Utah 87 California 62
This is new: Writing a game after watching it on tape, even though I was there.
A Telegraph Ave. burrito started to betray me around halftime of Utah at Cal, and by the fourth I thought it might come blasting out from both ends. At the buzzer, I skipped post-game interviews and staggered toward my car.
That’s how Coach Roberts found me, wobbling down a stairwell. She said something about coming back out to talk, and I thought: If I try shouting after Coach, I could explode. And I’m not shape to run, while sitting and waiting could get really embarrassing. So I kept moving for the car, leaving Coach to wonder where the hell I went. (In bed for two days, and wham, suddenly it’s Thursday. I’d better get this posted before Oregon arrives at Cal’s gym Friday .)
She was surely going to share the news that she was meeting the mayor of Salt Lake City the following day. The mayor should’ve given the Utes the key to the city.
I said pregame that while Cal has three guards capable of heating a place up, senior Kemery Martin, a Utah transfer, would most want the ball Sunday. Nine seconds into the first quarter, Martin received the ball in the left corner, took it baseline, and made a reverse layup for the game’s first field goal.
I thought: “Who’s a geniu… Uh oh.”
But that was almost all for her on the day, shooting 2-for-her-last-9. I didn’t think she scored late — though I didn’t see anyone do anything late — and it caused me to look at Cal’s boxscores since conference play began.
In fourth quarters, Kemery Martin is shooting 2-for-19. As always, you can make a statistic say anything you like. One might think Kemery isn’t clutch. I prefer to think the opponents are sending their best perimeter defender after 15, not 30.
The Cal player who impressed me Sunday was Langarita. The sophomore forward scored four points on 2-for-7 shooting, but for those two, she found a seam near the basket while Utah help was somewhere else, though the Utes worked on that specifically during practice Saturday.
I hoped the Golden Bears would be as tough against Utah as they were against Colorado and UCLA, but Utah’s superpower is the ability to get everybody involved — six different Utes hit a three in the first half, and Kennady McQueen (I didn’t expect to see her at all; she was wearing a boot Saturday).
I think opponents find it disorienting. The common tactic is to throw different defensive looks at opponents. Utah wields a variety of offensive threats.
Gianna Kneepkens recorded her first double with 20 andf 10. She’s markedly improved since last season, when she was conference freshman of the year. Shooting percentages are significantly better, while the rebound and ball control numbers are also better.
She’s benefitting greatly from Pili’s presence inside, while Vieira, Johnson, and McQueen are among the best threesomes in the Pac for sharing the ball while not giving it away. Stanford, Oregon, and Arizona are also well-stocked in that respect, though Vieira is the individual leader.
It was a good day to be a Ute. Johnson 10, 5, and 5. Pili’s two assists doubled her total for the calendar year. Lani White and Dasia Young had their best shooting games of the season.
Heading into the weekend, freshman Sidberry was leading the team in a number of ways per minute. Things happen in bunches when she’s on the floor. They’re not guaranteed favorable — two fouls and one turnover in 1:04 at Stanford — but in bunches. This is worth keeping an eye on.
