[2019 Edit: I notice this post is still getting occasional hits. As I said here, I'm a bit embarrassed by this post given that I became a big fan of the program later, but I'm not taking it down or changing it. I also do not regret highlighting a sideline performer in the game. No apologies. I wrote what I felt at the time.]
Well, I’ve blogged bullfighting before, so I’ve done
more obscure sports. Do I have any
credibility to do this? I used to be a
huge NBA fan and I’ve watched college basketball, so I do know the game. (I was a Michael Jordan fan. After he left, I came to the conclusion that
the league was filled with a bunch of un-entertaining jerk-offs and stopped
watching.) Have I ever covered Women’s
sports before? I used to watch Women’s
Tennis, admittedly not so much for the sport though. (They grunt too much now, even the
good-looking ones. It’s unwatchable with
the sound on.) I somewhat regret not
watching more of and posting about the US Women’s Soccer team winning the World
Cup last year, though I suspect the only thing I would have written would have
been, “Oh my God, Alex Morgan is so beautiful!” over and over again. (It doesn’t hurt that she reminds me of
someone I work with. Hope Solo is
nice too, and I’d love to give Carli Lloyd a big, wet, passionate kiss
for her heroics in the championship game.
USA! USA!) Some
might argue that some of my sports posts feature more in-depth coverage on
girl-watching the women at the event, than the actual sport itself. This post will be no different, if not worse.
My attendance at the game did involve free tickets provided
by my workplace and an invitation by my boss, Ron, whom I went to the Aggie football game with last year. I
wasn’t coerced into going, but felt it was a good idea to go (and I didn’t have
anything better to do, other than work on a Dark Continent Fantasy Core
rewrite, which I hope will be ready in a month or so, providing I don’t waste
more time on these sports posts). I was
at least somewhat intrigued, since the last time I’d been at the Pan-Am Center
was for a Sting Concert in the 80’s, and the last basketball game I saw there
involved the Harlem Globetrotters. (I
was so pissed when I saw the videoboard marquee advertising a Globetrotters
game in the near future on a weekend afternoon.
I was seven years old and had to stay up till like 10:00 at night on a
weekday to see them. That’s equivalent
to staying up till 2:00am for an adult.
I was so tired, I still remember it.)
Ron hadn’t been in a long time either, since Tarkanian coached the
Running Rebels. He was highly
disappointed in the facilities. There
was sponsorship signage for many of our banking competitors there and not one for
our bank. Unfortunately, he’s not in
charge of that. There’s even a giant
friggin’ Wells Fargo sign under the scoreboard.
I’m including this front page picture from the of the sports
section from the Las Cruces Sun-News for two reasons. One, the story of the game was the
crowd. The 5,034 in attendance was the
largest regular season crowd ever for an Aggie Women’s game in Las Cruces. The people behind the Aggie bench were particularly
active, even holding up large pictures of the players during the game. After the game, the players went out to
center court, and I think it was amiable #23 Abby Scot who had the microphone
and thanked the crowd and the person who organized the promotion. Two, Ron is in the picture near the bottom
left in the red shirt. I was next to
him, but I’m blocked from view. I only
saw one other co-worker at the game, but I think we were in the wrong section
the whole time, since I know others had plans to go. I’d also call your attention to the opposing
coach on the mid right of the picture.
He was that animated for the whole game, if not more so, and was fairly
entertaining to watch. I also noticed
the female assistant coaches were mostly wearing big, high heels with their
outfits. A basketball court would seem
like a place for sensible, non-marking shoes over style.
As at the football game, the hardest working athletes there
were the cheerleaders. They were
cheering on every play, performing during the breaks, and walking up the aisles
selling tickets for the next game ($2.00 an excellent deal). They also had the most impressive athletic
act during the game. One of the girls
was standing overhead on the hands of one of the guys. Another guy held up his hands next to him and
she walked onto his hands and did this about four or five times. Damn.
Beloved Pistol Pete was also there working the crowd. Every other college should be jealous of our
cool gun-wielding mascot.
