Gotnext Women's Basketball Boards

gia · Guest

Will Veal get the start at PG with Grubin at SG? One can only hope.

Predictions? Beginning of a winning streak or more of the same?

caune · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 1562 Location: Phoenix

hmmm..I say a good close game, with the usual result. The Mercury have a rep with the officials now, and their calls are going to be the hardest thing to overcome on the way to a road win.
Let's all hope I am wrong!

skew11 · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 372

guess Natalie W. will be back for this game since missing last one for funeral....I say/hope it will be a close game and hope " R-O-A-D" turns into "W-I-N-S" the rest of the season.... Hey positive optimism :D :wink:

Gaucho_Don · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 223

I agree probably a close game, but hopefully not. I think that first road win is gonna have to be us blowing someone out (course it's hard to see Utah being that someone)

So assuming it is going to be a close game:

If Jen plays over 35 minutes, we are sure to lose again by faltering at the end since no player should have to play that many minutes in one game, especially one old enough to almost be a mother to some of the other players on the team. Jen can deal with it, but she shouldn't have to.

Everybody else just needs to play some D (and maybe score a little more than usual)

GirlGaucho · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 12 Location: UCSB

Why do they choose to not start Grubin? :evil: She's on my Virtual GM Team! (oh yeah, that must be why...)

skew11 · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 372

:( hope Bonfiglio is ok....after last year watching that Step bloody mouth , I wished that all the girls would wear mouthpieces.... :shock:

ouch just heard her tooth went through lip and they are looking for a dentist...

cbibat · Guest Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 232

GirlGaucho, Think they may have started Grubin - if you go by the caps on the boxscore they only started 4 people...... wait... is that our problem?

What happened to Bonfiglio - she's not on the roster - only 10 players are on. Did she get hurt before the game.

Looking for the positives - Williams had a good game, had to have been against Dydek too because Margo played 35 min...Veal, not bad numbers, the numbers under the FG and 3PT columns will change with more play.

Everyone else's line is normal unfortunately - avging 60+ pts per game won't win alot.....

Grubin's line was within her season averages, but 4-13, why aren't her shots falling more consistently?

May be this is the beginning of developing or redeveloping the chemistry of old on court....... a springboard for next season, with everyone coming back....

gia · Guest

Ugh. Looks like this game was more of the same.......getting close then letting it get out of reach. They had it down to 5 when they went into a zone and let Azzi hit a 3. Then Moises threw the ball away on the next play and Utah scored again. That 5 point swing was the beginning of the end.

Veal (5 assts, 2 TO's) and Bonfiglio started. Not sure why wnba.com didn't have Susanna listed..other than they're not exactly on top of things. She did get hurt but it was during the game.....a forearm or elbow from Natalie Williams to the mouth loosened her tooth and drew blood (no foul of course).

Hats off to Adrain for her double double however the Merc were again torched in the paint, 42-26 and beat up on the boards, 43-29. 3 Pt shooting just plain sucks. Fouls/FT's were hugely slanted towards Utah (Merc 7-11, Utah 23-29).

These girls need to find some fire and pride or else it's going to be a long end to a brutal season.

SportsFan48 · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 1136

Another tough loss. :cry:

Bonofiglio was the 5th starter. I, too, hope she is okay.

I am not sure GG is 100%. She was dressed but did not practice (other than free throws) during the open practice. Someone said she hurt her ankle. I don't know if that was a factor or not. I will say this about Grubin: rarely do you see her take a bad shot. Sometimes she shoots sooner than I think she should, but she usually is open or creates an opening for herself to shoot.

Way to go Adrian. Third double double. You go girl.

We'll just have to start that winning trend against Sacramento. They'll be a different team than we saw a few weeks ago.

caune · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 1562 Location: Phoenix

hmmm....29 free throws for them, 11 for us? quite a difference!

Well if GG shot bad last night, that means she'll be good tonight!

Ohio Gaucho · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 65 Location: Salem, OH

to go with an interesting starting lineup. For example Kayte played 21 minutes, with the majority in her debut at SF :!: I suppose she's young & can adapt, but this must be considered another out-of-position application of Mercury talent, for now. Her line wasn't bad, coach said she did some good things and played strong D (2 blocks, steal, ... ). Cheers for Veal, that assist/TO ratio (5/2) is MORE LIKE IT. Adrain said they enjoyed running with Veal at PG, that they thought they would be rewarded with a fast break assist with her directing traffic.

An interesting Az Republic article (Jeff's) is at
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/mercury/0727mercury0727.html

Boxscore & playXplay link at
http://www.wnba.com/games/20020726/PHOUTA/boxscore.html

Go Mercury :!:
Bob
UCSB '61

eaction83 · Guest Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 130 Location: Fremont, CA

Small forward? I hope they aren't making a serious mistake with that move. It's often been noted that going from the 4 to the 3 is the toughest adjustment for a player to learn to make, with only going from 2 to 1 being of similar difficulty.

Of course this team has been trying to force a couple of 2's into the 1 all year, and then tried playing Reid far out of position at shooting guard, so I guess Sharp just wouldn't feel comfortable if she wasn't trying to force a square peg into a round hole SOMEwhere on the court. My biggest fear is that they'll do this for five games, completely wreck Kayte's confidence and timing, then declare it a failure and put her back in the post, where she's now too shell-shocked to do much of anything the rest of the season. That's a worst-case scenario of course, but it's not like similar things haven't happened before.

Gaucho_Don · Guest Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 223

Kayte at the 3? Kayte is a 4! I don't know why you would put her in the 3. (any ideas?)

Kayte doesn't shoot 3's (least I haven't seen any)... well actually she has been known to shoot 1 a season (give or take). I always thought that the SF was supposed to be able to shoot from outside? Kayte is decently quick, but I don't think she would have an advantage on many other 3's.

I hope putting Kayte at the 3 is not a monumental mistake.

mb · Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2002 2:51 pm Post subject:

Kayte may be a PF, yet she has played C, PF, and SF this season.

If the SG and PG are driving/slashing and taking the outside shots as well, then your SF can play as an additional post rather than a wing. That is oversimplifying things...the point is players can adapt and some positions are slighty interchangable.

We hope to see players at their natural positions (ie Grubin at SG, Veal at PG, and Kayte at PF), yet are sure they'll play out of position to get more minutes.

Hope we have a nice mix of veteran and youth minutes in tonights victory!

gia · Guest

Did I mention I saw Dydek in Las Vegas when I was there during the All Star break? I was at the top of the stairs in front of the Aladdin and up the stairs through the crowd this head started rising above the masses. It was like that Loch Ness monster footage you always see. She was sooo much taller than everyone around her, people couldn't help but stare. Some even thought she was part of the Aladdin's act :!: (mainly court jester's on stilts!).

==========================
Starzz C Dydek suspended for one game
July 29, 2002

NEW YORK (TICKER) -- Utah Starzz center Margo Dydek was suspended for one game after exceeding the league's flagrant foul penalty points limit, the WNBA announced on Monday.

Dydek has accumulated five flagrant foul points, one over the league limit. She committed a flagrant foul on Phoenix's Jaynetta Saunders in Friday's 74-61 victory for her fifth point of the season. She will miss Utah's game with Miami on Wednesday.

Dydek, the tallest player in league history at 7-2, is averaging 13.3 points and 9.4 rebounds this season and leads the league with 91 blocks. Dydek, a native of Poland, recorded the second triple-double in the history of the league last season.