Frisco Del Rosario

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-16T14:01:00

2010-03-16T21:01:30Z

Welcome to year one of the Women's Basketball Invitational. Just like the CBI for the men, if a team misses the NCAAs and NIT, there's a third tournament.

The Pacific men are in the CBI. Pacific was in first place in the Big West for a while, but was seeded #2 in the tournament, and got bounced in an upset by a scarily athletic Long Beach State.

Pacific is 20-11, #128 in RPI. I would've guessed lower, because it looked like the long stretch in which they couldn't score was not unfamiliar. Their opponent, Loyola Marymount, is #175. Most of the other teams are in the 80s thereabouts — not such a bad group of teams.

In the women's tournament, #126 Appalachian St. is a #1. Nevada is #128, and Nevada is a promising team. #137 Memphis is also a WBI #1, while #148 is WNIT-bound UC Davis, who were one finger roll away from the NCAAs.

The championship game in the first WBI might be pretty good.

The two #8s are #229 UM Kansas City and #252 Charleston Southern, about whom I know nothing. But #223 Cal St. Bakersfield is a #7.

The Roadrunners are a very weird team — capable of looking very good and then atrocious, which is typically a sign of a bad team. The independents scheduled 12 games against Big West opponents, and went 7-5. They beat Beach at the Pyramid, and also Irvine, Pacific and Northridge on their floors.

If I were running that tournament, and felt like I wanted a team from that region, I would've asked #183 Cal Poly or #193 UC Santa Barbara.

It's certainly possible UCSB got a call, and was insulted. After owning your conference's automatic NCAA bid for such a long time, to opt for a third-tier tournament is a… nuh uh.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-16T07:13:00

2010-03-16T14:13:53Z

When UC Riverside won the Big West tournament in 2006 — breaking UC Santa Barbara's 12-year streak — the Highlanders needed UCSB to miss the last shot of the final game. "If their shot doesn't rim out, we're just a .500 team," said UCR coach John Margaritis, whose Highlanders were 16-15.

Last Saturday, UCR won their third Big West tournament in five years. Again, the Highlanders were 16-15 before the championship game, and again, the other team had a shot at the end while behind by one point.

UC Davis, the regular season winners, trailed 67-55 with 5:39 remaining, but their 2-1-2 zone hurried UC Riverside into six turnovers in 4:48, and an 11-0 run made it 67-66. Big West defensive player of the year Haylee Donaghe stole the ball from Rheya Neabors at 0:51, and broke to the UCD basket, but with two defenders in her wake, Donaghe missed the layup.

"If Haylee's shot goes in, we win that game," said UCD coach Sandy Simpson. "With Amber and Alyssa both out of the game, they weren't going to make another basket." Tournament MVP Amber Cox fouled out at 3:28, followed by all-tournament guard Alyssa Morris at 2:34 — they accounted for 17 of UCR's 25 field goals.

But for Donaghe's miss, the tactics were very different. Brittany Waddell grabbed the defensive rebound at 0:48, after which the Highlanders ran the shot clock down to 0:02 and the game clock to 0:20, and then Waddell missed a trey.

If UCD pulls that rebound, 20 seconds is a relatively huge amount of time, but UCR freshman TreShonti Nottingham came away with the offensive board — her only rebound of the game — and Heidi Heintz was forced to foul her. The freshman hit both free throws to make the score 70-67, and then Riverside fouled Paige Mintun at 0:04 before UCD could set up a possible tying trey.

Mintun made one free throw, missed the second on purpose, and the rebound skipped off a pile of bodies under the basket before Mintun and Nottingham had to race for the ball toward the left sideline. Mintun was whistled for contact. Nottingham made two more free throws, and the Riverside celebration was on.

***

UC Riverside won the semifinal against Cal Poly by three points after Brittany Lange — a .507 three-point shooter — rimmed the tying trey at the buzzer.

Then UCR escaped with the championship game when Donaghe's layup fell off.

UC Riverside and UC Davis have played five times in two seasons. Four of the games have been decided by four points, the other by three, and Simpson talks about how much fun it is to play all these tight games with UCR. "Seems every time we play UC Riverside, it's a great game," he said. "I enjoy playing against UC Riverside more than maybe any other team because [the games are] always like this."

For two years, it was UC Santa Barbara coach Lindsey Gottlieb whose team couldn't win when I was in the building, but now I think my magic has turned against UC Davis.

At Cal Poly on Feb. 4, the Mustangs won the second half 47-20, including 10-of-14 three-point shooting. The 69-48 win moved Poly past UCD into first place.

At Pacific on Feb. 11, the Tigers dropped 15 of 22 treys and won 74-58. "You could put a kid in an empty gym, and 15 of 22 is very good," Simpson said. Pacific guard Eliza Dy made 6-of-7, the last of which must've been close to 30 feet — mixed blessing, because the Pacific coaching staff spent the rest of the season trying to move Dy closer to the basket.

Then in the most important game of the season — the winner would (as it turned out) earn a trip to the NCAA tournament and a dance with the #2 team in the country — UC Riverside, 6th in the league in three-pointers made and 6th in three-point percentage, shot 8-of-11 treys (and 68 percent overall) in the second half.

Besides the UC Davis team and staff, who was at all three of those games?

While Pacific and Poly were sizzling on their own floors, Riverside lit it up on a neutral court. And, according to Simpson, the Riverside treys were more difficult because his team did a better job defending them. "We were right into them," said Simpson. He said the explosive shooting against his team was surreal, and noted Cox's last trey — from the top of the circle with 6-3 Mintun flying at her.

"She was coming, and she has long arms!" Cox said in her postgame TV interview.

Margaritis uses the term "energetic defense" almost exclusively when he talks about team goals and game planning, so was shooting 11-of-20 treys Plan B?

"That was Plan A," Margaritis said. "UOP was successful shooting against UC Davis, and Cal Poly in the second half. Both teams shot lights out. I said to them: 'can you imagine if we shoot the basketball'. That was one thing we thought we could take advantage of — if we make our outside shots, maybe we win by one point or three."

UC Riverside is the #16 seed against #1 Stanford at Stanford in a first-round NCAA tournament game on Saturday. Among the automatic qualifiers, Riverside was fourth from the bottom in RPI — those four teams got the #16 seeds.

In the WNIT, UC Davis visits California Wednesday.

***

'Course from where I sit, Big West teams visiting Pac-10 schools sucks, because those snobs — WCC media relations official's term for them, not mine — lock me out.

The guy at Stanford denied me press credentials because "from the information I received, I don’t believe you have covered any Stanford games this year." Because I haven't. They turn the lights off at Maples Pavilion, so without a seat at a press table, I can't see to take notes.

He sniffed: "Please detail your coverage of women’s basketball in the Bay Area this season".

OK. St. Mary's, San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Jose State, San Francisco State, Cal State East Bay, Notre Dame de Namur, San Francisco Academy of Art, and Menlo College. Plus 5,600 miles traveled for, and 23,400 words about, your opponent's conference.

Even that wasn't enough. One of the media relations officers at UC Riverside had to vouch for me. (When I took a class in basketball management in 2006, I interviewed John Maxwell of the Detroit Shock media staff for my final project. Maxwell left the Shock to join UC Riverside in the Big West — lucky me.)

I'll probably have to beg the media man at UC Davis to pull the same rabbit at Cal.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-15T19:06:00

2010-03-16T02:06:44Z

Traveled roughly 5,620 miles to 33 Big West Conference games, and wrote approximately 23,400 words about Big West women's basketball this season, not counting tweets.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-15T15:46:00

2010-03-15T22:46:28Z

State high school chess champion shares first place at Mechanics' Institute Winter Marathon

UC Riverside wins Big West Conference tournament

2010-03-13T23:16:24Z

UC Riverside won the Big West Conference tournament, beating #1 seed UC Davis 71-67 in the final.

UCR freshman TreShont Nottingham grabbed an offensive rebound and made 4-of-4 free throws in final 15 seconds.

Amber Cox scored 27 points for UCR, making 5-of-5 three-pointers. The Highlanders shot 11-of-20 on treys, and assisted on 21 of their 25 field goals.

Cox was named tournament MVP. The rest of the all-tournament team:

Alyssa Morris, UCR
Paige Mintun, UCD
Heidi Heintz, UCD
Mekia Valentine, UC Santa Barbara
Mikah Maly-Karros, UC Irvine

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-13T03:16:00

2010-03-13T11:16:38Z

#1 UC Davis 63, #5 UC Santa Barbara 53

In a Big West Conference tournament semifinal Friday, #1 seed UC Davis beat #5 UC Santa Barbara 63-53 to advance to their second championship game in three years.

