UCLA 95
Florida St. 78
As UCLA brushed Florida St. aside, I had this thought:
I’m in the 96th percentile of American chessplayers. If you put me across the board from Caruana or another player in the 100th percentile, the game begins 0-0, but eventually it’s windshield vs. bug, and it was never really close.
Among 330 D1 basketball teams, the 95th percentile team is around #16. That team is in the AP Top 25, but South Carolina or UCLA is the windshield, and the game is maybe never in doubt. That’s Florida St. at #20: Good enough to beat 310 teams, but far behind nos. 1-5.
My friend Jim, the author of “Chess for Dummies”, is a Stanford season ticketholder. When the transfer portal popped up in our conversation, he brought up Lauren Betts, and shook his fist.
I don’t think I saw Betts for 10 minutes last year, but Jim did, and today I see why he wished she’d stayed on The Farm. Betts is like the monsters menacing Tokyo in Japanese science fiction movies, and you gotta wonder about Coach VanDerveer’s plan for her.
I’ll wager today that the selection committee puts UCLA and USC on the same side of the bracket in March, so they might meet in the national semifinal, but not later. An all-Los-Angeles national championship game would be bad for business.
You know what I love about Coach Close? She takes the dumbest LaLooshian questions seriously. It’s like her brain won’t let her give media the dumb soundbite it expects.
Utah 69
South Carolina 78
Tournament bridge players have a saying about “the game [they] were dealt”.
Before the scores are tallied, an astute partnership can estimate pretty closely the score they would’ve achieved had they done everything right, and also their score after figuring in their misplays.
The score based on doing everything right is “the session we were dealt”. A bridge pair can play well, but place poorly because it wasn’t “dealt a good game”. (If you get your druthers, you want to play uneventful, ‘flat’ hands against good pairs, and the wilder hands against weak pairs. That’s being dealt a good game.)
Against the no. 1 team, Utah had their chances. I think Utah was dealt enough of a game to take South Carolina down, but 11 points from 23 SC turnovers isn’t making the most of the opportunities.
On the other hand, they looked like they’re steeling themselves for the hard games to come, and without Gianna. I thought St. Joseph’s was a worst case, in which no one looked ready for the sudden, additional demands. (I said maybe Matyson Wilke, but boy, did she play like a freshman today.)
Dasia was much better against South Carolina than St. Joseph’s, and she’s the clearest case of an individual who must make up for losing Kneepkens, though it’s a wholly-shared responsibility.
South Carolina threw four or five different defenders at Alissa Pili, and she scored 37 points, anyway. The ESPN jesters couldn’t think of a player who best compares to Pili, because I think they filtered their search to females. I’ve been saying she’s closest to young Shaq — low center of gravity, wide and strong, unreal moves and touch beneath the basket.
A dozen years ago at Pacific, the Tigers talked about the little green army men awards that were earned by acts of courage and toughness. If Coach Roberts is still presenting those, Jenna Johnson might garner a couple for taking five offensive fouls, while fouling out with five of her own.
If one saw the boxscore but didn’t see the game, there’d probably be some question about Kennady McQueen playing all 40 minutes. If you saw the game, however.
I was most amused at Coach Roberts’ answer to “what do you have to do in the second half” at halftime. Like I’ve been saying recently, you could guess it, or make it up yourself, submit it to ESPN, and ESPN would buy it.
Were I talking to Coach Roberts about this game, I’d say: South Carolina did a great job fighting through our screens. She’d say something, I’d write that down. One of the best things about writing a blog with zero readers is that I don’t make things simple for an ESPN audience.
Washington 60
Washington St. 55
Finally, conference play instead of a non-conference mismatch.
The Huskies led 37-17 at half, after playing some remarkable defense against four Cougars who didn’t have the ball.
The Huskies led 37-17 at half, after playing some remarkable defense against four Cougars who didn’t have the ball.