An eye for the game, an appreciation for play, a flowing style and a good turn of phrase -- all things Q brings to the blogosphere.

It's a pleasure to read, and I have little hesitation saying that "Rethinking Basketball" provides a welcome counter-balance to the "inane commentary" WHB is proud to offer.

Read his account of the Sacto-Detroit game and you'll get what I mean. My favorite line? His description of Deanna Nolan's play:

Nolan just rose over Penicheiro’s hand to stick the three. She’s incredible – with the game on the line and a hand in her face, she’s shooting jumpers over people from the three-point line. You can’t hope to defend that without cheating.

And consider his appreciation of the Mystics players after their upset win over Seattle.

What struck me was seeing the exuberance of a frequently dysfunctional Mystics team led by an interim coach beat a contender with the best record in the league based on pure effort and heart when they had every reason to give up. It shows something about the Mystics that has perhaps been lost in a professional sports world dominated by overblown contracts and ego: this team really cares about what they do. And it makes it easy to love women’s basketball.

Any time I get to witness the joy that comes from someone doing what they truly love – even if it’s putting a ball into a basket – it gives me goose bumps. It doesn’t matter if they go on to win the championship, what their attendance was, or whether they are engaged in challenging sexist double standards about women (though all those things are important). What matters is that they truly care about the outcome of that game and it’s worth noting in a society that has become way too wrapped up in the extremes of cynicism and trying to change the entire world at once.

As a theater person, I flashed back to 1985 when I watched in awe as Lily Tomlin performed her one-woman show, ''The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.''

In the show, the character Trudy is trying to explain humans and their experiences to some visiting aliens:

"They asked me, 'Did it feel like goose bumps?'

I said 'You folks never felt goose bumps?'

They said, 'No.' They asked me to explain goose bumps. Do they come from the heart? Do they come from the mind? Do they come from the soul? Or do they come from geese?'"

Continued Trudy,

"Yeah, remember that night I took 'em to the theatre. We're standing there in the dark, I feel one of 'em tug my sleeve, he whispers, 'Trudy, look.'

I said, 'Yeah, goose bumps. You really like the play that much?'

They said it wasn't the play gave 'em goose bumps, it was the audience. I forgot to tell 'em to watch the play, they'd been watching the audience. Yeah, to see a group of strangers sitting together in the dark, laughing and crying about the same things just knocked 'em out.

They said; 'Trudy, the play was soup - the audience - art.'"

Most people are writing soup about women's basketball. Thanks to Q, we're getting some art.