The Marist College Women's Red Foxes (7) are playing LSU (2) tonight in Baton Rouge. This is going to be a tough one. Marist has dominated the MAAC this year (32-2 overall) but this is....LSU. Of course, they can't think that when they're playing. I would, but then again, I don't play Div. I ball. LSU has the Southeastern Conference player of the year, Sylvia Fowles. She's big and big. Did I mention she's big?
LSU's coach Van Chancellor called Marist "the best defensive basketball team I've ever seen." That's high praise and I'm not arguing. (They remind me of my youth team, who, did I tell you lost to the first place team in the playoffs by only three points?!! We held them to their lowest offensive effort all season - 19 points! It would've been like Giants vs. Patriots! We ended up third in defensive stats, holding our opponents to low scores all season long. But enough about us...back to Marist...)
My daughter is rooting for Rachele Fitz (same name) and Nikki Flores because she's short and she's good. I'm rooting for a homegrown favorite, Julianne Viani. She's got an evil-good 3-point shot and she went to high school here in town. She was also coached by the Marist coach, Brian Giorgis in high school. They go way back.
My paper's writer covering the Red Foxes, Sean T. McMann said Marist is ranked 22nd in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today national polls and they have longest winning streak in the country at 22 wins.
Marist is fun to watch. The ESPN announcers are calling them "spunky." That's not the right word...it should be "tenacious." I've never seen them get rattled, even when they're down. They had an amazing second half comeback against DePaul on Saturday to get them to this round. They play their game and they're patient, patient and more patient.
Both teams have a ton of key, high-scoring seniors playing. This is going to be an intense game for both the Red Foxes and the LSU Tigers. I've already seen a few rejections by LSU and it's very physical. LSU is forcing turnovers which is quite unlike Marist. They typically have great ball control They're keeping Marist outside, but that's not necessarily a disaster for Marist with a Julianne Viani in the game.
Going into the half, Marist is only down by two...a nail-biter!
Holy cow, that's a lot of points. Meg Dahlman is the 13th player in Marist College history to hit the mark, according to this brief in my hometown newspaper. She scored most of them in her last three years as a Marist starter.
To put this in perspective, when I played basketball in middle & high school, I scored 43 points. It took three years to get 43 points. 43...1,000. Uma...Oprah.
Congrats Meg!
And congrats to the Marist women's team. They're having a fine season at 13-2, playing Loyola tonight. The Marist coach, Brian Giorgis will be profiled on MSG's Aeropostale College Basketball Weekly this Sunday.
I'm taking my girls team to see Marist on Friday, Jan. 25th to see them play Sienna. First 1,000 fans get t-shirts! Of course, on the girls, they'll be huge...they can wear them as pajamas, maybe. = )
Marist’s Cinderella dream ended yesterday in Dayton, at the hands of the Pat Summitt and the Tennessee Volunteers. That’s what the folks on TV said, the fairytale ended too soon.
But maybe for this 2007 Marist squad, the fairytale wasn’t about the charming princes, and glass slippers and whites horses riding off into the Cleveland sunset. Maybe it was just about getting to the big dance at all. Maybe it was about the little team of mice behind the scenes, pitching in, working together, cheering them on, getting the details right.
Maybe it was about a magical horse of Lourdes leading the charge and an enchanted pumpkin ride to the big dance in Dayton, avec fans and a police escort.
Perhaps it was about a whole team of princesses stitching up all their best stuff, playing as one, getting their chores done and working hard day after day and earning the right to go. About getting out on that dance floor and showing the world your moves.
That’s what Marist did and they should be proud of it. “The End” came at the round of 16 for this Marist team this year but they still have the happy ending.
As it is for most women athletes, the last game of their senior year means the last game of their highly competitive career. For most, they’ll move on with their careers and life and basketball, the only thing on their minds this week, will take a backseat.
For the players, whatever trophies and awards the 2007 season brought will likely secure a special place on the family mantle, not too far from their first childhood trophies. But the experience and memory of this 2007 NCAA journey will rest in a place deep within their hearts. It will be the season of childhood dreams fulfilled, of, at the very least, the Sweet Sixteen, but so much, much more.
Congratulations to the Marist College women's basketball team for all their achievements this year.
