Utah Women’s Basketball Independent

The .travel site’s first recommendations for flights to Spokane lay over in Salt Lake.

The Pac-12 could put SEVEN teams in the round of eight.

In Albany 1, it’s #1 South Carolina vs. #3 Oregon State (who beat #2 Notre Dame)

In Portland 4, it’s #5 Utah (who beat #1 Texas, and host team #4 Gonzaga) vs. #2 Stanford.

In Albany 2, it’s #5 Colorado (who beat #4 Kansas State, and #1 Iowa) vs. #2 UCLA (who beat defending champ #3 LSU).

In Portland 3, it’s #1 Southern Cal vs. #11 Arizona (who won the play-in game vs. Auburn, then #6 Syracuse, #3 Connecticut, and #2 Duke) .

From that round of 8:

Oregon State beats South Carolina. It’s OSU freshman guard Dominica Paurov who comes up big.

Here’s my question to you: Which Pac-12 freshmen guard combo do you prefer, Oregon State’s Paurova plus Donovyn Hunter, or Southern Cal’s JuJu Watkins plus Malia Samuels?

Hunter is steady in a way that belies her experience, and she has bursts of fireworks.

Here’s what gets me about the Czech player Paurova, the WBB equivalent of Corliss Williamson.

Corliss Williamson won an NBA championship in 2004 with Detroit, and an NCAA championship in 1994 with Arkansas. Williamson had the nickname “Big Nasty” as an overwhelming 4 forward in college, and as an undersized 4 forward in the NBA.

Corliss’ opponents grew six inches to a foot in the transition from 1994 Arkansas to 1995 NBA Sacramento. Suddenly, he’s undersized, but it doesn’t change a thing — Corliss is still knocking the shit out of people.

The difference is Paurova’s a guard, shorter-height-than-listed, driving the ball, shooting from distance. Which makes her an amusing player to watch, using physical play to create space at 3-point range.

Von Oelhoffen and, especially, Hansford seem to use Star Trek technology to appear out of nowhere, open for a three. It’s a hint of Coach Rueck engineering this beam-me-open-for-a-three science.

Van Oelhoffen’s game-winner in the overtime vs. UCLA was, as we say, just like drawn up. That was a high point of my season, personally: Replaying the inbounds play image-by-image to see how Talia got such a good look at that three.

The Oregon State first-year guards Hunter and Paurova contrast: Hunter rarely makes the mistakes of first-years, while Paurova looks on the brink of a mishap all the time, for either team.

Juju Watkins is like Hunter and Paurova combined: Hunter’s control plus Paurova’s double-edged fireworks, at a different level. Watkins does an unheard-of thing in seemingly every game.

About USC, I said early in the conference schedule that they were monster-scary.

Later, I said the Trojans lost some scary.

I imagine that was a sign of growing pain, or other form of team evolution,
because they came out of it with scary on another level.

After the Pac-12 championship tournament bracket was set, I said about Utah’s likeliest path to the title Arizona State -> UCLA -> USC -> Stanford that South Carolina couldn’t run that gauntlet.

The basketball gods and the NCAA selection committee conspired to (almost) give Utah another shot at it.

The basketball gods’ peculiar sense of humor is evidently immediately. The Utes’ first-round opponent in Spokane is South Dakota State — whose side is Dru Gylten taking? The brilliant four-year starter at Utah moved home to SDSU for her last season.

If the #5 Utes get past the #12 Jackrabbits, then it’s host #4 Gonzaga, and another Utah transfer, Brynna Maxwell.

Gonzaga is undefeated at home, but say that streak ends. Utah’s round-of-16 opponent would be Portland region 4 #1 Texas. The Utes knocked the Longhorns out last year, but top-seed Texas is better (the first team in the nation to scare me long ago in November), while the injuries to Utah starters affected the team about as much as we feared in December.

Get by #1 Texas, run into #2 Stanford.

Albany region 1 #3 seed Oregon State knocks out #2 Notre Dame and #1 South Carolina to be Utah’s round-of-4 opponent.

