RebKell's Junkie Boards

[beknighted]

Today was my annual road trip to the RAC. It was cold but all the roads were clear and the drive was easy. I know, none of you care.

The final, as you may know already, was RU 70 Louisville 57. It wasn't quite like the Georgetown game, as it didn't really feel completely decided until about 3:00 left, but RU led by 9 at the half and it was pretty comfortable from about 15:00 to go.

The big star of the game was Matee Ajavon, who had a good Matee day with 23 points on 8-12, 2-3 from 3 and 5-5 from the line, adding 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 assists for good measure. That said, the game probably wouldn't have been even this close if she had been more careful with the ball, as she had a hideous 8 turnovers. She outplayed Angel McCoughtry, who ended up with a hard 20, most of them after RU was in control of the game and 13 rebounds.

RU had 4 players in double figures, with Vaughn, Carson and Prince tallying 15, 14 and 13, respectively. Bingham added 14 for Louisville, but on 6-19 shooting.

But you can read all that in the AP story or on the RU web site. You're probably more interested in the random tidbits:

1. I was surprised to see that McCoughtry whined a lot. She complained at length about a clearly correct out-of-bounds call (her foot was bisecting the end line), about another out-of-bounds call and when she fouled out of the game. Of course, her coach was complaining endlessly to the officials, too, so maybe there's a connection.

2. Essence Carson is all the way back from the stress fracture - over her last two games she has 32 points on 12-18 shooting. On one play she faked the Louisville defender nearly out of her sneakers. She played her usual swell defense, too.

3. CVS put Prince on McCoughtry a lot, and it seemed to work pretty well. In fact, it seemed like McCoughtry scored most of her points when someone else was defending her.

4. I understand the strategic basis for the late foul strategy, but I'm not sure I've ever seen someone start it with 5:00 left in the game before. The RU crowd was displeased not only with the strategy but with the unsublety with which Ms. Terry executed it. I don't think that any of the fouls crossed the line, but she could have done a better job making them look like she was trying to do something besides fouling. As I mentioned on the RU board, it occurs to me that this strategy requires two things, neither one of which happened: (a) the team in the lead needs to miss most of the free throw attempts; and (b) you need to get down the court and take good shots quickly. Kia Vaughn (who had a great line after the game: "They shouldn't doubt me. When it counts I put them in.") made 9 of 13 free throws, pretty much all of them after the hacking began, so (a) didn't work. Then Louisville couldn't get quick shots after the free throws because RU's defense got back, so (b) didn't work either. Oh, well.

5. The crowd was pretty decent - north of 5,000 - but they always seem a little quiet to me at the RAC. The people around me in the first half were among the quiet ones, and then I moved down to the good seats to be with some RU board denizens, and they were much more into the game.

6. Let me note for those who are skeptical of RU's offense that the team scored 70 points after scoring 67 on the road on Tuesday. I think that Carson's offensive renaissance has a lot to do with it. When she's really part of the offense, it gets much harder to defend the rest of the team.

[thesixthwoman]

Ajavon Hauls Rutgers Past Louisville
By Violeta Yas: SPM NJ Writer: January 21, 2008
http://www.spmsportspage.com/published/spmarticles/ajavon-hauls-rutgers-past.shtml


Rutgers v Louisville NCAA Women's Basketball Photo Gallery
By Tara Polen: SPM Women's Basketball Editor: Jan. 21, 2008
http://www.spmsportspage.com/images/college/basketball/womens/2007/Rutgers--70-Louisville--57-Womens-College-Basketball-01-22-2008/Rutgers-Louisville-113.html

[beknighted]

There's a great photo in there of Ms. Terry committing defensive holding on Kia Vaughn.

Un-tuck play

There's an ongoing debate on the RU board about whether Terry was sent in to foul or if she just couldn't keep up and resorted to brute force, with the usual result. After watching my recording of the game, I'm tending towards the latter, but I guess it could go either way.

[thesixthwoman]

Coach Walz did say that they couldn't stop RU so he gambled on fouling Kia at the end of the game because she was shooting under 50% from the FT line... and he lost the gamble (and Kia was asked about it and that's when she said that they shouldn't foul her because she'll come through when it counts...)

[beknighted]

One of Terry's fouls came when she tried to draw a charge against Ajavon, which probably was the right defensive play but didn't work out so well since she didn't get there nearly in time.

One thing I noticed in watching my recording was that, with one exception, the fouls that were called on Terry seemed like the garden variety type. (I count the shirt-pull in that category, amusing though it is.)