The Great Alaska Shootout was dead for a few years, but it restarted in a new venue — thank you, big oil company for spending big oil dollars on the naming rights; forget those freeloading polar bears — and is (for this year, at least) thriving.
Utah forward Alissa Pili won a couple of state high school championships in the Big Oil Company Arena. Her family and friends helped build the third-most-attended event in the building, and the best ever for WBB.
Utah won the Great Alaska Shootout championship game 117-72 over Eastern Kentucky Sunday.
Utah set individual and tournament records for assists and 3-pointers, though I thought the game was businesslike as Utah goes, while Eastern Kentucky should feel pretty good about their performance. If the Utes get five players in double figure scoring, while Ines Vieida makes 6-of-6 treys and leads the game in assists, it’s a win.
The trophy ceremony put all the Utes in the team picture, and I was relieved to see Young and Palmer were there.
One problem with end-of-season and end-of-tournament awards is that voters submit their decisions before the season or tournament is over.
It’s comedy when the media relations person distributes ballots, says: “Have your votes ready with 5 minutes left, but if something dramatic happens, you can change your votes”, and then that happens.
Another problem with all-tournament voting is that it’s never specified in advance how five (or six) votes are to be apportioned. (I always ask, usually told that no one asks.)
There oughtn’t be six recipients, because the MVP is on the all-tournament team. There’s sometimes confusion when the ballot includes six slots, suggesting an MVP plus five others.
When there are five, is the all-tournament team “the five best players”. What if they’re all guards? What if they’re all from the same team? Is the all-tournament team “at least one but no more than three forwards”?
Does the host want each team to be represented (so you usually get two from the winning team, plus one from each other)? Alaska-Anchorage might lose two games — they’re trailing UAB late in the 3rd — but the Seawolves probably expect something.
In the case of the Great Alaska Shootout, does Alissa Pili make the all-tournament team no matter what? The Utes are there so the local fans can see their local girl. Her name was engraved months ago.
It’s plausible that Utah freshman Reese Ross will be the player of the weekend, but post-event voters hate voting for freshmen for sentimental reasons. They’ve got three more chances, but the perhaps-less-deserving senior doesn’t.
I think the most common configuration is MVP-plus-five, with at least one from each team. That’s how they did it in Anchorage:
Pili, UU (MVP)
Kneepkens, UU
Vieida, UU
Moore, UAB
Walker, UEK
Hollingshead, UAA
Nothing Alissa Pili does surprises me anymore. The player I’d most liken to her is Shaq. It sounds absurd, but O’Neal (before the toe injury) displayed the most outstanding blend of post power and grace in basketball. Pili combines strength plus footwork like no other in the women’s game, and the thing she has that Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t is touch off the hardware.
When Shaq had position, he shot down at the basket. Pili can’t get above the rim, so she has to improvise a variety of banks and spins off the glass and rim. Stir in clutch free throwing and three-point range, plus the ability to assist open perimeter shooters.
The words that keep coming to mind are “not fair”.
For the weekend, Kneepkens made 17-of-22 field goal attempts, and averaged 23 pt, 7 rb, 3 as, 4 st. She was as MVP-worthy as Pili, but it was Pili’s homecoming. Next year, the Utes probably take a trip to Minnesota.
Gianna made one move against Alaska-Anchorage that startled the broadcaster, a turnaround jumper inside the FT circle. Who knows what else she has reserved in her magic bag of tricks.
In the absence of Issy Palmer, Ines Vieida played 64 minutes, and erased my lingering doubt about her. She tripled in points/assists/floorburns in the semifinal, made all six of her 3FGA in the final.
Those three each scored 20+ in the championship game. That shouldn’t diminish the contributions of the other starters — J. Johnson and McQueen, who were as efficient and careful as necessary — but it take all the ink.
I’m reminded of the 1989 Phoenix Suns, for whom Utah’s Tom Chambers, Cal’s Kevin Johnson, and Eddie Johnson averaged 20+ for the whole NBA season. Hornacek, Majerle, West, Gilliam, Corbin were vital to that team.
Another Pac-10 product on that team: a rookie from Arizona named Steve Kerr. Whatever became of that guy.
Once last weekend, Utah showed what Roberts might describe as not next year’s team, but the year after that. There are five new faces on the Utah roster, plus second-year guard White.
Ross was the standout newcomer. 32 pt, 14 rb, and a dazzling sequence vs. Alaska: A rebound and putback without hitting the floor, followed by a steal and layup. It was the kind of 20 seconds that makes you think “OK, that’s why they got her”, then you hope against the worst case, that she’s peaked in her first month.
That worst case might apply to Lani White. Utah had three freshmen last year, from whom White emerged so strongly that it might’ve factored into the decisions by the others to transfer.
She had her best game of the season in the first round of the NCAA tournament vs. Gardner-Webb. That portends great development as a sophomore, but White hasn’t made a shot in two weeks, and she looked tentative against Anchorage. Four assists and four rebounds in 16 minutes is a contribution, but sophomore transfer Wilke had exactly the same — plus 3-of-4 3FG.