The Aggies won the first half 38-24. The 14-point cushion was nearly equal to the 20-7 difference in points after turnovers — UC Santa Barbara committed 19 miscues against 7 for UC Davis.

UC Santa Barbara forward Mekia Valentine recorded 31 points, 32 rebounds, and 13 blocked shots in UCSB's first two tournament games, but in the first half Friday, Valentine had 6 points, 2 rebounds, 0 blocks, and 4 turnovers. UCD guard Kasey Riecks said the game plan somewhat "focused on [UCSB point Emilie Johnson making an entry pass] over the top, so we swarmed [Valentine] and let the others beat us."

On the defensive end, Valentine — the third-leading shotblocker in Division I — made no blocks in the first half partly because UCD post Paige Mintun drew her away from the basket with her outside shooting. Mintun scored a game-high 10 points in the first half, including 2-of-3 from three-point distance. "[Long-range shooting] wasn't part of her arsenal when we brought her in," said UCD coach Sandy Simpson, "but you can make yourself a good shooter."

With 5:27 left in the game and UC Davis leading 53-42, the Gauchos went on a 9-0 run to climb within 53-51. UCSB guard Meagan Williams had 4 points, 2 rebounds, and a steal during the surge.

"I asked them [at halftime] how they wanted to respond [to the deficit]: like victims or champions," said UCSB coach Lindsay Gottlieb. "We just didn't make enough plays."

Gottlieb made note of Haylee Donaghe's shot which snuffed UCSB's rally: "Donaghe made a great shot. She had two people on her, and she muscled it up there." The lead was nudged to 55-51 — then a UCSB turnover turned into a Heidi Heintz layup, while Donaghe added a layup, a steal, and two free throws in the final 1:19 to put the game away.

UC Davis meets #3 seed UC Riverside in the final Saturday. It'll be the first Big West tournament final since 1996 without UC Santa Barbara.

#3 UC Riverside 54, #2 Cal Poly 51

In the other semifinal, UC Riverside led 54-51 with 33 seconds to play, and had possession of the ball. The Highlanders ran almost all of the shot clock, when CP guard Rachel Clancy tumbled to the floor for a steal at 0:04, moved the ball ahead to point guard Desiray Johnston, who looked right and left for a shooter.

Johnston found Brittany Lange, who made 27-of-54 three-point attempts in conference play. From the high left wing, Lange's shot fell off the rim, short and to the left.

"When [Lange's] shot went up, I thought it would hit the bottom of the net," said CP coach Faith Mimnaugh. She said the post-game team meeting after such a loss involves "a lot of tears, and you tell them that you love them … I'm really proud of the Cal Poly Mustangs for showing great fight and determination," Mimnaugh said.

Big West player of the year Kristina Santiago scored 7 points in the game's first 14:13 while the Mustangs built a 24-13 lead. But UC Riverside made a 15-2 run over the next 5:16, switching effectively from a 2-2-1 zone to a diamond-and-one zone, then pressing the Mustangs into seven turnovers. "Their switches off screens limited our offensive motion," Mimnaugh said, "and their pressure, [height], and offensive rebounding bothered us." UCR scored 6 points after 9 offensive rebounds in the first half.

After wiping out CP's 11-point lead to close the first half, UC Riverside started the second half 16-6, and led 44-34 with 10:59 left. Cal Poly came back with a 10-0 flurry in 5:15 — Lange scored eight points in the run. With 6:44 to play, it was 44-44, setting the stage for the play at the buzzer.

"It came down again to the last shot," said UCR coach John Margaritis, who won the Big West tournament in 2005 and 2006 on a last shot made by UCR and a last shot missed by UC Santa Barbara.

UCR faces UC Davis in the final. The teams split the regular season games; UCD won at home 54-50, UCR won at home 57-53.

"We played a tough schedule all over the country," Margaritis said, "and no one is tougher to prepare for than UC Davis."

***

UCD coach Sandy Simpson joked that the score Saturday might be 29-28. I passed that on to Margaritis, who laughed, apparently liking the idea.

So, 29-28 it is. The Aggies need the 29 in order for my preseason prediction to come in.

***

Cal State Northridge announced Friday that they will not renew the contract of women's basketball coach Staci Schulz.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-12T04:07:00

2010-03-12T12:07:26Z

I said in this tweet:

Another thing you see in men's games that you never see in women's ball: blocks by two defenders, leading to a fast break and a dunk.

The Big West Conference thought that play was Wednesday's biggest highlight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjqtJptW0Bk&feature=player_embedded#

Dang, the replay said it was one defender making two blocks, not two making one each.

***

#3 UC Riverside 73, #6 Cal St. Fullerton 54

At the Big West tournament at Anaheim Arena Thursday, #3 seed UC Riverside won each 10-minute quarter and eliminated #6 Cal St. Fullerton 73-54.

Three players for each team scored in double figures, but UCR outshot CSF 49 percent to 33 while outscoring the Titans 40-20 in the paint.

UCR coach John Margaritis said the game plan was to keep the Titans away from their preferred spots on the floor. "They are very good at shooting the three, and they are very good at driving. They have too many players who can do too many things — it came down to 'can we make them uncomfortable?', and we did," Margaritis said.

The Highlanders built a 32-24 halftime lead after committing just two turnovers and five fouls, too few to allow the Titans a bonus free throw. Margaritis said they kept CSF out of the bonus with energetic team defense: "If you don't want to foul, you have to be aggressive — you have to get [to defensive position on the floor] before they do," he said.

UC Riverside moves on to meet #2 Cal Poly in the semifinal, a rematch of a 2009 semifinal. UCR won the tournament in 2005 and 2006, making them the only team besides UC Santa Barbara to win the Big West tournament in 15 years. "The teams that win are the teams who can play with energy and can defend," said Margaritis, in his sixth year at UCR.

#5 UC Santa Barbara 73, #4 Long Beach St. 50

No. 5 seed UC Santa Barbara won the first upset of the event, ousting #4 Long Beach St. 73-50.

The Gauchos held the league's most prolific three-point shooting team to 5-for-19 while winning the rebound battle 46-29. Mekia Valentine had 11 points, 19 rebounds, and 5 blocks for UCSB. Meagan Williams added 22 points and 7 rebounds.

UCSB coach Lindsay Gottlieb said the game plan was to contain Long Beach St.'s distance shooters, and force LBSU's star point guard to carry a heavier scoring load. Karina Figueroa scored 18 points for the 49ers, but shot 6-for-23 — another facet of the UCSB game plan was to funnel the driving Figueroa toward Valentine, the third-best shotblocker in Division I.

The defending champion Gauchos have won 9 of 12, including seven in a row, with two tournament games by by 51 points. UCSB started the season 3-9 — "Of any team I've been around while coaching, this is the team that has most improved from November to March," said Gottlieb.

UCSB, facing the daunting task of winning four games in four nights, meets #1 UC Davis in a Friday semifinal. UCD coach Sandy Simpson recognized how well Santa Barbara is playing, while nodding toward what they're up against: "They might beat us tomorrow, but then there's that fourth game," he said.

***

Final four

The best teams in the Big West are in the tournament semifinal. Whichever of 'em goes to the NCAAs won't be getting there easily.

#1 UC Davis vs. #5 UC Santa Barbara

UC Davis stumbled in the middle, but got it straightened out at the end.

UC Santa Barbara is playing so well right now, but the talk of the town is whether fatigue will beat them.

I could go nuts making a forecast, but I said a year ago that UC Davis would win it, so there it is. UC Davis 70, UC Santa Barbara 65

#2 Cal Poly vs. #3 UC Riverside

Riverside was charging to the finish as hard as Santa Barbara was, until they hit a pothole against Long Beach on the last day, which cost them the double bye.

Poly ran in front for most of the season. Near the end, they lost three in a row on the road. Coach Faith Mimnaugh took the blame: "As a coach, I didn't do a good job demanding great defense from our team," she said.

I haven't seen Poly in a month, and don't know where they are. Can't pick the Mustangs logically, but would like it if they won.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-11T12:56:00

2010-03-11T20:56:44Z

At halftime of the UC Riverside-CS Fullerton quarterfinal game at the Big West tournament, it's #2 UCR 32, #6 CSF 24.

I've tweeted twice about the curious spotlessness of the first half — neither team shot a bonus free throw (both sides made five fouls), while nine turnovers were made in total.

While I'm finding this so notable — it makes for the cleanest notebook ever — it comes to mind that this is pretty much what Dr. Naismith had in mind for his physical education classes at the Y.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-11T02:47:00

2010-03-11T10:47:30Z

#4 Long Beach St. vs. #5 UC Santa Barbara

Long Beach St.
RPI #223
Best win: #155 Rice
Worst loss: #324 Pacific

Long Beach State's road win at UC Riverside had very great effect on the tournament seedings. UCR fell even with Cal Poly, who nosed into the #2 seed and the double bye. Long Beach caught up to UC Santa Barbara, where that tiebreaker put LBSU at #4 with a single bye.