| Utah jersey no. | Player | Hollinger ‘gamescore’ | ||||
| 05 | Kneepkens,Gianna | 19.3 | ||||
| 35 | Pili,Alissa | 17.5 | ||||
| 22 | Johnson,Jenna | 11.1 | ||||
| 34 | Young,Dasia | 5.1 | ||||
| 01 | Palmer,Isabel | -1.8 | ||||
| 03 | White,Lani | 7.5 | ||||
| 53 | Rees,Kelsey | 3.8 | ||||
| 42 | McFarland,Peyton | 0.5 | ||||
| 02 | Vieira,Ines | -0.9 | ||||
| 24 | McQueen,Kennady | 0 | ||||
| 32 | Sidberry,Teya | 0.6 |
| Cal jersey no. | Player | Hollinger ‘gamescore’ |
| 30 | Curry,Jayda | 10.7 |
| 01 | McIntosh,Leilani | 6.1 |
| 15 | Martín,Kemery | 2.3 |
| 24 | Lutje Schipholt,Evelien | 4 |
| 33 | Tuitele,Peanut | 1.8 |
| 21 | Mastrov,Mia | 2.5 |
| 05 | Langarita,Claudia | -1.3 |
| 04 | Ortiz,Karisma | 1.9 |
| 02 | Bonner,Amaya | 0.2 |
| 00 | Onyiah,Michelle | -3.2 |
| 31 | Muca,Ornela | -0.7 |
Utah at California, 4 p.m. Pacific
Cal’s problem this season is playing 40 minutes, but they’re almost there. The Golden Bears were the equal of the Powder Blue Bears last week for three quarters, then vanished. (For one, senior guard Kemery Martin made her first eight shots — a few in a spectacular fashion I didn’t know she had in her — but 0-for-3 in the 4th quarter.)
Two nights ago, Cal vs. #24 Colorado was a 2-point game with 5 minutes left. A week ago, they were 10 minutes away from getting it all together. Two nights ago, it was 5.
For athletes in team sports, there’s nothing like joining a new team, then playing against the previous team.
Cal senior Sirena Tuitele — call her Peanut if you must — was an exceptional glue component for Colorado last year, receiving a team award for intangibles (while contributing on the court to that NCAA tournament team).
Tuitele shot 0-for-4 and committed three fouls in 13 minutes. The Pac-12 Network talk was that neither the Buffaloes nor Tuitele relished the thought of playing against each other Friday, but I have a feeling that Utah transfer Martin could have a monster game today. Cal has three scoring guards — Curry, McIntosh, Martin — capable of lighting it up, but I expect Martin will most want the ball.
Then she might press too hard and shoot an ohfer like Tuitele, or the first one might hit net, and look out. (That’s the thing about shooters. If they hit the first one, they’re emboldened for the second. A shooter-turned-NBA analyst said that making the first one assures you that you’re still shooting a splendid .500 after missing the next one, but the feeling of assurance means you won’t miss it, and so on.)
In 2011, Pacific coach Roberts was part of this associated story:
The San Francisco Academy of Art — I expect SFAA teams to suck like CalTech teams always do, but sometimes the art kids surprise — visited Pacific, and they arrived with Pacific transfer Jordan Rogers.
Before tipoff of Pacific vs. Art Academy, it was announced that Pacific was assessed ‘an administrative technical foul’ — for what, they never tell you — and a free throw. Rogers went to the line to shoot it.
I thought: “Roberts orchestrated this.”
I believed Coach intentionally committed the ‘administrative technical foul’, banking on the SFAA coach in turn to rely on the ‘playing against your old team’ principle, and send Jordan to shoot it.
I don’t think the SFAA coach gave it enough thought. The Pacific crowd — who loved Rogers a few months before — completely turned on her. The free throw bounced off the side of the rim.
I was wrong about Jordan Rogers, I admit. I thought she’d stand out among a trio of Pacific freshmen, but it was she who transferred out — on very bad terms — while Erica McKenzie and Kendall Rodriguez captained Pacific’s championship team in 2013.
Rodriguez flattened Rogers later. It was a clean play, though Kendall might have been appreciative of that opportunity to send Jordan to the floor. The crowd loved it, which was in poor taste, I thought.
The key difference between this bit of Pacific history and today’s game at Haas Pavilion is that Jordan Rogers returned to a crowd-turned-hostile, whereas Kemery Martin will be on her home floor.
One measure of a competitor, or team of competitors, is the ability to bounce back after a loss.
Stanford lost to USC, recovered to beat a very good Utah. Utah lost to Stanford, and for what it’s worth, they had an excellent practice Saturday afternoon in preparation for Cal Sunday.
I don’t have that ability. After I lose a chess game, it affects my next chess game and my whole life. I’ll make mistakes in a chess game that lasts four hours, then question 60 years of life decisions.
