On Thanksgiving weekend at the Cayman Island Classic, Utah fell 20+ behind Mississippi State, came back to lead in the last couple minutes, but lost.
Then the Utes beat #3 Notre Dame, which actually looked less impressive because Texas Christian also beat the Fighting Irish two days earlier.
The Frogs are one of the best teams ever assembled for a simulation, because computer or tabletop gaming simulations only care about past performance, not about how the individual statistical records mesh as a real-life team. TCU has evidently figured that out, and they look like a national championship contender.
TCU Coach Mark Campbell made the right decision in enabling Van Lith to be herself, whereas that parade float at Louisiana State felt compelled to impose its will on her. (Van Lith isn’t blameless — transferring to LSU the year after the Tigers won the title wasn’t a good move, or a good-looking move.)
Last Wednesday, Utah went into halftime vs. Utah State leading 50-30 (in the Utah Jazz building, which was a nice gesture toward supporters of either), and I turned it off. A video clip following the Notre Dame win showed Coach Petersen asking the Utes if they were “starting to believe a little bit”, which was truly what the Utes needed.
I said a month ago that Utah looked hesitant in the second half vs. Weber State, and they were completely unsure while losing their first game at Northwestern. But the steady win over Notre Dame followed by blasting Utah State suggests the Utes are surefootedly on the path toward a special season.
Where have I been, instead of covering these Utes in a timely manner? I’ve been moving. Spent the whole month of November hauling one or two boxes at a time in a Mini Cooper. But it’s done, and I’m back where I feel comfortable in the Hayward Park neighborhood of San Mateo, Calif. One accident that must be fixed: Mattresses come wrapped in two sheets of plastic. One to keep it tidy, another to keep it compressed. If you inadvertently puncture the inner layer too soon, the mattress goes FWOOOOPH, after which you have to hire two or three strong people to help lift it to the top of your loft bed.
My friend Rebecca — a stalwart Liberty supporter — was first to tell me that WNBA Los Angeles hired Lynne Roberts as their head coach.
(My question is “Did Golden State have the chance to hire Coach, and if so, how did they fuck that up?”. Your question might be “Why hire Roberts?”, and one answer to that is: The Sparks are a last-place team, and Coach has a 3-for-3 record turning last-place teams into league champions.)
The first thing Rebecca said — that is, the subject line of her email — was “well, this might be awkward”. Rebecca knows how long I’ve been on Coach Roberts’ best, covering her teams through thick and thin, and she also knows that the Valkyries have been my team since the expansion deal was announced.
Really, I don’t know what to do. My thought today is that when Los Angeles visits Golden State on opening night, I wear Utah gear. Then if Golden State selects Alissa Pili from Minnesota in today’s expansion draft, I’m covered on both sides.
There are already difficulties I couldn’t’ve imagined. For instance, I just had the thought: What if WE target players who fit Roberts’ style?I shook my head. Wait a second. The Valkyries are drafting for Coach Nakase’s team, not Coach Roberts’ team. Both teams can’t be “we”, but that’s the point. Coach Rob’s teams have always been “us”, and it’s — at least — hypocritical to support her Sparks while I’m wearing all this Valkyries gear.
People who don’t get sports fandom think this is not a problem, and is pretty dumb. I imagine even if one *does* get it, it’s pretty dumb.
If it turns out that GSV could have hired Roberts — and didn’t — I’ll have no qualms about rooting for Los Angeles to kick Golden State’s butt.
Three of my favorite ’80s bands — Til Tuesday, The Go-Go’s, New Order — are playing at the Cruel World festival May 17 in Pasadena. I purchased a ticket package the first day they were available.
The Los Angeles Sparks and their new head coach are the Golden State Valkyries’ inaugural night opponent on May 16. I purchased a ticket for that on the first day they were available, too, while the schedule was TBD.
The hotel in Pasadena has me checking in at 4 p.m., but I’ve yet to find a flight out of SFO later than 9 p.m. I certainly don’t want to drive post-game.
I have to admit it’s a good problem to have, thought it’s indeed a cruel world.
This is the first of Coach Roberts’ jobs at which she might be fired prematurely.
A media officer at Pacific said — in the midst of one of the Tigers’ bad years — that it was a possibility. I said: No way, much too early. He agreed, but Division I athletic departments have done worse, he said.
