Watching your perfectly constructed brackets fall apart...in person.
Regardless of whether disaster strikes in the Emerald City, we should have pretty good first and second round games here in sunny Seattle.
I will be providing live updates of the games in the comments here and hopefully our two readers will join as well. If you're not by a computer of some sort, you can always connect with your mobile device via mobile.swishappeal.com.
Game times:
Texas A&M vs. Portland St. 5 p.m. ESPN2
Gonzaga vs. UNC 7:30 p.m.
If you just can't wait until game time to start immersing yourself in Seattle-madness, you can find links to all of our pre-tournament analysis and prognostications (some of which have already been debunked) after the jump.
I posted some reflections on Gonzaga and North Carolina from media day news conferences and open practices earlier.
For a look at the entire Sacramento region, including more on Texas A&M in particular and their chances to topple the three-headed monster of Stanford, click here.
Speaking of the Sacramento region, Freelantz has also provided insight about Oklahoma State.
For info on those other regions, check here (Dayton) and here (Kansas City).
Notice the lack of Memphis region analysis? It's true, so here's a thought -- that region might have the least upsets of any if you go by the statistics. Of course, things never pan out as the committee planned, so that will still be fun to track.
All-in-all, it should be fun and to say I can't wait for the games here at Bank of America Arena to actually start is probably an understatement.
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Thankfully, the Texas A&M and Portland State fans are sitting across from one another.
A PSU fan just yelled across the court:
“It’s a long way from Texas. What is an Aggie anyway???”
Minutes later the standard fan sportsmanship announcement went out…
Guard Claire Faucher is clearly the leader and MVP of this team — leading scorer, leading assister (is that a word?) and second leading rebounder.
Another important player is Erin Yankus who not only led the Big Sky in field goal percentage, but pulled down an impressive 17.28% of available orebs…
TAMU:
Tanisha Smith is an athletic small forward able to get things done on both ends of the court, doing a little bit of everything for the team.
Daniellle Adams leads the team in scoring off the bench, also sporting an impressive 17.46% offensive rebounding percentage.
Claire Faucher during an amazing job running the offense and finding open players for PSU… but you get the feeling we haven’t yet seen the extent of TAMU pressure…
Faucher goes up to contest a fast break layup by Adaora Elonu and fell hard into the stantion… was down a few minutes, but looks fine on the bench from here…
TAMU creating some separation by trapping the ball handler at about the three point line in addition to continuing to play the passing lanes.
Whether they deflect a long pass, create a ball handling error, or stop the pass as it comes out of the passers hand, PSU can’t seem to get going in the second half…
From victorious TAMU coach Gary Blair (paraphrase): the NCAA should really allow the winner to do pressers first in the first and second rounds so that they can go scout the next game.
Agreed — by the time the presser was over, it was about 13:20 into the Gonzaga-UNC game.
I normally try to take notes during games… but if you put your head down for 2 secs in this game, you WILL miss something.
Promise.
Most of those things seem to be coming from Cetera DeGraffenreid who I saw getting yelled at in practice just yesterday for jogging through a cut. That has not been a problem this game.
In contrast to Vandersloot who is definitely more of a passer, DeGraffenreid is a slasher/scorer who is also wreaking her share of havoc defensively…
Someone in the media room yesterday joked that they hoped she wouldn’t be that good so they wouldn’t have to keep spelling her name. No such luck.
Thankfully, the Texas A&M and Portland State fans are sitting across from one another.
A PSU fan just yelled across the court:
“It’s a long way from Texas. What is an Aggie anyway???”
Minutes later the standard fan sportsmanship announcement went out…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
Players to watch in PSU vs TAMU
PSU:
Guard Claire Faucher is clearly the leader and MVP of this team — leading scorer, leading assister (is that a word?) and second leading rebounder.
Another important player is Erin Yankus who not only led the Big Sky in field goal percentage, but pulled down an impressive 17.28% of available orebs…
TAMU:
Tanisha Smith is an athletic small forward able to get things done on both ends of the court, doing a little bit of everything for the team.