I’m getting better at that, though, because there’s no choice, really. My skill diminishes with age while my opponents get younger and better, and I figure to lose more and more games.
I didn’t handle Utah’s loss to Stanford well. I wasn’t even involved, right? but I wondered why I was waiting for hundreds of other cars to exit the garage across the street from Maples, writing basketball opinion on my phone that few read and fewer agree with.
Coach Roberts recruits basketball players with stronger mental makeup than mine, and the Utes looked sharp in practice. (In particular, in a set labeled Power Push — I was griping about the shelving of Utah’s weave, but Power Push moves just as much.)
On Utah’s depth chart, junior forwards Kelsey Rees and Payton McFarland both fell behind Alissa Pili and her player of the year potential. Their diminished roles have not affected their mood in practice, it seems. To Pili’s credit, she doesn’t look like she feels the weight of the team on her shoulders.
Oregon State: Conceivably the best 3-11 team in the history of team sports
Oregon St. survived an elegant Oregon comeback run, and won 69-66 Friday in Corvallis.
The Beavers led 63-51 with less than 3 minutes left. The Ducks hit 4-of-4 3-point attempts in two minutes to make it 65-63 at 0:59, but all-conference senior Endiya Rogers missed a layup that would’ve tied it at 67.
The win raised Oregon State’s record in conference play to 3-5, putting them in 9th place.
Their next six are: At the Bay Area teams, hosting the mountain teams, at the Big 10 teams. The Beavers could be the best 3-11 team in the history of team sports.
I think OSU most charming. They could be 12-20 after the Pac-12 tournament, and I’d lobby for their invitation to another tournaments.
Senior guard Bendu Yeaney’s homecoming transfer from Arizona gave them toughness and experience, to complement sophomore Talia von Oelhoffen’s capability for huge scoring games. Junior Noelle Mannen is a walk-on who worked her way into a scholarship and starter minutes by seemingly making some impact on every play.
Though it’s their post players that slay me.
6-foot-9 sophomore Jelena Mitrovic intrigued me from the moment she arrived, for using her exceptional height to look around for open teammates.
My minority opinion is that teams should employ high-post, pass-first centers — if they can find one. A corner-to-corner, guard-to-guard skip pass is wonderful, but I’d rather a big person distribute from within the middle of the offense. 1976 NBA rookie of the year Alvan Adams specialized in no-look passes to baseline cutters, endearing him to me forever.
Mitrovic has that kind of passing ability, and she’s cultivated the rest of her game — 9 points and 11 rebounds against Oregon — to make her less of a curiosity and more of a presence.
Raegan Beers is frontrunning as freshman of the year. Beers has finesse we’ve never seen in a player with her body type. The most analogous player I could think of — please indulge me here — is Akeem Olajuwon.
Olajuwon was near seven feet and built like a truck, but he had footwork and grace to belie his stature. The reason for that was that he picked up basketball long after soccer — what sets Beers apart from Olajuwon is that she’s a basketball player first.
The background story on Beers — which will be repeated endlessly for as long as she’s an effective player — is that she acquired the skills of a small player by working around bigger big brothers.
Imagine Beers goes on to Hall of Fame WNBA career. I’m not predicting one, I’m just asking that you imagine so.
Coach Summitt popularized the idea of young women practicing against men, but the idea only goes as far as women’s college basketball.
Say Beers somehow cultivates the media exposure of a Paige Bueckers. I know this is impossible because Bueckers was the top prospect in the nation and went to play for hot airbag Auriemma, but once I introduce the science fiction of likening Raegan Beers to Akeem Olajuwon, the sky’s the limit.
Imagine Raegan Beers goes on a Wheaties box. The effect of that would be girls’ high school and club coaches embracing the idea of boys playing with girls that Coach Summitt introduced to the women’s college environment.
It would be good for women’s basketball, and basketball, period.
