• words

In case my media credential is contingent on this space being active

Can you believe it, Los Angeles at Golden State this Saturday has playoff implications, insofar as the team that wins that game shall be #8 in the standings.

The Sparks have won eight of nine, and seem to have kicked that ridiculous habit of taking off one quarter per game.

I’ve missed most of Los Angeles’ turnaround. I’m not as close to finishing this book of my chess teacher’s teachings as I thought, and time is running out. I’m either dying or fading fast, and I won’t be able to put this book together in a mad rush — I don’t have the energy for that, so it’ll be limping to the finish.

My chess coach said for years that one day I’d travel too far for basketball. If it turns out that making 25 trips to San Francisco in a summer is my undoing, well, he was right again.

The Sparks are closer to assembling the Pac-12 All-Star Team that I requested in May. Minnesota gave up on their plan for their 2024 1st round draft pick, and where else could Pili go but to Coach Roberts’ team? (UCLA’s Kneepkens arrives through the college draft.)

She didn’t play Tuesday vs. Indiana, and I’ll be OK with it if she doesn’t play Thursday vs. Connecticut, either. Save her for the visit to San Francisco.

I haven’t been credentialed as media for that game yet. I hope it’s not for some weird reason like I gave them this URL as my outlet, though I’ve been putting everything on friscodelrosario dot space. I reckon I’ll drop this on both pages, in case they actually look.

When Golden State lost Kayla Thornton, their leading scorer and rebounder, one’s first thought might’ve been: Well, they’re cooked. On second thought, however, the Valkyries are built to be greater than the sum of their parts, so they might get along without Thornton better than other teams would if they lost an All-Star.

It looks like both are true. Golden State doesn’t have another scoring threat as reliable as Thornton, and though 11 were invited to audition, none is bursting into that role. But they’re still winning games with smoke and mirrors and attitude.

Attitude doesn’t put the ball in the basket, though. In the 78-72 loss to Las Vegas Wednesday, Fan favorite Kate Martin found herself so open for a 10-footer on the right baseline that she missed it badly. My favorite Valkyrie, Carla Leite, is shooting less than 15% outside the 3-point arc.

  • big16

Tournament teams no one wants to play

A team’s desired state at this time of year is “still getting better”, though that team isn’t as scary as “the team no one wants to play”.

The teams that are “still getting better” were known contenders in November, whose preferred trajectory is incremental improvement through April.

The teams “no one wants to play” can be young — unsure about relying on underclassmen in January, but when those youngsters demonstrate development spurts in February while the veterans improve with the rising tide, that’s a potential Cinderella.

A more prosaic “team no one wants to face” is the known contender hampered by injury, then getting the injured player(s) back like cavalry in an old movie. Kansas State hopes for that, and so does Colorado.

There’s also the team whose won-lost record is misleading for losing many close games, then overcome that hurdle at tournament time. Oregon State
was a prime example in the Pac-12 two years ago. In this year’s Big 16 tournament, that team is Texas Tech.

Since Jan. 25, the Raiders lost to Oklahoma St. by 3, Colorado by 4, Cincinnati by 3, UCF by 1. Their last regular season game was a 4-point overtime win vs. Colorado, and a 1st-round tournament win over higher-seed Kansas, also by 4.

If any of the 5-8 seeds is an upset victim, it’s us, I am afraid.

Here we are, in the most emotional month of the year

Utah beat interstate rival BYU 76-73 in overtime Saturday, completing a regular season in which the Utes lost to all the teams that finished above them in the Big 16 standings, and won against teams beneath them.

Utah junior guard Matyson Wilke hit the winning 3-pointer from halfcourt as time expired. I watched that video highlight many times, more than I watch favorite cat videos.

With 7 seconds left, BYU freshman guard Delaney Gibb (a lock to win freshman of the year, right? Gibb was so good against us, it made me wonder why the Canadian chose to attend BYU) met typical outstanding defense from Jenna, lost the handle, Maty went baseline-to-midcourt. Then she was mobbed.

Not a long clip, so it’s easy to watch it repeatedly. It could be the last time we see this group happy.

I think we peaked about a month ago. The loss to Oklahoma State, which in effect killed our chance for a double-bye, gave me a sinking feeling.

The Kansas/Texas Tech game, which determines our opponent, and our Rd. 2 game against them, both tip off at 6 p.m. Pacific time. Which is damned inconvenient, because I lecture at chess clubs at 7 Wed., and 6:30 Thurs. Whether I take these nights off from teaching, or hope to watch an unspoiled ESPN+ replay, dunno.

