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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