Scores Thursday 1/15

[YCN]

**** FINAL ***

Top 25 games
(19) Florida 77, at South Carolina 63
(16) Maryland 65, at Clemson 56
Minnesota 59, at (13) Ohio State 56
(15) Tennessee 63, at Mississippi St 56

Other games
Arizona St 68, UCLA 44
Jacksonville 51, at North Florida 42
NCCU 77, at Norfolk St 61
WI Green Bay 62, Detroit 43
Tennessee Tech 63, Tennessee Martin 56
Eastern Illinois 78, Eastern Kentucky 44
Morehead St 74, at SE Missouri St 68
Murray St 93, at Jacksonville St 86
Wright St 61, at WI Milwaukee 41
East Tennessee St 69, Belmont 51
Wake Forest 52, Boston College 48
High Point 82, Elon 48
Florida Gulf Coast 85, at Mercer 76
Florida St 64, at North Carolina St 59
Old Dominion 73, George Mason 42
Drexel 74, Georgia St 65
SC Upstate 59, Lipscomb 54
Butler 64, Loyola Chicago 45
Michigan St 41, at Michigan 37
Northeastern 54, NC Wilmington 50
NJIT 79, at Fairleigh Dickinson 69
Purdue 59, Penn State 48
Georgia 74, Savannah St 28
Stetson 77, at Kennesaw St 65
Hofstra 57, Towson 55
VCU 69, William & Mary 52
Indiana 64, Wisconsin 61
Kentucky 67, at Alabama 57
Creighton 55, at Southern Illinois 43
Drake 62, at Evansville 61
Valparaiso 66, Illinois Chicago 64
Indiana St 52, at Wichita St 48
Iowa 72, at Illinois 62
Montana 70, Idaho St 48
Southern Cal 77, at Arizona 71 OT
Montana St 75, Weber St 70
CS Fullerton 71, at UC Davis 59
Gonzaga 65, at Santa Clara 47
Northern Colorado 55, at Eastern Washington 53
Oregon 75, at Washington 55
Washington St 65, Oregon St 52
Portland 68, at San Francisco 50
Loyola Marymount 68, Saint Mary's 52
San Diego 69, at Pepperdine 57
Pacific 61, UC Irvine 37

[Dale8R]

Michigan St 41, at Michigan 37 Boy, you've got to look at that one twice. Junior High scoring totals.

Lots of Key games going on in the North West. People are asking how bad will Washington lose and how will the scores compare when Washington and Washington State trade opponents this weekend?

Despite a pretty good record, Gonzaga has had to deal with a lot of injuries, some of them long term. Junior Tiffany Shives (10.1 ppg) is out for the season, Senior Jamie (Bjorkland) Schaefer (5.6 ppg) had to miss the game when her Tennessee sister came to play and is out for about six weeks. Only three players have seen action in every game, and no one has started every game.

I should mention that Schaefer is the only Senior to see significant action and the team will be bolstered next season by the addition of Katelan Redmon who was the high scorer for Washington as a Freshman last year. That should be fun.

Gonzaga at Santa Clara, 7:00 PM PST
Oregon at Washington, 7:00 PM PST
Oregon St at Washington St, 7:00 PM PST

Andy Landers wins #800, or I should say his team does. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/womens-basketball/news?slug=ap-georgia-landers800th&prov=ap&type=lgns

[YCN]

Ohio State's home loss to Minnesota has to hurt, they were ranked #6 in the RPI and Minnie #40. They's drop a few notches at the time when you don't want to lose traction at all.

The bigger question is how many losses the Big Ten champion have? I doubt that anybody gets through conference play with as few as three. It looks like just another confused mess again this year.

I'm a little surprised at the rout that Arizona State put on UCLA. It suggests a four-team league again this year: Stanford, Cal, USC, Arizona State, maybe not in that order. Once again there are too many weak teams and not enough quality non-conference wins for a conference that may or may not get as many as four NCAA teams.

