I didn't see this posted or discussed, so apologies on advance if it's already here. This is a really great discussion with massive stats on how we beat Baylor, even without Danielle's normal offensive prowess. I liked it but I'm a numbers geek.

Bottom line is what we know and saw, but it might give a little insight as to what we can expect with Stanford too.

I think this in confirmation that this team, when they are on, is better than the sum of the individual parts. That coherence isn't automatic; it takes great coaching and players that buy into the concept.

Excellent read. Someone should send it to Mulkey since she said she needs to go back and "figure out why we played so poorly." We miss "easy layups" because we feel BG's presence and rush shots. They miss "wide open shots" because they feel our defense swarming all around them. Not that hard to understand, really, unless you cannot give credit where it's due...

good read. I didn't understand certain stats he computed.

checl out some of the articles at the bottom of the page

How do you make a link like that? I would like to have one in my signature, but I don't know how.

Wow... that site is going onto my bookmarks. The linked post has depth, and the one about the GB-BU sweet 16 game has some eloquent writing

quote:

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To even imagine that this group of Wisconsin kids would be given a shot against a presumptive in Baylor is actually the height of the meritocracy that we want to imagine this great project of U.S. democracy is all about. It's the answer to the question what does equal opportunity mean anyway? Quite simply, it's about the opportunity to compete and be judged purely on what happens without being impeded by preconceived notions of ability or worth.

Honestly, imagining an equivalent day occurring in "real life" is little more than a pipe dream or the elusive dream society that revolutionaries pursue out of a fundamental love for humanity without necessarily thinking they'll see it come to fruition in their lifetimes. And although I don't necessarily buy the idea that sports can in some way serve as a corrective for the ills that plague our society, these moments of triumph are in some ways a reminder that these ideals that are so easily dismissed as idealistic dreams best-suited for the insulated environment of college campuses might just be worth wondering about. Perhaps not putting our lives on hold to enact, but doing what we can to ensure that future generations can take one step closer to that.

Therein lies the transformative power of sport.

On the broadest scale, the transformative power of sport lies in its capacity to show us just how contrived the boundaries and expectations we impose upon each other really are, whether those be breaking barriers of class, gender or race. We can all think of those moments where a sports accomplishment helps to trigger a national conversation of great consequence or at least gives those on the side of justice one more piece of resonant evidence to aid their cause.

But sometimes, the beauty of setting up conditions like the NCAA Tournament is simply stopping for a moment to celebrate a cliched David and Goliath story that somehow manages to feel fresh every time we allow ourselves to truly revel it in freed from the impulse to roll our eyes. Perhaps even filing away such triumphs of the human will in the "Madness" folder that exists within our collective social conscience actually helps us to acknowledge the beauty of the moment without the burden of thinking about all that makes it otherwise impractical in real space. In that sense, it's not earth-shattering or life-changing for those of us who only witness it occurring, but still appreciated as it is unquestionably the culmination of dreams that probably existed somewhere beyond the limits of the imagination for those kids at Butler and VCU

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The one here has a lot of nice stuff to say about Syd Colson...

http://www.swishappeal.com/2011/3/31/2072331/wnba-draft-2011-gonzaga-bulldogs-courtney-vandersloot-best-point-guard

Not only is she a great distributor and a great perimeter defender, she also has that intangible quality that people love playing with her. We've seen it ever since she arrived here...her personality is engaging and you can't help but enjoy yourself around her. Hopefully she gets some long, hard looks from the WNBA. I'm sure her tournament performance and her All-American recognition will help her out on draft day as well.

Yes, it's quite a nice, in-depth, informative site. Not a bunch of cliches and inane phrases.

The guy who wrote that 1st article I linked, Nate Parham, seems almost zen-like in his analysis. It appears he's developed quite a crush on the Aggies, beginning after last year's devastating loss to the Zags last year in the tourney.

We all know and appreciate what wonderful people we have with this team, but it's really inspiring to know total strangers feel the same aura we feel all the time. That my WBB friends, is this team's greatest legacy, but an NC would be a very close second.

Quagga81 - you can do a text hyperlink using the following code:

(url=http://texags.com) text text texty text text (/url) but use brackets [] instead of () and the above will look like this

text text texty text text

If you ever get confused, just click on the "edit" of a post that has one of those links and you'll see what it looks like. Good luck.

[This message has been edited by bqce (edited 4/1/2011 6:14p).]

Is Parham using calculus or trigonometry to reach his conclusions? I thought I was a stats geek until I read this. :-)

_______________________
"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death....I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." Bill Shankly

"Basketball is the new football." William C. G.

"If at first you don't SECede, try, try again! William C. G.

Parham appears to be a devotee of APBRmetrics, the bball equivalent of the SABRmetrics popularized by Bill James for baseball.

He posted a glossary on the blog...found it by looking through their archives because I was also confused by his stats.

Thanks bqce! Here's my first attempt.

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Women's Rowdies

Glad I didn't confuse you Quag. Very nicely done by the way.

Also, I e-mailed Nate Parham and asked him to join our forum. He was very nice and complimentary and said he would be glad to throw his two cents in here. He's in Indie now, so maybe we'll see his bright smiling face.

That's great!