That was in 2008, during Roberts’ second season at Pacific. Looking back, that year was key, because Amy VanHollebeke arrived.
The junior guard was the first of two Chico Wildcats to follow Roberts to Pacific. The Wildcats reached the round of 4 in the Division II tournament in ’06. That led to Roberts’ first D1 job in Stockton, ahead of transfers from Chico: captains VanHollebeke and Amber Simmons.
I think that swayed recruits. Two years later, Pacific had the freshman core for their 2013 Big West championship team.
VanHollebeke joined Roberts’ Pacific staff, first as operations director, then as assistant coach. I saw Amy with her family at a Utah visit to Cal — the only time I saw one of the Pacific Tigers at a Utah game.
Except for Kendall Rodriguez, Utah’s operations director, who captained 2013 Pacific championship team.
Lynne Roberts, the Golden State Valkyries, and Paige Bueckers are joining the WNBA in the same season.
That just sank in.
I mentioned Bueckers because everyone should be jazzed about that.
Much bigger to me are the Valkyries, who are a local story; and Coach. I’ve read people referring to Coach as an unknown. It tracks — Utah reached the round of 16 two years ago, when that wasn’t as big a deal as it was one year ago. There’s a generation of women’s basketball fans to whom Coach Roberts is an unknown.
Then there’s a large group who’ll say: We’ve been in Roberts’ corner for 10 whole years!
Then there’s me.
I’m going to pick up some new readers. Hello, new readers. I was covering West Coast Conference women’s basketball in ’06, and a very good San Diego team visited the University of the Pacific in December. It coincided with a kids’ chess tournament on the Pacific campus (at which my students played).
Perfect, I thought. I can work at the chess tournament, watch San Diego crush the locals, and never have to see Stockton, Calif., again.
Pacific played well vs. San Diego. I could sense a story percolating, with their first-year head coach, freshman point guard. I never left, because the story unfolded slowly.
I thought 2024-25 could’ve been the year a Roberts team achieved a level befitting the end of the story. I thought these Utes might be the best team Roberts ever built, better than the round-of-16 team with Alissa Pili (WNBA Minnesota’s first-round draft pick this year).
The Utes looked hesitant in the second half vs. Weber State in game 2, but won by 40, anyway. At Northwestern two weeks ago, the Utes let a 14-point lead get away, where the (perceived) lack of confidence manifested as 27% shooting in the 4th.
Didn’t talk to Coach after the loss at Northwestern, but I reckon I would’ve asked if she’d had a meaningful conversation with the team. Maybe, because Utah beat McNeese St. by 68.
Coach didn’t take calls for days, and emerged in the press with a new job. The funny thing is that because she didn’t answer the phone for two games, I determined to go to Salt Lake for the homestand that begins tonight vs. St. Joseph’s, and talk to her there.
My first question is whether she went for the Golden State job, but they opted for Nakase (or settled for Nakase after Roberts passed).
Nakase trivia: Where was her last professuonal game in the US? It was the 2006 NWBL championship game, when Nakase’s San Diego Siege lost to Becky Hammon’s Colorado Chill, in Fort Collins, Colo. I was the only sportswriter there.
I got the news about Roberts from my friend Rebecca, a Liberty writer from Queens. Rebecca sees the potential for my feeling awkward about it. My seat at Valkyries games is in the fourth row behind the visitors’ bench — will I be wearing the jacket of the Founding Guard (inaugural season ticket holders) and rooting for the Sparks?
My chess teaching colleague wondered if Roberts gave the team the news before the Northwestern game. (I didn’t think she knew yet, and the Northwestern accident was an extension of the Weber St. uncertainty).
I’ll continue writing Utah. This team could be outstanding. They play together, sharing the ball and the highlight clips.
Utah beat Weber State 86-46 Thursday 11/7 in Salt Lake. Fifth-year senior post Mayè Tourè, a transfer from Rhode Island, led all scorers with 22, and was one of five players with a game-high 5 rebounds.
The Utes led 47-14 at halftime, after the Wildcats shot 6-for-22. Weber St. made 26 turnovers leading to 38 Utah points, and a +33 differential in points after turnovers.