Perhaps if Long Beach had lost last Saturday, then it would be the 49ers playing a back-to-back against a rested UCSB. Instead, it's the Gauchos who have the unfathomable job of getting past Long Beach, UC Davis, and (probably) Cal Poly without one off day.

I think UCSB is playing so well right now that if they finally fall to fatigue, then the winner at the end will very much thank Long Beach for foisting that extra game on the Gauchos.

Or maybe Long Beach will just do the job themselves and knock Santa Barbara out Thursday.

Lindsay Gottlieb called the 49er backcourt the most dynamic in the league. All-conference point guard Karina Figueroa does everything, and — impossibly, it seemed — played all 29 games. Shooter Lauren Sims plays gobs of minutes, never misses a free throw — when Sims and forward Ally Wade are both on target, the Niners are scary. LBSU made the most treys in the conference.

However, I don't doubt that Coach Gottlieb thinks her guards — Emilie Johnson and Meagan Williams — can hold their own against the LBSU guards. The other fun matchup is up front: Mekia Valentine (20 pts, 13 rebs, 8 blks against Pacific — I said yesterday that if the supernatural didn't aid Pacific, then Valentine would put up some numbers) scrapping with LBSU bigs Lindsey Beckner and Brett Timmons.

I suspect UCSB is going to win this game by inches with defense. They reminded us that they can score a ton; now they'll add that they can also grind a good team down defensively. The 49er shooters will be held a bit shy of their averages.

How about UC Santa Barbara 66, Long Beach St. 62.

#3 UC Riverside vs. #6 Cal St. Fullerton

UC Riverside
RPI #202
Best win: #87 Pepperdine
Worst loss: #237 Cal St. Fullerton

I've analogized UCR coach John Margaritis as a poker opponent who plays every hand the same way. When bad poker players can be read that predictably, they pay. When good poker players can be read that predictably, you don't know what they're holding.

A fine coach in our conference told me that his staff delights in preparing for Riverside because Margaritis never fails to challenge them with a surprise at game time. I asked another coach what game planning was like against Riverside. Coach said the Highlanders are always tough and athletic, the rest was unknown.

So I asked Margaritis: What's the trick, Coach? What makes your game preparation special and different?

Margaritis said he didn't know what the other coaches were talking about. Perhaps they were surprised by the moments his team wasn't doing what they were supposed to be doing, he said.

In poker terms, if you want to see the cards, call the bluff or pay to see the nut flush.

I'm looking forward to asking CSF coach Foster what kinds of things she saw on film. I don't know what Riverside's doing — they turned the whole roster over, and I've only seen them once, when they were … see above: tough and athletic.

No idea what's going to happen in this game.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-10T21:52:00

2010-03-11T05:52:33Z

#5 UC Santa Barbara 82, #8 Pacific 54

In the first round of the Big West Conference tournament Wednesday, defending champion and #5 seed UC Santa Barbara eliminated #8 Pacific 82-54. UCSB made an early 18-0 run and led 40-25 at half, then buried UOP with a 22-9 start in the second.

UCSB senior guard Meagan Williams led all scorers with 24 points on 12-for-15 shooting, which tied the UCSB record for field goals made in a tournament game. Mekia Valentine added 20 points, 13 rebounds, and eight blocked shots.

UCSB coach Lindsay Gottlieb said the game plan was "to attack and get to the basket, to control the boards, to do the gritty things." The Gauchos scored 40 points in the paint, including a 1:45 stretch of the second half where Williams made four layups.

"We had something to prove in this building, that we can work our way back to the top," said Williams. The Gauchos, winners of 13 of the last 15 Big West tournaments, had a lackluster 5-7 start in conference play, but turned their season around — winning six games in a row since Feb. 13.

In Thursday's quarterfinal, #5 UC Santa Barbara meets #4 Long Beach St. The 49ers have the most dynamic backcourt in the league, Gottlieb said, with two all-conference guards — first team point guard Karina Figueroa and Lauren Sims.

#6 Cal State Fullerton 89, #7 UC Irvine 76

The Fullerton Titans won the battle of the boards and got the better of the benches in an 89-76 win over UC Irvine in a Big West Conference tournament first-round game Wednesday.

CSF built a 50-36 rebounding advantage against UCI, who were third in the Big West in rebound differential. "Our game plan was to control the boards," said CSF coach Marcia Foster. "We have struggled against UC Irvine for their rebounding and their toughness."

CSF guard Jasmine Scott had 16 points plus 11 rebounds for the Titans. Lyndsey Grove contributed a team-high 26 points and nine rebounds.

UC Irvine forward Mikah Maly-Karros broke the tournament record with 31 field goals attempted, while 17 field goals made tied the record. Maly-Karros finished with 41 points (three shy of the tournament mark), but UCI coach Molly Goodenbour said pregame and postgame that when the Anteaters play their best is when their scoring is balanced. "If we had five players with 15 points instead of, say, Mikah with 40 and someone else with 25, that would take a lot of pressure off all of us," Goodenbour said.

The bench scoring difference of 18-4 was nearly equal to the difference in the game score. The Titan reserves shot 5-for-11, including a clutch ("it was huge, so huge", said Foster) three-pointer by guard Britt Peters. UCI was on a 7-0 push with 8:51 left in the game, cutting CSF's 67-53 to 67-60, but Peters' trey broke the momentum, and the lead was back to 12 points at 6:19.

Fullerton moves on to face #3 UC Riverside Thursday.

***

My practice has usually been to write something like news at the top, then append the scandalous gossip — you know, the dirt that reduces me from "reporter" to "blogger" — at the bottom. I usually get the feeling that no one reads my LiveJournal for facts, and just skip to the bottom.

I've been describing UC Santa Barbara as a sleeping giant for a month, but forget that. They're awake, and have regained all the self-assurance that befits the Big West's 500-pound gorilla.

Their task is great: When did a 5-8 seed last win in this tournament format in any league? (In other words, just how huge was Long Beach State's win at UC Riverside on the last day? LBSU secured the bye at #4, knocked UCSB to #5, while stealing the double bye from #3 UCR. Who loves LBSU more than #2 Cal Poly?)

Lindsay Gottlieb has done the smart thing by breaking the big job into two smaller tasks. She's telling her team that they're playing two two-game tournaments — they have to win the first in order to get to the second. I would like their chances, but there's no escaping that the championship game would be their fourth game in four nights. As Pacific coach Lynne Roberts said at her press conference: "They have the talent, but they don't have the legs."

Thank goodness Gottlieb has been willing to share my joke about my hex on her team. For starters, it never would've been funny if she hadn't been in on it. At her postgame conference, Gottlieb said she put a picture of me at the door and told the gatekeepers to keep me out. I snuck past the gate, but her team was strong enough to overcome my magic juju.

Which is too bad for Pacific, because I love those kids, and would've liked to see a Roberts team not get bounced on the first day for the first time. The trouncing pretty much showed all of Pacific's weaknesses: lack of size, lack of experience, no lack of witless shot selection.

I've heard that the Pacific staff is higher on next year's recruits than they were on this year's bunch, which is saying a lot. Asst. coach Alisha Valavanis promised a year ago that I would love the freshmen, and Valavanis has never been wrong when she says I'll love one player or another. Oh, I said that freshman Jordan Rogers has suddenly grown into Pacific's best rebounder — her eight led the team. But it was obvious that she's still a freshman when she forgot her shoes at the hotel — small but critical details don't go overlooked by upperclassmen.

***

Early this morning, I wrote that I've learned to like UC Irvine coach Molly Goodenbour beyond the "OH MY GOD, IT'S 1992 FINAL FOUR MVP MOLLY GOODENBOUR" kind of like. My fanboy like for Goodenbour always made it hard for me to talk to her, in fact.

One of the things I've noticed about Goodenbour is the warm respect in her voice when she talks to her players. It's noteworthy by itself, but it made something she said at her press conference even more touching.

Goodenbour was talking about her four seniors whose careers had just ended: "These four seniors have been through two years of transition," she said, referring to UCI's coaching change, "I really wanted a win in the tournament to give them a good feeling before going out. The program and the team are getting better; it would've been nice to let them experience a little more of that."

You could hear in her voice how much she loves her kids, and that one win — UCI hasn't won a tournament game in at least the four years I've been watching — would've been the best way to thank her seniors for enduring and improving.