Stanford 74 Utah 62, drearily
Stanford put last weekend behind them, and beat Utah 74-62 at Maples. Stanford’s Jones-Brink-Jump nucleus scored 63 points and gathered 27 rebounds, to go with 8 assists (other Cardinal made 4 field goals) and 5 blocks.
Utah attempted 26 threes, and made 5. The Utes’ 3FG% in their first 16 games was .352, which dropped to .341. (I thought Utah would need to make about 10 threes to win Friday; making an additional five would’ve been .385, a good night, and 15 more points would’ve meant a three-point win.)
What was I saying about Hannah Jump yesterday? The Cardinal need her to shoot well, and she scored 12 of her 13 points in the first quarter (which Stanford won 24-22).
Alissa Pili scored 25 for the Utes. There were some other Utes in attendance, I think.
Perhaps we agree that the bottom line for Utah this season is advancing further in either tournament. That would mean winning the Pac-12 tournament or reaching the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.
If so, we’ve reduced their season to a binary: advancing further, or not. It’s a difference of one game at the end: win or lose, yes or no.
When you reduce basketball to that win-or-lose, yes-or-no, it’s much less interesting to me, though all that really matters to the team are wins and losses, no matter how.
Here’s why I found the 2922 Utes lots more interesting than the 2023 Utes: Even though the 2023 team might ultimately surpass them in terms of tournament placement, the 2022 team employed guile, whereas the 2023 team is rather open book.
Chess and basketball have so much in common (which is why I’m writing this, after all), and at their cores, they are games of deception. In both games, the desirable move or possession is that which causes the opponent to want to be in two places at once. At chess, a double-threatening move does that. At basketball, fake left and go right.
The 2022 Utes’ offense had deception built in with its dribble handoff motion. It’s like the play action fakes in football — the defense can’t be certain of who has the ball until perhaps the offense has gained a step. They had the right personnel for it: Gylten, Kneepkens, Johnson, McQueen, Rees are savvy, mobile players.
The 2023 Utes give the ball to Alissa Pili and wait for something to happen. Standing around while the post rumbles around the basket was the prevalent offensive routine in 1990s NBA play, which was one reason I stopped watching the NBA.
Utah thinks that’s best for them when they have the ball, and as long as that wins games for them, they’ll persist. They recognize their low post force and employ it, which is better than pouring a fashionable offense into team chemistry that isn’t suited for it.
Coach Roberts learned that the hard way in 2009, when Vance Walberg’s dribble drive attack system was the height of fashion. Coach Calipari was very successful with it at UMass, and then everyone was doing it.
Roberts’ Pacific team then wasn’t fit for the Walberg system. They lost eight of their first nine, everyone was miserable, and they rebooted. Coach Roberts learned on the job not to cram square pegs into round holes. If she said discarding the dribble handoff sets wasn’t just for what Pili can do, but also for what they can no longer do in the absence of Dru Gylten, I’d buy that. Maybe wouldn’t like it, because I loved Dru, but I’d buy it.
UC Santa Barbara 70, CS Northridge 45
UCSB won by 25 at Northridge Thursday. Sophomore forward Alexis Whitfield had 11 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 steals in 20 minutes off the bench for the Gauchos.
I think it was Dallas Maverick Jim Farmer who coined the term “billion” for a player line in an old-fashioned newspaper basketball score that indicates one minute played with 0 FG or FT attempts, 0 offensive or total rebounds, 0 assists, 0 fouls, 0 points, or “1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0”.
One billion is easiest to achieve when entering the game for a couple of seconds, because it rounds up to one minute on the stat sheet. I think the most billions I’ve ever seen in a boxscore was 13, the equivalent of playing an entire quarter of an NBA game, and not affecting the game in the slightest.
Sophomore guard Kathleen Hutchens recorded a billion for the Gauchos last night. Actually, in the newfangled online boxscores, there’s much more space for display. Hutchens had one minute and 15 zeroes: a quadrillion.