I mentioned never getting a good look at the Sundancer
Squad at the football game and now I retroactively feel cheated. While they’re all nice, wow, one of the girls
is drop dead-stop the game and stare-gorgeous: Anna
Shawver. (And thank you to the linked
website for her name and pictures.) I
was going to ask Ron to take a picture, but I was afraid his wife might somehow
see it on his phone. If the game had
been disappointing and terrible, I would have still been pleased with the
experience just for having seen her. Actually,
I might not have watched the game at all if she’d been in view the whole
time. You want to be at any NMSU
sporting event where the Sundancers are.
NMSU sports marketing should be figuring out how to promote this opportunity
more. I can hardly wait for her inevitable next career appearance as a Cowboy Cheerleader. Here’s some more pictures [link to another blog no longer works]. Hard to believe, but she's better looking in person and quite the talented performer.
[Edit: And a week after I link to my new favorite blog, they get shutdown. Here's a few pictures of Anna.]
I missed the half-time performance again, as I did at the football game. This time I got a tasty hot dog and a Coke. Given the tickets were free, I felt I should support the team. There was a shooting competition between two guys attached to each other with a long cable. They were dragging each other, trying to shoot at the baskets at opposite ends of the court. Ron enjoyed the spectacle. A couple of local dance groups of young girls performed. They were sitting nearby during the first quarter, hard to miss since they were in costume. I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful, but nervous-looking woman, who seemed to be in charge, working the whole time on the girls’ costumes and hair.
Okay, now to the game itself. The girls play four 10-minute quarters and
game went about two hours. The Lady
Aggies (that’s not their official name, but there should be differentiation
between them and the Men’s team) are a good team this year, so it was a bit
surprising how cold they were shooting in the first quarter, falling sharply
behind. I’d almost think they were
trying too hard because of the size of the crowd. I was
actually pretty confident they’d come back as they still had the fundamentals
down. Basketball is usually game of
runs. Starting late in the first half,
they started creating opportunities with a full-court press. Before the half, they’d taken the lead. Strong defense and lights-out shooting put
the Aggies up for good in the second half.
Final score 86-63 in a blowout.
High scorers were #35 Moriah Mack with 19 points and #4
Sasha Weber with 20. Both were taken out
of the game late when the outcome wasn’t in doubt and got a good round of
applause from the crowd. (I was paying
attention to the stats on the scoreboard.)
I found myself rooting for #2 Brooke Salas, admittedly because she’s
cute. She also had a good game with 12
points and one really good blocked shot.
I noticed #24 Brianna Freeman had a sweet-looking shooting motion which
translated to 11 points. Not on the
team, but also of note were the little ball girls. They’d huddle up with the team during time
outs and slap hands in the line with players coming off the court. It was cute.
The Washington Generals were over-matched. They were clearly befuddled by Curly Neal and
Meadowlark Lemon’s antics. The referees
quickly lost control of the game, fully deserving getting hit by those buckets
of confetti. Oops sorry, that was the
Globetrotter’s game. Take two. The Bakersfield Roadrunners were over-matched,
but I was impressed with #1 Alyssa Shannon, their point guard. She’s shorter than me at 5’2”. It was amazing to watch her run so quickly
amongst so many 6’ tall players. It was
a bit cold, but I did find myself giggling every the team missed a free throw
and received a rim shot from Aggie band drummer. The Roadrunners did make a fashion statement
with bright blue shoes and wearing full-length stretch pants under their
shorts. I’d never seen that before.
I suppose I need to bottom line this. How does Women’s basketball compare to the
Men’s game? I was a bit worried in the
first quarter, but I think the rest of the game convinced me that it was
regular basketball. As long as you have
a rooting interest, you’ll enjoy it. If
you don’t have a rooting interest, you’ll probably watch the guys in
preference. The girls can shoot, pass,
and defend, but guys can also play above the rim and add some physicality to
the game. Overall, I think the large
home crowd enjoyed the game and team made some new fans, maybe even me.
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