I’ll see Stanford for the first time today. My habit has been to underestimate Stanford in November, and overestimate the Cardinal in March.
Colorado beat Louisiana State, then lost to North Carolina State. In hindsight, I interpret that as LSU’s drama bubbling up as early as game one.
I watched the first quarter of Utah 98 Merrimack 34 Friday (before playing chess about as well as I’m able). The score was 28-7, giving me the usual thought ‘I wonder if they’ll win by 100’. The Utes shot a higher percentage of 3-pointers than free throws.
Junior guard Kennady McQueen shot 6-of-8 3FG, making her season total 13-28 .464. Lemme check Gonzaga… hold on a sec… Brynna Maxwell 16-of-46 .348, Kayleigh Truong 24-of-50 .480. I mention this because a McQueen highlight clip went around, and at the end of it, Kneepkens is giving the “big balls” sign.
I laughed aloud for two reasons: 1) Utah’s social media person clearly planned to end the clip with Gianna’s gesture, and 2) female student-athletes are using it to applaud other female student-athletes, whille everyone understands it as a figure of speech, so to say.
I was also laughing because I learned that sign merely a week ago. San Francisco quarterback Purdy completed a long TD pass, and credited the offensive line, I guess, with “big balls” move. That clip made its way into each of my feeds.
I love how unladylike it is — by definition, and by convention. If the NCAA is as dumb as I think profit-minded governing entities are, I venture they’ll try banning it, or assessing a technical foul. (The boys, on the other hand…)
Pardon me for looking ahead of the Carroll College game for Brigham Young. BYU will serve as a truer barometer of progress than anyone else since Baylor.