I think that kid is talented. Sees the floor very well, makes passes other players can’t make, shoots from distance, has the savvy of a coach’s daughter.
What I don’t know about her is how she’ll handle such little playing time. If Coach Henrickson doesn’t see Hutchens fitting into future plans, that’s one thing. But if Coach is bringing her along slowly with Hutchens’ junior and senior years in store, and Hutchens hates it, that’s another.
#8 Utah at #4 Stanford, 7 p.m . Pacific
A favorite cliche in sports media is “two teams going in different directions”. You can’t say that about #4 Stanford and #8 Utah, who play tonight in Maples, but they are two teams in different places.
The Cardinal counted on a 1-2-3 in Brink, Jones, and Jump, I think we can agree. Look at how their results in six games correspond to Jump’s 3-point shooting and scoring:
| Date | Opponent | 3FG | P | Score |
| 12/23 | Cal | 5-9 | 17 | 90-69 |
| 12/31 | Arizona St. | 6-10 | 20 | 101-69 |
| 1/2 | Arizona | 4-13 | 13 | 73-57 |
| 1/8 | at Cal | 2-4 | 7 | 60-56 |
| 1/13 | at UCLA | 2-8 | 8 | 72-59 |
| 1/15 | at USC | 0-3 | 1 | 46-55 |
In their first three Pac-12 games, Jump scored 50 points with 15 made threes. The worst of those was vs. Arizona, but no one saw a problem, because Arizona is a far better defensive team than Cal or Arizona St.
In the three games since, including their first loss in conference, 16 points and 4 made threes.
Am I saying “As goes Hannah Jump, so go the Stanford Cardinal”? No, but the senior was supposed to be an integral part, especially when it comes to picking up what they lost when Lexie Hull graduated. In Stanford’s last three wins in the NCAAs before elimination by Connecticut, Hull averaged 25. In the 5-point loss to UConn, she shot 2-for-12.
Sophomore forward Kiki Iriafen, a starter, averaged 10.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in non-conference play, then 6.7 and 3.7. You expect numbers to decrease team-wide once you get past the Florida Gulf Coasts and Cal State Northridges, and begin facing the Arizonas and UCLAs, but do you agree that Stanford’s shot selection and ball care has diminished in a rather startling way?
You know how these team slumps that coincide with individual slumps go: When Jump resumes shooting well, they’ll all get better for the additional options and floor space.
Utah, on the other hand, seems to know where the pieces fit. I wondered how the loss of Gylten, Maxwell, and Martin would affect the group, and how the addition of Pili might flavor an unstable mix. As it turns out: ‘hardly noticeable’, and ‘key ingredient’.
The Utes’ win over Arizona showed that the bounces are going their way, while the Cardinal’s loss to USC showed them in a rough patch. The stars might be in alignment, and maybe aligned stars will hit some threes for Utah tonight. That, and perhaps Utah will create more chances for themselves to run. Both teams are good at that, so whichever gains an advantage there will, um, have an advantage.
Perish the thought
I’ve never seen some things, like:
- Stanford losing two games in a row. It’s happened, but I’ve never seen it.
- Stanford playing poorly in three straight games. Maybe this has happened, but I’ve never seen it.
- Kate Paye as the head coach of the Stanford women’s basketball team.
I hate to think it*. You hate to think it. It’s not unthinkable.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if Coach VanDerveer retired after winning the NCAA championship in 2021. That would’ve been a storybook moment, when she’s done everything a coach can do, and then some.
Neither was I surprised when she came back for 2022, and darn if Stanford didn’t have me thinking they were going to repeat.
What if this is the year Coach VanDerveer decides she can’t get through to the Cardinal like she used to. That might not even be true — it could be that this group just isn’t as talented or cohesive as the last few Cardinal teams with the Hull sisters and Anna Wilson — but let’s say Coach figures that it’s time. (She could then write the sequel to her 1998 memoir Shooting from the Outside , though that’s just me — I always think it’s time for someone to write something.)
