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Whitlock claims in his recent tome "Give Women the Chance to Succeed" that the women's collegiate game faces too much competition from the men's game during March Madness. He proposes that the women start their season in December and wind up in April so that their tournament can gather national attention in its own right. He claims such a move would allow the women's game to flourish apart from the shadow of the men's game. I agree with this proposal. It's reasonable, economically feasible, and politically do-able. Several years ago the president of YBOA noticed an article I'd written about YBOA's failings. He sent me an email asking for ideas of improvement. One of my suggestions was that YBOA move it's national championships (for the younger age groups) away from direct competition with AAU. I suggested that YBOA hold national championships for the 9U-13U age groups during the week after Christmas. That, too, was an excellent idea. Think of it. No other for-profit sporting organization holds a youth championship then. It doesn't conflict with high school ball because the kid involved aren't in high school. The event is held in Florida; who doesn't want to come to Florida in December? Serious AAU teams would show up--some from out west and some from up north. (Right now, YBOA only gets fifth string teams from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. It is the Peach State Hoops of travel basketball). It would make YBOA a credible force in travel basketball instead of the no-name, backwater Kallina it currently is. Did they heed my suggestion? No. They didn't. And that's why YBOA still sucks. Whitlock makes a similar suggestion to NCAA. Although the women's game is doing OK, it still plays to half-filled auditoriums and niche markets. We'll be attending Saturday's Sweet 16 matchup between Vandy and Maryland and don't anticipate any trouble getting tickets. Jordan's "let these people in for free" list is seemingly open-ended. Whitlock goes further by suggesting that the field of teams be reduced to 32 and that the teams play a 2 out of 3 series for the quarterfinals, semis and finals. Not sure I agree with that one. For sheer drama, you can't beat one-and-done. Whitlock is obviously speaking from the perspective of a person who doesn't have a dog in the fight--the common fan. For those of us who have fighting dogs, the whole world boils down to the next game. It's the biggest thing in the world. But for casual fans who seek more thrills in April apart from Tiger in Augusta or the early rounds of the NBA playoffs, a women's basketball championship might just do the trick of filling those arenas. Whitlock points out that legions of casual fans hate the pro game and love college basketball. He posits that an April women's championship would draw those fans. Whitlock makes one more cogent observation:
Can't overlook the drama angle. He might have mentioned the Coleman/Kallina tempest in a teapot that's currently festering in Florida. While not a national issue, it does make women's hoops in Florida more interesting. |
(KB - 03/25/09) Kansas City Star sportswriter Jason Whitlock has accomplished something no other pundit has accomplished. He has put forth an original idea which I think has such merit that it deserves a separate commentary article.
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The Orlando Comets began sending girls off to D1 colleges in 2006. In 2009 seven of the sixty four NCAA teams featured Comets players. That's more than any travel organization in Florida. Thus far, the games have gone pretty much as expected. Alexa Deluzio's Florida State Seminoles(26-7) rumbled past North Carolina A&T on Saturday, 83-71. North Carolina(28-6) had an unexpectedly tough time with Aisha Patrick's UCF Knights but ended up with an 85-80 win. Kansas State trampled Drexel, 68-44. Vanderbilt(25-8) crushed Western Carolina, 73-44. On the second day of competition, Krystal Thomas and the Duke Blue Devils beat Austin Peay, 83-42. The Maryland Terrapins eliminated Jacky Nikic and the Dartmouth Greenwave, 82-53. The Oklahoma Sooners started slowly but rebounded to down Prairie View A&M, 76-47. In the NIT tournament, Wake Forest was eliminated in the first round after losing to Georgetown, 72-61. That leaves four Comets teams in the Round of 32. One of those teams is certain to lose tonite. The Commodores matchup with the Wildcats features two teams with similar styles and capabilities. The 'Cats will try to use their size advantage (six players over six feet tall) to offset the Commodores quickness. When comparing common opponents we see that Kansas State is 1-1 against Iowa State this year. ISU beat Vandy 55-51 back in December. Both the