But the Anteaters didn't make shots when they most needed to, when they had to stop a Fullerton run or when they had to cultivate their own momentum. Goodenbour said the inability to make the key shot has been a problem all season, and so it was Wednesday.

Mikah Maly-Karros poured in 41 points, three shy of the tournament record, though she missed three shots down the stretch when Irvine was still close enough. It mostly served to make another point Goodenbour had talked about all week, that UCI needs more than one or two players to carry the scoring load. That second player has typically been Jade Smith-Williams, who averaged 13 points but shot 2-for-10 and finished with 8. On Wednesday, it was senior guard Keyonna Johnson, who had a career-best 17. So, as usual, there were two Anteaters scoring all the points.

Maly-Karros' stepfather — Dodger moron Eric Karros — was in the audience. Some tweet referred to Karros as a "legend". I looked up the Dodger fathead on baseball-reference.com to see how legendary he was — he once led the league in games played with 162, like a dozen other guys who showed up for "work" that year. He also led the league once into grounding into double plays. Ha. "Dodger legend," my butt. Dodgers are the slime trail left behind by diseased arthropods. I dislike Eric Karros and anyone else who's primarily identified as a Dodger, but that doesn't affect my admiration for his daughter.

I told CSF coach Marcia Foster Monday that I expected the game coming up to be the highest-scoring game of the tournament. Coaches don't like it when people say stuff like that; it's like they're implying that the coach's team won't play enough defense. Foster said she would urge the Titans to play tough defense and that she would try to keep the game from getting out of control. She was on the right end of the 89-76 score, so she was willing to laugh when I asked at the press conference how our respective predictions worked out.

Retired Fullerton coach Dr. Maryalyce Jeremiah was in attendance. Dr. Jeremiah is one of the best people I've met in basketball. I've said that I'd marry her, and when someone said he wanted Dr. Jeremiah to be his grandmother, I said yeah, I could go for that, too.

Dr. Jeremiah gestured toward Pacific senior Emma Head, and said that she recruited Emma pretty hard, but Emma chose Pacific. I will say here that this confirms that Emma is a terrific kid. Emma's parents are English, so she's not like a typical dumbass American kid. She's smart and well-spoken, reads poetry and listens to jazz. I'm going to miss her greatly — and I know Dr. Jeremiah would not have recruited a kid without a big lot of character.

***

Tournament time is the only time when you get to compare schools' dance teams and pep bands in real time.

Someone said some of Fullerton's cheerleaders are strippers, so now I can't look at them without guessing at which.

Cal Poly's band is good. UC Irvine's cheerleaders are cute. Fullerton's mascot wears an adorable elephant costume, but now that I think about it, elephants are usually well represented as stuffed animals or whatever, considering that comical snout and the floppy ears and all.

But where, oh, where are Pacific's pep band and dance team?

While the Tigers were getting brushed away from the Anaheim Convention Center, couldn't they have been helped at all by the presence of the Pacific Tiger Pep Band and the Pacific Tiger Dancers?

They'll be here for the men on Friday, but were not here today for the women. I think that's a pretty shitty slight of my kids.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-10T02:30:00

2010-03-10T10:30:39Z

#5 UC Santa Barbara vs. #8 Pacific

Pacific
RPI #324
Best win: #67 St. Mary's
Worst loss: #303 San Francisco

UC Santa Barbara
RPI #195
Best win: #176 Cal Poly
Worst losses: #223 Long Beach St., #216 Portland St.

For Pacific to win Wednesday and for continued improvement, the Tigers should look at models in their own conference, #1 UC Davis and #2 Cal Poly.

UC Davis' injury-plagued 2009 season parallels Pacific's 2010 in this fashion: one or more of the best players on the roster were out at the same time, so the teams had to throw gifted freshmen into the deep end of the pool, where they occasionally struggled to stay afloat. But since 2009 didn't kill the Aggie freshmen — Lauren Juric was freshman of the year and Kasey Riecks was named to the all-freshman team — they were stronger for 2010, when a healthy lineup won the regular season championship.

I believe Pacific's freshmen should've matched Davis' feat — that is, I thought Erica McKenzie was freshman of the year, and that Kendall Rodriguez should've been on the all-freshman team. And they weren't even the best freshmen on the team at the end — Jordan Rogers had one of those monster 3-point shooting nights late, and emerged as the best rebounder on the team, if not as a strong position rebounder, then as the best Pacific player at chasing a rebound down in traffic.

Add those three to the three who sat out this year: Gretchen Tiernan, who should lead the team in scoring; Andrea Swanson, who could be the leading rebounder; and Claire McLeod, Pacific's Australian Army knife.

In the immediate short term (less than 12 hours), for Pacific to upset UC Santa Barbara, the Tigers have to borrow a page from Cal Poly (coincidence that UCSB's best win was against Poly).

Pacific can beat anyone when they're making threes, most notably 15-of-22 against UC Davis in the Aggies' worst loss by RPI of the season.

But Poly led the conference in three-point shooting while the Mustangs were also among the Division I leaders in assists.

When Cal Poly tied the Division I record for consecutive treys made, coach Faith Mimnaugh said after the game that it can be a difficult thing for players to learn when to shoot and when to pass, but on that day, she said, they all seemed to get it at the same time. Poly made 12-of-15 treys that day — against Pacific, by the way — and assisted on 28 of their 36 field goals.

If Pacific makes the right measure of 'when to pass, when to shoot' Wednesday, they have a chance.

Then again, maybe all Pacific needs tomorrow is for me to be in the building.

Lindsay Gottlieb's Gauchos have not won while I've been in attendance. Perhaps you don't think 0-3 is much of a hex, but it's the nature of the losses that is more striking than the number.

When UC Santa Barbara visited Pacific last season, they were 11-0 in Big West play. The Janae Young/Amber Simmons/Amy VanHollebeke Tigers put on their best game of the year and won 59-50. The Gauchos won seven more games against Big West opponents, finishing 15-1 plus 2-0 to win the tournament. (I'd already left Anaheim to attend the junior college championships, enabling UCSB to win their semifinal and final.)

This year, I saw UCSB just once, at Portland State, where they were dealt their second-worst RPI loss of the season.

If Coach Gottlieb carries a magic talisman strong enough to counteract the curse I put on her team, then I think Mekia Valentine will be the Gaucho making the big numbers.

Prediction: For as long as I've been writing about Big West basketball, Pacific comes down here and gets bounced in their first game. But their top five scorers this season have never been inside the Anaheim Convention Center — that inexperience might serve Pacific well; one, these kids weren't part of the bad history, and two, inexperienced teams often don't know what they can't do. Also, sportswriters believe in the supernatural because it makes for good copy. Pacific 62, UC Santa Barbara 61

#6 Cal State Fullerton vs. #7 UC Irvine

Cal State Fullerton
RPI #237
Best win: #151 UC Davis
Worst losses: Twice to #334 Cal St. Northridge

UC Irvine
RPI #260
Best win: #165 Eastern Washington
Worst loss: #237 Cal St. Fullerton

Three teams in the Big West can say that their "worst loss" was to Cal St. Fullerton (even though the Titans are the best #237 team that ever lived when they're playing well). At the media conference Monday, UCI coach Molly Goodenbour was asked if Wednesday's game would be a "payback game". Goodenbour said if that were the case, then every game would be a payback game because everyone's beaten us.

I laughed at that, partly because I think the schmoe who asked the question is a media member who thinks he's a story, and partly because I've grown to like Coach Goodenbour, who keeps things simpler on the sidelines than any other coach I've listened to.

My prediction for Fullerton vs. Irvine is that it'll be the highest-scoring game of the tournament (the teams were 7th and 8th in FG% allowed, 3rd and 5th in point scored). CSF coach Foster hopes I'm wrong — "We'd like to play tough defense, not let it get out of control", Foster said, "but we do like to push the pace."

Goodenbour said limiting CSF's scoring will be key, particularly in transition, and she said the Anteaters will have to balance their scoring. "When we play best, we have offensive balance, not just Mikah [Maly-Karros, 20 pts and 11 rebs per game], not just Jade Smith-Williams; we need three or four players scoring," she said.

Prediction: I almost called another upset here. I think they're going to run back and forth, and make some easy baskets. If they get into a race that suggests neither side is getting back on defense, Fullerton's advantage as the better team is lessened. But Goodenbour said one of Irvine's problems all season is making that critical basket, the one that pushes a team over a hump. Let's say Irvine scares Fullerton mightily. Cal St. Fullerton 76, UC Irvine 70 (Won't be surprised if the total nears 170.)

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-08T22:41:00

2010-03-09T06:41:58Z

Wanna know how I first noticed my vision was going south?

Right, at a basketball game.