The winner of the USC (#1 in the Portland 3 region) vs. UCLA (#2 in Albany 2, though I wouldn’t hate it if Iowa advanced past the Bruins) semifinal is the championship round opponent.

Again, I don’t think South Carolina would survive Gonzaga (in Spokane), Texas, Stanford, Oregon State, USC/UCLA.

Who are the Gamecocks likely to face? #16 play-in -> North Carolina -> Indiana -> Oregon State, after the Beavers knock out Notre Dame -> Utah, because we’re knocking out Gonzaga, Texas, and Stanford, of course.

If South Carolina does reach the championship game, I don’t think they’d beat Southern Cal (a final four in Cleveland are sort of home games for Cavaliers AC Gottlieb).

If Southern Cal wins the national championship, maybe Coach Gottlieb will take my calls.

The Big Ten Conference — the oldest collegiate athletic league in the nation — couldn’t get its shit together for player introductions at its tournament Saturday, with no clock running, nothing at stake, nothing to do but read a list of names.

Iowa’s got the biggest draw in women’s college basketball history on its bench, and anyone with a lick of show business sense knows to introduce her last, so the crowd can go and stay bonkers through tipoff.

Instead, with two players left in Iowa’s starting lineup, Caitlin Clark hears the announcer calling her height and uniform number instead of that belong to her teammate Gabbie Marshall. Here’s Caitlin turning to Marshall with a look of “how did these idiots screw up a bit of showmanship as simple as this”.

If I were one of Clark’s NIL partners, I’d be annoyed at this, because if I’m paying for #22 to raise the roof, the BIg Ten had better let her do that.

Flight for Salt Lake and hotel reservations cancelled for rounds 1 and 2 of the NCAA.

“Thank you for calling the University Guest House. This is Blahblahhhh.”

“Canceling reservation. Reference number C500B2.”

“We’re sending you an email confirmation of your cancellation. Is there anything else I may help you with today?”

“Can you improve the women’s basketball team?”

He laughed. “Don’t I wish”.

Followers of the four teams playing in the Huntsman Center in two weeks should avail themselves of University Guest House on the UU campus, walking distance from the gym, across the bridge they built for Olympic athletes. Tell them I sent you

#4 Oregon St. vs. #5 Colorado

Colorado beat #12 Oregon so thoroughly, we have to ask whether the Buffaloes who rose to a national #3 are back in business, or if it was a mirage courtesy of the Ducks’ record-setting badness.

I wouldn’t hazard an educated guess or a shot in the dark.

Maybe the important thing is that Colorado believes they’ve regained their mojo, because that could make for the best game of the quarterfinals.

#1 Stanford vs. #5 Cal

Somehow I miss the Battle of the Bay games that are well-contested. If the basketball gods be kind, the whole slate of quarterfinal games will be high quality.

If the Utah transfers — Cal’s Kemery Martin and Oregon State’s Kelsey Rees — go deeper in this tournament than the Utes do, my feelings will be mixed.

#2 USC vs. #7 Arizona

Whether their semifinal opponent is the Trojans or the Wildcats, Utah or UCLA is in for an equally difficult evening.

Both teams are on the rise, and if it happens to be Arizona moving forward, I’ll be nudged toward believing Coach Barnes’ has a magic ability to bring her teams together in March.

How tight was the coach of they year voting? Didn’t Coach Rueck (whose team was 10th in the preseason poll), and coaches Gottlieb and Close (whose roster moves worked out so splendidly) exceed expectations to a greater extent than Coach VanDerveer?

#3 UCLA vs. #6 Utah

Think UCLA, like Arizona St., would let Utah up off the mat following seven turnovers in the first quarter?

It says below that my car broke down Sunday afternoon. I spent three hours waiting for the tow truck, writing aimlessly, and then two days running around without a car.

I’ll be homeless in 10 days.

There could hardly be a less convenient time for the most emotion-charged month of the basketball season, but here we are.

5 Colorado vs. #12 Oregon

Washington State and Colorado were within 3 points for more than three quarters. Colorado eventually regressed to looking like a team that peaked more than a month ago.

The Buffaloes are so talented, I wouldn’t wager against them against Oregon, and then Oregon State. Besides Sherrod, though, the whole herd looks hesitant with the ball.

