Monday, January 25, 2016

Women’s College Basketball NMSU Aggies vs CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners 1-23-16

[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. 



No comments:

Post a Comment