One of those incredibly good Celtics teams of the mid-'80s was visiting the typically lousy Golden State Warriors, and our seats were near the edge of the Oakland Coliseum Arena. Seats might've been in San Leandro.

I turned to Hodges and said: "What's the score?".

Hodges said the score was 50 to 3 or something.

I looked at the scoreboard again, and tried to find the numbers "50" and "3". "You can read the scoreboard?" I said.

I remember two things about that game.

One, four Warriors went for an offensive rebound, but Robert Parish grabbed it, and found Larry Bird with the outlet pass, while DJ, Ainge, and McHale were already flying, and the play was coming toward me. It looked like a chalkboard diagram of a fastbreak with no defenders in the diagram. I hoped they'd run it so I could watch the entire diagram unfold, but Ainge went to the corner, Bird gave him the ball, bang.

Two, I spent most of the game thinking: "Are these seats so far away that the scoreboards are not readable? That's insane. The scoreboard has to be legible from every seat in the arena. Then why can't I read it?".

I actually chalked it up to the effect of a recently-abraded cornea. But at my next checkup regarding that scratched cornea, they tested my vision, after which I got glasses.

Yup, got my first eyeglasses, and accordingly, had my first experience with how effing fragile the stupid things are.

Every pair I've ever owned has broken in some fashion. Earpieces broken at the hinge, nosepads worn out by constant adjustment. In one remarkably stupid incident, I took an expensive pair of frames off my face, set them down in a chair (because it was the nearest level surface), and *immediately* sat on them.

A couple nights ago, my glasses fell to the floor from my loft bed. Either the cord slipped from the bedpost, or I negligently fell asleep before hanging them on the post. In either case, I found 'em broken on the floor — in the course of getting ready for the next day, I picked up a chair, and dropped it on the frames.

I'm wearing the glasses I use for computer/chessboard distance. If something is more than 10 feet away, it gets kinda fuzzy.

I watched Northridge at Pacific and Fullerton at Davis with these glasses. Pacific, no problem. Davis was tougher — I don't recognize all of the Aggie bench players unless I can see big, huge numbers on their jerseys.

I'm reminded of how we "see" certain things. There are so many words we don't have to fully visualize in order to read — within the context of a sentence or a billboard, plus the shape of the first character or two, and we can recognize a word. Pattern recognition is big — for instance, I once looked up at the Long Beach State 49ers without my glasses on. LBSU has a couple of blonde kids I can't differentiate, except that Wade is the shooter and Jacob is the slasher. Without glasses, I couldn't read the jersey, but since the blonde Long Beach kid was diving into traffic, I knew it was Courtney Jacob, not Ally Wade.

I'll bring the 'distance' glasses to Anaheim. Maybe I can keep them on my nose while I'm seated mostly motionless.

***

Heard the Rodney Alcala story? It's so creepy that if a television writer pitched it at a story meeting, the bosses would say "ewwww, too much."

Alcala was a contestant on the TV game show "The Dating Game" in 1978. "The Dating Game" was the grandfather of shows like "Studs" and "Love Connection". Three guys in polyester leisure suits sat unseen behind a screen while a hot babe — for instance, Farrah Fawcett — asked them stupid and/or suggestive questions. Based on their stupid and/or suggestive answers, the woman would select Bachelor No. 1, 2, or 3 for an expenses-paid blind date.

Alcala won, but the woman refused to go on the date. Her intuition was correct — 32 years later, he's convicted of serial murders and rapes of seven women and a 12-year-old girl.

There are writers, including me, who read this story and thought "I suck, because that is extraordinarily scary, but simple and campy enough that I should've thought of it, and didn't."

The footage of Alcala's "The Dating Game" appearance found its way to YouTube, of course. And, naturally, Monday morning quarterbacks are commenting "You can see the evil in his eyes and his feathered hair!".

I think the right way to experiment is to play the video — maybe just the audio — without telling the viewer/listener which one of the three bachelors turns out to be the serial killer.

Remember "The Practice"? I liked it. Largely written by the guy who was smart and talented enough to attract Michelle Pfeiffer. TV courtroom drama about a law firm that specialized in getting reasonable doubt for, well, serial killers. If the Rodney Alcala story were an episode of "The Practice", the couple meets on the game show, she ends up dead, every sign points to him, but the Donnell Young Dole and Frutt firm gets an acquittal. On "The Practice", the cops might've found her severed head in his medical bag, but Donnell and Associates still find a a way.

If it were an episode of "Law and Order", someone finds her corpse before the credits, the cops learn she was on the game show, and query the bad guy, whose alibi slowly unravels with 22 minutes of shrewd detective work. After 22 minutes in the courtroom setting, the district attorney manages to overcome the plot-driven legal obstacle before busting him into consecutive life sentences. Yay!

"The Practice" and "Law and Order" are two old favorite TV shows of mine, so I've wondered about this for a very long time: In the '60s, my mom used to watch "Perry Mason", a courtroom drama that defied credibility because Raymond Burr had a longer winning streak than the University of Connecticut. I don't remember a moment of "Perry Mason", but the seed must've surely been planted in my brain 30 years before David O. Kelley and Dick Wolf launched their shows. Also liked "L.A. Law" before it jumped a shark.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-08T06:29:00

2010-03-08T14:29:32Z

The pre-tournament conference call with the Big West coaches starts in three hours.

I hate that thing. All 16 coaches get a 10-minute slot, rigidly scheduled so a reporter who wants to talk to one certain coach knows when to call. The moderator — if it's the same dork — thinks it's about him. After the dork reads highlights from a press release — suggesting he doesn't know jack about the Big West — the media is left with six minutes of time to interview the coach.

In other words, it's designed for reporters to ask for — and for coaches to make — LaLooshian comments.

As sucky as this conference call format is, I feel an obligation to phone in. Then I could ask Roberts about her dog, or tell Gottlieb about a strings and piano concerto I listened to.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-08T05:53:00

2010-03-08T13:53:05Z

Heh. Someone gave Nebraska a second-place vote in the Associated Press poll. I don't agree, but I love it.

UConn: 40 votes x 25 points = 1000

Stanford: (39 votes x 24 pts) + (1 third-place vote x 23 pts) = 959

Nebraska: (38 votes x 23 pts) + (1 second-place vote x 24 pts) + (1 fourth-place vote x 22 pts) = 920

Tennessee: (38 votes x 22 pts) + (1 third-place vote x 23 pts) + (1 fifth-place vote x 21 pts) = 880

If Nebraska and Stanford meet in the round of 4 (or 2!), I think I'll have my cyanide capsule with a Philtered Soul from Philz Coffee.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-08T03:01:00

2010-03-08T11:01:08Z

The spring training mismatch Tim Lincecum vs. Luke Hochevar was rained out, which is a birthday present to my brother Jon.

***

I occasionally drift into a dark place where I sleep for 20 hours per day, and spend the other four crying or staring at the wall (or functioning as if nothing were wrong).

I got a shove in that direction a few days ago. Do you know how much freelance software engineers in India are bidding for jobs? As little as $4 per hour. When a Florida developer mused aloud on Twitter if his project should subcontract some Selenium work for $7, I preemptively leaped at the chance to work with my favorite software tool.

I've cashed in 90 percent of my IRA, and am reduced to working for 7 bucks an hour. Considering that, I did not feel like writing after Thursday's CS Fullerton at Pacific game, and spent Friday in bed, staring at the wall.

If not for March madness, I might've sunk. But I had to get out of bed for senior Saturday at Pacific and UC Davis.

Pacific looked pretty bad against CS Northridge. They looked so bad that one might've felt sorry that Northridge wasn't going to the tournament in Pacific's stead. At half, the Matadors were shooting 59 percent, and getting to the loose balls. With 8 minutes left, and CSUN leading by 8, I packed up for Davis.

An hour later, I was at Hamilton Court, and got the news that UOP got game-tying shots in regulation and in the first overtime, then pulled it out in the 2nd OT.

I'm sorry I missed that celebration. Best thing about it is that there's no doubt that Pacific deserved the #8 tournament seed, while the kids will believe they can win on Wednesday.

Also sorry I didn't get to talk to UOP senior Emma Head at her last home game. Emma's a rare kid — smart and articulate, without the typical dumbass American kid upbringing.

UC Davis senior Haylee Donaghe is also one of my favorite kids. I don't know what the Donaghe family story is, but Hannah plays basketball at Stanford, while Haylee would get my vote if she ran for president. For Donaghe's senior night, the Aggies cut down the net as Big West Conference champions, which she wore around her neck at the press conference.

I felt a lot better about life just for being there.

