamble on the fact that the Huskies have Maya Moore and everybody else doesn’t.

[Dayton Region]
Tennessee (34-2) vs Notre Dame (29-7)
Pick: Tennessee, just because it is going to be fun watching UConn meet the Vols in the Final Four, well, granted that the Huskies escape Duke.

[Dallas Region]
Baylor (34-2) vs Texas A&M (30-5)
Pick: Baylor. Griner, duh. Haha, kidding. I haven’t paid attention to this region except that Griner’s there and they grabbed the #1 rank from UConn during the regular season. It’ll be interesting how fast Stefanie Dolson would play against her if Baylor and UConn ever meets in the Finals.

[Spokane Region]
Stanford (32-2) vs Gonzaga (31-4)
Pick: Gonzaga. Just because I like Vandersloot and the fact that the Zags are the lowest ever seed (11th) to get into the Elite Eight. But aside from Vandersloot, I have no idea about the capabilities of the other Zags and how they would match up with the bigs of Stanford. Interesting to note here, also, is if Pohlen of Stanford finally wakes up from her shooting draught, I think Zags will find it very difficult to win.

[Final Four Picks]
UConn vs Tennessee → UConn
Baylor vs Gonzaga → Baylor

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Thank goodness for March Madness. This certainly takes my mind off the aftershocks and the radiation scare.

Undisputed No. 1

20 Tuesday Jan 2009

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image source: yahoo sports

No. 1 UConn totally decimated No. 2 North Carolina in a very lopsided game, the score being 88-58. Aside from the points, UConn also ruled the boards with 48, 19 of which are offensive. North Carolina, one of the better rebounding teams year after year after year, just got 28 boards (9 offensive).

Senior guard Renee Montgomery led the pack with 21 points on 8-17, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. All-American Maya Moore took the backseat with 19 points and 12 rebounds (6 offensive) after pouring 40 points on the Syracuse Orange during their previous game. Tina Charles scored 17 and 12 (6 offensive). Kalana Greene had 15 and 3. Sophomore Lorin Dixon, who moved into the starting lineup following Caroline Doty’s ACL injury, 14 (5 of 5) points, 6 assists, and 8 rebounds.

Italee Lucas scored 15 points to lead UNC, while Rashanda McCants added 13.

Story | Score

March Madness Na!

26 Wednesday Mar 2008

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I decided to just put up a mini-update area at the upper-left part of this blog coz I haven’t mustered enough gana to post about basketball (something’s really wrong with me). And the past two UConn games have been hohumm so far. Errr, no, I’m not asking for a super-down-the-wire and heart-stopping game but please, a little more excitement naman.

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Fabulous Freshman Maya Moore is just awesome as always. 17Pts-8Rebs-3Asts-1Blk during the Cornell game and 24-and-12 on 10 for 15 shooting, 4 of 6 from downtown during the game against the Texas Longhorns.

Montgomery, Charles, and everybody else — wooohooo!

McLaren is a pretty sweet passer for a post player.

Charde Houston continues to perform since she was named Big East Tourney Player of the Year (or MVP, whatever).

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OMG, I’m so excited na sa WNBA. Bball time! Woohoo! Ang saya naman kasi ng Bird – Swoopes – Cash – Jackson na team no!

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And oh — another OMG. Sana tumuloy-tuloy na ang Huskies to the Final Four and beyoooooooond!

Unstoppable Dawgs

29 Tuesday Jan 2008

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1201503535.jpgThe No.1 ranked Huskies let No. 16 Notre Dame hang around the first few minutes of the game and make defensive gimmicks on Maya Moore before UConn’s other weapons were used. Moore scored the first 15 points — 4 for 4 beyond the arc with a 4-point play thrown in (ah, the abundance of my favorite number). The Fighting Irish adjusted their defense and Maya didn’t score after that.

Enter Tina Charles who showed she can dominate with 22 monster points and 8 boards. Later in the game, Renee Montgomery came alive until the 12-minute mark and scored the first of her 12 second-half (and game) points, including the dagger three that snuffed any hope for the Fighting Irish.

But Ketia Swanier trumped everyone else as she kept the offense going and she glued the Huskies together with 11 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals in 32 minutes of play.

UConn won the game 81-64 and is now 19-0 over-all (6-0 Big East).

Up next: South Florida, January 30, 7PM EST