Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Tuesday, March 08, 2005

The ACC championship game was, despite the wide margin of victory, the most fun to watch. It was a superlative show. This might be the most intense rivalry in the game. You can talk all you want about UConn-UT, but nowhere else do you see so much trash talking, so many hard fouls, so much emotion.

And UNC is a superlative team. They are the fastest, most athletic team in women's college basketball. This squad might be the most athletic women's team ever.

One example: in the middle of the second half, Nikita Bell is defending Currie. Currie tries to lob over Bell to feed the post. Bell jumps high in the air to tip the pass, then goes to the floor to prevent the post from picking it up, then jumps over the baseline to save it to a teammate. She thus starts the offensive possession behind her own baseline, the 10th farthest player from the other basket.

But she sprints down the floor -- by the halfcourt line, she has already passed seven other players. She runs the wing lane, gets the pass, and goes right around Bales to score. It all happened in about 5 seconds.

"How sweet it is to get here my senior year after battling so hard in the past," Bell said after the game.

North Carolina "played, I think, their best game of the season," coach G said. "I thought we had weathered the storm in the first half, but it got worse in the second half. Or better for them."

One criticism: it was poor form by Hatchell to leave her starters in with a 20-point lead and the game decided. And it was also poor form by Alex Miller to throw up a three at the end when Duke had stopped fouling (and stopped guarding her). I don't care that was your only time on the floor and your only chance to score -- that's never ok.