  • big16, utes

March arrives early this year

With 11 days remaining in the Big 12 Conference season, two games separate the top six teams.

Utah sits in fourth place — in position for one of the invaluable byes into the tournament quarterfinals. With four games left to play, two of them are against 6th-place Oklahoma St. today, and 5th-place West Virginia (in a week, at West Virginia, where they’re undefeated).

In short, we’re one (or one-half) game behind the three teams that beat us. We’re one (or one-half) game ahead of the two teams behind us, whom we have not yet played.

Can you imagine two games more consequential and revealing those these two against Oklahoma St. and West Virginia? Well-adjusted and practical people remind themselves and others that we play one game at a time — no one ever accused me of being well-adjusted and practical, so I’ll be a mess until the seeding is set.

This is my favorite of the Roberts and Petersen teams. There won’t be another like the Vieida/Kneepkens/McQueen/Johnson group. If they won 13 straight (4 regular season, 3 conference tournament, 6 national) to make it 20 in a row, I’d be OK with that.

“Machine Gun” Molly Bolin among final candidates for induction to Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame

The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame named finalists Friday for 2025 induction. They include players on the 2008 Olympics gold medalist team (Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard), Jennifer Azzi, Maya Moore, and Molly Bolin.

Before the WNBA, before the ABL, there was the WBL: The Women’s Professional Basketball League, which operated 1979-1981.The first player signed in that league was Molly Bolin from Grand View College in Des Moines. (Grand View University athletic staff could not ascertain if Jennifer Jorgensen, who played for Lynne Roberts at Pacific for three minutes, broke Bolin’s scoring records there, due to inattentive record-keeping in one era or the other — like, who’s ever going to care about *that*, right?)

The WBL San Francisco Pioneers were the last professional women’s basketball team in San Francisco that people are likely to remember (the NWBL was a winter league for American women from 1997-2006 — in the NWBL’s last year of operation, the San Francisco Legacy, who played their home games in a community center gym in Oakland, finished in last place), and since the Pioneers were in business while I was watching women’s basketball played for the first time at Cal State Hayward, I had to pay attention.

“Machine Gun” Molly Bolin was the second player I ever saw light. It. Up. (The first was Rick Barry, who played for the 1975 NBA champion Golden State Warriors.) Bolin set WBL records for scoring average and scoring in a game.

Bolin was an impossible defensive assignment — she could get clear for shots behind screens if the screener was a lawn chair. (There’s video of Iowa Cornet Bolin on fire against a Dallas Diamonds team with Nancy Lieberman.)

She’s nominated for the Basketball Hall of Fame! I think she’s the first WBL player to get that recognition — another first.

The game of public and media relations

A courtside interview with Paige Bueckers scrolled into view, and I thought: Hey, I should watch this. Because, I thought, I’ve never heard Bueckers talk to the media, and I wonder where she is in relation to Caitlin Clark.

Remember, if not for injured knees, Bueckers had the inside track on the position held by Clark. But Clark reached senior year and rookie stardom first, and with that comes hundreds of additional sessions with the media.

So I stopped the scroll, unmuted the phone for this interview, and expected Bueckers to be far behind Clark in terms of media savvy.

Bueckers got the question: What does it mean to you to be the fastest scorer of 2000 points at UConn. A softball, and Bueckers raked it. It means everything, she said, but it takes a village. Good answer: She knows it’s an impressive record to break, but everyone made assists.

Bueckers is still a student-athlete. Clark is at a different level, in Taylor Swift’s company with billions of dollars involved. She’s breaking old constraints on, and introducing many people to, professional women’s basketball.

With the world watching, I think Caitlin Clark has maintained her universal appeal. Her superpower seems to be that people who show her ill will tend to look like villains.

You know which coach has gone next level at media relations: Lynne Roberts, whose first name I use more often in print lately. She’s at a professional level where her media contact is with like professionals, so I try to look like one. I call her Couch on the phone.

Roberts has said she’s in a later phase of her career, and opted to compete in the WNBA because (as it was for Sir Hillary) it was there. She developed a professional media presence while Utah reached contender status, and she addressed national media increasingly often.

Some coaches never rise above a level where their press conferences look like chores, when they’d rather be on the bus going back to work.