If Cal St. Fullerton was an accurate barometer, then Pacific is very clearly a team full of freshmen, while UC Davis is a worthy regular season champion. (On behalf of the other five media members who picked UCD to win in the preseason media pool, I want to say that even thought first place belonged to three teams in the last four weeks, the Aggies prevailed, and we told you so.)

The Pacific Tigers, who dropped 15 of 22 treys when UC Davis visited, missed their first 15 treys against Fullerton on Thursday, and made seven assists, four fewer than their league-worst average of 11.

The trio of freshmen on which Pacific relies so, so heavily played 74 minutes and shot 4-for-27. On the other hand, Fullerton's freshman post Lauren Bushong had a career night — averaging .7 points and .7 rebounds in conference play, Bushong had 7 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks in 11 minutes.

(There's always some Fullerton kid who shines when I'm around. Last year, Katie Avila had her best game of the year while I was in attendance. This year, Megan Richardson had one of her player of the week games at San Jose State, and now Bushong at Pacific.)

CSF coach Marcia Foster said Bushong has worked hard to get her chance to play. Bushong said the work was on defense. She averaged 19 points and 13 rebounds as a high school senior, but "I didn't have to play defense in high school", she said.

The Titans were the surprise of the league in January, bolting to a 4-0 start before losing three, then going on the teeter-totter. CSF alternated five wins and four losses before visiting Spanos Center Thursday where they won a second game in a row.

I didn't think CSF looked as solid at Pacific Thursday as they did Jan. 14 at Cal Poly, when they took their first loss of Big West play in overtime. They looked like they'd settled into the middle of the pack, which was confirmed Saturday at Davis.

UCD coach Sandy Simpson said senior nights are tough because a team can be running over with emotion. His Aggies were saying goodbye to Donaghe after six years — two lost to injury — and Ashley Curry, and the conference championship could have been at stake, depending on UC Riverside hosting Long Beach St.

Simpson's worries that the team was playing tight were true when UCD was stuck on 11 points from 16:06 to 11:04 in the first half, but after the Aggies got to 13, they ran away to a 44-23 halftime lead, which they extended with a 15-0 burst in the second. Behind 21 points and 10 rebounds from Paige Mintun plus 15 from Donaghe, UCD won 80-52 (Riverside lost; amazingly, no one broke the news, enabling UC Davis to keep their edge).

The Aggies have the #1 seed, plus a bye into the semifinal Friday.

UC Davis hasn't peaked yet.

Cal Poly got the #2 seed, but after they reached 8-2 with that record-setting bombardment against Pacific, we wondered if they'd hit a plateau, and then they lost three in a row on the road.

#3 UC Riverside picked a most unfortunate time to lose their first game at home, wouldn't you agree.

#4 Long Beach St. landed where I said they would, yay.

#5 UC Santa Barbara. That sounds weird. The 600-pound gorilla in the conference is no. 5. However, the Gauchos won four in a row (non-conference win over Bakersfield made the UCSB streak five straight) to climb to no. 5. The sleeping giant awoke just in time.

#6 Fullerton vs. #7 UC Irvine is the second game Wednesday. It's kinda hard not to like Irvine in that game — I've been calling this the year of the 4/5 forward in the Big West (UCI's Maly-Karros, CP's Santiago, UCSB's Valentine, even Northridge and Pacific were depending on Erving and Thompson), and in that light, CSF's 4/5s aren't equal to Mikah Maly-Karros.

#8 Pacific can beat anybody in the Big West when they're making shots. And it is true that Lindsay Gottlieb's Gauchos have not won a game when I'm in the building.

End-of-season award choices

Player of the year: Kristina Santiago, Cal Poly
Coach of the year: Jody Wynn, Long Beach St.
Freshman of the year: Erica McKenzie, Pacific

First team

F Kristina Santiago, Cal Poly
F Mikah Maly-Karros, UC Irvine
F Mekia Valentine, UC Santa Barbara
G Karina Figueroa, Long Beach St.
G Alyssa Morris, UC Riverside
G Haylee Donaghe, UC Davis

Second team

F Megan Richardson, Cal St. Fullerton
F Paige Mintun, UC Davis
F Ally Wade, Long Beach St.
G Heidi Heintz, UC Davis
G Emilie Johnson, UC Santa Barbara
G Ashlee Stewart, Cal Poly

Honorable mentions

F Jasmine Erving, Cal St. Northridge
F Rheya Neabors, UC Riverside
F Christina Thompson, Pacific
G Jade Smith-Williams, UC Irvine
G Jasmine Scott, Cal St. Fullerton
G Meagan Williams, UC Santa Barbara

All-freshman

F Mya Olivier, Cal St. Fullerton
F Kendall Rodriguez, Pacific
F Jazmyne White, UC Irvine
F Violet Alama, Cal St. Northridge
G Erica McKenzie, Pacific
G Janelle Nomura, Cal St. Northridge
G Jordan Rogers, Pacific

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-03T19:49:00

2010-03-04T03:49:02Z

Writing about chess for examiner.com. Made FIVE CENTS the first day!!

http://www.examiner.com/x-40206-SF-Chess-Examiner

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-03T02:29:00

2010-03-03T10:29:09Z

The top four seeds — UC San Diego, Cal Poly Pomona, Chico State, Humboldt State — advanced to the semifinals of the California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.

Chico eliminated San Francisco State, so the Gators finished 15-16. Humboldt plays well at home — the Jacks knocked out CSU Monterey Bay, and now get one or two more games in their own gym.

UC San Diego coach Charity Elliott was named conference coach of the year for the second straight year. I wonder how MB second-year coach Jimenez did in the voting after the Otters reached the tournament for the first time.

UCSD point guard Chelsea Carlisle is player of the year. (I imagine that vote wasn't so close.) The Tritons have won four of the last five player of the year awards.

Cal State Hayward's Lauren Lucchesi is the freshman of the year. My first reaction to that was "she wasn't even the best freshman on her team", but she in fact was. For having two good freshmen, CSUH oughta get better than 2-20.

frdelrosario @ 2010-03-02T01:03:00

2010-03-02T09:03:53Z

When I attend a card show, I dig through thousands of two-cent NBA commons, looking closely into the edges and corners of the pictures, hoping to find those players who didn't have the star quality to be pictured on cards of their own.

Here's an 8x10 example. This 8x10 of Phoenix Suns legend Paul Westphal is going for $2 on the ubiquitous online auction site. It's not a very good picture of Westy, but the intriguing Sun in the picture is the guy with his back to the camera.

There aren't many Suns from the late '70s I don't recognize, but #3? is one of 'em. The first clue to his identity is Al Skinner, who was playing for the Nets.

Skinner was well-traveled — in '77-'78, he played 8 games for the Nets before they shipped him to the Pistons. The Pistons sent him *back* to New Jersey for '78-'79, but the Nets tired of him again, so he went to the Sixers.

But in those seasons, the Suns wearing #3? were two white guys — #33 Alvan Adams and #35 Bayard Forrest — and #30 Ron Lee; clearly, that isn't Ron Lee's jersey.

Aha. Al Skinner played 79 games for the *New York* Nets in 1976-77, and playing his rookie season for Phoenix was #32 Ira Terrell, a 6-8 forward from Southern Methodist.

Terrell had a pretty good rookie year, averaging 22 minutes, 9 points and 5 rebounds, while shooting 51 percent.

The picture was taken Dec. 1, 1976. Both teams sucked — Phoenix lost 50, New York lost 60. The Suns won on the road, 106-96. Westy was 1st Team All-NBA that year, averaging 21 points, 5th in the league in assists.

I love pictures like this — with those fringe NBA guys who weren't famous, but who were there.

***

The CCAA playoffs start tomorrow, with #1-4 hosting #5-8, and then the four survivors finish it this weekend at Humboldt State.

The CSU Monterey Bay Otters tied for 4th place, but lost a tiebreaker to Humboldt, so the #5 Otters spent eight hours on a bus yesterday. If the Lumberjacks lose, that would suck for them, because they'd be out of the tournament they have to host. If the Otters win, I imagine they'd just stay in Humboldt. In any event, second-year coach Renee Jimenez took Monterey to their first playoff appearance.

CSUMB beat CSU San Bernardino on the last day of the season, which meant that the streak was perfect — the Otters won every time they played a team who played MB's travel partner San Francisco St. one or two nights earlier.

San Francisco St. got into the playoffs as the #6 with a 15-15 record. For the Gators to finish with their first winning record in almost 30 years, they'd have to win twice (coach Joaquin Wallace said I'm putting the pressure on — just get it done, Gators) — first at Chico St., and then their most likely opponent would be #2 Cal Poly Pomona, whom the Gators took to the buzzer when I saw them.