Wildcats and the Commodores have wins over Arkansas this year. Also on Monday, Florida State will take on Arizona State. Tuesday, Duke will take on Michigan State. The most surprising outcome in Sunday's games was Ball State's domination of Tennessee. The Volunteers had never lost a game in the NCAA tourney short of the Sweet 16. But Ball State held them at bay in the first half, then went to town on them after UT center Kelly Cain went down with an injury. This outcome was certainly surprising. Tennessee is loaded to the gills with youthful McDonald's All-Americans. I've seen their freshmen girls play and can't imagine them not being a dominating force. This loss goes to show how talent and coaching sometimes cannot overcome chemistry. Every player on Tennessee's team is a superstar in her own right. But the sum of all these superstars wasn't enough to overcome a confident TEAM of middle-stars. Ball State's Portia Green dominated play in the second half with her speed and fearlessness. How many of you people heard of Portia before yesterday? I'm willing to submit that she never once was ranked by Hoopgurlz or Scout.com. And yet, here she is on the fat end of the whipping stick against Pat Summit. In other games, Florida got past Temple, but for their sins were awarded a date with UConn. The Huskies put up triple digits in their opening round win over Vermont. After starting the season 22-2, the Gators have cooled off some. They've only won 2 of their past 7 games, a record which dropped them to a #8 seed in the NCAA tourney. We've been hearing grumblings from the teams who were bracketed with UConn. A number of those teams--Stanford, Duke, Cal, Texas A&M--feel they could finish higher on the totem pole if not for having to face UConn so early in the brackets. Truly, the Huskies dominance this year is legendary. Even the teams on the opposite side of the brackets feel that a second place finish in St. Louis is the equivalent of a national championship any other year. For my part, of course, I am rooting for Vanderbilt. I've been a closet fan long enough. I went to school at Florida, but for the next four years, at least, I have to root for Vandy. I would like to see the Gators put it on the Huskies. But it ain't gonna happen. I just think the Commodores are playing well right now. I certainly agree with the coaching moves made by Melanie Balcomb. But I'll tell ya....I watched the UT/Ball St. game last night. I think that was a once in a lifetime game for the Cardinals. I think they might have given UConn a run last night, what with the way they were shooting and defending. So you never know. Anyway, I want to point up something that didn't enter into our original calculations for choosing a college. All of this NCAA March Madness stuff is bonus. Honestly, none of this was a factor in choosing a college. But now I can't see how it was left off the list. It's exciting. The tournament has become a huge part of the college experience, both for the families and the players. I went and checked several of Jordan's final choices from last year's recruitment. Memphis? NIT. Georgetown? NIT. Fordham? 1-13 in the A-10. Louisville? A #3 seed in the Raleigh Division. The question is, would it have been more fun to go 1-13 and be a starter as a freshman? Or is it more fun to put in your time on the bench and win most of your games? Being a part of a winning program at a top academic school eases the pain of playing off the bench. Plus it's clear that playing off the bench is a temporary thing. Vanderbilt's offense is so complex that its impossible to learn in a single season. All of the current seniors spent their freshman year on the bench. It's a rite of passage. When choosing a school, don't forget to consider the March Madness angle. I did. I didn't consider this tournament for a single moment. But I've been glued to the tube all weekend. And I wasn't watching the men's tournament, either. It's exciting being able to identify players from all over the nation that we've seen on the AAU circuit. Lynetta Kizer. Whitney Hand. Arrianna Moorer. Emily Clarke. Don't get stuck at East Bumfluck U. if you're good enough to get your grades AND go dancing. |
(KB - 03/23/09) As we'd predicted, tonite's |
(KB - 03/20/09) Well, the Comets are officially in decline. It used to be that EVERY member of the Orlando Sentinel's All-Central Florida first team was also a Comets player. Now that figure is down to 50%. At this rate, pretty soon I won't be able to walk into any church in the area with a beer in my hand. Comets players Cabby Duren, Lindsay Watson and Jenn George were honored as First Team players. Erin Knight and newcomer January Miller made the second team. Yeshira Delgado and Kamari Smith were fourth team honorees.