[Dale8R]

You know, I was going to say that I liked Minnesota's chances, and now it's too late! :rotflol:

Oregon is only up three on Washington with 3+ to go in the first half. http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/storm/2009/01/15/washington_vs_oregon_game_thre.html Jayda Evans is blogging as the game goes on, kind of an interesting concept. EDIT 32-27 Ducks at the half.

Iowa 72, at Illinois 62 Now that's REALLY bad news for the Illini. 0-7 in the Big Ten, 10 losses in the last 11, after a 3-0 start.

[Dale8R]

Washington State up 11 over Oregon State with less than 10 to go.

WSU is not putting them away, the lead is down to 7 with 5. Oregon stretching the lead on UW, now 13

Gonzaga with a big lead over Santa Clara. Light up the cigar. No wait, we have to remember no lead seems to be enough this season no matter how huge . EDIT I think it's safe, 60-31 with just a tick over 6 minutes left

[YCN]

Iowa 72, at Illinois 62 Now that's REALLY bad news for the Illini. 0-7 in the Big Ten, 10 losses in the last 11, after a 3-0 start.
Our Cyclone friends won't be hapy about that. They really want Iowa to get to the WNIT this year, so that they can take over the court in Iowa City...

Illinois is sinking like a stone. They only lost to UNC by 9 and South Dakota State by 2, both on neutral courts. Life is not good right now for the Illini.

Actually, Illinois is 1-14 after that 3-0 start.

[Dale8R]

Thanks, bad math. I somehow miscounted their current losing streak, which now stands at 8. Their last win was over Wisconsin-Milwaukee on December 10. They started the year with wins over IPFW, Eastern Illilnois and Missouri, that last one was on November 19. Not good.

This was another team depleted by defections, causing quite a stir last season.

FINAL Oregon 75-55. Considering how things have been going for UW lately, I guess you have to consider that a "moral victory." Jayda says The Huskies lost 75-55 to a very average Oregon team. In case you're keeping count at home, that's 125-points in losses in three games for the Dawgs. Next up? A revived Oregon State on Saturday at Hec Ed.

Washington State 65 Oregon State 52 Advantage WSU, to be continued Saturday. LOTS of people in the Northwest are keeping count, at least it would seem so from the newspaper articles.

Gonzaga 65 Santa Clara 47. Courtney Vandersloot 25 points

[YCN]

It just dawned on me that Illinois is the team that made the ballyhooed hire of Jolette Law, protege of C. Vivian Stringer at Rutgers. She has a powerhouse recruiting class coming in next year, but you never know about how good a head coach a person will be until that person actually gets the job.

It sounds to me like she's failing, dramatically. In fact, this Illinois team seems like it has quit on Law, which makes me wonder about their future.

Law better hope that the recruits make a rapid impact there, because if they don't, the administration might not have a lot of patience with her.

Illinois was 19-14 and made the final of the Big Ten tournament last year by winning three games as a low seed, so obviously they've gone to hell in a handbasket this year.

[Dale8R]

Here are some of the problems Jolette Law had leading up to this season.

Danielle Gratton left the team after Coach Grentz left. She went with Associate Head Coach Marsha Frese to Ball State. She is a Junior now and has started every game so far this season and is third on the team in scoring at 12.2. Frese is no longer at Ball State, having been let go by new Coach Kelly Packard when Tracy Roller resigned abruptly.

Danyel Crutcher, a Senior starter last season was suspended in February reportedly over some sort of blowup in practice and left the team about two weeks later. She obviously wouldn't have been playing this year anyhow.

Chelsea Buher, a Freshman last season, transferred to Indiana State, near her home in Lawrenceville, IL. She averaged about 1.5 ppg in averaging 7 minutes per game. She will be eligible to play next season.

Lori Bjork, who was Gratton's roommate, is the most well-known of the group. She averaged 10 ppg in 36+ mpg while starting all 35 games last season. She started every game the previous year, averaging about 14 and started all but three games her freshman year, scoring just over 10 ppg that year. She already has her degree from Illinois and has transferred to Maryland where she has one year of eligibility left.