Wowsa. Marist is coming out on fire, shooting in the paint, six straight points. It looked pretty good there for the opening minutes. Tenn. has dropped back from the press to get back on D, but they're still an offensive threat. Might help if one of their players missed an outside shot once in awhile. Sigh.
It's 51-31 with 12:32 left. They're getting the ball into Marist freshman Rachele Fitz on the right side and she's sinking them.
Twenty points down...they're going to need some fantastic shooting to catch up or some insta-height or insta-steals. Something.
In mere minutes, I will be able to tune into my favorite channel on TV, ESPN (oops, sorry FoxSports...you're second, I swear) for the Marist College (13) women's basketball game against Tennessee (1). The numbers are worn off my remote, of course, but I'll hit the 3 and then the 6 and bam, they'll be right there on my TV.
Marist College is twelve miles from my house. I get stuck in their pedestrian traffic every day on the way home from work (world record: 8 minutes to go 1/4 mile through 3 traffic lights...woo!). If they win today, could some excited and very rich booster please donate money to build an elevated pedestrian bridge to the college in honor of the women's team? Please?
Marist is the college that got the most ink when I was going to the local community college a few miles east of Marist. They always seemed bigger, even before they were Div. I. Now they're the "tiny" school from Poughkeepsie, NY. The Cinderella story of the tourney. They've got three pages in the today's sports section and infinitely more coverage on TV and the Web. I'm hoping they can shed the pressure of the limelight and play their game against tough Tennessee. I hope nobody looks directly at Coach Summitt...she can be scary! lol.
My (sage) advice as a coach who just came off a championship victory (shameless self-promotion), play your game, forget the crowd (what crowd?), take your time and have fun. Hey, you don't get to the top (out of four teams) of the 7 & 8-year old girls league without this kind of insight, ya know?
I'd link you to FoxSports' coverage, previews or in depth analysis of the game, but, alas, there is none. (BOO!!) (And where are the clickable brackets?!!!!) (Correction: here are head-to-head stats I just found...my bad, Fox.)
Oh! They just threw it to the sports desk to talk about the women's tourney! They're talking Duke but any minute, they'll be getting excited about Marist again! "David and Goliath" they said about Marist and Tennessee. I'll write about the game in comments...
Check out links for the best regional coverage from my fav. local writers here.
Congratulations to the Marist College Women's basketball team! Marist College advances to the Sweet Sixteen! Sweet Sixteen, let me introduce Marist College from Poughkeepsie, New York. That's Poughkeepsie, P..O..U...G....H...
They totally shut down Middle Tenn.'s leading scorer and, it appears, the rest of Tenn's other offense. With a final score of 73-59, they completely dominated Middle Tennessee, taking advantage of their mistakes and keeping their shooters off-balance and on the run.
My 8-year old daughter said, "Maybe I can go to Marist and be a point guard...well, unless Melanie goes there because she's a better dribbler, but I did score the first basket in the championship game, but she is a better dribbler...and she does that layup thing, which knee goes up on the layup again? ....Maybe she can get a big scholarship and I can get a little one............................(this went on for some time...through commercial......)...and they have fashion classes...I love fashion.........I could play basketball AND do fashion............."
I never heard "Poughkeepsie" said so many times in one hour. The ESPN analysts gave high praise to this Marist squad, led by senior point guard, Alisa Kresge who is all about the assist. Maybe she should change her name to Assista Kresge. Maybe I should just go to bed... ;-)
They're a fun team to watch. It's like Zen and the Art of Waiting for Your Shot. They never forced the shot...like to the point where I was thinking, shoot already. But it worked for them, so that's why I coach 8-year olds and Brian Giorgis coaches the newest lowest seed (lucky 13) to ever advance to the Sweet Sixteen...Marist College. Good luck, Marist!
My hometown favorite, Marist College is playing tonight at 8pm on ESPN2. They beat Ohio State to reach the second round of Women's NCAA Championship play. One of their star players, Julianne Viani, is also homegrown, a graduate of Our Lady of Lourdes High School, where she was coached by her current Marist coach, Brian Giorgis. It's so weird to know most of their names and see them on ESPN. Ah, fame.
They're getting some nice coverage from the win... and some Tennesee fans are even posting comments on our local paper. Nice comments even. Like...no trash-talking. I like you, Tennesee...you're a long, thin, parallelogram-like state, but you're nice. Just be prepared for the smackdown tonight...no offense.
