Women's Basketball

Edit: Women lose 89-47, beat the spread by 1.5 points.

It's on ESPN2. Pep band sounds great.

a friend of mine says he thought he was the spread was 42

DeltaOne81
a friend of mine says he thought he was the spread was 42

43.5 was the last spread I saw.

Jeomi's getting praises heaped upon her.

Apparently she took public transportation from LaGuardia to the Dartmouth game at Columbia last week. Couldn't Alma Mater at least have payed for a cab for her?

metaezra
Jeomi's getting praises heaped upon her.

Apparently she took public transportation from LaGuardia to the Dartmouth game at Columbia last week. Couldn't Alma Mater at least have payed for a cab for her?

Then the whole story of her Arkansas-to-New York travels nearly as intriguing

Plus, the M60 is rather convenient!

Well I had fun at the tournament game. Really cool to see Cornell's women play such a famous team around these parts (their reg. season games are broadcast on the state PBS station). They're like superstars. Even the coaching staff gets a huge ovation when they enter the arena. (I go past a deli on my way to work that has a "Geno Is God" sign in the window.) Really no chance for the Red to even make this a close game, but they fought hard and gave it their all. And for that, I'm proud.

The physical difference between the two teams was striking. The UConn women are simply enormous. Sometimes it seemed they could outreach a jumping Cornell player just by raising their arms. The battle for the boards was no contest. The only rebounds CU could get were off of freaky bounces. UConn plays such efficient defense that Cornell really had to work to get any good looks, and then a lot of shots just didn't fall. The lead got stretched to 20 very quickly. Some turnovers happened probably just from the nerves/intimidation effect. Credit our women...they weren't afraid to try to go inside, and even got a few nice cuts to the basket. Jaomi seemed to be covered pretty well all night. One high point for Cornell was their performance at the line; they did really well all night, and for a while it seemed most of CUs points were coming off foul shots.

As for the fan turnout, it was pretty good, considering the location and opponent. There was a block for the parents in front near mid-court, and the other CU section was near the top of the bowl in the corner. Pockets of red stood out around the arena, which wasn't sold out. UConn fans do the thing where they stand and clap until their team scores (like Syracuse does for their men's team), and the first points weren't scored until 1:40 in. So we CU fans used the beat of the clap to do an extended "Let's Go Red." I was hoping CU would get the first basket so I could get a picture of the scoreboard with us winning.

One thing I'll say about the UConn superfans (I'm trying not to be mean), is that they need to be a little bit more sporting when their team is playing an overmatched opponent. Booing and screaming about a foul when your team is leading by 46 might be taking your support a little too far. The older couple in front of me with the foam UConn dog-bone hat actually said "c'mon Huskies...we NEED a basket here!!!" when the score was 46-23. Really? Unless you really don't want to lose that 2x multiplier, is "need" the right word? And can't they let us have a LGR cheer for our team late in the game without trying to shout "U!!" over our "Red!"? I get being the best fan you can be for your team, but c'mon...this is our only chance...like ever...to see our team in the NCAAs. Personally, I got chuckles when I celebrated Cornell breaking double-digits, and with a "we've got 'em right where we want 'em, Red!" in the 2nd half. I thought about doing a "Let's Play Hockey" chant, but that's not fair to the Women's basketball team (whose season lasted longer than the hockey season for once, I might add.)

The band sounded great (especially compared to the Alumni Band that was in Albany *cough*). They were behind the baseline in a curtained-off section. They got some applause even from the CT fans after certain songs. The UConn band had that polished Big East style with lots of horn movements. CU got to play the Anthem, which was nice. The Texas band showed up in the 2nd half sitting next to our band, and wore warm-up suits. Let me repeat...the UTexas band had warm-up suits. I don't get it. Anyway, they seemed to look at our band with amusement at times. A reminder that many of those kids in the Cornell band just did 2 tournaments on 2 coasts in 4 days (a few of them did 3 tournaments)...that's simply awesome.

The UConn team was very sporting. They never resorted to any Globetrotter plays or easing up. They played it straight, and played hard the whole game. Our players played hard, too. A very nice moment happened after the final buzzer and the handshakes, as the Cornell team gathered briefly on the court and applauded the fans all around them, directing it towards the pockets of CU fans. As they were headed off the court they thanked the band, and a few of them even went into the band and gave them high-fives. They walked off the court with their heads up. I'm very proud that they represented CU and super-happy that they were able to have the experience of playing in the NCAA tournament in front of lots of fans and on national TV.

Believe it or not, we gave UConn one of its toughest 16 seed vs. 1 seed first-round game. It's average margin of victory in such games has been 58 points, and in its last seven games as the No. 1 seed, its smallest margin of victory had been 47 points. The Huskies won several of those games by over 70 points. So if you look at it from that standpoint, we did pretty well!