Other coaches sound like they know dealing with media is important. World audiences include viewers as casual as bar patrons and channel surfers, whose sole impression of a sports organization is based on coaching soundbites.

How much do we miss Kennady McQueen

The 2025 Utah Utes lost three of their last four, while senior guard Kennady McQueen is out with an ankle sprain.

The 2024 Utes ended their season with an NCAA second-round loss to host Gonzaga. They played their last 30 games without junior guard Gianna Kneepkens, lost to a broken foot.

Last year, the Kneepkens injury spoiled on-court chemistry. Transfer Matyson Wilke and freshman Reese Ross flourished under pressure of extra minutes, but the Utes were like a car with a bad timing belt: The car runs, but its performance suffers because it’s firing on all cylinders.

McQueen’s ankle injury also ruined team chemistry. Using the same analogy, the car runs, but the driver feels underpowered, and also insecure about arriving safely.

That compounds the car’s problem, and in four games without Kennady McQueen, it manifests as turnovers.

That’s how I felt, without science, and it pleased me how I extended that analogy, but I might’ve been stuck had anyone said: Dude, do you have any data to support that.

12/14 at Washington

Should have been an in-Pac12-conference game, and Utah was resilient. The Huskies got the first quarter 20-11, but the Utes hit back 20-9 in the second. The Huskies led again after a 21-9 third quarter, but Utah countered more strongly for a second time, outscoring Washington 27-7 in the fourth, and winning 67-57.

Utah had 72 possessions, 10 of which ended in turnovers, then 2 points for Washington. The points-after-turnover margin was +13 in a 10-point victory. Using the turnover rate formula turnovers x 100 / FGA+FTAx0.44+TO:

McQueen
1×100 / 9FGA + 0FTA + 1TO = 10.0
Rest of team
62×100 / 43FGA + 8.4FTA + 9TO = 14.9

Everyone took care of the ball that day (Johnson and Wilke had 0 turnovers in 49 minutes). McQueen was slightly better than the rest of the team, with 1 turnover in a team-high 33 minutes.

12/21 vs. Arizona St

The Sun Devils haven’t been very good for a while. Utah shot 55%, +15 rebounds, +7 points after turnovers, 102-82 final.

All I remember about that game? Lead official Barlow smiled once while the ball was out. Never met her, sure she’s a lovely person, always looks like she’s working the NCAA final.

Kennady had 3 of the team’s 12 turnovers.

McQueen
3×100 / 8FGA + 0FTA + 3TO = 27.3
Rest of team
9×100 / 58FGA + 12.8FTA + 9TO = 11.3

12/31 at Arizona

On New Year’s Eve, the McKale Center was about empty, which reminded me how blue that place is.

The Wildcats have pressed since Coach Barnes took over, but they no longer have an Aari McDonald to lead them on both ends (the Los Angeles Sparks tendered restricted free agent McDonald an offer, of which I approve, because the Sparks should make a Pac-12 all-star team, with the next gets Pili from the Lynx and Iriafen from UCLA). Nonetheless, Utah made a season-high 21 turnovers — the home scorer credited Arizona with 8 steals, but I thought it was fewer than that, and this game was the first in an alarming stretch of fumbling games.

Points after turnover was 11 each, though Utah made 9 more turnovers than Arizona. Even if the Wildcats had turned those into 10 points, the final would’ve been 69-58.

McQueen
2×100 / 5FGA + 0.44FTA + 2 = 26.9
Rest of team
19×100 / 41FGA + 6.6FTA + 19 = 28.5

1/5 at Iowa St.

Coach Petersen gave ESPN an excellent answer to its question about how Utah would deal with big, strong ISU post Audi Crooks. Coach said we had a player like that — Alissa Pili — who would get hers, and the trick was to contain everyone else.

These days, when Gianna Kneepkens takes over a game, it makes me wistful for what could’ve been last year. If the opposing team’s plan was to concede Pili hers while containing everyone else, good luck containing Kneepkens.

Crooks did get her 29, while Emily Ryan added 18, but the other Cyclones shot 7-for-25, suggesting Utah executed that part of the game plan.

In their first game against a leading opponent in conference, the first six players in Utah’s rotation played 179 of 200 minutes.

The memorable McQueen highlight was when she was alone in the forecourt following an ISU turnover, and while most other players will attempt to attack the basket to earn a couple of free throws, Kennady crossed the 3-point line, surveyed the defense, stepped back across, and dropped a 3.