It's funny to read stories on FoxSports, NY Times and others, where the writers have to say something like Marist College, located in ...Poughkeepsie, NY... You could almost hear them saying, "Where the heck is Poughkeepsie??" lol
Here it is, in case you were wondering...I work two miles north of there. That's the (majestic) Hudson River to the west of campus.
Marist played a very physical game against Ohio State in the first round and came out on top. I am also told by our local writer covering the games, Sean T. McMann, that Marist has the lowest turnovers per game of any team in the country. This is the biggest game in Marist history...since the days of Rik Smits back in the lat 80's. Rock on, Marist sistas.
I'm going to watch it with my (Championship-winning) 8-year old daughter. If they start to lose, I'm turning the channel. I can't be held responsible if my bad luck on picking the men's winners crosses over to the women's side. I can only take so much, ya know.
p.s. Why can't I find an interactive Women's bracket? Why is it only availabe as a .pdf??
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing. - George Bernard Shaw
I did something, Mr. Shaw, I lost BIG.
The bottom I am referring to, of course, is the bottom of the SoCal's FoxBloggers NCAA bracket challenge. Bottom. The. Bottom.
But you know what? Last isn't so bad. So I only got 19/48 picks right. So what if my highest possible points (370) is 1,100 points below the next closest person. Could be a computer glitch...but even if it's not...it's OK. I've come to terms with being on the bottom.
I'm used to it, really, the bottom. I'm only 5'4"...most things require me to look up to see them. High shelves in cabinets...fellow volleyball players...the volleyball net...soon, I'll have to look up to see my son, he's growing so quickly.
It's OK though...I've adapted to a life on the bottom...through some kind of Darwinian-based environmental-adapting anomaly, I've developed extra super strong muscles in my neck to look up at everything that's so very high above me.
Being so close to the ground, I can appreciate the little things down here...ants, flowers...so many tails-up pennies, three-leaf clovers, my feet...my bracket points. Good things come in small, numerically insignificant packages, right?
I'm shooting for the moon here in the NCAA Bracket Challenge. I'm determined to be dead last, even though there's no prize for it. I'm sure they'll eventually create some sort of First Round Draft Pick for the losers...some extra bonus for being LAST. Something. I just need Memphis to lose, then I think I'm dead last.
I mean, c'mon...my "Global Ranking" is 259,860 of 314,209. That's like...AWFUL! Rotten! Pathetic! Pitiful!! You know how hard it is to be that wrong that consistently? Darn hard. Without me, you'd be one step closer to the bottom...I mean, what do you step on first to move up the ladder? The bottom rung! I'm it! Woo...hoo? Wipe your feet and tread lightly, please.
Good luck all you 47 other bloggers in the bracket, and a special thanks to AK47Spiderman for entering but not making picks. You saved me from being 49th out of 49. Fourty-eight, baby, 48 and looking up.
What on earth happened to my teams?!!! DUKE!! What happened to ya! Exciting finish anyway but YOU'RE supposed to be the one who WINS. Coach K called it a butt kicking...is a two point loss a butt kicking? I don't think so. I didn't see the whole game, however.
I guess I'm in last place (AGAIN!) but not technically since there is a name below me...but AKSpiderman didn't actually make any picks. Thanks for that, Spidey.
*Sniffle*
OK next time I'll actually study the teams before I pick! Or just pick the opposite of whoever I feel I should pick.
Go....um...Albany?
When I joined the bracket, I logged on wrong, inadvertently starting my own bracket challenge. I didn't even finish my picks. It turns out that 290 other people are now in my bracket...where I won't win AGAIN!
Did you know if you win this whole she####, you win a flat screen TV? I would've tried harder. Darnit.
Despite my poor showing (and eventual quitting) during last year's NFL Pick 'Em, I decided once again to, well, have another public poor showing at picking sports winners. This time, it's NCAA Tourney time! Yes, it's March and yes, I'm mad!
Why mad? How about ...I picked Albany (alma mater) to be in the Elite Eight...ALBANY. That's like...upstate NY. Nobody wins from upstate. I give you the Buffalo Bills. See also...ummm...See? Nobody else up there to win, even if they could.
