Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Tuesday, September 04, 2007

While there seems to have been no official word on Catch's injury, the possiblity that she might miss the FIBA Americas Tourney made me take a gander at the US roster. There are 22 on it, but injuries, the Finals and...college? make it mighty thin.

Medic! Harding is out with the ACL, Catch is questionable (if we're fortunate. ON EDIT: We're not. And neither is she, dabnabbit! It's a torn achilles. Surgery this Wednesday.), Tina has a bum shoulder (apparently dislocated during the season), Sheryl has been injured all season, and no one seems to know her status.

Mom, Dad, can I go out and play? Fowles, Parker and Paris are in college -- anyone know if they're taking time off?

Hmmm, seems I'm booked on those days... The Finals will mean Ford (who we know is gimpy), Taurasi, Smith, Nolan, Pondexter and Cash will be busy -- perhaps through the 16th.

That means the practices at John Jay College and Temple may be made up of Augustus, Beard, Bird, Davenport, Douglas, McWilliams-Franklin, Milton-Jones, Snow and Whalen. Wonder if some locals will be dragged in to make up two full-court squads...

Brazlian insiders suggest that their current squad is no threat to this group (the winner of the Americas gets an automatic qualification for the Olympics), but it's going to make the two "friendlies" against Australia interesting.

Oh, and you can still get tickets for the game in Trenton (Sept 16) and up at the Casino (Sept 19).

Also, USA Basketball is having a little Tara VanDerveer-1996 Olympics-Flashback Tour this season -- check your local college team's pre-season schedule to see if the National team pops up. For instance, on Nov. 2 they play UConn and Tennessee on the 4th. Cool!

And if you don't understand my reference, might I suggest you read Tara's unfailingly honest "Shooting from the Outside," or the fabulously rich "Venus to the Hoop: A Gold Medal Year in Women's Basketball," by Sara Corbett. Both provide plenty of insight on the pressures of going for the gold as well as the founding of the ABL and the WNBA. As close to "must reads" as I get when it comes to "modern" women's basketball.