Tuesday, January 2, 2018

NM State Aggies vs UC Santa Barbara Gauchos Women’s Basketball 12-29-17


Today was the big day for Aggie Football and their bowl game in Arizona.  This basketball game was moved up a couple of hours to get it in before that game.  Since I had no way of going to the bowl game, I was looking forward to this Women’s Basketball game against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos.  I didn’t know anything about their program, except that their baseball team is good.  I figured this team was probably good too and that the Aggie girls would need the fan support.

Unfortunately at the Pan-Am Center, the crowd was about what I expected for a noon game on a Friday, before the football game and before New Years’ weekend.  We’ll call it “light.”  The Old Man was surprisingly there.  I’d figured he would have been at the football game.  There was a teenage girl behind the Aggie bench that looked like Taylor Swift, probably not by accident.  There was an adorable little girl in pigtails wandering in the aisles.  Across the court was a high-school girls’ basketball team from out-of-town.  They were the biggest group in attendance.  Like that Lobo game earlier this month, the booster section was mostly empty. 

It was old-school primitive basketball today.  There was no radio.  (For the Aggies.  The Gauchos had a guy there broadcasting.)  No band.  No cheerleaders.  No Sundancers.  No giveaways.  (No crowd for that matter.)  The program didn’t have the full stats on it.  We still had the bad rap music going.  The regular PA and DJ Downs weren’t there for the announcing.  A guy who used to be my co-worker did the honors.  I don’t know if this was his first time, but he did a really good job (under what would prove to be very trying conditions).  I noticed that the girls’ and guys’ next games were mentioned in the announcements, but the football game was never brought up.  Another co-worker’s son was operating the mobile camera during the game.       

I could hear the UCSB team roaring the tunnel before they came out.  During their warmup, they practiced free throws, which I don’t think I’d before.  You could hear the Aggies coming out of the tunnel as well.  So they started off in good spirits.  “Do we have referees?”  That was a valid question from one of the booster ladies behind me with a couple of minutes before tipoff.  They did show up.  The crowd sang along with the Anthem.  The Aggie intro video played, but they kept the houselights on for it. 


First Quarter
I hate looking at the opposing team’s record on the program, but I always end up doing it.  “2-9!”  Okay, I think the Aggies have a good decent chance here.  When I saw 6’4” Drew Edelman on court for the Gauchos, I assumed they’d be passing her the ball under the basket all game.  She was a huge, hard to miss presence.  Not just big, but layered in muscles.  On the other hand, when your team starts off dropping three three’s in a row, why go away from that?  Using the phrase, “Making it rain,” would not be unwarranted.  In the first half, they were pouring them in with six different players contributing. 

The Aggies looked disorganized and were not shooting the ball well.  The only Aggie highlight for the quarter was Brooke Salas getting a great steal under the basket, literally snatching the ball away from a player, who was holding it with two hands.  The Aggies were keeping it fairly close until the last minute where the Gauchos got a basket, a turnover, a layup, and then a three.  It was 24-14 UCSB after ten minutes.
     
Second Quarter
The game went more up tempo, but that didn’t help the Aggies at all, since they still weren’t able to score.  They got in a few good plays.  Jasmine Cooper out rebounded Edelman for a rebound, got possession on the tie up, and got a basket coming out of it.  Coop, Zaire Williams, and Pam Wilmore all got blocks, which tells me that the girls were playing hard, regardless of the score.  At some point, the team went to a full court press and some trapping and mostly stayed with it for the rest of the game, but to no avail.  It was 50-18 Gauchos at the half.  The Aggies had three baskets for six points in the quarter.  The Gauchos had 11 three’s for the half.
      
Halftime
The Aggie fight song played at the half to a very reluctant cheer.  I did my best.  “I’ve never seen the girls play so bad,” said the booster lady.  Just a reminder, up until the start of this season, the fans hadn’t seen a home court loss since December of last year.  Pistol Pete and two cheerleaders showed up during the break.  This group must have missed the bus for Tucson and the big football game.  (Or didn’t know about the game time change.)  Pete took one look at the crowd and the scoreboard and headed for an exit.  (Just kidding.  Pete would never do that.)  The cheerleaders took a seat next to a lady in the crowd.  Pete wandered around, talking to the fans.  He said something to the high school girls basketball team that got them laughing.  Oh, Pete.  You charmer. 

Third Quarter
“I like this.  I’m a masochist,” said one of the boosters in passing.  I’m thinking several of the fans there were questioning their commitment to Women’s basketball, me included.  When a game gets this f-ed, there’s not much tension about the outcome, so you can at least enjoy little, individual plays.  The Aggies racked up another block as they seemed to have a height advantage (except for Edelman).  It was more of the same offensively, if not worse.  The Aggies’ first basket came with 6:40 on the clock. 

