Last night, that game was Chicago vs. New York.
(Obviously, these are Skylar Diggins fans.)
That 80-69 win by Chicago is explained easily - whatever New York had, Chicago had more of it. Plenette Pierson was able to keep Elena Delle Donne capped but everyone else wasn't so lucky. Vandersloot had nine assists, Fowles had 15 points and 11 rebounds on half an ankle, and Tamera Young had been saving her points for a rainy day to unload with 17 points (Young averages 5.8 ppg.) After the first half, New York threatened a few times but they weren't able to sustain anything.
The Sky also had 10 blocks in the first half, one of those interesting, "most X in a half" records kept by the WNBA. They tie with a few other teams. The Sky shot 46.2 percent compared to the Libs and their 36.1 percent, and New York has now lost six of its last seven.
(* * *)
Since it's only me and Google reading this blog, I've been wanting to replace the header with a photo or otherwise snazz it up. The instructions I get on the web for this are not very clear. Furthermore, there is a dearth of photos of Pam Parsons, the former coach of the South Carolina women's team whose career ended in scandal in 1981. You could probably ask someone following women's basketball who Pam Parson's was and you're more likely than not to get an answer of "who?"
Let's make one thing clear: the title is not to make fun of Pam Parsons. Rather, its a nod to the progressive rock band the Alan Parsons Project. "Alan Parsons? Pam Parsons!" And furthermore, my project has more "P"s in it. Alan should have changed his name to Peter or Paul or something.
Actually, I feel a great deal of sympathy for Pam Parsons. Some good articles:
Stormy Weather at South Carolina (Sports Illustrated, 1982).
Coach Has Left Sad Legacy (Seattle Times, 1996).
Chatman's departure at LSU strikes chord with Parsons (ESPN, 2007).
Hearing on Perjury Shows Partisan Divide (Washington Post, 2008).
They even dragged Parsons into the spotlight during the Bill Clinton impeachement brouhaha, as you can see from the last link. (Hey, Parsons served jail time for perjury, so let's get her in front of an ethics committee to show how bad perjury is.) The 1996 link mentions that Parsons was living somewhere in Atlanta, and I wonder if she's still here almost 20 years later and watching Dream games incognito.
The short story is that Parsons was pretty much destroyed. She was a 32 year old woman having an affair with a 17-year old, and ended up offering that 17-year old a scholarship. There were a lot of shenanigans going on in that program, but this is what they got her for.
In 1996, Sylvia Hatchell put it right on the nose.
"Pam Parsons left a cloud over women's basketball," says North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell, incoming president of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association. "For one thing, people think everybody involved is a lesbian, which isn't anywhere close to being true. What's worse is that she made it like those people who are gay don't follow the rules."
I don't know about what "gay" has to do with "not following the rules" part, but there were a lot of bad things going on at South Carolina that had nothing to do with Parsons being lesbian. I think that even if she were as clean as Pat Summitt is reported to be, that she still would have turned out to have been exiled. Being a lesbian in basketball in 1982 was a lot worse than being one in 2007.
As for the Chatman scandal at LSU, she stepped down before things got public, and you can read about it from 10 different sources and still not understand it. (Louisiana State doesn't plan to give out details.) My best guess is that she had a relationship going on with one of her former players that started when that player was actually on Chatman's team. Possibly more than one player. Who knows?
Results: in 2007, Chatman is coaching the Chicago Sky, and has been coaching overseas, and aside from this shadow over her career, she can still be held in relative respect. Whereas Parsons is persona non grata. (The "deny it all" strategy on the witness stand didn't help.)
Forgive me for being a bleeding heart liberal, but I'd like to say that after 31 years, Pam Parsons has suffered enough.
(* * *)
Worked some more on the Historical Coaches Sheet yesterday, adding Central Florida. There were Division II until around the mid-1980s. Joe Sanchez coached there before he went on to Wake Forest.
(* * *)
Today's crisis - ants in the kitchen! This is the first time we've ever seen ants; they got in from under the glass sliding patio door and headed straight for the cat food. We exterminated all the ants we could find manually, fumbled with the caulk gun, and made repairs. Good as new, but we don't know what's going to happen until the next rainfall.
(* * *)
Since we're getting ready for a relocation, we had to empty out the closet under the stairwell. Here is where I've stored 15 long boxes belonging to both myself and my deceased best friend, Tim Bruce.
(Note: long boxes come neither with large blue plastic tub, or cat.)
Between 1981 and 1995, comic books were a huge part of my life. Around 1997? Nothing. I got out of them. I don't know how much they're worth and my wife has been begging me to sell them. But over 1/2 of these books are Tim's books, and I don't want to sell the books, because it would feel like selling Tim.
So they stay. I can say one thing about comic books - the endless arguing over minutiae ("Who would win in a fight? Thor, or The Hulk?") prepares one excellently for a life following women's basketball.
No comments:
Post a Comment