Last evening started out pleasantly enough. WNBA President Donna Orender (wearing a flattering black business suit) did, indeed, make a guest appearance at GM Linda Hargrove's first (and well-attended) Chalk Talk of the season. Both Donna and Linda were engaging and eager to answer questions from the fans. [Note to one fan: Next time, make your point, but don't monopolize the short time available by relentlessly berating Linda (and Donna) with your opinions about Mystics' coaching decisions.] We learned from Donna that the league hopes to expand by at least 3 more teams in the next 5 years, and among the cities that could possibly be considered for a new franchise, there was one surprise: Atlantic City!
After the Chalk Talk, the BasketCases returned to the arena, and another Lady in Black couldn't possibly escape our attention. New Monarchs head coach (and former Mystics assistant) Jenny BoobsBoucek patrolled the sidelines wearing what could only be described as a (somewhat) low-cut, and (definitely) tight black cocktail dress! It wouldn't surprise us to learn that quite a few Mystics fans visited their doctors today complaining of whip-lash!
We wish we could say that Coach B's "look" was just the beginning of the excitement last night, but, unfortunately, it turned out to be the highlight. The Mystics pushed the ball up the court in the early going, getting open looks (especially for Laurie Koehn!), opened a double-digit lead on the tired-looking Monarchs (3 road games in 4 days) before going M-I-A! They began walking the ball up the court, struggling in their half-court sets, while allowing Sacramento second, third and even fourth shots on every possession. It's hard to win at any level when your opponent outrebounds you by 50-22, including giving up 25(!!!) offensive rebounds while grabbing only 5 (how embarrassing!) offensive boards yourself. Not to mention (but of course, we will), the Mystics committed 22 turnovers to SAC's 15, and set a new (and very much unwanted) WNBA record by only scoring 4 (!!!) points in the entire 4th quarter. Not much a fan can say about a game like that except that we're glad it's over and we hope we never have to experience another one like it.
Photo credits: DCBasketCases
posted by BasketCases @ 9:31 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
The good:
I was sitting right behind the Monarchs' bench and got a LOT of good looks at Coach Boobs, uh, Coach Boucek. Smokin'! I think I'm in love! Even though I already have a picture with her, I should have gotten another one. I'll send a few of the shots I got later -- I'm surprised my camera didn't overheat! Meantime, I did get a shot with ESPN's Doris Burke, which I'll send later. She was sooooo wonderful! She thought it was "sweet" of me to come by to say, "hello," and was especially happy to see a man supporting the WNBA. I've always said, "If the ladies have game, let them play." We even talked about all of insulting comments made my male columnists about the league -- especially her ESPN colleague Bill Simmons (coincidence that his beloved Celtics are picking 5th instead of 2nd? I think not!). She told me to print out a copy and bring it back to her for the All-Star game so she could sign it. What a great lady! Totally exceeded my expectations!
The rest:
That was just an embarrassing performance! I don't know if you heard, but Sheila excoriated them in the locker room last night after the game. The Monarchs chased after loose balls harder and don't even get me started on the rebounds! They may say Gillian Goring is "not ready," but, from what I've seen thus far, I don't think she could do any worse than the current line-up concerning the boards. That was just awful! Make them run laps today and be ready tomorrow morning against the Libs. Otherwise, we may be in for a loooooong season!
Finally, me being the superstitious sports fan I am, it's obvious I need to go back to wearing my old-school Bullets jersey. We were told to wear white for the playoff game against Connecticut last summer. I did and we lost. I won Aiysha Smith's jersey at the Draft Day Party and have worn it for the first two home games, both of which we lost. Interestingly, I wore my aforementioned Bullets jersey for the game against Israel and we won. Time to change before the season gets away!
Yeah, ouch, that was my first ever Mystics game and it was not a great one!
I was very impressed with that coach's moxie, wearing that dress. She looked great and it was a nice change from the ever-popular business suit
Did you see that Brenda Frese was there? Rocking a pink jacket, too.
Karen, hopefully they'll do better next time. It wasn't you. It was me wearing the wrong jersey. Promise! Yeah, Coach Frese sat in my section. I've always loved the way pink looks on a woman and she was rocking out, indeed! Go on, Coach Frese!
I was hoping the Mystics would break the "Odd Year Curse." Maybe not. THAT was butt ugly last night!
karen,
I hope you'll give the Mystics another chance...they're not all like that -- that was an exceptionally disappointing game. Most of the time we actually have fun! Hopefully they got that horrible performance out of their systems and will begin to turn things around.
Yes, indeed, we saw Brenda in the stands. New Asst Coaches Daron Park and Diane Richardson were also there. After the game, when we were saying hello to Coach Frese, a Verizon Center staffer leaned over to us and said, "Ask Coach if we can borrow Marissa." LOL.
--BC
When they were showing Coach Frese on the jumbotron, a very vocal guy in the front row (who has been there as long as I can remember), yelled really loud: "Does she need a part-time job?" I swear, at that very instant, Richie looked straight over at him. It was one of only 2 fun moments last night.
The other being when Nikki Turnover Teasley got "poked" in the eye and the ref called the foul and walked away. One of her teammates asked her if she was okay, and she winked back at her (and everyone on that side of the building). That was really funny.
Given that acting seemed to be effective last night, too bad they couldn't have acted like they knew how to rebound.
Mystics continued with status quote, played the first half of the game well, and rode out the second half as they did in many games during the past seasons.
We've been season ticket holders for 7 years. This year we decided to take a rest from the Mystics as season ticket holders. The players have talents. But we don’t think they have the passion or hunger to “want to” win a championship title. Richie may have all the plays (his play list)he has, but if the players do execute them the plays are useless.
We hope that they change their attitude soon.
I think the doom and gloom is unwarranted. Haven't we gotten off to a slow start and still made the playoffs before?
Both of these opponents were solid. It's frustrating that these games were both at home, but we still have opportunities to steal some games on the road to make up for them.
We have a lot of depth this year. That depth will help us after the all star break.
Don't jump off the bandwagon just yet. ;-)
Post a Comment
<< Home