Quick plug for San Antonio

I spent Wednesday in San Antonio, where the women’s basketball world will return in April for the Final Four. For those who haven’t been in the Alamo City lately, the Riverwalk has expanded north, up past the San Antonio Museum of Art.

There’s not that much in the way of shops/restaurants yet developed only the newest stretch, which is called the Museum Reach and had its grand opening in May. But I like it this way, actually. It’s pretty with some different artistic touches, such as large, colorful “fish” models that hang from the overpass that crosses the Riverwalk. There is also a lock and dam complex, which is cool to watch.

If you’ve never been to the Women’s Final Four but have always wanted to go, I would highly recommend coming this season. Not everyone likes basketball in a dome – the games will be at the Alamodome  - but thanks to the Riverwalk, the city’s expertise in handling events, and the nice spring weather (much appreciated after a long winter), it’s hard to beat San Antonio as a destination spot.

Texas teams take back seat at event

Not a good night in San Antonio for the Lone Star State teams. I wrote about the UConn-Tennessee now-phantom rivalry for ESPN.com, a topic that will no doubt irritate some folks.

I’ve written about a million stories that don’t involve UConn or Tennessee over the last 13 seasons for ESPN.com … but some people still insist I don’t write about anything except the Huskies and the Vols. All I can say to that is it’s not my doing that those two programs have combined to win 14 NCAA titles in the last 22 years.

You write a lot about who wins a lot – and they’ve both won a lot.

That said, what about the Raiders, who fell 91-53 to Tennessee, and the Longhorns, who lost 83-58 to UConn? Both programs looked overmatched by their respective opponents.

As for Texas Tech, it’s a program that for many years was one of the elites but has crash-landed and will take a while to get rebuilt. Marsha Sharp left after the 2006 season, and Kristy Curry seemed a pretty good fit coming from Purdue. But Tech has lost its mojo, to say the least.

I think most Tech fans could have lived with the idea of losing some ground in recent years. Especially as new coaches/recruiters moved in to take over programs such as Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State.

But what’s driven Tech fans to real despair is the notion that they have lost a lot of ground – and that that process happened much more quickly than the process of getting it back will. Tech has such a great, loyal fan base for women’s basketball, but a lot of them never warmed to Curry and the disappointing results have cooled their enthusiasm for the program even more.

“We’ve got 10 freshman and sophomores,” Curry said. “And we’re trying to get the wheels back on the bus one wheel at a time.”

Which may not be the most comforting analogy, since the bus can’t really go anywhere until it has all its wheels.

It’s an overreaction to judge Tech based on a loss to a team like Tennessee. However, Tech did also lose an exhibition to Lubbock Christian of the NAIA. Sure, it was only an exhibition, and Lubbock Christian is a good team at its level. But Tech simply can’t lose games like that, even if they don’t officially “count.”

Meanwhile, I think Texas fans might have thought that Gail Goestenkors could bring a magic wand to Austin. This is Goestenkors’ third season, and her Longhorns showed a few instances of spark against the Huskies. But the process there also takes time.

I love this Lucy

Just a brief respite from the start of basketball season …

On this day 57 years ago, Lucy first pulled the football away from Charlie Brown in the “Peanuts” comic strip. That was Nov. 16, 1952; Lucille van Pelt had been “born” into the strip as a fussy, demanding baby earlier that year, in March. She quickly sprouted into the bossy, sarcastic 8-year-old that we all know and love.

At least … I love her. Lucy has always been my favorite “Peanuts” character. I recognize this may not be, um, the popularly-held opinion.

Well, that didn’t take long

Mel Jackson, my editor at ESPN.com, cheerfully pointed out the season is only a day old, yet “Vojo” has already struck once. Friday morning, she posted my story on Michigan State and the Spartans’ hopes to build on the success of last season.

Friday evening, in its season-opener, No. 10 Michigan State lost 77-74 at Dayton.

Vojo is a disturbing supernatural phenomenon in which a team or person I write about has something bad happen soon after the story is published … rendering the story largely lame. Vojo has ended several winning streaks and even caused ACL and Achilles’ tendon injuries.

