Today was the Mystics' annual Breast Health Awareness game, and many of the fans in the arena were breast cancer survivors. The BCs and the rest of the fans in attendance only managed to survive an earthquake and a hurricane this week, something that pales by comparison to the challenges faced by those other survivors.
On court, however, the Mystics (despite another monster game from Crystal Langhorne . . . 27 points and 12 rebounds!) could not manage to survive the Phoenix Mercury, losing 86-79.
The Mystics have now dropped to 5-23. Their losing streak of 8 games is their longest of the season, and is currently the longest losing streak in the league. The Tulsa Shock not only snapped their losing streak earlier this week with a win over L.A., but, shockingly, followed that up today with a victory over the Connectcut Sun. This means that the Mystics are now the only team in the WNBA that has yet to win consecutive games. With only 6 games left, Washington may also be running out of time and chances to erase that ignominious distinction.
The Mystics' "reported attendance" for this afternoon's game was 11,614. Those of us actually in the arena would guess the number actually in attendance at a fraction of that. (Hurricanes, losing seasons, and unwarranted coaching changes do tend to depress attendance.) Perhaps the front office was counting all those pink flyers on the many thousands of empty seats. Or maybe they multiplied the number of nuns garbed in blue and gray habits, who filled the Courtside Club today, by a factor of 100 . . . or maybe 250.
The Mystics now travel out to Minnesota to face the Lynx on Tuesday night. The Lynx are enjoying a franchise-record setting season, having broken the 20-win-game barrier this summer for the very first time. Today, they locked up first place in the West. We know how good that feels. (What a difference a year makes.)
posted by BasketCases @ 8:28 PM
23 comments
23 Comments:
Highlight for me -- seeing Nakia thrive with the Mercury, and soak up the love from the Mystics fans. And make free throws!
Very clever Blue Nun pun, Basket Cases-much better than this dreadful game. Where would we be without the incredible Crystal? Someone on the Mystics facebook page thought the team should be called The Washington Langhornes. I agree.
They should have auctioned off tissues after the game. This season has been a real crying shame.
hahaha--the Washington Langhorne's. Too funny. Well, not really--but it's appropriate. Without Langhorne, we would be the worst team in the league. But thankfully because of her, Tulsa is the worst team in the league. I really hope Mo comes back next season to all star form. We need her so bad!
I was not motivated to navigate my way to the arena. What a change for me-I had three years of never missing a home game. That's a another streak that ended this season!!
11,000 at the game-seriously??? Anyone watching could see all the empty seats. Who do they think they are fooling?
BCs, what do you think the chances are of a new coach? Maybe Trudi as GM and Plank as the coach? I'm wondering if you have any sense of whether the front office sees Trudi's performance in the same way everyone else seems to or if they're willing to let this go on another year, to follow the Sting's legacy.
Who would they hire as coach? Plank is coming back.
I find it hard to believe that if we lose Trudi there is absolutely no one else who could successfully coach the Mystics. If that's the case, then just fold the team now and be done with it.
You know what the depressed attendance from the losing seasons, and unwarranted coaching changes also does? Last year the Live Auction for the breast health program of Sibley Hospital raised over $70k. Yesterday it was $34k. When a team is losing fans, they're not going to have people willing to buy team jerseys and lunch with the coach (blechh), and so there's less support for breast health in the washington dc area. Great work, Sheila.
This is actually good news, as it shows the far reaching effects of this bad decision. It affects more than the fans. Something needs to change. If Tulsa can get better with a different coach we sure can as well.
True annonymous at 11:01am. There has to be someone out there that can coach the Mystics better than Trudy. I don't think this is entirely on Trudy though. This is a different team than the one Julie coached. No Mo, Katie or Lindsay. Those are big shoes to fill and no one this year has filled them well in my opinion unless you count Mattee. I really blame Sheila for the mess. I certainly don't think Trudy is a good coach (her record indicates she is not).
