Dream lose to Liberty...Let's go to Naptown

.
CARDINAL COUPLE: THE FRIDAY REPORT

-Atlanta gets "liberated" 91-69 by New York

-And just where would we move the BIG EAST WBB Tourney to?

New York is on a roll. Atlanta...not so much roll. More like a thud yesterday
in a 22 point loss to Cappie Pondexter and her New York Liberty teammates.

This one was over pretty early...New York zoomed off on a 11-0 run in the first quarter, led by 17 at the half and by 25 in the third.

Turn out the lights...the party's over.

Kia Vaughn played at Rutgers before the WNBA

Plenty of contributors chipped in to send Atlanta to 3-9 on the season. Nicole Powell with 20, Kia Vaughn 14, Leilani Mitchell 12...six Liberty in all hit double figures. Make it four in a row for NYL now and six out of the last seven.

Atlanta got 17 from Angel. Difference in the game? New York's front line of Vaughn, Powell, Pierson and Hollingsworth had 55 points. The Dream's front line of Angel, Erika de Souza, Alison Bales and Courtney Paris managed 29.

Maybe the Dream could request a schedule change and play Tulsa and Washington the rest of the year...

**********************************************************************************

A lot of people are probably getting the hint that WE'RE not big fans of the BIG EAST returning to Hartford for the Geno Invitational BIG EAST Women's Basketball Tournament. So...where would we move it if we had that power?

Conseco Fieldhouse is a great place to watch hoops.

Why not Indianapolis? No home court advantage there for anyone. A couple of good places to play there, too. If Conseco Fieldhouse is booked, there's Lucas Oil Stadium.

Even Butler University's Hinkle Fieldhouse, if all else fails, can hold 10,000 fans.

Worried about attendance? Don't be. Louisville fans would make the 1 1/2 drive. Irish fans would flock in from South Bend. DePaul and Chicago isn't a back-breaking drive to "Naptown"". Toss in a few stragglers from Cincinnati, Marquette and West Virginia and you've got six of the 16 BIG EAST teams and some teams that draw pretty well for women's basketball.

I know this idea will cause blood pressure spikes and bulging temple veins with the good folk in Storrs, Providence, Philadelphia, Piscataway, Washington and South Orange.

I'm leaving Pittsburgh, South Florida, Syracuse and St. John out of this discussion because-combined- they don't draw as many fans to a women's basketball home game than Louisville, Connecticut, Rutgers or Notre Dame does individually.  

Let's say that the Pittsburgh Panthers fans gets really excited about women's basketball this year and want to follow Agnes and the team to the conference tournament.

Pitt to Indy. 360 miles
Pitt to Hartford. 472 miles

I'll also wager that the first six schools I mentioned (Louisville, Notre Dame,
DePaul, Cincinnati, West Virginia and Marquette) have a larger combined total home attendance number than the second six (Connecticut, Providence, Villanova, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Georgetown.) 


I'm betting that you could top the much ballyhooed XL Center numbers if they gave it a try. I'm thinking that area residents would attend also...because Indiana is a big basketball state and they probably get more fans in a high school gym to watch Brownstown play Paoli than Seton Hall draws when Providence comes to town. I'm guessing they might come out to see the best conference in women's basketball battle.

Of course, the idea will never penetrate the impermeable walls of the BIG EAST Women's basketball offices. But, I still like the idea. If the BIG EAST women's basketball conference is this one, big happy family that Danielle "Done-now" suggests...surely a change might be fun and do them good. Time to quit sitting back and limiting the tournament venue search to the state of Connecticut. Take a road trip, D.D. You just might like Indiana....and guess what? There are NO evil casinos in Indianapolis, either.

Let's let the East Coast do a little travelling for a change...
.

Angel gets her groove back...Greenwell, Russell key USA over Brazil

.
Wednesday Edition: CARDINAL COUPLE

-Angel McCoughtry, Atlanta beat New York 79-58

-Opening FIBA game features Russell, Greenwell in USA win.



A healthy Angel is the key to
Atlanta Dream success.



The Atlanta Dream captured their first win of the WNBA season...a 79-58 rout of the New York Liberty in Newark, NJ yesterday. Angel McCoughtry poured in 18 points for the Dream (1-3)...exacting revenge for the opening game of the season loss to the Liberty in Atlanta. The Dream put together runs of 11-0 and 9-0 in the first half and led the Liberty by 12 at halftime.

McCoughtry did the majority of her work in the first half, with 16 of her 18 in the first half. The Dream also got 12 points from front liner Erika DeSouza and Sancho Lyttle added 10. The Dream stretched the lead to 73-50 with five minutes to go in the fourth quarter and coasted in from there.

Former BIG EAST and Rutgers stars Essence Carson and Kia Vaughn led the way for the Liberty (2-2)...Carson scoring 21 points and Vaughn contributing 16. It is the second straight loss for New York at the Prudential Center...after opening the season with two road wins.

Carson had a big first half for the Liberty, with 17 points...but New York could never trim the deficit margin to under ten after the first quarter. Cappie Pondexter, formerly from Rutgers, plays for the Liberty also.

**********************************************************************************

Mercedes Russell's size advantage proved to
be too much for Brazil in the second half. She's 6'5".

Mercedes Russell had her way with the Brazilian U16 team in first round action in the FIBA Americas U16 Championships in Merita, Mexico...scoring 21 points and grabbing 15 rebound in 31 minutes of play. The USA squad rallied from a 34-31 deficit at halftime to regain the lead...largely due to the play of Rebecca Greenwell, a soon-to-be-junior at Owensboro (KY) Catholic. Greenwell scored the first four points of the second half for USA and ended up with eight points and six rebounds in 30 minutes in the 71-54 win over Brazil.

Greenwell talked about her team's focus in the opener:

"Brazil came out very aggressive and maybe played like they wanted it a little more than us in the first half. But we came down here to win the gold medal. We refocused a little bit at halftime, then came out and really got after it in the second half. Brazil plays a fast-paced game, which is fine with us...it's the way we like to play also."

Greenwell had 27 points in an exhibition game Sunday in the USA's 108-32 win over Mexico. USA will also play Venezuela and Argentina in games this week before the semi-finals and final games this weekend.

Way to represent, Becca! We can help but think that both Greenwell and Russell would look awfully good in Cardinal Red and Black in the KFC YUM! Center... 

..