Utah looked worse Thursday than they did Monday vs. Southern Utah, and I’m glad. There were stretches on opening day when the Utes looked so good, they gave an impression of possibly peaking before Christmas.
***
I wrote that seven days ago — today is game day in Evanston, Ill., at Northwestern. I thought I’d talk to Coach Roberts, but I’m busier than I want to be. Not fully moved into the new place — bed is built, mattress should arrive tomorrow, cardboard and packing material everywhere — plus another chess companionship for which to write bulletins, stuff chess classes that pay me, and three that don’t.
It’s the right kind of busy, but it cuts into basketball. Besides our two games, I haven’t seen anyone play for 40 minutes, though two BYU games probably made 40 minutes in aggregate.
I thought the Big 12 was overdoing it by taking in Brigham Young, but the Cougars are very good. So good that they don’t have to rely too heavily on Utah/California transfer Kemery Congdon (née Martin) for outside shooting.
I must’ve been wrong about #15 feeling more at home in the Bohemian metropolis that is Cal Berkeley, because there she is, back in the state of Utah.
One of the BYU freshmen made an indelible hustle play, and I thought I’d remember her name (another ability I had when young that I ought to stop trying to use). She dove for a loose ball, slid the last 10 feet, knocking the ball deeper into the backcourt, and didn’t quite scramble to her feet, but got enough of her legs into another dive. The BYU broadcast team said she’s one of Coach Judkins’ recruits, but he’s been in Salt Lake for two years, or three?
We tipoff at Northwestern in an hour, halfway through my chess class. The kids won’t notice if I stop paying attention, but the other chess teacher might.
I’m moving again, and the timing is notably weird.
I moved into this room on Adams Point in Oakland, Calif., on April 1. Which meant I picked up a front door key, parked my car, and went to the airport for NCAA rounds 1 and 2 at Gonzaga (where Utah’s 2023-24 season ended).
The 2024-25 season began today, while I’m hauling boxes back across the Bay to the peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose. It’s as if this were a summer getaway to Lake Merritt.
Adams Point is one of most pleasant neighborhoods I’ve ever resided in, but it’s expensive, and too far from my chess classes. I’ve been working hard, and driving long.
How much homework did I put into college basketball this summer? None. I couldn’t even tell you how many teams are in the Big 12 Conference. Utah, Colorado, Kansas State, and at least nine others.
I learned yesterday that the media put Utah in the middle of the Big 16 Conference, and not in the AP Top 25. I think that’s odd, because the 2024-25 Utes could be better than the NCAA-round-of-16 bunch from two years back.
You can see what the voters are thinking: Utah lost all-everything Alissa Pili to the Minnesota Lynx (who in turn will lose Pili to the Golden State Valkyries), no further analysis required.
The ESPN broadcast team — the great Krista Blunk (the best of the Sacramento Monarchs broadcast team) and Joe Cravens — discussed that Monday morning. Pili’s gone, but Johnson/McQueen/Vieida are now grizzled veterans, while last season’s newcomers played an unexpected lot in Kneepkens’ absence.
2023-24 required that everyone compensate for the loss of Kneepkens. 2024-25 requires the everyone compensate for the loss of Pili in the same fashion, and everyone has improved, we must think.
Utah 105 Southern Utah 52
One of the reasons I prefer sports journalism as a hobby instead of a profession is that if I want to skip press conferences, I can.
After some losses, no one’s in a mood to talk to anybody else. After some wins — like Monday’s opening day win against the Thunderbirds — what’s there to say?
It would be customary to ask about forward Mayè Tourè, the all-Atlantic-10 transfer starting at the five for Utah in place of Alissa Pili. She was one of six Utah players to score in double figures, shooting from far away and from up close, and contributing more assists and takeaways than giveaways.
I’d also expect someone in the press pool to mention sophomore forward Reese Ross, who shot 6-for-6 and led the team with 7 rebounds. Ross was an interesting freshman because she has that Warner Bros. Tasmanian Devil quality, a small tornado of dust and fury. That has not changed.
Jenna made every shot inside the arc. Ines was, as usual, wherever Southern Utah didn’t want her to be. Gianna’s back!!
But besides the excitement of opening day with thousands of screaming children (“Future Scholars Day” is a euphemism I couldn’t use with a straight face), it was a day at the office.
