January 2008 - Posts
Note: This is just a copy&paste of a post I made on TheSabre, but I wanted it archived here for my own purposes as well.
Someone mentioned below that URI had 19 turnovers at the half. That's true. But the part that was left out of that was that we had 13 steals at the half. So they weren't just throwing the ball away (though they did that plenty as well) - we were taking it from them. (final tally was 27 turnovers for URI with 16 steals for us) The defense was stifling. URI often had trouble getting a shot off before the buzzer and when they did it was usually contested and not an easy shot.
Enonge and Paulisha (3 steals and 5 steals) were two of the main defenders that haunted URI. But really it was a team effort. Aisha had another dominating performance. 15 points, 11 rebounds, 1 steal in 26 minutes of play.
Monica Wright - this is one special ball player. She had 23 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 28 minutes of action, but easily could have had 30 if she had made some easy layups that just didn't fall for her. Sometimes I think she needs to slow down a tad and, after those misses, that appeared to be exactly what she did.
Sharnee broke the 1000 point mark about midway through the first half (she only needed 3 points to reach 1000, she got a 2 pointer at the 10:17 mark and then made a 3 to break 1000 points about 34 seconds later). She finished with 11 points, 6 assists, 2 steals and only one turnover.
Kelly Hartig played. She needs to get her hands more involved (hands up on D, hands ready on O) but it was good to see her back on the court.
Everyone on the team (including the two that didn't play - Jayna and Lyndra) were dressed. I didn't pay attention to see if either participated in warmups, but I don't remember them standing by the side at least.
This team looks very different than the ones I was seeing before Christmas. The defense is playing at a different level (yes, i know it was just URI, but the ladies' intensity and technique was noticeably better). The team appears to be having a lot of fun as well.
That was probably the most complete game I've seen them play all year when they were executing, playing defense and having fun the entire game.
Way to go ladies!
UVA Sports Fanatic (a blogger that I read frequently but somehow didn't make my blogroll... an oversight on my part) has decided to end his 3 year run as a blogger.
Given that he was one of my inspirations to start blogging, this is very sad to see.
I wanted to touch on one of his paragraphs from that farewell letter (emphasis mine):
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that I have been a bit disappointed by the support of UVa fans. In my time as a blogger, my site has been visited by thousands of unique readers, probably more than half of them UVa fans. But, thanks to tracking software, only 150-200 stuck as regular readers. And after interacting as a member of the Rivals network for the past couple years on the Cavs Corner webpage (Chris Wallace and Jamie Oakes do a great job over there), it’s become quite clear to me that many of the stereotypes surrounding UVa fans are true. Maybe that is an indictment of my writing style or ability or my opinions, and I know there are plenty of ardent Wahoo fans out there, but UVa just doesn’t have that collective passion that surrounds many fan bases. And after three years, I realized that I have kind of tapped out my potential reader base and there isn’t much more for me to accomplish in the world of blogdome. I don’t want to hang on too long and lose some of the passion that has fueled me during my stint. I don’t want to go out like Willie Mays - tripping over second base and falling down in the outfield.
Ouch.
I only wish I had enough traffic to do the kind of traffic analysis he comments on here (to be honest, I'm not sure if I have any traffic). But regardless, that's a pretty sad statement.
After my post yesterday about Gibbs's departure having the potential to eliminate pro sports from my life altogether, I read an interesting bit of news today: The Redskins have apparently signed former UVA wide receiver stand-out Billy McMullen. That link is to the post on TheSabre where I first read about this. I can't find another source at the moment.
If he makes the team come fall, is that enough to keep me interested in the pro game?
It probably depends more on who the coach of the 'skins ends up being... after all, I already watch the Steelers (Miller, Farrior), the Seahawks (Kerney), etc. But only in passing...
This is something I haven't seen mentioned that much. While HRC won the vote in N.H. on the democrat side, she didn't actually get any more delegates than Obama did.
The breakdown was more or less like this (unofficial, subject to change):
- Hillary Clinton 39%
- Barack Obama 36%
- John Edwards 17%
- Bill Richardson 5%
- Dennis Kucinich 1%
By my normal math-rounding skills, I see that means that the breakdown of New Hampshire's 22 delegates would go like this:
- Hillary Clinton 8.58 - 9 Delegates
- Barack Obama 7.92 - 8 Delegates
- John Edwards 3.74 - 4 Delegates
- Bill Richardson 1.1 - 1 Delegate
- Dennis Kucinich 0.22 - 0 Delegates
So Clinton gets 9 delegates to Obama's 8, right?
Wrong, apparently. I'm not sure what the rules are on this (and I'm not even sure where to look them up). But, according to MSNBC's breakdown, Bill Richardson's 1 delegate somehow is applied to Barack Obama, leaving Clinton and Obama in a tie in New Hampshire.
Since the delegates are what really matter, Clinton didn't actually win. She and Obama tied.
Interesting...
I stopped paying attention to the redskins around the time Joe Gibbs left the 'skins the first time (though it had nothing to do with his departure).
I picked them up again as a pseudo-favorite (although I still claim a mild hatred for pro sports) when he came back. He was, after all, the coach that led the 'skins to the Super Bowl a couple times while I was a fan.
Now he's gone again.
I guess now I'll have to decide whether I want to keep them as a favorite team, or just jettison professional sports from my life completely...
Apparently during Bill Gates's keynote address at CES this week, they showed a video spoof of his last day at the office. Its completely full of guest stars and really quite a funny video.
I'm going to try to embed it here. We'll see how that goes.
I can't figure out how to embed, so here's the link:
http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080107/bill-gates-last-day-microsoft-video/
This should tell you my thoughts on the game...
A few friends asked me what happened during the Xavier - why were we so terrible.
My reply?
"I don't know. I turned it off and watched the VT game."
I never stop watching a UVA sporting event early unless I have to leave for some reason. It was that painful to watch.
People have asked me why I haven't posted much anything about the Gator Bowl. I just really haven't had much to say.
We played very well. We still lost. Bummer.
Another Sewell injury where, if he hadn't been injured, I fully believe we win the game (same thing happened when I traveled to Raleigh this year).
Jacksonville was nice. I had a great experience down there (went down Saturday, came back Wednesday).
That's about it. Painful way to end the season, but we really did play a pretty damn good game.