I was most impressed with Sherrod Friday while play was stopped. She was charged with a foul, after which she chased down the referee with her palms up. The official mimed the handcheck she saw, and they discussed it for a moment, smiling.

I got the impression Jaylyn would’ve enjoyed changing the referee’s mind in small increments, but Coach Payne appeared in the picture to remind at least one of them of the job at hand.

8 California vs. #9 Washington State

Cal, I think, has the most untapped potential in the league (along with Oregon State, USC, and UCLA — a scary thought), and despite the Cougars’ win at Boulder last Saturday, this is the place to look for an upset (er, #8 over #9 isn’t an upset, is it?; when did Cal sneak ahead of WASU in the standings?).

7 Arizona vs. #10 Washington

As the Wildcats visited the Huskies Jan. 19, I thought the game might not reach 100. Then Washington won the first quarter 21-11, and at the end 62-60.

And since Washington had squashed Washington State the week before, I thought it hinted at a big season. They lost eight of their next nine.

It occurred me to me late in the season that the Huskies were occasionally an exceptional defensive team — against Utah last Saturday, the Huskies filled the empty spaces before Utah could make use of it, and without space, the Utes couldn’t cut, pass, shoot, or recover loose balls — but I couldn’t name a single player on their roster.

That sort of togetherness in which no one stands out is probably just what you want, though sometimes you’d like to wield star power.

As it happens, I think of the Wildcats the same way, with the exception of Pueyo. They’re similar teams, and their most recent game against each other went to three overtimes.

If you’re looking for a narrative hook, there it is — you can bet three overtimes between two teams so alike will be the focus of the pregame banter, but Washington is on the rise. The Huskies could win this one in confident fashion, setting up a classic vs. USC.

#6 Utah vs. #11 Arizona State

While the Utes were sputtering against Washington, the talking heads clung to the idea that Utah lacked energy, and needed someone to serve as a catalyst.

Consider the field goal shooting by the Utes’ low-key starters. Pili, McQueen, and Johnson shot 6-of-23. Only Wilke — an eye-catching player — shot .500 among the Utes. Vieira is the most fiery of the Utah group, but something has gone awry if she’s taking the bulk of the shots. (While Utah made its last stand in the fourth, she dove from behind a Washington ballhandler to knock the ball away. It’s well documented that a baserunner going home from first should run through on a close play instead of dive into first. Hell, maybe Ines left her feet to slow herself down.)

What happened to the sparks off the bench, Young (who came so alive against the SoCal teams the week before) and White? Lani White had her best game of the season against Washington State Thursday — welcome to the party! — but couldn’t keep that going for the whole homestand.

Ross, the freshman, perhaps cut a path into Coach Roberts’ doghouse. As far as making things happen, there’s never a dull moment while Ross is on the floor, but she played 3 minutes against the Huskies.

Should Utah win tonight, their road to the championship is UCLA, USC, Stanford. I don’t think South Carolina would run that gauntlet undefeated.

---

Stranded on the side of the road with nothing to do but wait for a tow and babble into a notetaking app

A couple miles from home, four red lights went on in my dashboard. I think I did the right thing by stopping the car.

I consulted a manual, which said one of those lights means the car probably won’t start again. This is true, so I’m sitting in a dead car in an unfamiliar neighborhood.

I have to pee, which will make this lots more interesting very soon.

The funny thing is that Plan B was to live in the car for a while. Plan A was to find a studio apartment for $5 per month, and that plan was going nowhere. I think the car got fed up with the idea.

Or it could be the basketball gods saying: Dude, you need a new place to live in two weeks, your car is suddenly dead, and you lost your last game of chess to a little kid — and you think losing to Washington Saturday is a problem?!

The Washingtons beat both mountain teams at the mountain sites, where they’ve both been nearly invincible. (Utah had won almost 30 straight against unranked opponents at the Huntsman Center.)

I said weeks ago that maybe Colorado was over the hill. That is, the Buffaloes peaked with a #3 in the AP poll, and were beginning a descent.