Arizona State 74 Jacksonville State 66
The visiting Gamehens led by 3 at the start of the fourth quarter, then missed 13 straight field goal attempts in a row. Senior guard Tyi Skinner, who missed last season with an injury, scored a game-high 30 for Arizona State.
Jacksonville St. has a forward who has evidently improved her free throw shooting by attempting them from the right elbow.
What are basketball coaches teaching to the youngest players these days about free throwing? To align their nose with the center of the rim, or their shooting shoulder? This Jacksonville St. kid, a left-handed shooter, made 5-of-6 from two steps to the right of center.
Why doesn’t anyone teach young players one of two most proper ways to do this? One, like Elena Delle Donne, who makes 95% of them by minimizing the overhand FT motion. Two, underhanded, when two hands on the ball mean the shot is coming from dead center, with much less chance of the error that comes from relying on one wrist or one shoulder.
The WNBA players’ union is opting out of its present contract, due to expire in one year.
Which suggests the Caitlin Clark Effect has been SO great for professional American women’s basketball that the players have built a position from which they can effectively walk out.
Progress: The highest-ever attendance and TV viewership has spiked ticket prices to NBA levels, the league is expanding it’s number of teams and number of games, and the players can strike for a larger slice of the pie.
Wasn’t that long ago that I attended a professional women’s basketball game at which I was probably the only one who paid for a ticket. There were fewer than 100 people in attendance, all but one of whom were on the San Francisco Legacy’s pass list, I think.
The visitors were the NWBL champion Colorado Chill with stars Becky Hammon and Ruth Riley — I bet if you asked WNBA Las Vegas coach Hammon if she remembers that game, she would.
The Chill’s bus got lost, and also stuck in traffic, so the Chill arrived late, with no time to warm up. They fell behind by 12 early, and you’d think the freeloaders in attendance would be screaming, but the place was so quiet that I could hear Colorado coach Packard tell them calmly that she wasn’t interested in watching this. That’s all she had to say. The Chill went back out and restored universal order.
A couple years later, I ran into Coach Packard in the Sacramento Monarchs team shop. I asked her about that huddle. “Becky once said about me: ‘She doesn’t talk much or loudly, but when she does, *she means it*’.”
Coach Packard and I shared a laugh about that gym, which was the size of a junior high school gym. Getting lost on the way and falling behind by a dozen was easy to do at that place, she said.
That’s what professional American women’s basketball was like in the mid-2000s.
The banking industry is organized crime, but so is scholastic chess — we’re all looking the other way. Since Chase is a major partner for the Golden State Valkyries (Chase owns the naming rights to the arena, and their label is plastered on every damn thing), I thought to apply for a Chase credit card. Maybe I’ll put my season ticket on it.
My season ticket at Sacramento’s Arco Arena for the 2005 WNBA champion Monarchs was around $600, for 17 home games times $35. Fifth row, facing the opposing bench, a really good place to sit. The same seat in the Chase Center for the Golden State Valkyries, who figure to be a bad expansion team for a couple of years, will cost at least $40,000.
I planned to move to Salt Lake when there was nothing keeping me here. Then three chess clubs asked me to conduct weekly lectures, to go along with six paid classes. The paid gigs aren’t much fun — one kid in 10,000 goes on to be an excellent player, while most of the other 9,999 would rather be anywhere else than my class — but the unpaid gigs are terrific, because everyone wants to be there.
So work is more fun, and I miss having a WNBA team to care about. On the other hand, they’re asking for a LOT of money. It’s pretty funny that moving is the less expensive option.
I went into a Chase branch, and provided the requested information. “Occupation?” said the banker.
“Teacher”, I said. I’m not getting paid to write anything these days.
“I used to be a teacher”, she said. “I graduated with a bachelor’s in mathematics, and a master’s in physics…”
“And you’re working here?”.
I was approved for a $5000 card instant cashback rewards if I spend lots. Boy, I’m sure glad basketball tickets are $2000. I can put two whole games on this card, and get cashback for a beer.
Perhaps I should still be thinking about getting a job with the Valkyries, though I doubt a good seat is a perk of employment.
Besides the Lynx, the Sun, and their friends and families, does anyone care who wins tonight’s loser-goes-home WNBA semifinal game.
