Tanisha Smith at the three spot, who the WNBA is looking at very hard, has that ability to create offense off of her passing. If she was a little bit more selfish she would be our leading scorer on our team. But when she’s passing the ball as much as she is, sometimes she’s turning away good shots but she’s setting up teammates. And that just shows the unselfishness of this team.
- Texas A&M coach Gary Blair on small forward Tanisha Smith.
When the NCAA women’s basketball tournament tips off on Saturday, the Big 12 will be solidly represented in the brackets. With seven teams in dancing and one of the strongest overall seasons for the conference, they will be a force to be reckoned with in their respective matchups. To pander to my constituents, errr the Big 12 fans of the world, I would like to point out some impressive statistics before we move on. As many know, the seven conference bids ties the Big East for most represented conference in the 2010 tournament and no Big 12 team is seeded lower than sixth for the second consecutive year. Since the beginning of the aughts, the Big 12 has made 69 NCAA tournament appearances, second nationally, and can boast a championship game appearance by Oklahoma in 2002, a final four berth by Texas in 2003 and a 2005 national championship by Baylor.
*I will be mentioning potential matchups, but am purely going with the seedings. As we all know in March Madness, it’s well...madness, and such things cannot be expected. The potential matchups are just for the sake of argument and to show one of the potential paths to advance in the tournament.
Thankfully for the other six, but not so lucky for Iowa State, there is only one Big 12 school in the Dayton region – also known as the ‘can anyone ever beat UConn’ region. Iowa State is hosting first and second round action at Hilton Coliseum and is making its fourth consecutive tournament appearance. The Cyclones are slated at the four spot, so if all goes according to seeds will meet up with the undefeated Huskies in the Sweet 16. Iowa State is led by Allison Lacey who has been ailing recently, missing not only the end of the regular season, but also the Big 12 tournament. With Lacey rested and healthy, this three point shooting squad could be deadly to their opponent. Their possible road to the final four would go through (13) Lehigh, (5) Virginia, (1) Connecticut, (2) Ohio State.
The Memphis region is the tournament home of 4-seeded Baylor and 6-seeded Texas. Baylor, on the top half of the bracket, is poised with a Tennessee waltz in the Sweet 16. Baylor is coached by Kim Mulkey, one of a select few that have both played (Louisiana Tech) and coached (Baylor) in the NCAA tournament and the only women’s head coach to have won a national tournament as both a player and coach. The main talk of the Bears squad revolves around freshman Brittney Griner. Griner’s size and shot blocking ability have already put her in the Big 12 record books with a single season record of 183 blocks. Along with the block party, she averages 18.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. More infamously as of late, the talk around Griner has hinged on her right hook after a nose-breaking punch to Texas Tech’s Jordan Barncastle and subsequent two-game suspension. Their potential road to the final four would go through (13) Fresno State, (5) Georgetown, (1) Tennessee, (2) Duke.
UConn is not bad for women's basketball.
I would go further than that, but I have always found it difficult to respond to illogical and incoherent assertions.
The "UConn is bad for basketball" argument falls apart the moment someone who never watches women's basketball types word one about it for the first time because of UConn.
That said, I can agree with the premise of the nonsense: UConn is a dominant force and barring something catastrophic, they will remain undefeated and win the 2010 NCAA women's basketball title.
Just how dominant is UConn?
The statistic that stands out to me is their effective field goal percentage: playing against the 2nd toughest schedule in the nation, the Huskies outshot their opponents with an eFG% of 56.24% to 33.99%. That's quite astounding considering that they've faced some of the best competition the nation has to offer. That they dominate the offensive boards and force a strong turnover differential becomes secondary.
So when looking at the Dayton bracket, the real question is simply who will join UConn in the Elite Eight.
There seems to be universal acknowledgment from ESPN, blogs, and bulletin boards that UCLA was under-seeded.
Call it funny math, but if there are four regions, and UCLA was ranked in the top 25 for the last few weeks with a RPI of 21, then it would seem like they should get no lower than a 6 or 7 seed.
But to be honest, at first I simply wasn't particularly surprised with their seeding:
It's the last point that I find most interesting though in thinking about UCLA's chances and why they almost definitely should have been harder -- although I've heard some people dismiss their defense as merely "throwing the kitchen sink at opponents', at the same time it's extremely effective. And taking account for one of the best defenses in the nation simply doesn't show up in the RPI, SOS, or any other statistics.