That time could be at the buzzer when the Cardinal is eliminated from — or after they win — the 2023 NCAA tournament. It could also be this weekend.
The Cardinal looked bad against UCLA, but they survived, because very good teams do that. They looked bad against USC — never had the lead in that game — and they lost to the Trojans for the first time in a long while. Utah’s better than those Big 10 teams — don’t take it from me; the NET metrics and Associated Press said so.
Stanford prepares most thoroughly for Utah, and there’s immeasurable team pride driving their practices this week — heaven forbid they play three bad games in a row — but things and Alissa Pili happen.
* I don’t like the thought of Coach VanDerveer retiring, but I like the thought of Coach Paye making that 18-inch move to the chair on her left.
Brynna Maxwell is the West Coast Conference player of the week
West Coast Conference player of the week Brynna Maxwell leads the nation in 3FG% by a mile. The perimeter defense in the West Coast Conference suits her.
Whether you sense me smirking with that observation is up to you. Love that kid, one of the purest shooters I’ve seen, but I’m somewhat disappointed in her for not accepting a changed role in Utah.
My favorite NBA Phoenix teams employed Eddie Johnson (Illinois Eddie Johnson, not Auburn Eddie Johnson) like a microwave, and he won the 1989 NBA Sixth Man award in that capacity. The microwave shooters can heat up fast, and change the character of a game in an instant. Brynna could’ve done that for Utah, and don’t you think the Utes could’ve used that kind of spark in Colorado.
Then again, I don’t know the whole story. From Gonzaga, her friends and family aren’t so far away, though I’d be more inclined to believe that as an incentive in one’s freshman year. (See: Jorgensen, Jennifer, in 2008 a prized Pacific recruit who went home to Iowa after three minutes of playing time. I called that one. After it took an hour for me to drive from Fullerton to Irvine one night, I thought the incoming Jorgensen would take one look at California freeway traffic, and turn around for cities with one stoplight.) Same goes for the redness of Utah as a reason to return to Washington—.I could buy social climate as an incentive to leave in an underclassman more readily than in a senior.
Dru Gylten, a model of consistency
In South Dakota State’s last three games, in which the Jackrabbits scored 94, 105, and 118 points, very senior guard Dru Gylten recorded:
| Opponent | Minutes | FG | RB | AS | TO | PTS |
| North Dakota St. | 23 | 3-5 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 9 |
| North Dakota | 20 | 4-7 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| South Dakota | 19 | 3-4 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 12 |
12/3 vs. Northern Iowa:
| Opponent | Minutes | FG | RB | AS | TO | PTS |
| Northern Iowa | 27 | 3-4 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 11 |
The Jacks figure to win 13 more in a row (to make 20), because the Summit League isn’t so good this year. If the selection committee sends SDSU back to Stanford for Rds. 1 and 2, I’d love to welcome their maniacal fans back to California.
Stanford loses, Utah wins, and Colorado is idle, making a three-way tie atop the Pac-12 standings
I said around Halloween that the AP poll was off for ranking Stanford as the preseason #2, because losing the Hull sisters and Anna Wilson to graduation was going to affect Stanford more than the voters thought.
My friend the Stanford season ticketholder agreed that the voters weren’t accounting for Lexie Hull’s intangibles. (Whereas the Indiana Fever overdid.)
Sportswriters don’t like change. They want to preserve status quo because it preserves the stories they’ve already written, and sustains their use of cliché. For example, who felt worse about Iowa getting bounced early in last year’s NCAA tournament: Iowa or the media, whose pre-made Caitlin Clark content was suddenly rubbish?
Stanford, you might agree now if not last week, is far behind last season’s group. Coach VanDerveer knows. If you heard her during her sideline interview at halftime of the UCLA game, she was as steamed as she gets.
I’d hoped it would be Utah breaking Stanford’s unbeaten-in-conference-for-almost-two-years string, but for USC getting there first, I can further illustrate a point.