We had two scary moments. When Gianna hit the floor, wasn’t your first thought also: ‘Oh, no, her foot’? Kennady was decked late in the game, and she’s not back yet.

McQueen
0x100 / 7FGA+0FTA+0 = 0
Rest of team
14×100 / 48FGA+5.2FTA+14TO = 20.8

1/8 vs. Kansas St.

Kansas State is like a convoy of huge trucks running behind schedule, a big team that plays cohesively and fast. It’s a treacherous road for small vehicles — Utah couldn’t get good shots; Ines Vieida had 0 assists, the team shot 3-for-19 3FG.

Had the day gone well, I wanted to ask Coach Petersen about a projected return date for McQueen, but I gave Coach an out, saying: After that loss, if he doesn’t feel like talking, I get it.

11×100 / 60FGA+3.96FTA+11TO = 14.67, which is a quite acceptable turnover rate, whereas the FG% 30.0 was the real story.

1/11 at Houston

Houston forward Peyton MacFarland had a very bad game, though I rooted for her to show us we’re missing a lot. (Had she or Kelsey Rees stayed at Utah, sure, their minutes were down because of Pili, but what about this year.)

Utah’s 28-23 halftime lead was eye-raising, but the 41-29 second half was more like it.

15×100 / 65FGA+3.1FTA+15 = 18.1

1/14 vs. Baylor

14 turnovers in the first half (5 in the first 3:20, trailed by 9 at halftime, and by 9 at the end. How about that, the points after turnovers differential was -9.

The Baylor loss left a sour taste that lingers.

21×100 / 59FGA+3.96FTA+21TO = 25.0

1/17 vs. TCU

I think Texas Christian has the talent (and the feel-good narrative) win the national championship. We helped them retain their unbeaten record in conference by committing 11 turnovers in the first half, and falling behind 45-21.

The 49-36 second half made the final score look respectable, and it’s most easy to speculate about where our team would be if not for 36 turnovers against Baylor and TCU.

The players in the photo header on this blog are Kennady McQueen and Jenna Johnson. They’re two of my favorite players, and while Kennady is gone with a sprained ankle, I also miss Jenna, who scored 12 points in those four games. Sure, we can say Jenna’s being asked to focus on interior defense and rebounding, but those 12 points came on 6-for-21 shooting. 0-for-7 3FG, 0-for=1 FT.

15×100/55FGA+68FTA+15TO = 19.5

What do the season numbers look like?

McQueen
14×100 / 115FGA+3.6FTA+14TO = 10.6
Rest of team
272×100 / 961FGA+118.3FTA+272TO = 20.1

Kennady turns the ball over about half as often as the rest of the Utes, but that says more about the kind of player she is. Not in traffic so much (8FTA in 14 games), and the ball isn’t in her hands for too long before she shoots a three or makes a layup. Perhaps see her team-best 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio as a more significant indicator of how much the team misses Kennady McQueen while she’s not playing.

  • utes

We really miss Kennady McQueen, don’t we

Tuesday was a bad day.

I often grumble during my chess classes that no one listens to me. I try to do that in a light-hearted way, because chess is difficult — even the best chess teachers’ most fundamental instructions (“examine every threatening move” and “use inactive force”) are hard to do, for experienced tournament veterans and for the greenest kids.

But there’s one thing I say that kids can and should buy into easily. I’ve begun telling kids that a new aspect of my job is akin to consumer advocacy. Twenty years ago, these kids had one primary source of chess advice: Me. When I said something, that was pretty much all they had to work with.

Nowadays, I get 3rd-graders who’ve already had years of poor chess training through Internet streaming, and already played hundreds of games against the grandmaster-level mobile apps in their backpacks (that’s actually going to lead to the death of creative chess — if your practice opponent is a computer capable of playing tactically flawless chess, you’ll cultivate a flat, lifeless style designed not to get crushed quickly, and this is how almost everyone gets started these days). The problem for me is that what they’ve learned is quite contrary to what I have to give them — so I tell them early that for the rest of their lives, people are going to tell them which cars to drive, which laundry detergents to use, which chess style to adopt.

They don’t have to adopt the methods my teacher taught me forever, I say, but if we’re all stuck together for three months of whatever, they’ll get a lot more from what I say about chess if they at least bloody experiment with it during class.