Coop did start a small run with a pair of baskets and drew a foul on the other end.  The Old Man, who had not stopped cheering during this debacle, shouted “We can do it!”  This got a laugh out of the crowd at least.  Monique Mills got a steal and then missed a layup at the other end.  Okay, at this point it was obvious nothing was going to fall in for the girls today.  Frustration mounted.  Jeneva Toilolo came back to the bench after her fourth foul complaining about guarding Edelman.  It was quiet enough during the game to where you could hear stuff like that at the bench.  It was 67-28 Gauchos after three.

Fourth Quarter
A third girl cheerleader and guy cheerleader showed up by this point.  One of the girls stood on the guy’s shoulders, and the group did one cheer for the crowd.  It was a little late for that.  Meanwhile, Pete was still working his way around to individually greet each fan.  (Actually, he avoided the booster area.  Probably a good idea today.)  He took pictures with the Gaucho fans, who were, of course, happy to see him. 

Almost to make this game worse, Brooke hit her wrist during a scrum in the lane.  She got a basket right after, but was still shaking it off.  I think she was okay.  With four minutes left, Tonishia Childress made the first three-pointer for the Aggies.  While the Gauchos cycled in much of their bench, the Aggies mostly kept their starters out.  Brooke got a block, a layup, and drew a foul on a play.  Coop took a beautiful inside pass under the basket, and ran around the defender for a reverse layup. 

Zaire Williams, having a scoreless day, got cued up for a technical late.  I didn’t see anything flagrant, but I can see where it wouldn’t have been surprising that it happened.  There were a bunch of fouls in this game, though it never felt like it was chippie.  Brooke got a block on another 6’4” player, Natalia Bruening, who’d come in for Edelman.  Bruening got the rebound, but Coop took a charge from her going to the basket (brave move).  While the officials were discussing it in a timeout, Brooke came over to the bench and said . . . err . . . a mild explicative.  She did it in a stoic matter-of-fact fashion, but it was a stunning display of emotion from her.  The booster ladies behind me were a bit shocked.  (Again, there wasn’t much crowd noise to drown out these probably nominal exchanges.) 

The crowd was getting on the officials for the foul-calling by this point.  Nobody wanted this game lengthened.  Coop came out.  She stood up at the bench and started yelling instructions to the players on court.  There may be some coach in her.  For the last ten seconds of the game, both teams stood motionless on court and waited for time to expire.  Our final: Gauchos 77, Aggies 47.  The team has already lost more home games this season than last, just halfway through. 

The Gauchos went back to their bench and thanked their three fans in the stands.  (That’s not a joke.)  The Aggie girls stuck around on court for autographs.  This would have been a good day to go see them and say something encouraging, but I think it was just for the Kid’s Club.  Coach Atkinson must have been glad there was no radio call so that she didn’t have to explain what happened in a post-game interview.  At the exit, a pleasant usher said to the fans, “We’ll get ‘em next time.”  (I’m surprised he knew what was going on in the game from where he was stationed.)  The masochist booster said jokingly, “I want my money back!”      
   
Sarah Porter was high-scorer for the Gauchos with 17 points on five three’s.  Seven different players accumulated 14 three’s for the team.  Most of those were in the first half and they cooled off in the second, but it hardly mattered.  Brooke Salas showed a lot of hustle out there with 18 points, but Jasmine Cooper is my Aggie player of the game.  For someone who is usually on court for their defense and a couple of points, Coop really came up big with 14.  She was also tireless on defense.  Judging by her smiles, I almost think she was having fun out there today.                  

How to analyze this game?  When the team got schooled by Arizona earlier this month, it was surprising, but they are a good program and it was on the road.  Here, I don’t really know how good the Gauchos are, but they couldn’t have been that much better than the Aggies.  They certainly got hot shooting.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this was their best shooting game this year.  Even an open three isn’t an easy shot, but judging by this game and the Lobo game, the Aggies need to defend behind the arc better. 

But for this game, clearly the Aggies couldn’t get it in the basket themselves.  It didn’t seem like the Gauchos were that great on defense.  I did not see a lack of effort from the team, but I can’t account for Zaire, Jeneva, and Monique all getting 0 points and Gia Pack only getting 8.  The missed shots were not all bad; they just didn’t fall in.  This is only speculation, but I wonder if they maybe caught something out in California and were getting over it.  Not everybody can be Michael Jordan and play well with the flu.  If it was more widespread, maybe this was why the bench wasn’t emptied in the fourth quarter.  If it’s not that, I’m clueless as to what happened.  The only good news today for the team was that Brooke is still contributing with a steady performance and that Jasmine is capable of putting up more offense when needed.        

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