Say Stanford falls to #4 and Utah rises to #8 in tomorrow’s poll, then Utah wins in Maple Pavilion next Friday. Do you think their poll positions would change, like #6 Utah and #7 Stanford? Not a chance, because sports media think they’d burst into flames for voting Stanford other than top of the Pacific-12. If it were up to sports media, Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak would still be going.
USC 55 Stanford 46
Where do you begin? Stanford scored 4 points in the first quarter, shooting 2-for-10. In total, the Cardinal scored 4 points off turnovers, and 0 points on the break. USC led by 8 going into the fourth quarter, and Stanford didn’t get closer than 6 (while shooting 5-for-19). That’s not the Cardinal.
Haley Jones and Cameron Brink shot 6-for-27, after Pac-12 Network spent an entire week hyping the game as a showcase for them. Together with Hannah Jump, the seniors missed 10 3-point attempts while making 0. I’ve never seen Jump shoot ohfer. I’d venture that this is the first 0-for-5 of her life.
“It wasn’t just turnovers; it was bad shot [selection],” said coach VanDerveer. “I don’t know that we can do anything any worse. This has to be rock bottom in terms of execution offensively.”
USC stayed even in the standings with Washington State, who also upset a top 25 team, Oregon. (When Pac-12 Network talking heads say it’s the best conference in the country, consider this: If the tournament began tomorrow, USC’s reward for beating Stanford is a first-round game with Oregon State. Then Oregon State goes to the WNIT, where they kill it. The Beavers are scary, and in the Pac-12, they’re 2-5.)
I’m sorry I find it harder to see USC’s accomplishment for their positives rather than for Stanford’s negatives. And to be further inclined to chalk it up as what the chess genius Capablanca called a ‘therapeutic thrashing’ after starting to think he was invincible.
Utah got that wakeup call in Boulder. Stanford got theirs in the Galen Center. Who’s looking forward to Friday?!
| Stanford jersey no. | Player | Hollinger ‘gamescore’ |
| 22 | Brink,Cameron | 10.1 |
| 10 | Lepolo,Talana | 3.6 |
| 30 | Jones,Haley | 4.9 |
| 44 | Iriafen,Kiki | -0.1 |
| 33 | Jump,Hannah | -3.3 |
| 21 | Demetre,Brooke | 4.8 |
| 02 | Emma-Nnopu,Agnes | -0.3 |
| 11 | Prechtel,Ashten | 1.6 |
| 12 | Nivar,Indya | 0.9 |
| 32 | Harriel,Jzaniya | -0.1 |
| 51 | Betts,Lauren | -0.7 |
| 05 | Belibi,Francesca | -1 |
| 20 | Bosgana,Elena | 0 |
| USC jersey no. | Player | Hollinger ‘gamescore’ |
| 11 | Littleton, Destiny | 14.1 |
| 24 | Adika, Okako | 9.8 |
| 01 | Bigby, Taylor | 8.6 |
| 04 | Williams, Kayla | 6 |
| 13 | Marshall, Rayah | 0.8 |
| 34 | Akunwafo, Clarice | 4.1 |
| 25 | Miura, Alyson | -1.8 |
Utah 80 Arizona 79
Junior forward Alissa Pili scored 27 points, including two free throws with 0.3 seconds on the game clock, to lead #10 Utah past #14 Arizona.
Pili shouldn’t win another conference player of the week for that, because Utah only played one game for Arizona State’s forfeit. Hand it to USC’s Destiny Littleton for scoring 18 points in each of the Trojans’ wins over the Bay Area schools.
Arizona stayed in character by losing when they couldn’t hold their opponents under 70. Utah stayed in character when they nearly lost it with 5 seconds left.
Coach Roberts’ teams are accustomed to the scrappy underdog role; the targeted favorite part will take some getting used to. One of the Pac-12 Network people said Coach Roberts said so herself, so I can type it now.
