Uconn Huskies at Southern Cal [R]

The Vaunted Defending National Champions barely escaped with their lives
against the Women of Troy at the Sports Arena Sunday afternoon in Los
Angeles. Southern Cal was ahead by 15 points in the first half at one point
and was clearly dominating things. Ebony Hoffman was playing like she was
possessed and was really on a tear. Then Chris Gobrecht inexplicably had
Ebony taken out for the remaining 2 and a half minutes of the first half.
The Huskies took full advantage of Ebony's absence to get back in the game.
Instead of Southern Cal putting Uconn away in the first half, USC only lead
by 5 points at the intermission after letting the Huskies score two crucial
three point field goals in the closing seconds of the first half off of
sloppy SC errors. Southern Cal should have been ahead by at least 11 points
at the half. The two shots Uconn made in the closing seconds of the first
half decided the game.

Anyway, Diana Taurasi took control of the proceedings in the last five
minutes of the game to give the Huskies the win. Should Diana be drafted #1
in the upcoming WNBA college draft? You bet. Ebony Hoffman should receive
some consideration from WNBA general managers too. Personally, my belief is
that the incoming group of college seniors represents the beginning of a
complete changing of the guard in the WNBA. The level of play in this game
was not that much lower than I've seen at WNBA games.

In terms of talent, I don't think Uconn was any more talented that Southern
Cal, with the exception of Taurasi. USC has got some big, athletic,
physical players on their roster that matched up very well with the Huskies.
The difference was that the Huskies were better coached. They simply played
better as a team. It was the momentary lapses by Southern Cal that cost
them the game.

Over 6000 people showed up to see the game in the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
My impression is that at least a third of that were Uconn fans and
supporters. They must have come to Southern California to get away from the
big storm that hit the east coast this weekend ;). Given the pregame
coverage
the Los Angeles Times gave to the game (2 inch announcement at the bottom of
page 10 of the Sports Section), who knew Uconn was even playing Southern
Cal? It was a much better crowd than they had for the Tennessee game last
year. I felt like I was the only person in the stands at the Forum for that
game.

Over all, a good game.