Posted by Mechelle Voepel
My Kansas City Star duties have me in Philadelphia this weekend for the Olympic gymnastics trials at the Wachovia Center. The last time I was in this building was for the 2000 Final Four. That's when UConn coach Geno Auriemma made a wisecrack remark about the neighboring cheesesteak places called Geno's and Pat's, joking that one was all shiny and cool-looking and the other old and dilapidated.
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, when asked about this, had that, "Am I supposed to find that funny?" glare.
Hmmm. Has anybody heard how that whole Pat vs. Geno thing turned out?
Anyway, scoring in gymnastics has been revised -- like with figure skating -- in order to make the process more transparent and accountable. Which, I suppose, it has done … except now you kind of need a degree from MIT to completely understand it.
Basketball has a little simpler formula: You have 2-pointers, 3-pointers and free throws. The team that gets the most of all of those wins the game. And while I like watching and writing about gymnastics -- especially since I don't have to do my own math -- at the back of my mind is always basketball and who's hot right now.
That would be San Antonio, which beat Los Angeles 77-75 on Friday for its fifth consecutive victory. Much of the attention on the Silver Stars of late, of course, has been on Becky Hammon and her Olympic quest for the Russian team. I might have written a word or two about that myself.
But here, let's just talk about Hammon's Silver Stars, and how they stack up as real contenders this season. San Antonio is now 8-4, just behind the 8-3 Sparks in the Western Conference.
So far, it doesn't seem as if the Olympic issue is distracting Hammon on court. She had 19 points, six rebounds and five assists against the Sparks, and her season scoring average is 14.7 points. If there's a stat of hers to be concerned about, though, it's 3-point percentage: 29.8 (25 of 84).
After last season's playoff loss to eventual champion Phoenix, Hammon was deeply disappointed. The controversial ending to the first game of the Western Conference finals only made it worse.
She hit a 3-pointer -- her seventh of the night -- that appeared would send the game to overtime. But Shanna Crossley was called for a highly questionable foul on Cappie Pondexter, who hit two free throws with 2.1 seconds left for the 102-100 win.
It was a lousy ending to a great game, and the kind of loss that would be tough enough to overcome emotionally in a five- or seven-game series. In a three-game series, it's nearly impossible.
The Silver Stars, however, did put up a lot more of a fight than I expected in Game 2, but still lost 98-92. Hammon teared up after that game when talking about how much she had come to care about her teammates in her first season in San Antonio.
That was her seventh appearance in the playoffs, but she has no WNBA titles. Her longtime New York Liberty backcourt mate, Vickie Johnson, shares that frustration. But the two, both starters for the Silver Stars, still have an opportunity to get the trophy in Texas.
Because they don't have to do it all. Ann Wauters, the No. 1 pick in the league in 2000, is back this year after sitting out the 2006 and 2007 WNBA seasons. She played for Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes in Cleveland, and she and Hammon have competed together both in New York and in Russia.
Wauters has been one of the more successful and influential players in Europe the last several years, so she's used to winning and success.
As is fellow post player Sophia Young, who earned a national championship at Baylor in 2005 and is blossoming into the kind of pro that her former college coach Kim Mulkey always predicted she would be. That's someone who consistently will produce for a team because she has fantastic work ethic and is always trying to improve. Young is leading the Silver Stars at 17.3 points per game.
It also can't be overstated how important it is to have Erin Buescher back. She suffered a torn left ACL last July and the Silver Stars missed her down the stretch. Players such as Buescher, Ruth Riley and Helen Darling are valuable veterans who give teams a sense of steadiness.
That will help during the break for the Olympics, when teams will need to keep their positive mojo going and be ready to hit the ground running as soon as WNBA play resumes.
As long as they stay healthy, the Silver Stars are one of the squads that should be able to do that.
Women's Basketball
