Obviously, the title of this post is burying the
lead. This post will encompass several
somewhat disconnected subjects. I just
didn’t know how else to report on these extraordinary events.
3-11-20
WAC Tournament WBB vs UTRGV Vaqueros
This game started in the late afternoon. Since I would have otherwise left for work
about halfway through the game and since I needed to get something on the way
anyway, I left for work early with the intention of listening to the whole game
there. What actually happened was a
bunch of chatting with my co-workers. I
felt like I barely heard any of it. (And
in spite of being there early, I fell behind doing my work as well.) If I’d known this was going to be all of the
tournament basketball I was going to get, I probably would have made a better
effort to listen to the whole game.
I did listen to the UTEP
Miner Women beat the FAU Owls in C-USA Tournament on the radio in the morning. It was a complete wipeout by the Miners, as
they beat them by 28 points, 95-67,
including 36 points in first quarter. Six
players were in double digits scoring.
(My dear Katarina Zec did
well.)
From what I heard of the Aggie pregame, the good news was
that star, Gia Pack, was good to go
today. You could probably expect her to
be a bit rusty. She didn’t start, but came
in off the bench early in the game. Even
after missing seven games in conference, she was still voted to the first team
in the WAC just based on her numbers before her injury.
This game was the #4 seed, UTRGV, versus #5 NM State. Some thought this might be the best matchup
for the tournament. Oh, boy. This is going to be a bit skimpy here. Like I said, I wasn’t able to listen
much. What also didn’t help was that the
first quarter was very low scoring with long scoreless droughts by both
teams. Gia’s first shots were a pair of
free throws, which she uncharacteristically missed. It was 11-8 Aggies after ten minutes.
The Aggies began the second quarter with a 7-0 run. (I missed the whole thing.) Gia had zero points, but had captured five
rebounds. Adam Young, on the radio call, gave a shout out to a TV commentator
for a good catch on of an out-of-bounds ball into press row. Soufia
Inoussa hit a three at the buzzer as part of her ten points of the
half. 32-20 Aggies.
My notes for the third quarter, “I’m missing everything. I’m not even working.” The Aggies built up a sizable lead. Gia got going and hit a three. UTRGV hit a couple of threes to get within eight
late. Shania Harper made a layup and drew a foul to get the lead back up to
11. 49-38 Aggies.
For the fourth quarter, I sat down and started working,
which actually allowed me to listen to the game in peace. The Aggies built their lead up to 14. UTRGV went on another run with a couple of
threes to cut it to seven. Timeout
Aggies. Back to play, the girls were
hustling as a pair of players going for a loose ball took out a ref. During UTRGV’s foul shots, Adam pointed out that
you could hear the Aggie Cheerleaders
chanting “Chik-fil-a,” like they do at the Pan-Am
Center for the missed opponent free throw promotion.
Soufia and Tayelin Grays’
shooting rebuilt the lead to 61-47 with five minutes left going into a media timeout. Aggressive play by the Aggies out of the break
put UTRGV in the bonus for the rest of the game. Even with the lead, Coach Atkinson was still getting frustrated. She tossed her clipboard after a turnover
under basket. The Aggies were still double
digits up, but UTGRV was getting lots of offensive rebounds and scoring.
With one minute remaining, a UTRGV senior fouled out. Right after, Adrianna Henderson was charged with a flagrant foul for throwing
elbows under the basket. Adrianna was
fouled right after and made a pair of free throws to make it 67-58. She drew another foul and made two more free
throws in the final 30 seconds. By that
point, UTRGV conceded. Aaliyah Prince nearly went for an easy
layup, but the coach told her to stop, since the other team wasn’t fouling. Aggies win 73-61.
Soufia
Inoussa had a career day with 16 points. Adrianna
Henderson had 15. Gia Pack
played for 30 minutes and nearly had a double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds. It was a low shooting-percentage game. The Aggies led 43 to 31 in rebounding, though
they trailed 13 to 9 in offensive rebounds. Adam was shocked that the Aggies had 23
turnovers and still won. UTGRV had 14. Coach Atkinson was very happy with the team’s
defense anyway.