Duren had an amazing season in which she won two state championships--one in golf and one in basketball. Duren raised her stock in each of her seasons on Lake Howell's varsity basketball team. She truly was the top true point guard in the area, driving Lake Howell's offense like a master tactician. Using the variety of weapons at her disposal, Cabby sliced up defenses with her quick, pinpoint passing. Duren also added a nice mid-range jumper to her offensive arsenal this year. She might have been a POY candidate if not for having to play in the shadow of Gatorade POY Ashley Jones. Duren is set to play golf at South Carolina State in the fall. Lindsay Watson, too, had a sterling season playing point guard for the Bishop Moore Hornets. Watson is more of a scorer than a distributor. She is deceptively quick, though, and is very hard to stop in open court. The Hornets were upset by Titusville Astronaut in the FHSAA 4A championship game. Were it not for that, Lindsay might be celebrating her second Central Florida Player of the Year award. Instead, that honor went to Ashley Jones, who has been piling up the accolades in the off-season. Jones won Gatorade POY, FHSAA 5A POY, Seminole County POY and now this. Jones is also one of four ex-Comets players on this list. The others are Alexis Prince, Tera McDaniel and Shekeyia Colyer. So really, the Comets are well-represented on this list. But since we keep score by where they played in their junior year or where they are currently playing, we didn't count these girls as Comets players. Jenn George rounded out the first team for the Comets. She averaged a double-double this year (14 ppg, 10rpg) and is headed to the University of Florida to play alongside Tailor Jones and Jenn Mossor. Yeshira Delgado was a fourth team selection, but she also was selected as Osceola County Player of the Year. Delgado joined the Comets Red this year. Who was NOT selected? Two names immediately come to mind. Where is Selena Archer? Where is Kasie Parker? I didn't see Archer play this year, but a 6'5" center that's already verballed to Miami certainly cannot NOT be an All-Area selection. Just because her team didn't win a lot of games is no reason to overlook her obvious talent. And overlooking Parker almost smacks of incompetence. One could be persuaded to believe that Kenny Kallina wrote these rankings personally. This is another manifestation of the "Lake Mary Syndrome". Three Lake Howell players are already on the list. In the interest of fairness, the voters won't choose a fourth. (This syndrome dogged the Rams recently when Tailor Jones and Asia Wilson were consistently overlooked for honors that their play had obviously earned simply because three other Lake Mary players were already on the list). In Parker's case, I can honestly say she got ripped. Parker could easily be a first team player and certainly should have been on the second team. She is a scoring machine with the ability to hit the three or slash to the hole. She is also a credible defender. Leaving her off this list is simply wrong, that's all. The Sentinel list of All-Central Florida players contradicts the Metro coaches vote. Last month the high school coaches in the Metro Conference got together and voted freshmen Alexis Prince and January Miller as Metro players of the year. They voted Kaylynn Dinkins to the third team. They ignored Charo Fowler completely. The Sentinel took a more balanced view. Dinkins was voted to the first team (as was proper). Fowler was mentioned as a third team selection. And where the Metro coached voted Alexis Fitts as a first team selection, the Sentinel dropped her to Honorable Mention status. Not sure I agree with that one. Fitts was the most consistent player on a wildly inconsistent Winter Park team. But these polls are just opinion polls. Everybody has their opinions. My opinions just usually happen to be right, that's all. |
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We've got Dartmouth (Jacky Nikic), Kansas State(Jalana Childs), Vanderbilt(Jordan Coleman), UCF (Asia Patrick), Texas A&M(Kelsey Assarian) and Duke(Krystal Thomas)--ALL DANCIN'!!! Additionally, we're tracking Trinity Robinson and Gaati Werema of Prairie View, two GGG players who briefly played in Comets uniforms. Also, we're rooting for Florida's Tailor Jones and Jennifer Mossor from DEBO. And, of course we have to mention UConn's Tiffany Hayes. "Li'l Mama" will probably come out of this tournament with a gold ring. The Huskies ARE just that damn good. We were disappointed that Wake Forest didn't make the field of 64. That would have been two more Comets' players (Brooke Thomas and Brittany Waters) in the field. Wake Forest's great run in the ACC tournament wasn't enough to compensate for the team's eleven losses. The bubble has burst for the Demon Deacons. Still, to have six players who were all in high school two years ago playing at the highest collegiate level is gratifying. Of the above mentioned Comets players, Asia Patrick is the only starter. But that doesn't diminish the excitement we feel when we see our girls on ESPN. For Vandy, every time Jordan checks into a game my phone blows up. Sheesh, it's not like I'm not right there watching. It's not like I'm not still mentally cataloging every assist, steal and rebound. It's not like I'm not still yelling: "O, WHAT WAS THAT!??!!?!!!" after every turnover or mental mistake. Duke's 26-5 record earned a #1 seed in the Berkeley Division. They will open against Austin Peay. Former Comets center is biding her time behind All-American senior center Chante Black, who is having a dominating season. Thomas entered this season coming off knee surgery. Like most Duke players, her junior and senior seasons will provide the exclamation points to her college career. Big 12 runner-up Texas A&M earned a #2 seed in the Trenton Division. High praise indeed, but they are grouped with UConn. Not good news. The Aggies better bring their A-game if they want a seat in St. Louis. Freshman forward Kelsey Assarian is doing about as much at A&M as the other Comets underclassmen. She gets in the game for a few minutes, knocks a few people around, and then defers to the upper classmen. That's what those