Low times in Lubbock

The first time I went to a women’s basketball game at Texas Tech, I took a cab from the hotel. The cabbie was listening to the pregame show on the radio and, of course, knew exactly when tipoff was. Didn’t everybody in Lubbock know that?

For a long, long time, opposing teams felt about visiting Texas Tech the way you might feel about visiting a faulty nuclear power plant.

“Um, really? We have to go in there? We HAVE to? Uggggghhhh.”

Because playing at Texas Tech was brutal for opponents. The crowd – at Lubbock Municipal Coliseum and then United Spirit Arena – was huge and loud and energetic. The fans created one of the best atmospheres in the country for women’s basketball. They were an enormous part of the reason that recruits wanted to come to Texas Tech.

There was a feeling for foes when they walked in that they weren’t just playing Texas Tech’s basketball team. They were facing Texas Tech Nation – several thousand red-and-black clad fans who would whoop and holler and shoot their imaginary “guns” and, typically, wear down or take the heart right out of the visitors.

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Let’s wrap it up: SEC grind-it-out style

Didn’t you see this coming? Georgia defeats Tennessee on Thursday, which is always a big deal but … if you’ve followed the SEC even for a little while, you sensed trouble for the Dogs coming up. They had Mississippi up next, on Sunday, with the Rebs having won four in four and seven of their last eight.

So what happened? Ole Miss edged Georgia 66-65, and instead of consolidating the win over Tennessee, Georgia now has to go on the road against Mississippi State and Auburn coming off a disappointing loss.

This is life in the SEC, though. And even if people see the league is “down” because it doesn’t have some of the star-studded Final Four contenders of past years, it’s still chock-full of athletes and difficult matchups/trips.

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The whole “hot” thing

So you may have seen that I wrote about Nebraska on ESPN.com. The headline for the story says, “Huskers are nation’s hottest team.”

 I don’t write headlines. Or cutlines (aka captions for pictures). Or any display type. That’s done by editors at ESPN.com. Headlines generally are short and quick, and editors want them to have impact.

If you define the word “hot” as in what’s”exciting” and “happening” right at the moment, the Huskers are very hot because they’re a different face getting attention in the sport. I think that’s why that headline was used. But if people are taking this headline as meaning Nebraska is “hotter” than UConn in terms of how well they are playing, that’s absurd.

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Let’s wrap it up: Late, late edition

Series of semi-rambling thoughts after a trip up and down part of the East Coast …

In Connecticut, the media that covers UConn’s women admits they are “jaded.” That’s their word, not mine. They watch the Huskies all the time. And now for the second consecutive season, they are witnessing one blowout after another. The two latest, of course, being Saturday’s 70-46 demolishing of Notre Dame followed by Monday’s 81-48 clubbing of Duke.

Thus, understandably, they tend to think all the rest of women’s basketball is once again just not very good. And I have admit, I feel lucky I’m not them.

Because I’m not jaded about the rest of the sport, nor am I tired of watching how good UConn is. That’s partly because I don’t watch the Huskies all the time. I didn’t sit through the dissection of Seton Hall or the demolition of Iona or the pounding of North Carolina the way they did.

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Heading South

So … the UConn-Notre Dame was not what we were looking for. I’ll have more thoughts on that later. But in the meantime, it’s time to head to points south. Starting with Newark, Del., for a matchup between two Colonial Athletic Association stars: Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne and Drexel’s Gabriela Marginean.

After that, we’ll continue south until we get to North Carolina, where on Monday, Duke hopes it has better luck with UConn than North Carolina did.

By the way, I think it’s OK now to wear the green sweater I packed.

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Heading East

That thing writers do where they suggest that they’re jinxing teams … how silly that is, right? How self-aggrandizing, isn’t it? I mean, it’s just plain dumb. Really ridiculous.

That said … since I wrote about Kansas starting a new decade hoping for better results than in the last one, the Jayhawks have lost three games – one in horrid fashion to rival Kansas State – and also have lost their starting point guard for the rest of the season to an ACL injury. So …

Not more writing about Kansas for a while.

Instead, I am heading out East where, if all my travel plans work out – i.e. I don’t get lost – I should see a few interesting games over the next few days. Starting with Maryland-Boston College tonight. And then we’ll see how the luck of the Irish goes against UConn.

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Let’s wrap it up: Weird edition

We’re closing in on the 72-hour mark in my postmortem of Kansas State’s 59-35 victory over Kansas on Saturday, and maybe I’m finally ready to stop thinking about it since the Jayhawks are soon to tip off their next game.

My last post was about Tennessee’s perfect series record against Mississippi State – which remained perfect in a blowout Sunday _ and how I would next write about how that reminded me of some random other “weird” things I’ve seen or noticed over many years of following women’s basketball.

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A stark stat in Starkville: Zero for 30

Tennessee coach Pat Summitt was on her teleconference this week, answering the same question that she’s answered probably 500 times already this season. Well, maybe not that many, but … a lot. She’ll keep answering it, too. Because as the season goes on, the folks covering other teams will be writing about them facing Tennessee.

And so they’ll ask Summitt about how her players responded to going 22-11 last year and falling in the NCAA tournament’s first round. She’ll answer about how they worked hard over the summer to make up for what happened.

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Let’s wrap it up: Jan. 4

I had that feeling last week while watching Tennessee against Old Dominion. You know: The sad feeling of helplessness upon seeing what you suspect to be an ACL injury.

I used to go more wacko. It would be like this: See player go down with a knee problem during a televised game. Say, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no!” See a replay of  it. Say, “$@%!%@!” Repeat. Watch mildly alarmed dog trot to another room. Say, “I’m sorry” to dog for previous slew of curse words. Say, “I hate basketball.”

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Jayhawks hope for Happy New Decade

Kansas senior Sade Morris found her shot Wednesday when Kansas defeated Pepperdine 82-63 in Lawrence. Morris had scored a career-high 26 points against Michigan on Nov. 22 but then went the next eight games without reaching double figures.

Coach Bonnie Henrickson and the entire team kept encouraging/badgering Morris in recent practices: “Sade, shoot!” And against Pepperdine, it clicked in. She made 10 of 17 shots and had 22 points.

If this is a true break in the ice for Morris, it’s come at a great time for the Jayhawks. They have one more non-conference game – at New Mexico State on Sunday – before they begin the Big 12 slate and attempt to cement a trip to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 10 years.

As we start 2010 today, there can’t be any women’s hoops program more ready to say “Good riddance!” to the past decade than Kansas. During that time, the Jayhawks have gone 136-168 overall and 45-115 in the Big 12.

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