Perhaps the same is true of Utah, who might’ve reached their limit when they swept the SoCals.

In the Utes’ losses to Baylor and Colorado, they could be described as lethargic. Sportscasters have their favorite cliched terms for it: flat, low energy, lacking the crispness at this time.

David B. Flemming is a Stanford graduate with the enviable position of sharing the San Francisco Giants broadcast booth with Ford Frick Award winner Jon Miller. He’s an idiot, despite those two most high credentials. Flemming can’t describe anything as ‘negative’ — he can only say ‘not positive’ because he belongs to the broadcast school that says dead air is unacceptable, so one has to use six words when one will do.

When a pitcher hangs a curve, Flemming’s go-to is some variation of “we’re not seeing the usual Shlabotnik movement on his breaking pitches, which are lacking the crispness at this time”. Which drives me nuts — 20 words instead of “hanging slider”.

The Pac-12 Network equivalent is Ann Schatz, who never shuts up despite having nothing to add. I’ve said often that I hate watching basketball on the computer because a director in the truck insists that I see what he wants me to see, while there’s an announcer who thinks it’s his job to describe the obvious.

After Raegan Beers’ nose broke, Ann Schatz repeated that news seven times if she thought the action on the floor might’ve been different, had Beers been playing. Or when she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

The opposite of Ann Schatz is Krista Blunk. I tuned in to a Stanford game, and when play stopped 20 minutes later, Blunk used that timeout to recap the game, and include Cameron Brink was out with illness.

Dave Flemming and Ann Schatz will inform you repeatedly that Cameron Brink is not playing. It’s not vital information — they don’t tell you the 11th and 12th men aren’t playing; they’re just filling air with it based on media fascination with blonde girls who are friends with Stephen Curry. Blunk, on the other hand, tries to tell you who is playing.

Utah was as lifeless against Washington as they were against Colorado (in Utah’s first home loss in two years).

When Utah plays well, they stretch the defense left and right, in and out. Their ball movement is like a string being coiled, gathering potential energy until it snaps forth with kinetic energy, an open 3FGA or an attack on the basket.

Mikhail Botvinnik was world chess champion from 1948 to 1962. In those days, that was a long effing time. Today’s players think it’s commonplace, after the long reigns of Kasparov and Carlsen.

When Botvinnik was young, he was a boxer. Botvinnik said bad chess is when the fighters go out, trade a few punches, skirmish a bit, retreat to their corners, repeat. Good chess is when you take your shot, and floor him.

That’s a very hard thing to do at chess, to store the energy in your position until you recognize the time to punch.

Basketball is a little different because teams are aiming for constant pressure, though games are often exchanges of runs. I told myself that Utah isn’t a championship team Thursday, when they beat Washington State rather easily, in spite of lapses in the second and fourth quarters.

Championship basketball teams, championship boxers, and championship chessplayers don’t have those lapses. They turn out the lights, slam the doors, put the mofos down, choose your metaphor.

The TV director in the truck was smart enough to cut to Coach Roberts during that fourth quarter letdown. Coach looked equal parts angry and dismayed.

If media asked Coach Roberts for a soundbite — because that’s what media wants: soundbites from others while never shutting up themselves — Coach would say: “It’s March”.

The usual hard-hitting sideline includes “what will you tell the players in the team room during this halftime”.

This is often my favorite part of a broadcast. Oregon State coach Rueck UCLA coach Close can go over most viewers’ heads. Colorado coach Payne usually looks like she wants to say “what do you think I’m going to tell them”. I think Coach Payne sees the perfunctory LaLooshian dialogue as laughable. UC Davis legend Sandy Simpson called it an obligation, “the media/coach song and dance” (and that’s why I love that guy).

Coach Roberts likes to say: What can she tell them during this 15 minutes. It’s March.

That is, they should know by now.

I watched UCLA 53 Colorado 45 in a sports bar. 20 chicken wings plus two beers came to $55 before tip, suggesting I should have made the car trip to Los Angeles Sunday, and stayed for two games.