Daniellle Adams leads the team in scoring off the bench, also sporting an impressive 17.46% offensive rebounding percentage.
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
Adams in the game...
Immediate impact, grabbing a oreb and then getting to the line… but missed 2 fts…
Thus far, Tanisha Smith has been dominant offensively and defensively, easily the most athletic player on the court…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
Anybody that says people don't care about women's basketball outside of Connecticut...
….has apparently never met a Portland State fan.. they’re out in force and definitely winning the crowd battle…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
Game tied 16-16 with 10:41 left
Claire Faucher during an amazing job running the offense and finding open players for PSU… but you get the feeling we haven’t yet seen the extent of TAMU pressure…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
23-22 TAMU with 7:48 left in first half
Portland St. not going away easily despite TAMU pressure
A majority of the turnovers happening as a result of TAMU jumping passes that are a bit too long with a bit too little zip on them…
What’s keeping PSU in it?
Aside from the errant passes here and there, they are shooting 50% (4-8) from three point land…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
29-28 TAMU with 3:41 left in first half
Two consecutive layups by PSU gave them a brief one point lead…
But the tough combination of Smith and Adams got the lead right back…
PSU crowd still impressive — TAMU where you at???
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
35-31 left with 1:01 left in first half
Faucher goes up to contest a fast break layup by Adaora Elonu and fell hard into the stantion… was down a few minutes, but looks fine on the bench from here…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
39-31 TAMU at halftime
PSU has got to be pleased with their performance thus far — PSU fan walking by media row just said, “Ok — they could advance.”
We shall see… but first it would help if they make tighter and shorter passes…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
Back for second half
Faucher back in and looking good at the outset… tipping an inbound attempt by Sydney Colson
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
52-37 TAMU with 15:32 left
TAMU creating some separation by trapping the ball handler at about the three point line in addition to continuing to play the passing lanes.
Whether they deflect a long pass, create a ball handling error, or stop the pass as it comes out of the passers hand, PSU can’t seem to get going in the second half…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
59-46 with 11:11 left in 2nd half
PSU making a push with a 3 then fast break layup by Faucher…
TAMU still playing solid defensively, perhaps losing focus on offense
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
84-53 with 2:16 left in 2nd half
Faucher and Yankus taken out to standing ovation from PSU crowd.
Game pretty much decided, but solid effort from PSU early on…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
Back for Gonzaga-North Carolina
From victorious TAMU coach Gary Blair (paraphrase): the NCAA should really allow the winner to do pressers first in the first and second rounds so that they can go scout the next game.
Agreed — by the time the presser was over, it was about 13:20 into the Gonzaga-UNC game.
Great crowd present in Seattle for Gonzaga…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
40-38 Gonzaga with 3:33 left in first half
Gonzaga definitely taking advantage of this home-away-from-home crowd…
Vandersloot sees angles and passing lanes better than most point guards I’ve seen this year.
But Frieson’s all-around play could be the x-factor for this team…
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
Game tied at 56 with 11:44 left
I normally try to take notes during games… but if you put your head down for 2 secs in this game, you WILL miss something.
Promise.
Most of those things seem to be coming from Cetera DeGraffenreid who I saw getting yelled at in practice just yesterday for jogging through a cut. That has not been a problem this game.
In contrast to Vandersloot who is definitely more of a passer, DeGraffenreid is a slasher/scorer who is also wreaking her share of havoc defensively…
Someone in the media room yesterday joked that they hoped she wouldn’t be that good so they wouldn’t have to keep spelling her name. No such luck.
Q McCall - March 20, 2010
72-71 Gonzaga with 3:51 left...
Someone asked me earlier how the crowd is here in Bank of America arena and I said it was good energy but not quite full.
That was before Tiffanie Shives hit four threes in about a 3 minute span… the Gonzaga fans are making this place into their own quite nicely…
This game has been even better than I might have expected…
Q McCall - March 21, 2010
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