Mystics update

Alana's ankle is still keeping her out of games, but the Mystics are off until next Wednesday, so she should have more time to heal. And although they have lost two of the three games without her, they have been competetive, so maybe things will get clicking once she's back.

Alana questionable for tonight's game

Despite Alana wanting to be back for tonight's Mystics-LA game, it sounds like Adubato may hold her out for another game. Her ankle is taking longer to heal than she wants.

In other WNBA news, the Mystics were bought by a group headed by a black woman, a first for any sport. Sheila Johnson should be at tonight's game.

USA basketball trials are over

Mo and Alison were named to the 16-woman World University Team roster today. Also making the team were Brooke Smith (who transferred from Duke to Stanford a few years back), and Ivory Latta from UNC.

Gail Goestenkors, head coach of the U-19 National team, also named her roster today. As expected, Abby Waner made the team.

Congratulations to Mo, Ali, and Abby.

Read the quotes from each player and the coaches.

Meanwhile, in Colorado...

Mo answers questions about the USA Team Trials, her previous experience with the National Team, and her future. She doesn't say a lot on how it's going, except that she was worried initially about the altitude.

The teams might be announced later today.

The importance of (not) being a point guard

My contention all last year was that Alana struggled early last season because Michael Adams insisted on playing her at the point, and in the first half of the season, that she set up Holdsclaw. At one point he was quoted as saying that he wanted 70 percent of the offense run for Chamique. Once Holdsclaw went out, Alana began to shine.

It's early days yet, and she hasn't even played so far due to injuries, but this (from the Washington Times) is encouraging:

Johnson, starting in place of Alana Beard, who didn't travel to Charlotte because of a sprained left ankle, played so well that first-year Mystics coach Richie Adubato said he's now trying to decide if he wants to keep Johnson as his starting point guard and shift Beard to a starting wing spot when Beard returns.

As an aside, the same article lists Alana as questionable for tonight's games...

Mystics win their opener

They won 60-42, despite not having Alana and having Delisha Milton-Jones coming off the bench only a few days after her return to the states. She had 11, Temeka Johnson had 10, and Charlotte Smith-Taylor had 9, with Chas Melvin adding 8 rebounds.

They play again tomorrow at home vs. the Connecticut Sun at 6 pm. Hopefully Alana will play...

Mystics links

The Washington Post has a story on Delisha Milton-Jones and the Mystics, confirming that Alana will not play tonight. They do think at this point she will play tomorrow in their home opener.

And the Mystics have up a preview of tonight's game and the season. Good quote from Alana about the new look of the team:

“We wanted someone else to get in there and bruise” said Beard. “We’ve got some bruisers now. We needed a bigger bruiser and we got one. We needed help at the point, and we got it. It will allow me to step more to the ‘2’ which is my natural position.”

Iciss waived

Sadly, the Washington Mystics have waived Iciss Tillis. Hopefully she'll be picked up somewhere else...

The Mystics season opener is tomorrow at Charlotte, but Alana may not play again due to a sprained ankle (suffered on May 15). She is listed as day-to-day.

Random WNBA links

Alana and the Mystics are getting ready to open their season against the Charlotte Sting. The game is at 6:00 on Saturday in Charlotte.

Observers continue to describe Alana as a point guard:

Teasley is not counted on to score for the Sparks the way Taurasi is in Phoenix. But she still averaged 9.9 points, led the league in assists (6.1) and was the second-leading three-point shooter with 68.

Other guards in that mold include Washington's Alana Beard, Seattle's Sue Bird, Connecticut's Lindsay Whalen and Houston's Janeth Arcain.

The article goes on to describe Temeka Johnson as a "throwback" point guard at 5'3".

Michele Van Gorp sighting

I meant to post this a while ago, but there's a brief mention of Michele Van Gorp over at womenshoops. She is apparently still too injured to play in the W, although her name and picture still appear in places on the Minnesota Lynx website.

More cuts for the Mystics

The Mystics have cut Cathy Joens and Tashia Morehead, and announced that Aiysha Smith will miss the 2005 season to spend time with her family. They also signed forward Jaclyn Johnson, though it's probably a long shot for her to make the team.

Smith's decision will probably mean more minutes for Iciss.

Alana and Temeka chat transcript

Alana and rookie Temeka Johnson chatted today about the upcoming season. Of interest: Alana doesn't think she influenced Mo's decision at all, she just answered her questions, and she has been working on developing her moves to the right, because everyone has been playing her to her left. And of course, she's thrilled to have Iciss on the team

Alana and Temeka chat

Alana and Temeka Johnson will be chatting on espn.com Thursday at 1.

Mystics' final preseason game

Well, Alana is still not playing because of a sore hamstring, and the Mystics lost at home to the Sparks, 77-67.

Iciss played only five minutes and missed both of her jumpers. She did have 2 rebounds and an assist in that span.

