Indulge me this trivial observation after the first day of the Pac-12 women’s basketball tournament: Something’s amiss with the hardware.
How many times do you see a field goal attempt stick itself between the right or left heel of the rim and the backboard? Once per week if your team if the team shoots around six times?
It happened at least three times Wednesday. If the balls are under-inflated, the kids would notice that. Maybe the rims aren’t rigid enough — perhaps for one bolt turned left by 1/32 of an inch — who knows, but 400 shots went up in the first round, and three of ’em wedged between rim and backboard.
Chalk it up to my odd powers of observation, or that I’m aiming to distract you from the fact that I slept all day.
I was absorbed in a programming project all night. By the time the sun was up, I thought I should stay up. Groceries were scheduled to be delivered around 10, while UCLA and Arizona St. were to tip off at 12:30.
When the Bruins led by a dozen, I thought to take a nap, and boy, was I surprised to wake up during overtime.
I couldn’t stay awake for Oregon and Washington because Oregon bores me. Coach Graves sure looks genius when one of his players has a great day, like Endiya Rogers scoring 10 of 28 points and pulling 4 of 11 rebounds in the fourth quarter (which the Ducks entered trailing).
Perhaps it’s just as well Washington left early, which could defuse any lingering sentiment that Coach Langley was most worthy of coach of the year honors.
I was awake for Cal and Washington State because I had a game to play at 7:30. I told my opponent at the tournament director that I wouldn’t leave the house today, and they let me play on an Internet server.
As the Golden Bears let their 5-point lead late in the third dwindle, I looked at my own clock to find 8 minutes left (and my own lead getting away). Opponent blundered grossly, whew.
#11 Oregon St. 56 #6 USC 48
A TV announcer said: “How can Oregon State be 4 and 14? How can they be seeded 11th?”.
Because the rest of the conference is very, very good, while the Beavers, a young team, are capable of contagious mental lapses.
OSU lost nine in a row until getting it together to upset Arizona on the last day, then Southern Cal. But besides a 19-point loss to Colorado, the other eight losses were by a total of 36 points.
Freshman of the year Raegan Beers showed what she’s capable of: 18 points, 9 rebounds, credited with 2 steals but she knocked another 3 cleanly away, 8-of-9 from the line.
The Beavers assisted on 13 of 17 field goals — 8 by senior Yeaney, which meant she could miss all of her field goal attempts but still wind up +15 +/-. It’s here where one might go so far as to suggest that OSU is better off while Van Oelhoffen is out with a foot injury — they’re forced to play together, and when Beers and Mitrovic are sharing the ball, they are a difficult team to defend.
It looked very much like the Trojans’ game with 7:11 remaining. A pair of treys by Marshall and Adika put USC ahead by 8, and the way USC plays, 8 points in 7 minutes feels like a lock. The Beavers went on an 11-0 run, including 6-of-6 FT.
A layup by Sissoko ended the run, making it a 1-point game at 2:13, but the Beavers made 8-of-8 FT from there.
While typing that, I had to think: “Wait a second, did Oregon State really make 14 straight free throws in the 4th quarter?”. Indeed they did. Beers made 1-of-2 at 9:24, and then they were perfect.
Oregon State got 15 points and 6 rebounds from someone named Adlee Blacklock, and I had no bloody idea who that is. Freshman Blacklock is evidently the emergency stand-in for Van Oelhoffen, and she’s helped save their season — she scored 36 of her 118 points (that’s 118 for the season) in the last weekend against the Arizonas.
The Beavers got 45 of 56 points, and 21 of 43 rebounds from underclassmen Wednesday. I must say this last-second resurgence by Oregon St. makes them interesting again, though Colorado makes a habit of making interesting teams boring (see: Utah’s first loss of the season).