Unfortunately, I not only can’t stop Vojo, I can’t even hope to contain it. Sorry, Spartans. I’m afraid you are this season’s first victim.

Much musing on the idea of self-promotion

It used to be something that seemed, well … kind of gauche. Or at least it was to me and most other writers I knew. We’d never say, “Oh, by the way, did you read that story I wrote?”

We’d roll our eyes at those writers who might have done that. Self-promotion was almost seen as a character flaw. We were writers, not salespeople. Hey, the story was published. If it was good enough and people were interested, they would find it. Maybe somebody who liked it would pass it on – by word of mouth or, as technology advanced, by e-mail or message boards. That was OK … but we weren’t going to beat our own drums.

Wow, how stupid were we?

As the profession of journalism continues its collapse along with so much of the rest of the economy, we have had to totally change views on that. Now, I write things and often post links to them right away on Facebook and Twitter. At first, it made me really uncomfortable. Then I realized everybody was doing it.

I say all that as a way to launch into the multi-tentacled issue of women’s basketball programs doing their own self-promotion.

On the dotted line

Ah, the first day of the fall signing period …

Look, there’s nothing wrong at all with getting excited about the potential newcomers to your program if you’re a fan. But I have to admit I’ve never been that jazzed about signing day … I guess because I’m not a fan. But also because it’s all speculation.

Many paths led to this basketball game

Ruth Riley and Jackie Stiles both competed in the 2001 Final Four, but they were friends before that. They met playing USA Basketball where they were roommates, and hit it off right away. They could tease each other about who came from the smaller town. Riley grew up in Macy, Ind., and Stiles in Claflin, Kan.

“We still don’t have a stoplight,” Stiles said recently as she sat in a locker room at a gymnasium in Coldwater, Kan.

Claflin, which is right in the geographic  center  of the Sunflower State, would strike you as rural, of course, but … the area of Kansas where Stiles and Riley were last week was truly deserving of the description “in the middle of nowhere.”

Murder in Russia shakes women’s hoops world

A few years back, I was discussing overseas women’s hoops with someone very familiar with international basketball. I asked her if the players who competed in Russia, especially, knew how their team owners had amassed their wealth.

“The question,” she said wryly, “is whether they want to know. And the answer is no. They don’t want to know.”

But one of these days, I suggested, this could come to a bad end, couldn’t it? Of course, she said, and it probably will.

Starting to get busy here

  A lot going on today, but that’s good. I’ll soon be talking with Kathy Betty, head of the new Dream ownership group, and will have a story on ESPN.com.

  Also today, though, I head out toward Western Kansas for an event called the WEPAC Hoops for Hope charity basketball game. Former players from the likes of Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri State, Iowa and Nebraska will be teaming with high school players in a game that is raising money for the WEPAC Alliance, a foundation that pays for cancer-preventative care for women in five small Kansas communities (Wilmore, Englewood,Protection, Ashland, and Coldwater.) The other 10 percent of the proceeds will go to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.  

  The game is from 8:30-10:30 Central time on Friday night, with Fox Sports Midwest airing it in the states of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.

  My friends Brenda VanLengen and Patti Phillips and I are driving out to Ashland, Kan., where the game will be held. Brenda and Patti will handle the broadcast duties for FSN Midwest.

   One current WNBA player, San Antonio’s Ruth Riley, is involved as is former WNBA legend Cynthia Cooper, now coach at Prairie View A&M, and all-time NCAA scoring leader Jackie Stiles.

 More info on the event can be found at:  www.wepacthehouse.org. I’ll be writing a story about it for The Kansas City Star and will have more on it here at this blog, too.

Don’t look, but here’s my ballot

    I told you not to look!

  You know that goofy and annoying Carfax commercial, where the customer wants to see the a vehicle’s history report, but the nervous sales guy gets out a hand puppet as a lame form of distraction? 

  ”You want to see the Car Fox?” he says, ridiculously.

  OK, yes, it is really stupid. But that’s not going to keep me from stealing from it as I try to tell you what I sent in this week to the Associated Press. It’s my ballot for …  uh …