Making matters worse, UCLA got an eight seed next to #1 seed Nebraska, a team that is not just good, but pretty much has similar statistical strengths as UCLA...but does everything better...and has that Kelsey Griffin individual you may have heard of. So their chances of getting to the Sweet 16 certainly appear slim.
However, UCLA coach Nikki Caldwell didn't win the Pac-10 Coach of the Year for nothing and for that reason, I'm picking the Bruins as a potential dark horse candidate in the Kansas City bracket in the most blatant act of West Coast bias I've exhibited to date. This would of course require a few things to break their way, but my Pac-10 homerism stops short of finding ways to "disappear" Griffin.
First round play of the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitational in Seattle was odd, to say the least, but underneath the lopsided outcome was a deeper level of shared meaning.
University of Washington forward Mollie Williams, who has gone 0-5 from the three point line in her first two years in Seattle pulled up for a three with 5:50 left in the first half.
Center Laura McLellan got one of Washington's season-high 18 steals with at the 5:30 mark and dribbled half the court for a lay-up.
McLellan capped off a dominant first half by shooting a three with just over a minute left in the game, her first shot from downtown since taking two in the 2006-07 season.
Yet the radio announcer aptly described the pace with about 8 minutes left in the first half: "The Huskies look like they're moving slow motion."
Oh yeah, the University of Portland was present too, but weren't exactly a factor on the court.
The Huskies were able to move in slow motion because the Pilots came out and "laid an egg" as Portland coach Jim Sollars described. Portland turned the ball over 14 times in the first half, gaveup 10 offensive rebounds, and only shot 30% overall and 28.57% on 2 point shots.
"This game has slowed to a snail's pace," said the radio announcer with a minute left. "The Huskies will send Portland back down the I-5 corridor, ending their season with a defeat."
He wasn't just imagining things either -- the Pilots looked like a team that was disinterested in making the relatively short trip to Seattle to begin with and Washington was able to discomfit them without much effort.
"We looked like we didn't have legs, we didn't play with maturity, we didn't play with discipline, didn't do the things that we have to do," said Sollars. "Mentally, it just didn't look like we were ready to play the game."
So despite a 75-44 win for UW and by far their best performance of the season statistically, it was not exactly an exemplar of what makes basketball beautiful. It's perfectly reasonable to wonder whether part of Portland's problem was the context itself.
"Anything like this [tournament], you always wonder, ‘how many of your kids are really gonna show to be ready to play'," said Sollars. "But I don't think that was it - certainly I don't think the staff felt that way. I just think it was symptomatic of we are not a very mature team - one senior and we haven't had a lot of leadership all year long.
"When we're running and shooting the ball well, we're a good basketball team, but that's a big if -I think we're 14-0 when we score 70 points. And they just need to grow up and understand that it's not gonna be easy all the time. And I think the lessons to be learned are you gotta be tough, you gotta be disciplined, you gotta play good defense because there are nights when the ball is not going through the hole and there are nights when you can't run on people. And that's where I think the maturity comes - they just have to understand that."
So on the surface, a game like this one in what could be considered be perfect fodder for those that might suggest this tournament is unnecessary and simply a waste of time and resources. On the one hand, UW looked like they were walking around cones in their offensive sets while on the other hand, Portland looked wholly disinterested in playing basketball. However, there was value beyond the play on the court for the development of the young players and growing programs that participated.
From my previous post on the Atlanta Dream's off-season about what Kelly Miller would add to the team:
"The advantages for Miller might be at least slightly more difficult to determine. Miller is seven inches taller [than Temeka Johnson] and an aggressive defender, but shot 33% from the three point line on less attempts than Johnson. Although she went to the University of Georgia, she is four years older, coming off a down season, and a much less efficient scorer by almost any standard last season. In fact, Lehning had a higher true shooting percentage (47.82%) than Miller (47.26%) and a much higher two point percentage (47.61% to 38.55%)."
While watching the NIT over dinner with a friend last night, we started talking about how pointless it would be to expand the NCAA men's basketball tournament - not only would it water down the whole experience, but it would virtually destroy the NIT.