***

Nothing is settled in the Big West — all eight playoff seeds are up for grabs in the last weekend. It's been a great year to watch the Big West, but people from the West Coast Conference are asking me why I'm preferring to go to boring Anaheim for the BWC tournament when the WCC is playing in Las Vegas.

San Francisco and Santa Clara did finish tied at 1-15, but USF snuck ahead in RPI on the last day. Presumably Tennessee was the key opponent for USF — the Volunteers nudged ahead of Nebraska for #3 RPI, even though Nebraska remained unbeaten.

No word yet from Stanford about my media pass for rounds 1 and 2, but the regionals in Sacramento are assumed to be a lock because the gatekeeper is Pacific's Mike Millerick, with whom I have attended a comedy show.

***

I am the San Francisco Chess Examiner for examiner.com, which means I get to write about chess for 50 cents an hour. Yay.

frdelrosario @ 2010-02-28T18:57:00

2010-03-01T02:57:15Z

Cal Poly shares the ball so often — 483 assists is almost 100 more than the #2 team in assists, UC Riverside — that you could take the Mustangs' point guards, Ashlee Stewart and Desiray Johnston, out of the equation, and:

The CP point guards account for 7.6 assists per game. Without them, the Mustangs average 11.0, while Cal State Fullerton averages 11.9 total.

A favorite thing I say about the UC Davis Aggies is that some night they'll score 60 points after all 12 of them score 5 points. Accordingly, UCD's top two assisters — point guard Hana Asano and post Paige Mintun — combine for just 5.1 assists per game. The other 10 Aggies assist 8.1 times per game.

In other words, UCD's top two assisters are last in the Big West, but UCD's "everyone else" are second.

Stewart-Johnston, CP 7.6 11.0
Rhe. Neabors-Morris, UCR 7.6 6.9
Figueroa-Wade, LBSU 7.4 6.4
Smith-Williams-Johnson, UCI 6.7 5.3
Johnston-Williams, UCSB 6.5 5.3
Thompson-Nomura, CSN 5.9 7.3
Chow-Richardson, CSF 5.5 6.4
Dy-McKenzie, UOP 5.4 6.6
Asano-Mintun, UCD 5.1 8.1

Big West Conference freshmen statistical leaders

2010-02-28T11:58:31Z

Minutes
Nomura, CSN 658
McKenzie, UOP 639
White, UCI 628
Rodriguez, UOP 541
Thomson, CSN 533
Olivier, CSF 512

Minutes per game
Nomura, CSN 25.3
White, UCI 25.1
McKenzie, UOP 24.6
Rodriguez, UOP 20.8
Thomson, CSN 20.5
Olivier, CSF 19.0

Points per 40 mins.
McKenzie, UOP 14.2
Rodriguez, UOP 13.1
Porter, LBSU 12.6
Olivier, CSF 11.4
Rogers, UOP 11.1
Nomura, CSN 11.1

Rebounds per 40 mins.
Underwood, UCSB 10.8
White, UCI 10.8
Olivier, CSF 10.7
Alama, CSN 10.3
Reeves, CP 8.8
Rodriguez, UOP 8.0

Assists per 40 mins.
Nomura, CSN 4.3
McKenzie, UOP 3.9
Crisp, CSF 3.9
Richardson, UCSB 3.6
Rodriguez, UOP 2.4
Reeves, CP 2.2

Steals per 40 mins.
Rogers, UOP 2.6
Crisp, CSF 2.6
McKenzie, UOP 2.6
Nottingham, UCR 2.5
White, UCI 2.4
Richardson, UCSB 2.2

Blocks per 40 mins.
Kritscher, UCSB 2.2
Alama, CSN 2.0
Rogers, UOP 1.2
White, UCI 1.0
Rodriguez, UOP 0.9
Underwood, UCSB 0.7

Turnovers per 40 mins.
Olivier, CSF 1.9
Cathey, UCI 2.3
Nottingham, UCR 3.1
Richardson, UCSB 3.2
Shinoda, UCD 3.3
White, UCI 3.4

frdelrosario @ 2010-02-25T19:20:00

2010-02-26T03:20:40Z

1994 women's college basketball official of the year Larry Sheppard works as an officials observer in the West Coast Conference. I usually see Larry at St. Mary's, but on this final weekend when the Gaels are away, Larry's working Portland at USF.

Portland coach Jim Sollars has been there for almost 30 years — great interview for his memory of details, and long experience. Larry has a Sollars story:

One of Larry's crewmates made a block/charge call under the basket which went against Portland. Larry said he had a good look at the play, and it was a good call. At the other end of the building, Sollars was having that "if I may, I beg to differ" fit that coaches have.

The flow went the other way — toward the Portland bench — and Sollars was still fuming and fussing. "It was a good call, Jimmy," Larry said.

"You should've retired five years ago!" Sollars barked.

Postgame, the referee told the coach: "You really pissed me off with that remark!".

Sollars cracked up. "I knew I got under your skin with that!" he said.

I'm tickled that Larry's working this game because the worst official I know is in tonight's crew, and I can't wait to read Larry's notes over his shoulder.

San Francisco and Santa Clara are tied for 8th-9th in the WCC; they split the season series, and the RPI tiebreaker favors Santa Clara for the 8th spot in WCC's postseason tournament. Portland's travel partner is Gonzaga — winning WCC home games by 40 and away games by 25 — who come in here Saturday, so tonight's game is probably a must-win for San Francisco.

frdelrosario @ 2010-02-22T06:41:00

2010-02-22T14:41:18Z

Shortly before the Lake Placid Olympics, one of my classmates was talking about how much he disliked The Knack single "My Sharona".

The other said she didn't know it. "You've heard it," he said, speaking that bass line — "Da da da da dah dah da dah da da da da dah DA DA DAH DAHHH" — and moving his head up and down in time like a marionette.

"Oh," she said.

"Everyone hates them," he said, "for ripping off the 'Meet the Beatles' album cover."

I butted in. "There's even a guy selling 'Knuke the Knack' T-shirts, but I like The Knack."

"You don't like the group," the girl said. "You just like controversy."

It's 30 years later. I recall that dialogue every time I listen to The Knack.

Knack leader Doug Fieger died recently. I still think it wasn't the band or the songs people disliked as much as they disliked Fieger for leering in every lyric and looking like a lecher in every picture.

I'll always give The Knack credit for this: They covered some GREAT songs, like Buddy Holly's "Heartbeat" on "Get the Knack" and Badfinger's "No Matter What" on "Re-Zoom".

I read minutes ago that when The Knack repackaged "Zoom" as "Re-Zoom" with the inclusion of "No Matter What", it was after they'd recorded "No Matter What" for a Badfinger tribute album.

That tribute album is from 1996, and I'd never friggin' heard of it. Along with The Knack, personnel includes Aimee Mann, Dwight Twilley, and Adrian Belew.

I found Aimee Mann's cover of "Baby Blue" on YouTube.

Now I have to find the damn CD.

frdelrosario @ 2010-02-22T00:24:00

2010-02-22T08:24:43Z

Cal State Monterey Bay 68, UC San Diego 57

Less than 24 hours ago, I said "I can't wait to see the score from Monterey." The Otters, who secured a playoff spot Friday, followed up with the biggest win in school history.

On Jan. 14, MB lost at San Diego by 5. Two nights later, they visited Hayward — it's a little weird that the best and worst teams in the CCAA are travel partners, but it suggests the question 'in which order would you rather see them?' — and I asked Coach Jimenez what she thought of the Tritons.

She said, in effect, we're chasing them, but they're not out of sight.

The remarkable streak of Monterey's wins over teams that first play SF State — MB's travel partner — continues. The Otter/Gator tag team has one more game to make it a perfect season — SF State goes into San Bernardino Friday, followed by Monterey on Sunday.

No one's watching SFSU's and CSUMB's games at Dominguez Hills and San Bernardino more closely than Sonoma State. CSUSB and CSUDH have the #7 and #8 playoff spots, one game ahead of the Seawolves.

SF State won 66-58 at Hayward. It was 59-57 with 1:40 to play. The Gators made their free throws.

UC Santa Barbara 55, Cal State Fullerton 43

Very big win for UCSB, tying CSF for 5th in the Big West while winning the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The Gauchos set a school record by blocking 15 shots. When I heard that news, I thought "14 by Valentine, plus one by someone else?". Mekia Valentine, 3rd in Division I in blocks, had nine.

This has been the year of the blocked shot in women's college basketball. Seemingly every night, Valentine, Lou Tomlinson at St. Mary's, Brittney Griner at Baylor, or Allyssa DeHaan at Michigan State is doing something noteworthy in shotblocking.

The 6-4 Tomlinson gets her blocks for having very long arms. Shooters get too close, then they can't get their shots over Lou's hands. Valentine is more athletic, getting some of her blocks by leaping at them.

