Sunday, March 21, 2010
Iowa 70, Rutgers 63
Listened to game on radio. They were well-matched teams, Iowa offense & Rutgers defense. Rutgers led briefly in the second half & was in it until final three minutes, when it slipped away. Rutgers isn't the kind of team that gives up 70 points & wins. Iowa dropped in ten three-pointers, most of them in second period whenever the momentum shifted to Rutgers. Iowa went 22-28 at free throw line, Rutgers 6-12. Iowa out rebounded Rutgers 39-29. Yet, it was a close, suspenseful game. But every mistake in the second period hurt Rutgers. A few missed free throws by Iowa, a few three-pointers bouncing & going for twos instead, a different game. It was an honest loss against a very good team.
Year by year Rutgers has fallen away from the 2007 Championship Game season. Now the last two players from that team are done, next year no seniors on the team. Perhaps the weight of 2007 has kept the younger players from feeling the team is theirs. Several of them are coming into their time now. Sophomore Chelsey Lee, looks like she's developing into a go-to leader. Freshman Monique "Mo" Oliver is a sparkplug off the bench. Rutgers may be a better team next season without actually improving on this year's record, because they'll be headed up again.
Rutgers struggled all year, yet C. Vivian Stringer still coached them into the NCAA. See how much attention the WNIT gets. The Iowa-Rutgers matchup was news - insofar as the women's college game is news - because Stringer is idolized at Iowa. AP wrote it up & Yahoo-Rivals carried the story. I like that about Rutgers women. I like having a marquee coach & team in this State of mostly mediocre Div. I college programs, one of them, Seton Hall, in a condition of shameful collapse. Some Rutgers fans gripe about Stringer's stern mother hen approach. What they really don't like is her refusal to go for an 80 point offense. But I admired Pete Carill's underdog, old school defense Princeton teams, & how it used to be said, "Nobody wants to play Princeton." That could also be said of Stringer's Rutgers teams.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Year by year Rutgers has fallen away from the 2007 Championship Game season. Now the last two players from that team are done, next year no seniors on the team. Perhaps the weight of 2007 has kept the younger players from feeling the team is theirs. Several of them are coming into their time now. Sophomore Chelsey Lee, looks like she's developing into a go-to leader. Freshman Monique "Mo" Oliver is a sparkplug off the bench. Rutgers may be a better team next season without actually improving on this year's record, because they'll be headed up again.
Rutgers struggled all year, yet C. Vivian Stringer still coached them into the NCAA. See how much attention the WNIT gets. The Iowa-Rutgers matchup was news - insofar as the women's college game is news - because Stringer is idolized at Iowa. AP wrote it up & Yahoo-Rivals carried the story. I like that about Rutgers women. I like having a marquee coach & team in this State of mostly mediocre Div. I college programs, one of them, Seton Hall, in a condition of shameful collapse. Some Rutgers fans gripe about Stringer's stern mother hen approach. What they really don't like is her refusal to go for an 80 point offense. But I admired Pete Carill's underdog, old school defense Princeton teams, & how it used to be said, "Nobody wants to play Princeton." That could also be said of Stringer's Rutgers teams.