The Mystics open their season at 6:00, May 21 at Charlotte. Hopefully Alana will be better by then...

Team USA, part deux

The rumor from about a month ago was that Alison, Monique, and Wanisha had been invited to try out for the United States National Team. I also expected Abby Waner to receive an invite. Sure enough, invitees have been formally announced and all four are going.

Abby will be trying out for the 12-member U-19 team, coached by our own Coach G, while Al, Mo, and Nish will be trying out for the World University Team (also 12-member) coached by Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. The trials run May 19-22 in Colorado Springs.

Tia Jackson joins coaching staff

Tia Jackson is joining the Duke coaching staff, taking over LaVonda Wagner's position beginning June 1. She has been an assistant coach at UCLA for the past five years, and was also an assistant at Stanford and Va. Commonwealth. Collegiately she played for the Iowa Hawkeyes and was a forward for the Phoenix Mercury during the inaugural season of the WNBA, though her professional career ended early due to knee and shoulder injuries.

She served as UCLA's recruiting coordinator during her time there, and should be able to pick up on the recruiting trail where LaVonda left off. By all accounts she is an excellent recruiter, and was responsible for recruiting Noelle Quinn and Nikki Blue among others.

Welcome, Tia!

Iciss, Mystics, more

Iciss Tillis and Chasity Melvin will be reporting for training camp on Monday as the Mystics have made another round of cuts to make room. Iciss's Polish team Wisla lost in the TBL finals series 3 games to 1, so she is finally back in the states. In the finals Iciss only played in three games, and in those three games scored 2, 17, and 12.

The Mystics lost their first preseason game to Houston, however Alana never played at all in what must have been a sacrificial game to help decide who was to be cut. Apparently she, Iciss, and Delisha Milton-Jones were at the game in street clothes sitting behind the bench. Alana didn't play in their scrimmage against Charlotte either; hopefully she's okay.

They ended up waiving Courtney Coleman and Tiffany Williams. Earlier cuts were Shauzinski Gortmann and Edwina Brown. They also announced last week that Erica Smith-Taylor would not be reporting yet since she is not back in shape after the birth of her daughter last January.

Milton-Jones, another probable starter for the Mystics, is still listed as overseas, along with two other training camp invitees.

The Mystics' only other preseason game is Tuesday, May 10 at 7 pm against the Sparks.

One more LaVonda article

This story on LaVonda is the longest and most glowing yet. Of interest, she originally only committed to be at Duke for two years.

Links for LaVonda

There have been a spate of articles this week, all about LaVonda Wagner and her new head-coaching position with Oregon State:

The distilled version of the articles: All of this year's recruits are expected to honor their commitments. Her base salary will be $140,000, with a 60,000 media package, with yearly increases for the next five years and incentive packages built in. It sounds like everyone at Oregon State is thrilled to have her on board.

One interesting tidbit: she has a baby niece named Isis. I wonder who came up with that name?

The articles:
collegesports.com
kgw.com
dhonline.com
registerguard.com
oregonlive.com.

About the defensive numbers for 2004-2005

Continuing with the analysis of last season's stats (begun with stat geekery), here is some thinking about the defensive numbers from the previous post.

These numbers were a little harder to get at, mostly because of the way stats are kept. Dean Oliver, the author of Basketball on Paper, would like for more defensive stats to be kept, but his way would require many more stat-keepers over at the scorers' table. We do our best with the numbers we have available! Oliver considers that defense is more team-oriented than offense, and therefore each player gets some credit for a fifth of all stops while she is on the floor. Because of these two factors these numbers are much more approximate than offensive stats.

Of note is that Chante had the best overall defensive numbers, though her limited minutes (especially early on after her ankle injury) might have skewed things a little. Alison, who won Duke's Defensive Player of the Year award, had by far the best numbers of the starters. Of the other starters, unurprisingly, Mo was next, and actually had the most stops overall.

I have not yet completed my analysis of the other top 25 teams to see what the average numbers were, but my gut tells me that Duke overall had an excellent year defensively just based on these numbers. An overall goal would be for a team as a whole to allow fewer than 100 points per 100 possessions (and conversely to score more than that on offense) and I think it's pretty amazing that individually Duke achieved that level as well. Wanisha gave up the most points per possession (most certainly due to her playing an unfamiliar position and the most difficult position as a freshmen), and still fell well below the 100 mark at 91.

Defensive numbers

Stops = defensive stops
Stop% = percentage of stops during player's time on the floor
DRtg = defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions)

	Stops	Stop%	DRtg
Wynter	119	.49	85
Monique	218	.54	82
Mistie	166	.48	85
Jess	165	.45	87
Caitlin	24	.39	89
Alison	180	.59	81
Wanisha	147	.35	91
Chante	153	.67	77
Laura	83	.43	87

(For more on these terms, see stat geekery.)