The NBA comparisons are Tomlinson-to-Mark Eaton, the 7-4 guy who never left his feet, and Valentine-to-many. Most shotblocks in the men's game come from the weak side. According to tall people who know, it's easier to time your jump when the shooter is moving toward you and the basket than it is when the shooter is your man right in front of you.

The block I see in the women's game much more often than in men's play is a swat from behind the shooter. Courtney Jacob at Long Beach State specializes in that — if a shooter gets by her at the basket, she has uncanny timing for knocking the ball away from behind. Perhaps there are fewer such opportunities for men because a shooter who gets behind the defense is going to shoot down at the basket instead of up at it.

Nebraska 89, Colorado 73

Kelsey Griffin: 25 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks.

When unranked Nebraska won the Concord Hilton Classic at Thanksgiving to get to 8-0, I said 'watch these Cornhuskers; they'll be a Top 25 team'. They're now 25-0, #3 in the country.

I'd love to see Nebraska and Connecticut reach the championship game as two undefeateds, and then for Nebraska to beat the shit out of them. (When either of them runs into Stanford, I can change my mind.)

San Francisco 58, Santa Clara 52

USF lost 4, beat Pacific, lost 17, beat Santa Clara.

SCU lost 7, beat Pacific, lost 10, beat San Francisco.

Both teams are 1-11 in the WCC. Should they both finish 1-13, I wonder what the tiebreaker is, because the #8 gets Gonzaga — the Bulldogs won this weekend's homestand by 76 points — while the #7 … doesn't get Gonzaga.

I wanted to go to that game at 7 p.m., but the 3 p.m. game I attended 90 miles from San Francisco went to two overtimes.

Long Beach St. 87, Pacific 77 (2 OT)

Three Division I games went to two overtimes Saturday: Sam Houston 73, Texas San Antonio 72; Central Michigan 113, Eastern Michigan 107. I wear a jersey from one of those four schools — which one and why?

On Wednesday, the Long Beach St. 49ers got on a plane for northern California. The Niners were in 4th place in the Big West, two games behind #1-2 UC Davis, five games in front of #8-9 Pacific. LBSU was probably thinking 2-0 would be great, 0-2 wouldn't be a disaster (because they'd still be #4), while 1-1 would be a reasonable road trip.

I think LBSU should now be thinking that 1-1 under these circumstances was a *very good* road trip, considering that they got the best UC Davis and Pacific could dish out. UCD played their best game of the year Thursday against LBSU — starting 22-2, stretching the lead to 39 — to break out of a malaise.

UOP also played their best game of the year against LBSU.

I believe that Pacific was better in a loss Saturday than they were in two notable wins — while pressing St. Mary's into 38 turnovers, or the incredible night shooting 15-of-22 treys against UC Davis. St. Mary's was very much prone to turnovers. Shooting 15-of-22 treys is great, but it's not something a team can count on every night.

On the other hand, taking care of the ball and sharing it will serve a team in every game. Those are two things the Pacific Tigers have not done well, but against Long Beach St., it looked like they're getting it. The offense is coming around. The defense is coming around. Best of all, in the second half while LBSU was putting together a run to go ahead by eight or nine, I recognized the signs of a young Pacific team unraveling — one and done after an ill-advised shot, careless ballhandling, frustrated fouls — but whereas they would've folded earlier in the season, Pacific stayed together until Long Beach showed some strain, and then they climbed all the way back. In the first overtime, a bad team would've quit, as if to say "we did enough to come back in regulation", but they did not, and how big was senior Jasmine Dana's trey to answer all-conference Karina Figueroa's trey at the end of the OT?

Before the game, a Pacific SID asked me for a prediction. I said I didn't know; Long Beach is good, and I never know what to expect from Pacific. I was so encouraged by their play in the first half that when Coach Davis's wife — Mrs. Coach Davis is also a basketball coach — asked if I thought the team would get it together sufficiently to reach the tournament, I said I thought they could win a game there, given how close teams 5-8 are. She suggested there would be some irony in this year's team winning a tournament game after the other Roberts teams could not. (At the moment, UC Santa Barbara is #5 — do you believe in hexes?)

frdelrosario @ 2010-02-20T02:09:00

2010-02-20T10:09:21Z

UC San Diego beat host San Francisco State 58-50 Friday.

The Tritons — the #11 team in Division II and the leaders in the Calif. Collegiate Athletic Association — trailed 26-22 at half, but scored the first nine points of the second and held on. SF State ended a six-game winning streak, but remain tied for 6th in the CCAA.

***

San Francisco State hasn't had a winning season in more than 20 years. If the Gators win two of their last three, they'll finish 15-15, with the postseason tournament to come.

They are really close to being a good team. Yeah, comparisons like this one are mostly meaningless, but here: SF State held UC San Diego to 58, while Stanford kept them to 55.

Right, San Francisco State and Stanford in the same breath.

But while SF State scored 50 against UC San Diego's 58, Stanford got 107 against UCSD's 55.

The Cardinal had a bunch of kids making baskets, but SFSU couldn't get a basket when they needed one most. Trailing by one point, 47-46, with 5:30 to go, SFSU had two possessions to make the go-ahead bucket, but missed both. At 2:30, SFSU was behind 52-50, but missed the front end of a one-and-one.

So the Gators were inches from extending the streak to seven while knocking off the #11 team in the country, but they're not there yet. They'll have to find that extra inch and that critical basket by playoff time — they're going to lose three seniors. Donisha Tate averages 12 points and 12 rebounds. Jessica Hout-Freeman leads SFSU in assists and steals. If "defensive reliability" were a measurable statistic, Andrea Ohlssen leads the Gators there.

I can't wait to see the score from Saturday's UC San Diego at Cal State Monterey Bay game.

The CSUMB Otters clinched their first playoff berth ever by beating CSU Hayward (Hayward is my hometown, Cal State Hayward was the first basketball team I ever cared about; the Pioneers will never be "Cal State East Bay" to me). Their quirky little record against teams who just played SFSU is 7-0. If Renee Jimenez's team whacks the #1 Tritons Saturday, you must believe there is something to this — SF State is #4 in the country in field goal defense; they're a bunch of bothersome individual defenders who sometimes get together for excellent team defense. They wear teams down. I'm not discrediting the Otters, but they are clearly deriving some benefit from travel partnership with the Gators.

If the season were over, #4 Chico would host #5 Monterey while #3 Humboldt would host #6 SF State. The best thing the Otters could do for me would be to overtake Chico for #4 so they'd be the host team — I'd go 100 miles to the Kelp Bed for that game, but 190 miles to Chico or 310 miles to Arcata, I dunno. Ideally, SF State and Monterey Bay would both win in the first round — if they both advanced to round 2 at Humboldt, I could travel. (Wouldn't Humboldt be pissed if they got upset in rd. 1, and then had to host three rounds of a playoff tournament they weren't in?)

***

Pregame

I can't stand to miss an opening tip — I feel like I'll never get the rhythm of a game. I prefer to arrive 90 minutes before the opening tip, lending time to review notes, ensure connectivity, spread lies, and so on.

Therefore, if considerable automobile traffic goes between me and the gym, I'll often start the trip five hours before game time.

Occasionally this means having to kill some time, so I know many bookstores, libraries, and coffee shops. There's a megachain bookstore in the Stonestown Galleria around the corner from San Francisco State.

When I was a little kid, my aunts — who were teenaged girls — used to make a big fuss about visiting the Stonestown Mall. My mother probably has a picture of me sitting in a Stonestown Santa's lap, wearing a yellow shirt covered in blood because my nose erupted on the way. If sketchysantas.com has a page for scary-looking kids, there I'd be.

So this typically mall has some mythical place inside my brain, and I'm sitting here now because it's too early to go to SF State. (The Gators have not beaten UC San Diego while Joaquin Wallace has been coach — a win tonight would extend SFSU's six-game streak, and go a long way toward ensuring a place for them in the postseason.)

Look how much my life in San Francisco hasn't changed. I'm sitting at the Stonestown Galleria with a damaged nose and no idea what to do with my life, while the country is embroiled in an irrational war and the Zodiac is still at large.

That mall Santa was probably the Zodiac, now that I think about it.

frdelrosario @ 2010-02-19T11:02:00

2010-02-19T19:02:43Z

If:

Cal Poly goes 2-2 (Mustangs have three road games) ; and

UC Davis also goes 2-2, losing road games to Long Beach and Riverside, winning at home; and

UC Riverside goes 2-1 (beating UCD plus UOP, losing to LBSU); and

Long Beach runs the table (sweeping Pacific, beating UCD at home and Riverside at UCR); then

Four teams finish 11-5.