However, the sports bar experience is unique, for how else would I have known the Campbell Fighting Camels won in two overtimes 105-100 vs. the North Carolina-Wilmington Seahawks in Coastal Athletic Association mens’ play. Ahead 103-100 with 4 seconds left, a Campbell kid missed the dagger free throw.

The nearest UNCW rebounder went flying over the baseline. No foul was called, though the guy went up, then went over. The game recap said there was a defensive rebound and an offensive rebound on the shot, which raises the question ‘why does the software allow this to happen’.

If the UNCW guy grabbed the defensive rebound, and the Campbell guy ripped the ball from his hands, that makes sense, except for how the UNCW player went flying out of bounds without a foul call.

Colorado at UCLA went on near the end of the first quarter because the preceding game — Kansas State 94 West Virginia 90 — also went to overtime.

The Wildcats have won 7 games in OT this season, and 11 OT games in a row. That’s boggling. 11 teams were equal to Kansas State for 40 minutes, but not 45.

My brother Jon is an editor at Kansas St. community bringonthecats . Fucker doesn’t answer my email these days, but I venture if the KSU women were winning all their overtime games, he might’ve mentioned it.

UCLA 53 Colorado 48

Forget the tournament seeding — it’s murder wherever you land; the first-round bye means you face one fewer firing squad. Let’s skip the last week, and start the tournament tomorrow. I think UCLA wins it.

Stanford gets the 1 seed because they’ve got the best forward combination in the league (maybe the nation), and the Cardinal don’t beat themselves.

That’s what separates Stanford from the field: First in defensive efficiency (UCLA is second by thousandths of a percentage pt), first in offensive efficiency (Utah’s second, again by thousandths). Munge the turnovers-and-fouls numbers, it’s Washington State and Stanford.

In an elimination format, though, power is probably preferable to finesse, and that’s what separates UCLA from Stanford (it’s also Utah’s Achilles heel — are finesse teams ever the last team standing? NBA Phoenix was a most pretty team in the ’80s and ’90s, but they had to add Charles Barkley to reach the finals in ’93).

I would’ve thought if any team will emerge from the Pac in the post-season with scores of 53-48, it’s Colorado, but the Buffaloes aren’t the most confident team when they have the ball. Sherrod is brilliant. Forman and Nolan can both shoot lights out (but the Bruins nearly shut them out Monday).

Colorado has one of my favorite player at all five positions, but as a group, they’re lacking. They’re in the middle of the pack in terms of FG% allowed, and defensive efficiency. That’s too middling for a team that intends to do it with defense.

Coach Payne gave Wetta the start at 2, because she’s done an excellent job against Kiki Rice before. Then Kindyll made two fouls in the first minute. I think it’s a great idea, but that team counts on Wetta to stay on the floor with guile.

Wetta’s the defensive player of the year in the Pac. But Cameron Brink’s name was engraved on that plaque in October, partly because she’s so good on both sides of the floor. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, but that’s how it works.

Utah 74 Southern Cal 70

Utah’s beaten more top 10 teams than any other team in Division I. Unfortunately, that accident against Arizona might leave the Utes with the #6 seed.

I was a mouse tap away from being at the airport now. I almost booked at 5 a.m. flight out of Oakland for the senior weekend. My right little finger hovered over the Enter key, but if Utah goes on to earn hosting rights in the NCAA, I’d be flying back and forth. I thought to keep faith in the team’s ability to get a 4-seed at the end.

Sunday’s game in the Galen Center was — for the purposes of earning a bye in the conference tournament, or hosting rounds 1 and 2 in the NCAA event — a must-win for Utah, and the Utes came through against the highest-ranked team the school has ever defeated on the road.

As usual, the first thing I check in the boxscore is number of assisted FG, and Utah assisted on 21 of 23.

Which is remarkable, unless you’re me, who thinks: Wait a second, were we that good?!

Utah shot well, rebounded well, and played defense well, which should suffice to win most games, even against the best teams in the country, like USC. But the ball movement that fuels Utah’s offense wasn’t as evident to me as 21 assists on 23 makes should be.

So I watched the game again, to examine each Utah field goal, and now I’d like a word with the scorer at USC.

