Tuesday Links: Lance Stephenson, Women's Basketball
by Ben Broman on Mar 17, 2009 4:07 PM EDT
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Should have the Q&A with Cal up late tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, I will distract you with links to others' work.
- Maryland's women's basketball team garnered a #1 seed in the NCAAT, luckily on the opposite side of the bracket as UConn. The Lady Terps are really getting hot at the right time, I wouldn't be shocked to see a Final Four run. This really is their best team since the Natty a few years ago, and it might be better than that. Unfortunately, UConn might be unbeatable this year. It'd certainly be an entertaining game should the two meet in the finals.
- This throws a wrench in my countdown plan. Looks like Lance won't announce on Saturday. It had been reported earlier by other outlets, but now there's no one at all saying he'll commit on Saturday. It's the crippling blow for Saint John's, and it isn't particularly bad for Maryland. More than likely, he'll commit April 1 at the McD's All-American game. There's more publicity there than any other option. It's too close to make a prediction as to where Lance will go, but I actually like the Terps' chances. A lot of NYC guys seem to think he'll be a Terp.
- There's some more news that, if it's not great per se, it's really cool: Lance actually talks with Jay-Z after games. He's also been known to have chats with Fat Joe. It sounds weird, but Maryland could be the "cool" school again. If a young up-and-coming recruit hears Maryland mentioned in a Hova or Fat Joe rap (even if it's only done because they're referencing Lance), I'm pretty sure he'd be interested in the Terps right away.
- Greivis Vasquez is really, really good, but you already know that. Well, so do the Cal Gold Bears. They don't seem to know too much about him other than "he's great", but it's pretty powerful that his reputation travels across the country when the Terps get so little national play. For instance, I had no idea who Jerome Randle was before Maryland drew Cal.
- I find it funny in the above link that they say the Cal player closest to Greivis is a freshman named Jorge Gutierrez. I don't know much about Cal outside of my time playing as them in NCAA Basketball 09 in Dynasty Mode (one year, before I moved on to Tennessee), but Gutierrez is 6-3, 185. He also appears to be a shooter. Neither of those are close to Vaz's game. Wonder what's similar?
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Lance
The pro-terps spin is that this is a good thing, that the only reason he would have committed in NYC is if he wanted to go to St. Johns. (I don’t really understand the need to have a publicity filled announcement,but that’s another matter). However, I tend to take kids for their word when it comes to recruiting because we could speculate in a thousand of different directions. I think he probably just needs more time to decide per his father’s statement that TTK reported on earlier today. And that, is not good news. The longer this drags on, the more chance a late straggler (syracuse, lousville, memphis) who loses someone to the pros will get in and throw a wrench in this whole thing. I’m with TTK, this is way too wild to predict. Even if he commits, I’ll believe it when I see him suit up.
That being said, LANCE PLEASE!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!
Yeah I wonder
probably written by one of those assholes who pronounce it vasqwez….
Vasquez/Gutierrez
First off, he’s absolutely not a shooter.
Since I haven’t seen much of Vasquez, I’ll just describe Gutierrez and you can decide if there’s a similarity (aside from the Central/South American thing)
1. High energy player – Jorge is our change of pace guy off the bench – yes Randle is much much quicker (Jorge backs up the 1, 2 and 3 spots) – but Jorge goes all out for the 12-18 minutes he’s on the court. He can be a defensive pest – and he’s very shortly going to evolve into one of those players that all of the opposing fans hate.
2. Stat-sheet stuffer – he doesn’t put up big stats, but when he has a good game, he contributes all the way across the board. A handful of points, some assists, some rebounds, lots of steals. And then lots of deflections, charges taken, etc.
3. He really can’t shoot.
4. For the writer I suspect the similarity has to do with their native language and countries of origin. It’s that whole you can only compare white players to white player sort of mentality. I’m sure if we went player by player he’d compare Zhang to Kim too.
Thanks
The Cal bio had him shooting like 67% from 3 in HS, so I assumed he could stroke it.
Vaz is high energy, but more in his emotion than his play itself. The statsheet comparison works, as does the inability to shoot.
However, I’m pretty sure that guy was going for the ethnic comparison. If he compares Zhang to Kim (he probably would) it’d be hilarious. I wish Kim was 7-3.
I actually think Gutierrez has a decent shot, but within the context of our offense, there’s absolutely no reason for him to take more than a couple shots per game that aren’t layups. He might be only the third or fourth best shooter for Cal on the court at any given time.
So, basically, you gotta Go Bears!
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