I never saw anything derogatory in print from any of the three transfers. Obviously, something was not right. The closest thing to a negative that I saw came from Law after Bjork's leaving the team. "I was surprised, but really not surprised," UI coach Jolette Law said this afternoon. "I've got to be totally honest. She resisted me the whole year. Because I wasn't Marsha Frese. When she finally decided to buy in, she started playing better." Later on in the article she said, Sometimes change is difficult for people to handle." That was in the Champaign News-Gazette, and is still online: http://www.news-gazette.com/blogs/sports_of_all_sorts/2008/04/11/bjork_leaving_illinois

YCN, you mentioned Coach Law's connection to CVS. Tia Jackson played for Stringer at Iowa. Their circumstances, while not exactly the same do have some similarities.

[Dale8R]

Checking just a bit closer into the situation at Illinois, I turned these (and more) up for those who might be interested.

Bjork leaving UI basketball team http://www.illinihq.com/news/women_basketball/2008/04/12/bjork_saying_goodbye

"I've appreciated the opportunity to play basketball at Illinois and receive my degree in three years from this outstanding university," Bjork said. "I have always done my best to represent this university in a first-class manner, and I think my actions both on the court and in the classroom reflect that. My passion for basketball and my willingness to work hard have never wavered, but I have decided to use my last year of basketball eligibility in graduate school at another institution. I have no idea where I will be next year, but I leave Illinois feeling extremely grateful for the fans and the many members of the community and Illinois support staff I have had the pleasure of working with. I also want to thank my teammates for their friendship and support."

I clipped this part out for brevity, but it's also worth reading.

Bjork said in December that she faced a major adjustment in Law's offense. During Theresa Grentz's tenure, Bjork was a focal point of the offense, while Law looked for her point guard to be a player who often facilitated others' scoring opportunities.

"To be quite honest, it's been difficult," Bjork told The News-Gazette in December. "No one on this team is the point guard that Coach Law wants."

Fast forwarding to this season, here's the latest.

Law: 'This is painful' http://www.illinihq.com/news/women_basketball/2009/01/16/law_this_is_painful

If you want to see more, just use the search at illinihq.com (A service of the Champaign News-Gazette, and a most excellent one it is)

[YCN]

I guess it would be interesting to see Law's post-game comments about her team to get feel for what her reaction to this meltdown might be. Not that quoted comments necessarily reflect what the coach is saying in the locker room, but sometimes they can illuminate the issue to a significant degree.

Clearly, things are very much not right at Illinois. In spite of the defections, they ought to at least be competitive. I checked Illinios' record over the last 9 season, sans post-season results via NCAA/WNIT:

1999-00 22-10 (NCAA)
2000-01 16-15
2001-02 14-13
2002-03 17-11 (NCAA)
2003-04 9-18
2004-05 17-12
2005-06 15-14
2006-07 18-11
2007-08 19-14

While not spectacular, there's no indication anywhere above to anticipate what's happening to the team this year. In four of the last nine years they've lost at least 14 games, but then again, we are talking about mid-January, not March.

[Dale8R]

One more and I'm done. This article says a lot about Coach Law and needs to be put in for balance. My opinion: (for whatever it's worth) Both Coach Law and Coach Jackson are tough and probably fair minded coaches. As I see it, they are failing because of trying to do too much. The transition from the prior coaches, Grentz and Daugherty, was not particularly well thought out. The kids resisted, the coaches continued to push them in a direction they didn't want to go, at least not so far and the Chaos that has ensued is the result.

Only time will tell if they can put things right again.

Jolette Law: 'I'm a motivator' http://www.illinihq.com/news/women_basketball/2008/04/06/im_a_motivator

In the beginning, I tried to be the disciplinarian. But I didn't allow these players to see me, and what I was all about. It was always business. Ultimately, I wanted to change the culture. Not just wins and losses, but to instill my passion and my drive into them. I wanted to breathe life back into this program.

We hit some potholes, and a lot of it had to do with me meeting resistance, and standing my ground and not giving in. Even the thing with (Danyel Crutcher), a lot of people could have thought, 'What in the world are you doing?' Sticking to my guns. Bottom line, we're going to do it this way, and this is the way it's going to be. I'm not going to win at all costs. We lost some close games, and a lot of it came down to trust.