As for Rich H's remark about the alumni pep band in Albany, it was great that we had a pep band there and they did the best they could considering the circumstances.

dbilmes
Believe it or not, we gave UConn one of its toughest 16 seed vs. 1 seed first-round game. It's average margin of victory in such games has been 58 points, and in its last seven games as the No. 1 seed, its smallest margin of victory had been 47 points. The Huskies won several of those games by over 70 points. So if you look at it from that standpoint, we did pretty well!

I knew we should have been a 15!

For those that attended the game, how was the arena? It's hosting a hockey regional next year and in 2011.

RichH
One thing I'll say about the UConn superfans (I'm trying not to be mean), is that they need to be a little bit more sporting when their team is playing an overmatched opponent. Booing and screaming about a foul when your team is leading by 46 might be taking your support a little too far. The older couple in front of me with the foam UConn dog-bone hat actually said "c'mon Huskies...we NEED a basket here!!!" when the score was 46-23. Really? Unless you really don't want to lose that 2x multiplier, is "need" the right word? And can't they let us have a LGR cheer for our team late in the game without trying to shout "U!!" over our "Red!"? I get being the best fan you can be for your team, but c'mon...this is our only chance...like ever...to see our team in the NCAAs.

While this is no doubt true, the Lynah Faithful should probably not press the point.

Trotsky

RichH
One thing I'll say about the UConn superfans (I'm trying not to be mean), is that they need to be a little bit more sporting when their team is playing an overmatched opponent. Booing and screaming about a foul when your team is leading by 46 might be taking your support a little too far. The older couple in front of me with the foam UConn dog-bone hat actually said "c'mon Huskies...we NEED a basket here!!!" when the score was 46-23. Really? Unless you really don't want to lose that 2x multiplier, is "need" the right word? And can't they let us have a LGR cheer for our team late in the game without trying to shout "U!!" over our "Red!"? I get being the best fan you can be for your team, but c'mon...this is our only chance...like ever...to see our team in the NCAAs.

While this is no doubt true, the Lynah Faithful should probably not press the point.

WEDER!

Trotsky
While this is no doubt true, the Lynah Faithful should probably not press the point.

Don't believe I didn't think exactly that when I formed my opinion. I know when to hold up a mirror. The closest hockey parallel I could think of for us is the 2002 NCAA opener against then MAAC auto-bid recipient Quinnipiac. We were heavily favored against a "minor" conference auto-bid. Personally, I remember calling the dogs off early in that one...I don't think we were terribly cruel, or ranting and raving for the refs to "Call the penalty!" when we got up 4-0 ,5-0, or 6-0. I was disappointed when Underhill lost the shutout (and when all the HEA fans roared at us when Q scored), but that's it...I wasn't getting in any Q fan's face doing "throw it DOWN" gestures.

I also considered the '96 ECAC QF blowout that ugarte alluded to, but that's not as good a comparison as it was an in-league rival sitting at #5 playing vs. Cornell #4. Everyone thought it was going to be a hard-nosed, tough-fought, anyone-can-win series...nobody expected the explosion it turned out to be. And our basketball players and fans never taunted UConn at any point on Sunday.

nyc94
For those that attended the game, how was the arena? It's hosting a hockey regional next year and in 2011.

Pretty decent. Probably on par with the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence in terms of atmosphere, but a little smaller.



The Dunk has a larger seating capacity due to the seats going higher, and also has a walkway splitting upper and lower seating sections. Harbor Yard has luxury boxes ringing the upper wall, and no center jumbotron; they have one scoreboard at the top of each of the 4 walls. Now that I think of it, the seating is in a horseshoe layout somewhat similar to Lynah. There aren't many seats in sections 109-111 (the flat part of the horseshoe), and to get to those, you have to go up via elevator. The rest of the sections have a generic concourse underneath with food/drink/merchandise windows. The concourse got WAY too crowded during halftime of the CU-UConn game...I could barely move at points.

The Bridgeport Arena is walkable from the Amtrak/Metro-North station as well as the Port Jeff Ferry terminal. I parked for free in downtown Bridgeport, and walked about 4 blocks to the arena. Easy access to both I-95 and CT-8 (intersects the Merritt).

If it didn't sell out for UConn Women's basketball, it should be fine for a hockey regional.

RichH
The older couple in front of me with the foam UConn dog-bone hat actually said "c'mon Huskies...we NEED a basket here!!!" when the score was 46-23. Really? Unless you really don't want to lose that 2x multiplier, is "need" the right word?

The team might not need more baskets, but it could be a different story for a fan worried about them not beating the point spread.