The Golden State Valkyries have received 15,000 deposits by prospective season ticketholders, and conducted an open house at the Chase Center Aug. 17 to bring together sales representatives and fans.
Fans were restricted to exploring the lower two levels of seats. If one wanted to see the upper deck — like I did — an escort was needed. It took 35 minutes to get the escort, which is the level of service one might expect if one can afford cheap seats.
The wait strengthened my resolve to get a job with the team, so I don’t wind up as a customer getting what I pay for.
I asked Adam, who provides group sales for the Warriors, to show me the worst seat in the building. If the worst seat is tolerable, I said, then any other would be at least OK.
He knew where to take me. Up the elevator to the sixth floor, across a walkway with a spectacular view of the Bay, to Section 201, Row 1, Seat 1.
See the angled edge in Section 201? It’s a barrier to prevent people from falling to the level below. In Rows 1-6, Seat 1 is beside that wall, and it’s opaque. The shorter you are, the worse it gets — I’m 5-foot-9, and about one-fourth of the court was obstructed from view.
The Warriors’ virtual seating chart includes the wall. This is meant to represent the view from Section 201, Row 5. Seat 1 is to the right, beside that wall — sit there for just $129 during a Warriors game.
Let’s say Valkyries tickets cost half what the Warriors tickets do. Would I pay $65 to sit anywhere in Section 201?
My seat at Arco Arena for the Sacramento Monarchs was 10th row, opposite the visiting bench, for $35. During a couple games, a friend let me join him 5th row on the baseline, a bit obstructed by the basket stanchion. Those seats were $57, eight years ago. Sounds like a bargain today, compared to an estimated $65 for a seat in the third tier at the Chase Center, behind a safety wall.
That’s the cost of the progress the Warriors brought to Bay Area basketball, and the Caitlin Clark Effect on women’s basketball.
We speculated about ticket prices while waiting in line to get inside. “Gonna cost a fortune”, said the woman behind me, who loved the freebies and swag she received during her visit to the Las Vegas Aces.
“Keep in mind”, I said, “selling your ticket to the Fever game can pay for the rest of the season.” My friends in Queens who’ve followed the New York Liberty for several years did that.
“But that’s the game I most want to see!” said a young woman.
She and her family are from Sacramento. They had my sympathy. “I’m saving 100 miles (of driving)”, I said. “Now you’re losing 100 miles.”
On a staircase in the distance, I saw a woman wearing an ABL San Jose Lasers jersey, with Jennifer Azzi’s no. 8.
I encountered the woman and her husband later. Even kids not yet born during the ABL days appreciated that jersey, she said.
I told the couple that I wore that jersey to Coach Azzi’s first game as the coach of the University of San Francisco. “She came out to talk to the press post-game, and the first thing she said was: ‘Now no one can say I’ve never done this’.”
Some were dubious about Azzi taking over at USF because she’d never coached before. She’s Jennifer Azzi. Maybe she’s never jumped out of an airplane, but I’d follow her — with the proper equipment.
Azzi’s assistant Blair Hardiek — one of my favorite people, from her playing days at Missouri with forward Carlyn Savant (an incredible shooter for her size), to her years as an assistant at San Francisco State — said: “Look at this guy’s jersey”, she said.
One of the USF players walked by. “That’s my jersey!” Azzi told her. “I ought to show this to all the players”, she said. (I thought: Don’t they know!?)
Another jersey seen Saturday at the Chase Center was an Iriafen, along with a Stanford cap.
“When I ask about who should coach this team, I get mostly wrong answers”, I said, “but I suspect you’d give me the correct one.”
“Tara VanDerveer”, she said. “What do I win?”
I think Coach VanDerveer should’ve been the first phone call Golden State made about the coaching job. Adam the group sales executive said Lisa Leslie has toured the building. I don’t think a Bay Area crowd would respond well to LosAngelesLisa as the Valkyries’ first head coach.
Could we get Coach VanDerveer and Lexie Hull in the expansion draft? If each team is permitted to protect seven, Indiana might let Hull go, considering the Stanford star is 9th on the Fever in MP, and 12th in PER.
But after her career game a few nights ago, Caitlin Clark turned her Twitter into a Lexie Hull fan page. If Clark wants someone to stick around in Indiana, I’d consider her stuck.