Yesterday, none did. After class, I watched #23 Utah lose at unranked Baylor 70-61 in most discouraging fashion. The Utes made a season-high 21 turnovers (15 in the first half, 11 of which were unforced) — the Bears were +9 in points after turnovers, and — purely coincidentally — +9 in points scored.

The turnover that has stuck with me for two days came with 7:32 left in the game, and Baylor leading 51-50. Above the left elbow, Kneepkens threw a short lob behind Reese Ross, who was moving toward the basket on the right hash. Everyone froze, except for Baylor’s Sarah Andrews, who took it the other way for a layup. The Bears led the rest of the way.

It’s at a time like this when I’d rather Coach Roberts were still in the big chair at Utah, because she and I go back such a long way that I could say in an unprofessional manner: “What the hell happened?!”.

In fact, Coach Petersen and I have yet to talk since he moved into the HC job. We had a phone call scheduled the day after Kansas State, but I sent an email saying: If Coach doesn’t feel like talking after that game, I GET IT.

Kansas State presents Utah with matchup problems I’m not sure we could overcome at tournament time. The Wildcats do everything we do; they’re just bigger at all five positions.

I have a feeling Coach Roberts would say that she and Coach Petersen and I have the same kind of jobs. We remind girls of the same one or three things they need to be doing at all times, and remind them and remind them, though sometimes they just don’t.

I think we miss Kennady McQueen more than anybody has said aloud. Kennady’s value is far more than the numbers she produces: 3rd on the team in scoring, 6th in rebounding, 5th in assists, 2nd in blocks (which says more about Utah as a group than about McQueen as a shotblocker), 6th in steals. McQueen takes the best care of the ball (14 turnovers in almost 400 minutes played), quietly charges the floor with energy (while Reese, on the other hand, makes her presence strongly felt), and aren’t these the first games she’s missed in four years?

There’s that very broad rule of thumb that suggests if you sum a player’s FG, FT, and 3FG percentages, then multiply by 1000, 1800 suggests an excellent shooter. Quick, who’s leading the Utes in that quick-and-dirty number?

Everyone, including me, would say that’s Gianna. .486 FG + .438 3FG + .939 FT (9th best in the nation) * 1000 = 1863.

Kennady: .504 FG + .429 3FG + 1.000 FT * 1000 = 1933. The flaw in this comparison is that Gianna’s taken 60 more free throw attempts.

We miss her leadership, clutch play, and solid ballhandling. I don’t think Kennady’s back in time for the visit to TCU, the best team in the league.

I used to be a journalist

The dissolution of the Pac-12 served to disperse the Oregon State Beavers who didn’t want to play in the mid-major West Coast Conference.

It’s working out great for #1 UCLA, who got Talia Von Oelhoffen, and NCAA team of the week Oklahoma, who got Raegan Beers.

On the other hand, Lily Hansford, a most accurate 3-point shooter (45% as an OSU sophomore), looks out of place at Iowa State, who lost to #22 Utah Sunday. Hanford is shooting 3-for-27 3FG this season, 0-for-1 against Utah (I thought: “Aw no, she’s gonna choose *today* to get healthy”).

Then there’s Oregon State post Kelsey Rees — one of favorite players at Utah — who opted to remain in Corvallis, and won the WCC player of the week award two weeks ago.

***

Along with TCU (which looks like a superteam with all the talent that transferred in — the Frogs have their own Oregon State transfer, Donovyn Hunter — and no problem getting used to each other, evidently), Utah and Kansas State are the last unbeatens in Big 16 conference play. Tonight, KSU visits Utah, to bring that down to two, or perhaps one (#11 TCU leads Kansas by six at halftime).

I lecture at the Campbell chess club Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. Pacific time, or halftime at the Huntsman Center. I might be wrapping up my talk very quickly tonight.

My brother Jon is an editor at the KSU athletics site bringonthecats dot com, and didn’t ask me to cover this game for them. I used to be a journalist, but not even my brother gives me assignments.

Utah coach Petersen won’t talk to me on the phone. Before the Cayman Islands trip, the Utah media department put me off until after Thanksgiving. Following Sunday’s win — after which the important question is “how the heck is Kennady McQueen (the senior wing was helped off the floor during the fourth quarter Sunday, and losing her would be a serious hit)” — I was again shoved aside until Thursday.

So I’ll learn with the rest of the world whenever Kennady is OK tonight. I used to be a journalist — when Coach Roberts got the WNBA Los Angeles job, people called me for news, but I didn’t have any.

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