During the brief conversation, we also found that neither of us has ever watched or followed the "other" tournaments: the CBI or CIT.
So why then should anyone care about the new Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI), a tournament that offers 3 seeds to teams like the University of Washington, a 12-17 team that just lost to last place Oregon State University in the Pac-10 tournament?
In describing the value of the tournament in an article yesterday, Seattle Times reporter Jayda Evans described an "equality factor" in creating the tournament: not only does the tournament give more women's basketball programs an opportunity to play post-season basketball and offer the opportunity to profit from doing so, but it is also more fair than the WNIT.
"Last year when I wasn't coaching I did a number of things - I was a broadcaster for Fox, but the other thing I did was I was a consultant for Sports Tours International and they run tournaments all over the world," said Seattle University coach Joan Bonvicini, who was "partly the brainchild" of the tournament according to organizers. "I had a tough job - I was in the Bahamas, in Cancun, places like that. One of the things I noticed once I was there is that there was the NIT for women and the men have the CBI and Insiders and I felt there should be more opportunities for women. So I told them, ‘I think we should run a tournament and in the NIT it's like the highest bid gets the home game; we're going to do it fair.'"
Bret Seymour of Sports Tours International, the company organizing the tournament, said that in addition to the transparency that comes from being a pre-determined, 16 team field with higher seeds hosting - which the WNIT is not - the tournament cedes control to those host institutions. With control not only comes control of the venue, but control of the profit.
"I think it is nice for teams to 'control' the management of the games," said Seymour. "They have professional event management people to do this. They know how to run games. They don't need us telling them how to do it. Most importantly, they get to keep all revenues for the game-unlike the WNIT where there is revenue sharing. We don't set ticket prices, we don't tell teams what to do with students, we don't charge radio rights fees, we don't charge fees for parking, or live streaming video. We take no cut off any profit made by a University. If they want to let everyone in free, I say go for it. This is a fresh, 180 degree difference in philosophy."
However, there is even more to the tournament than control, equality, transparency, and profit, all - especially the latter - certainly attractive selling points to participating institutions. The tournament might better represent the concept of equity - it's not just about women's basketball getting closer to having the same number of opportunities to participate in the post-season, but actually providing women's basketball programs an opportunity to develop, as described by Washington coach Tia Jackson.
If Washington Mystics General Manager Angela Taylor wants to create a "culture of winning", then it's hard to imagine finding an active player with a stronger resume of winning than veteran Olympian and WNBA champion Katie Smith.
During today's teleconference to announce Smith's long-anticipated signing, Taylor called Smith one of the best players in the world and that championship pedigree is certainly something that she will add to the team.
"I think Katie is someone who just has a ton of experience," said coach Julie Plank during today's media teleconference. "We were in a lot of close games last year - I think she understands what it takes to win. She's extremely competitive, extremely mentally tough, and she plays both ends of the floor. There's nothing that she can't do...I'm really excited to coach her and I know our players are really excited to play with her."
On the court, what Smith represents is something else that Taylor has sought in the offense - versatility. Smith is a player able to play all three perimeter positions and is stong enough to defend any one of them. As Taylor mentioned in her interview with Swish Appeal last week, having multiple players on the floor who can handle the ball is a key to success, even more valuable in today's WNBA climate with 11 player rosters.
"My versatility and ability to play a lot of different positions whether it be the 1, 2, or 3," said Smith during today's media teleconference. "Even if it's giving Lindsey Harding a break at the 1 at times or being able to run the point when Lindsey's on the floor. It's all of us being interchangeable. And sometimes I can play the four depending on match-ups. So I think it's just depending on the game, depending on the game plan, and how we're doing and what we're doing, that's just where I'll fit in."
While her versatility and veteran leadership is certainly welcome, at age 35 and coming off an injury-shortened season, the Mystics are certainly not getting the same Smith that won two ABL championships or even the one that helped lead the Shock to 3 WNBA championships. So it would be reasonable for fans to wonder what tangible contributions Smith can make to the Mystics.
In chatting with Taylor last week, three needs came up as most critical to the team taking the next step forward: scoring, ball control, and post play.
Although Smith may address their need for scoring and to some extent ball control, the Mystics are still well aware that they need to improve their post play.