3-11-20
Aggies vs UNM Lobos Softball
There were a couple of Wednesday games scheduled for this
month. I picked next week’s game against
Texas Tech to take the day off. Ron went to this rivalry game in the evening
against UNM. It didn’t occur to me until later to check on
the game. When I did, I horrified that
I’d missed out on video coverage of the game from the WAC Digital Network. I
hadn’t even thought to check for that.
I only got to watch the bottom of the seventh with the Aggies
leading the Lobos by one run. Matalasi Faapito pitched a complete
game, albeit two relievers came in during the final inning, but failed to
record an out. Mata had started the
inning and had to come back in to finish it and secure the 4-3 Aggie win. I had to go
back and look at the scoring. Shelby Shultes had a home run and a
two-RBI double. Nikki Butler drove in the other run with a double.
It looked like a pretty good crowd from the video. I was really jealous of Ron since he’d gotten
to see this great game and possibly the last Aggie game until the fall. In retrospect obviously, I should have gone to
this game, but I couldn’t have known at the time what was going to happen
next.
WAC
Tournament 3-12-12
Corona Virus Alert!
Corona Virus Alert!
Civilization pretty much effectively ended today. We are now living in the Walking Dead/Mad Max Post-Apocalyptic future. Alex
Jones is reporting that the Clockwork Elves have quarantined the
planet. They cashed out all of their
stocks and took all the toilet paper before they left. Oh, I hope I’m not causing a panic here. I know this crisis is being woefully
underreported in all forms of mass media.
I’m just trying to help. Wash
your hands.
I might be a little salty at the moment. I turned on my TV this morning for the C-USA Women’s Basketball Tournament on Stadium. I was looking forward to being able to traitorously
indulge in watching and rooting for Katarina
Zec on UTEP. Instead, a couple of stunned announcers came
on and said the tournament was canceled.
(At least I got to see cutie Kristen
Balboni for a couple of minutes.)
Thanks to Stadium for coming on for a couple of minutes to explain the
situation. (The UTEP Men could only ask, “Why didn’t you guys end the tournament
before we lost last night?”)
Moreover, the Aggie
Men’s tournament game against Chicago
State was set to come on in the afternoon.
From listening to ESPN Radio,
I suspected there wasn’t going to be a game, since all the other major
conferences had just cancelled their tournaments. I hung around to see if some kind of
announcement would come on when the pregame should have started, but there was
nothing. Thanks a lot Aggie Sports Network.
Disheartened and apparently a glutton for punishment, I
needed groceries and decided to go to Walmart. Indeed, as I’d been warned in seeming jest I
discovered in reality, people really were raiding supermarkets for toilet
paper. That aisle was empty and people
were asking when the next shipment would come in. Literally.
I felt like I was living in a movie.
No, not some disaster or zombie flick.
No, this was more like some French avant-garde film where everyone is
absurdly morose and nothing makes sense.
The news got worse later.
The NCAA had cancelled the
whole of March Madness. Ahem.
They’d also seemingly cancelled all spring sports. This would include softball and
baseball.
Noooooooo!
The Aggie Men’s team was awarded the automatic bid by the
WAC, along with UMKC being given the
Women’s ticket. Not that that matters,
since there’s not going to be an NCAA Basketball Tournament. When Coach
Jans told the team, he said they became depressed like they’d just been
bounced from the tournament. I’m still
hoping they don’t really mean it about softball and baseball. Maybe they’ll decide to allow some of those
games to be played later. For now, only
this weekend’s games have been cancelled, but I’m doubting that Texas Tech softball game is going to be
played next week. I did some quick
math. If it really is all over, I still
easily got my money’s worth on my Aggie
Country Pass, but that doesn’t really make me feel any better.
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