Arizona, Gonzaga, Boston College and yes, Memphis. That's my four. That's what I'm standing by.
Why Gonzaga, you ask? Well, it's very scientific...I simply like saying it. Gonnnnnzaaagaaaa! I picture the guy who announces the boxing to say it...are you ready to win, Gonzaaagaaaaaaa!!! Brilliant name. A winner. You pick horses by their names, why not basketball teams? Wait a moment...this just in, you should never pick horses by their names if you expect to win. Oh. Nevermind.
Boston? Well, I was making plans for St. Patrick's Day while making my picks..so, natural pick there. Although, maybe I should have excluded them on principle for that whole dismissal of the bad students thing...but whatever. Besides, nobody on the planet has picked Boston, so I will. Plus maybe it's that whole "Boston is good because they hate the Yankees, too" -thing, since I'm a Mets fan.
Memphis...c'mon...wouldn't it be fun to see Memphis win? I don't know why...I just have never heard of any other sports coming out of Tennesee except the Titans...so Memphis is it.
Arizona...on fire at the end there...hoping it will continue. And nobody else has picked them. Woo!
I sense a smackdown in my future...
Many thanks for SoCal for giving me something to blog about and for another opportunity to show my complete ineptitude in all things sports-analytical. Thanks, SoCal. Thanks, a lot.
Kiddie hoops: My daughter's 7&8 year old basketball team is in the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME tomorrow. Oooh...aaaah...ooooh...aaaah. March Madness indeed.
Yes, I happen to be the coach. What's more exciting than the game itself, is that the teams of the only two women coaches in the whole girls league (7-16 yr olds) are in the finals! Woo! Me and the other new woman coach. I think this is huge for our league. If you met some of the men in this league, you'd think it was huge too.
The coach of the team we beat said, "Well you get to play those magpies next week...caw, caw, caw, that's all they do all game..." Then he walked away. I said to another coach, a man, the asst. director, "What does he say about me when I'm not around?" He said, "Uh, you don't want to know." Ooook. Well, guess who's in the big show magpie-hater man? Uh, not you. lol, Ahem. Ah, maturity.
My women's soccer league: Boy I suck at soccer. And today I can't walk. Ow. Last night I made an amazing turn and went around a player...only to have it stolen by someone else, but it was a good moment. Totally looked like I knew what I was doing.
Baseball:
Woohoo! I saw the first glimpses of spring training ball last night on ESPN. Wow that grass looks green. Wow, Beltran's swing looks sweet. Yes! They beat the Cards. Ah...spring.
That Other March Madness:
I try to get excited about college hoops but I just haven't felt it yet. I have trouble even filling out the bracket-thingie. lol...how lame am I? It's not that I don't get it, it's just too damn long. Sixty-four is too many teams! Just show me the final eight and I'll pick em.
We went to the 1993 Final Four with hubbie and two friends in New Orleans. That's madness. 24-hour drive from NY, 23 of which I drove. We stayed in the closest/cheapest hotel we could find... waaaaaaaaay across the Pontchatrain Bridge, which was, like much of N.O., damaged in Katrina.
A great time. It was the game when Chris Webber called timeout when they had none to take...sorry, Chris! Technical foul. We didn't even know what happened inside the Superdome. It was so noisy and happened so fast...it wasn't until a person with a transistor radio told us that we understood. A crazy finish.
We met Jim Plunkett at a bar and we took a picture together. Of couse, I had no idea who he was when I saw him. My friend nearly threw me at him...go take a picture with that guy, he's famous. I tried to pretend I watched him, but I didn't have a clue. Kinda cool, anyway.
After tomorrow's game maybe I'll get revved up about big hoops madness. Right now, I have to draw on my little basketball chart clipboard thingie like all the good coaches do...if only I could find the damn pen....
Kudos:
To my editor friend, Jim Sheahan, for winning a National Associated Press Sports Editors' writing award for breaking news. Congrats & rock on, Jim! You deserve it! Jim, of course, is the oft-mentioned editor who passed me off to the family/healthy living editor who then gave me many writing assignments and thereby putting me on the road to fame, fortune and an eventual multi-million dollar book deal.
Sports doesn't have to be all numbers and stats and testosterone! I'll share a slightly different angle on sports.
I'm a mom in New York. Go Mets, Jets, Knicks and Rangers.