The 2013 Pacific Tigers solidly won the Big West regular season championship, but narrowly beat CS Fullerton in the tournament quarterfinal (after beating the Titans by 12 and 31 in season), and looked like crap while losing in the semifinal to Cal Poly. I watched that team go last-to-first in the course of four years, so I can type it now.
Trailing by one with 8 seconds left, Arizona pressured Utah into one inbounds pass that the Wildcats tipped away. Then with 5 seconds remaining, Arizona coaxed a turnover, which Paris Clark capitalized on to go ahead 79-78.
I give the officials credit for making the right call on Utah’s last inbounds play. The pass from the sideline found Pili on the baseline amidst three defenders. She was fouled, and awarded the decisive free throws.
Sports fans love to blame the officials, especially if an incorrect call in the endgame alters the result. If a correct call changes things, they still scream “Let them play!”, but look like bigger idiots while doing so. Pili was fouled, well captured on video. If the game had been in Tucson, the fans would still be howling (and they’d be wrong).
Utah sophomore guard Gianna Kneepkens scored 11 points, gathered two defensive rebounds, made one assist in the fourth quarter.
I think I was wrong about Utah needing to exploit Arizona’s weakside help cheating away from the ball and thinking they can always recover.
| Arizona jersey no. | Player | Hollinger ‘gamescore’ |
| 25 | Reese,Cate | 21.4 |
| 30 | Loville,Jade | 10.2 |
| 01 | Pellington,Shaina | 11.2 |
| 12 | Martinez,Esmery | 3.6 |
| 23 | Fields,Lauren | -1.2 |
| 22 | Clark,Paris | 10 |
| 13 | Pueyo,Helena | 7 |
| 34 | Nnaji,Maya | 0.3 |
| 15 | Gilbert,Kailyn | -0.1 |
| 10 | Hylton,Lemyah | -1.1 |
| 04 | Conner,Madison | 0 |
| Utah jersey no. | Player | Hollinger ‘gamescore’ |
| 35 | Pili, Alissa | 17.8 |
| 05 | Kneepkens, Gianna | 16.9 |
| 01 | Palmer, Issy | 7 |
| 22 | Johnson, Jenna | 4.2 |
| 24 | McQueen, Kennady | 6.1 |
| 34 | Young, Dasia | 3.3 |
| 32 | Sidberry, Teya | 2.5 |
| 53 | Rees, Kelsey | -2.4 |
| 02 | Vieira, Inês | -0.7 |
UCLA 87 California 70
UCLA led by one after three quarters, then Cal lost the thread. There were 10 rebounds to be had in the fourth quarter, and the Bruins, such a good offensive-rebounding team, got 8.
8 UCLA gained a game on Stanford, and is one game back of the coveted double tournament bye.
You might look at Cal senior Kemery Martin’s line as a metaphor for the team. She hit her first seven shots (the last of the seven was a remarkable reverse layup), then 1-for-the-last-6. She ended with a game-high 23, and if she’d stayed hot and carried Cal to an upset, I would spend a page talking about change of scenery doing her good.
Kemery wore a Hendrix T-shirt to one of her last team gatherings with the Utes. That’s the sort of free-spiritedness that plays better in Berkeley than in Salt Lake City.
I’ll be dead soon, and I’m glad Hendrix will stay alive on the T-shirts of kids like Kemery Martin and one of my frequent chess club opponents. The kid is always wearing a T-shirt that gets highest marks: Beatles, Pink Floyd, Hendrix. He said his dad has an extensive classic rock collection, insisted he be familiar, and here we are.
I wish I’d talked to Kemery while she was in Utah. You might say ‘won’t it be easier now that you work a mile from Haas, and she works at Haas?’, but I think Cal is mad at me for some reason. None of the emails I’ve sent to berkeley dot edu this basketball season was answered, which surprises me in the case of assistant coach Heintz, one of my favorite players at two schools.