upper classmen had to do, too, when they were underclassmen. The Aggies open against Evansville. The Vanderbilt Commodores earned a #4 seed largely due to their SEC championship win. Based on their regular season they'd been projected as a #6 seed. The Commodores had several disheartening losses to unranked teams during the regular season, but seemed to hit their stride during the SEC tourney. Vanderbilt outworked and outplayed Georgia, LSU and Auburn over three straight days to earn the SEC championship. Jordan Coleman had her best game of the season in the semi-final against LSU. Coleman is playing behind senior All-American Christina Wirth and, like Krystal Thomas, is looking to have a breakout season after Wirth's graduation. First things first, though. The Commodores open against Western Carolina on Saturday and, if they win, will probably face Jelana Childs and Kansas State for the right to advance to the Sweet 16. This matchup would be the first Comet vs Comet matchup at March madness. The Wildcats would be matching their size and power against Vandy's guile and quickness. The Wildcats have the advantage of playing a team that does not play well on the road. Vandy's only advantage that I can see is their coaching acumen. Melanie Balcomb is a phenomenal precision-based coach. It's when the excellence-of-execution breaks down that the Commodores have problems. They are never going to out-muscle anybody. UCF is a #14 seed in the Oklahoma City Division. After starting the season 2-12, the Golden Knights found their stride and battled back to win the Conference USA title. That's just amazing. I watched the Knights struggle early in the season against FAMU and Wake Forest. No one could have convinced me back in December that the Knights would be dancin'. But they are scheduled to play North Carolina in the first round. That's a tough out. But we'll be rootin' for 'em!! Asia Patrick walked into a situation where she didn't have to play behind any All-American seniors. She has made the most of it. The lightning fast freshman is the engine that stirs the straw in the drink for UCF. Finally, Jacky Nikic is leading the Dartmouth Greenwave into the dance. The Greenwave won the Ivy League crown and earned a #16 seed in the Raleigh Division. They will face Maryland in the opening round. Nikic, too, is struggling for playing time. Jacky had a boating accident last year which has hampered her minutes in the Ivy League. Having to play the ACC champions in the first game isn't going to be pretty, but you sets them up and you knocks them down (in the immortal words of Popeye the Sailor man). We'll be rooting for the Greenwave in that game. The NCAA championship tournament is a by-product of all the work these girls put in during their travel team days with the Comets. First and foremost, of course, is their educational scholarship. But having yet another championship up for grabs? Priceless. |
(KB - 03/17/09) For those of you that are paying attention, the 2009 NCAA Women's Basketball championship Ashley Jones Wins Gatorade Player of Year
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This latest accolade puts Jones up in the pantheon of great Florida players who have adorned themselves with championship bling. Tiffany Hayes and Krystal Thomas are the only other players from Florida with POY, a national championship and at least two state championship rings. Jones will also certainly earn her second Seminole County Player of the Year award as well as first team All-Florida honors. Ashley will attend Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi on a full basketball scholarship. She is one of three Central Florida players who recently signed with SEC schools. Ashley played for the Comets Red team in 2007. She was a part of that formidably deep second team that included Brooke Thomas, Andrea and Andrell Smith and Kelsey Assarian. Yeh, THAT team. It's incredible that they ever lost a game. Last year, as she was primed to start for the Red team and lead them, she abruptly decided to leave the team to play for the Flight. It was a disappointing decision for the team, but probably was the only way for Ashley to win a national championship. The Comets supported her and followed he progress thru the brackets in Augusta last summer. This year Ashley sat out the first three games of the high school season with an illness. Lake Howell lost two of those three games. After Ashley returned to the lineup they never lost another. Jones revved up Lake Howell's fast break with her deadeye three-point shooting and her fierce drives to the hole. The Silver Hawks steamrolled all comers, exacting revenge against teams that had formerly haunted them. They crushed Lake Mary and Winter Haven on the way to the school's first ever girls basketball state championship. Jones will now rest up and prepare for the SEC wars to come. Congratulations, Ashley!!!!
(What's been left unsaid here? How is it that Florida's Gatorade Player of the Year was not voted onto the McDonald's All-America team? Instead, that honor went to Erica Wheeler of Parkway. Ashley's situation is like being named league MVP but not being named to the All-Star game. Hoopgurlz writer Glenn Nelson recently resigned from the McDonald's All-American nominating committee in protest of allegations of vote stuffing and block voting. Many in Florida (including myself) questioned how Bianca Lutley was left off the McDonald's team. Bianca had been generally accorded acclaim as the best 2009 player in Florida. And now this latest voting incident? I'm not saying Ashley doesn't deserve it. After watching Lake Howell play, I clearly think she led the best team in the state and was the best player on the best team in the state. But to be left off the McD's team? Things that make you go "HMMMMMMMM".) |
(KB - 03/15/09) Former Comets guard Ashley Jones has been named Florida's Gatorade Player of the Year. The Lake Howell sharpshooter capped off a sterling season two weeks ago by leading her team to the FHSAA 5A championship over the Nova Titans. Prior to that, Jones won the Nike Nationals championship with the Tennessee Flight. She has not played in a losing basketball game since late last summer.