The “assist” is easier to come by than it used to be. (I blame the guy who credited John Stockton with assists while Stockton was seated on the bench. Once that clown got away with it, it was clear no one pays attention.) These days, a player can receive the ball and take a short dribble before shooting, and the passer can still be credited with an assist. In the judgment of the official scorer, the player making the FG must make an immediate move toward the basket for an assist to be credited.

Jenna Johnson is one of my favorite players, who had a career-high 9 assists Sunday. I’d erase 5 of them.

A handoff on the perimeter before the recipient reads the defense, then starts a drive to the basket does not constiute an assist, in my view. That would wipe out Jenna’s assists at 7:47, 3:31, and 2:34 in the 3rd quarter. McQueen’s jumper at 2:34 is a conspicuous case, because Kennady moved, then reversed direction! before shooting.

I also quibble with Jenna’s assist at 7:11 in the 3rd, when Dasia took the pass, faked the defender into flying past, then hit the jumper. Were it up to me, Jenna would’ve had 4 assists instead of 9, and I’m fair certain she’d be OK with that.

The worst of these “assists” was 1:37 in the 1st, when Ross inbounded after a make to Vieira, who took the ball 75 feet for a layup. That’s not an assist, but a liberal application of the term “making an immediate move toward the basket”.

Imagine UCLA wins this afternoon vs. Colorado.

Imagine on the last weekend, Arizona — with the longest current win streak in the conference — beats the SoCal schools, while they both win in Tempe.

Further imagine the mountain teams sweep the Washingtons. Also, Oregon St. loses to Stanford but beats Cal.

Then you’ve got a 5-way tie at 12-6 behind Stanford at 15-3.

In case of a more-than-two-way tie, the first tiebreaker is record among the tied teams. The beneficiaries in that case are Oregon St. and UCLA — Beavers and Bruins both 5-3 among the tied teams (with a combined 3-1 vs. Utah).

OSU 5-3
UCLA 5-3
USC 4-4
UT 4-4
COL 2-6

The second tiebreaker is: Record vs. common opponents highest in the standings. Oregon St. was 0-2 vs. Stanford, UCLA 0-1.

The next step in tiebreaking procedure is unfathomable. Here’s the rule for determining which opponent to consider next (USC or Utah):

When arriving at another group of tied teams while comparing records, use each team’s record (won-lost percentage) against the collective tied teams common opponents as a group (prior to that group’s own tie-breaking procedure), rather than the performance against individual tied teams common opponents.

I have no idea what that means. Rather than unpack that, I’ll break the Utah-USC tie with the 2nd tiebreaker, which favors USC because they beat Stanford once. UCLA and Oregon State are both 1-1 against USC. Oregon St. wins the next tiebreaker for beating Utah twice.

Then the #4 seed goes to the second tiebreaker between USC and Utah. In that case, Utah is screwed by not getting a shot against Stanford in Palo Alto, because USC is 1-1 vs. Stanford, while Utah is 0-1.

If everything goes as imagined here, the tournament seeding would be:

1 Stanford
2 Oregon St.
3 UCLA
4 USC

5 Utah
6 Colorado
7 Arizona
8 Cal
9 Washington St.
10 Washington
11 Arizona St.
12 Oregon

I could get in my car, and make it to the Galen Center in time for the 1 p.m. tip.

It would be the most poorly-planned trip of my basketball life (postseason WNIT games and WNBA playoff games were as-announced, equally messy), but driving home without sleep would be a bad idea.

If Utah doesn’t host rounds one and two of the NCAA, driving to Los Angeles today could be my last chance to watch the Utes play this season. It’s what I get for never examining the schedule to find that the mountain teams don’t visit the Bay Area.

Alternatively, there are all sorts of odd last-minute air travel bargains for next week’s games with the Washingtons. The lowest-cost flight from SFO to SLC seems to involve sitting in the plane for 18 hours.

I wonder if there’s room in the University Guest House, in which case I wouldn’t need a car. I’ve been looking forward to another stay in that place — you know how such things go; by the time I’d learned how to walk here and there, it was time to leave.

It strikes me a bit funny that I could do a better job orchestrating a sudden trip out of town than finding a place to live.