RebKell's Junkie Boards

[Queenie]

That was the least pleasant victory I have ever had the dubious pleasure of attending in my life. Even though St. John's did eventually pull it out of their butts, it was in spite of the way they played, not because of it. Nicholls State was simply messier than we were and that was that.

Nicholls State brought a very short team- they have only one player on the roster who's listed at over six feet, and she didn’t play. Their post presence was 5-10 Dominique Washington. Knowing this lack of height, they focus heavily on defense and ball-hawking, a tactic that's especially effective against a team like St. John's, whose best ballhandler was stylishly dressed in black on the bench today and whose primary ballhandlers without Kia Wright are, um, given to silly fumbles (Monique, I'm looking at you) and needless showing off (a-HEM, Nikki Jo). They also try to work with speed, although that wasn't as effective today as it could have been- one of their players, a Bronx native- spent a couple of fast breaks trying to show off for family and friends in attendance (of which there were many, but that's a topic for a different paragraph). Not great court awareness, but they only run two seniors, so I wasn't surprised, and it's not like I can stake a claim to my team being so much more aware of what's going on. None of their players really stuck out to me, although I had marked Jamie Octave as a player to watch, not just because she came in as their leading scorer and rebounder, but also because she has a really cool nickname. She strikes me as top-tier Southland, but not much beyond that. The only other player I have any clear memory of is Katherine Plummer, and that was because she got me glared at by a ref. We'll get to that.

Now, knowing that Nicholls State is running a team out there that my D-III could reach over, one would think that there would be a lot of plays run for the post. As much as I complain about the two frosh we lost both being inside players, the fact still remains that we have four players at or above six-foot on what's left of our roster: Tiina, Angel, Allie, and Joy. If I were a coach, I would be drawing up plays for all four of them and making sure every play at least involved an interior pass, even if it ended with an outside shot. While Tiina and Joy worked it inside, Angel and Allie… not so much. Although Allie is listed as a guard-forward, and seems to have a preference for the perimeter, Coach talked about her in the yearbook as having post moves. I'm not holding my breath on those. Sloppy, sloppy game, though. 25 turnovers, 15 in the first half. Wasn't like the Colonels were all that great with the ballhandling either; 17 Tos, 9 in the first half. I said this was an ugly win.

Anyway. Charisse finally started getting her groove back; hopefully this means she'll be a little more confident and a little more willing to shoot when she gets the ball, instead of dribbling like a panicked high schooler, passing off like the ball was on fire or, as she did on one possession today, completely and utterly not noticing the shot clock. Angel, I think, is hurt; she didn't play very much today, and I had noticed her limping after the Syracuse game. This hasn't been an easy week- wouldn't be an easy week for a pro team, four games in eight days, and this is a college team with four freshmen, which means at most they've played twice a week for the last four years, right? They're not ready for this, and I've been harping on Angel's conditioning all season especially- girl is NOT ready to be a starting center in the Big East. Tiina started slow, with a lot of really close misses, but started hitting her stride later. She's a great Robin, but we still need a Batman. Monique had a very off day- her ballhandling was very casual and she didn't seem to be paying close attention. I know it's finals month and all, but if I could put my tests out of my mind for two hours, I'm sure she could too. She padded her stats with some late points. We saw far too much of Allie, since Angel was hurting. Someone needs to give her an infusion of basketball IQ, stat. Every time she makes a good play, she immediately makes a bad play to screw it up, and that's not including various and sundry other bad plays. She did get to the line for the first time this season, though, so that's a bright spot. Not Nikki Jo's day- too cute with the ball, too out of control on the offense. She needs to breathe and to listen. Coach was reaming her out again, and Nikki Jo is in no position to screw around. Okay, maybe she is, because what's Coach going to do, have Charisse handle the ball? But if she were a good teammate, she would shut up and listen so that her team would be better off.

And the hero of the day? Why, the one player I've hardly mentioned. Joy had the first St. John's basket of the game and those were her only points of the first half. She heated up big time in the second half, driving inside and cleaning up garbage against the shorter Colonels. She scored 17 in the second half and added six rebounds for a double-double. She was also part of the defensive effort on Octave, although I'll admit that's something I wouldn't necessarily be proud of, since she did score her average.

Refereeing was surprisingly awful for a crew that actually had a name I recognized. Most egregious call of the day? Well, 5-4 Katherine Plummer went rather blatantly over the back on 6-0 Joy McCorvey, not quite 'wanna wanna WANNA PIGGYBACK RIDE' but close. No call. Eventually, St. John's did get the out of bounds call, but I was quite irritated at what seemed to be favoritism- yes, short people can go over the back, too- and shrieked, "WHAT GAME ARE YOU WATCHING?" in the general direction of the court. Forgetting that most of the building was empty, and that the rest of the attendance was either friends and family of the three Tri-State Colonels or parents of the prostitot dance troupe that performed at halftime, my voice, um, carried. A lot. And I tend to sit six rows off the court. Unsurprisingly, the ref, who I believe was Bonita Spence, glared at me as she ran back up the court. Hey, lady, I wouldn't be bitching you out if you stopped checking your stopwatch on three-seconds and started calling the wrestling matches on the rebounds. At least this crew could tell the difference between Angel Tate and Monique McLean…

Vocal rendition of the anthem, by a guy who looked like Ryan Seacrest and sounded like he'd in fact been watching too much American Idol. Still, it was better than the band's version, because while they're amusing dancers, they're not, in fact, a very good band.

I have often in these spaces paralleled the Liberty and the Red Storm, simply because that's a thing I tend to do as a basketball fan. Watch long enough and everyone looks like someone else. Seriously, though, there are three very clear parallels, and two of them are actually reasons for the average Liberty Board Junkie to be hauling out to Queens on a regular basis to watch this team. Granted, the third parallel is that Angel Tate seems to want to grow up to be Iciss Tillis, and honey, no, you can't pull it off on so many levels. On the other hand, I've been calling Monique McLean "Baby Shameka" or "Little Sista Christon" since halfway through last season, and she does remind me of a raw Shameka. Some days she looks like the 2006 model, some days she looks like the 2004 model; some days she looks like the version who just scores and doesn't think about defense, some days she looks like the version that Crystal Robinson got her hands on and taught about that whole defense bit. She's only a sophomore, and if the pattern of this season continues, she'll be All-Big East. Meanwhile, Joy McCorvey hustles for rebounds, is our defensive ace off the bench, and can heat up on offense if her shots are utterly needed. She's clutch. Ashley Battle come to mind? I don't know if AB has had the chance to demonstrate leadership skills, since I wasn't paying attention to the 2005 Huskies, but Joy, as a freshman, is already the one speaking up in the huddles, not Monique or Tiina (well, Tiina a little bit). She relays the plays and the defensive alignments. She's a lot more mature than her year would indicate, and her freshman mistakes will be wiped out in time. Love that girl. Love her.

Come on, Liberty fans in the New York City area. $7 general admission tickets, lots of open seats, plenty of free t-shirts, Big East opponents to watch, a blonde Euro who actually shows up on a regular basis, and baby versions of Shameka Christon and Ashley Battle. Why am I not seeing far more of you people at games? It's not like you're not used to seeing our team lose, right?

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Ardent believer in the separation of church and stadium.