I just wish someone in management would call Julie. One year your sitting at the most exciting basketball games and the next year you can't wait for the game to be over, to put everyone out of their misery
Julie wouldn't want the job. Remember she is the one that turned down the GM/Coach job. I guess working closely with Sheila wasn't a great scenerio for her....
What I thought was depressingly comical was Trudy's quote on improvements throughout the season in the Mystics Daily flyer we get at the game. It reads, "I think it would be more measured if the ball would go in the hole. We are getting shots. I thought we executed well down the stretch. We put ourselves in a position to win. Had a couple of good looks and missed them. That's really been our Achilles heel all season long."
Really? I thought our REAL Achilles heel was the fact that the game was lost in the last 2-3 minutes of the game due to poor coaching.
On a positive note, the decline in attendance worked out in favor of us who stayed after for the breast cancer auction. Less people = less bidding and we were able to get wonderful items for affordable prices and still contribute to a wonderful cause. I wish I could be a fly on the wall for the lucky person who won the lunch/dinner with Sheila Johnson for 2. With as much money as they paid for that I hope they give her an honest and respectful ear full. Not that Sheila will listen, but miracles can happen. I did ask the Sisters that attended our game to pray for us. :-)
Sheila is like Dan Snyder--they want all of the control and therefore, bad basketball/football decisions are made and then your team/s stink.
I still wish I knew what happened with Angela Taylor. That started the dominos falling. Since no one talks about it, we will never know. It's what I hate about womens sports--you never know anything.
Does 10:13 am know that Julie is coming back? My season ticket renewal is depending on it!
I think a "not" was omitted.
Does anyone have any reports from the auction? I love the Basketcases' blow by blow and item by item breakdowns.
Thanks for not including any comments about Dunlap. She got into the game for two minutes of the first half, and her stat line looks like the start of the refrain from Usher's OMG: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.
I'm sorry, but as a pro athlete, you have to be able to come in from the bench and contribute.
For those of us who do renew our season tickets, there is a special event on September 12 with a team dinner....
The one thing that I would like to see ownership do is to give an honest apology about how some of the moves are perceived by many if not most Mystics fans. Sometimes, admitting a mistake can be taken positively. If an organization isn't honest with us, why should we support the team? I thought the team truly turned a corner after the 2008 season ended when they really thought long and hard about everything....
Lastly on Trudi Lacey. She was put into a bad situation and to a team that was missing two starters, and sure, she didn't make the best end of game coaching calls, but for better or for worse, firing her would only continue the vicious coaching carousel here. Let her screw up this team over four years and give her all the support, and then axe her if she still sucks at her job. That's what I'd do, in the name of promoting continuity in this organization.
Dear 815pm anom...Dunlap hasn't played much so cut her some slack. Not surprising she was a bit rusty given the fact she NEVER plays. She played pretty good when was Lang was out rememember.
As for keeping Trudy for 4 years. Why? She has a miserable record as a head coach. She doesn't deserve to be a head coach. I'm sorry, she doesn't. You are right, the Mystics lost 3 valuable players (Mo, LH, and KS) but sorry, she is not a good coach, period. Her record indicates that very fact. I truly believe July Plank would have won more games even with the 3 players gone. I don't think we would have been Eastern Conference champs again, but I truly believe we would not have a 5-23 record (or whatever our loses are..I'm losing track).
For DCsportsfan. Please, don't even kid about Trudi staying for 4 years. There would be no one left in the stands if that happened. Don't forget she picked Anosike, Dunlap, Miller, Thomas, Gardin, Walker, and don't forget Christmas and Phillips. I think she put herself into the bad situation. Alana Beard did not even play the prior year and we won without her.
Two of those three players would be playing for the Mystics this year if Plank were still coaching and POSSIBLY even if somebody more competent than Lacey would have been selected as her replacement. You can't give her four years, it'll be the end of the franchise.
And whoever bought dinner with Johnson.......get your money's worth. That's all i'll say.
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