Some notes and some news about the women

More teeny tiny items today, waiting for something of huge substance to happen.

I figure once they get to Vancouver and start getting serious about rotations and lineups and the like we’ll get some juicy stuff; for now, it’s all been about drills and conditioning.

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It was about Wednesday morning, I think, when it first struck me that a whole new defensive system that was being implemented for the lads.

Why? Because the house has been torn down.

Remember last year when they put an outline of a “house” down on the practice court floor to remind everyone how they wanted to defend? To protect the paint, stop penetration and yadda, yadda, yadda.

It’s gone and so is that style.

Not sure how it’s going to work, this idea of more pressure and getting out on your man and trying to chase shooters off the three-point line.

It would seem that with this group – a bit more athletic with the likes of Barbosa, a more experienced Weems and Kleiza has to be quicker than Hedo, right? – trying to force stuff with the defence makes sense.

Can they do it? They better or they’re going to get drilled an awful lot of times.

But it seems that they know there are limitations and problems that will arise.

In a very interesting conversation with PJ the other night, we were talking about “steering” guys and covering up for deficiencies in quickness and the like. And he knows full well, and so does Jay, that they can’t leave anyone out on an island.  

“I think they can do an adequate job when they’re protected by their teammates. But when you’ve got a bad matchup and the other team is going to move you around and isolate your not-quick guy with a guy who has superior athletic ability, that’s when you need to get a second guy there right away.”

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It’s not very often we get to bring you breaking news in this little morning corner of the world but we are today.

The women lost 64-58 to Brazil today over in Czech Republic and now can’t finish better than 11th at the world championships.

Once again, they couldn’t score enough (they shot about 38 per cent) and that’s been the story for about the entire duration of the tournament.

When we were talking to Allison McNeill the other day, the one thing she pointed out when she was asked about what she’ll suggest to the powers that be when this thing’s all over is that they need to play as many games as possible to get used to the level of competition.

Makes sense since the team has no WNBAers, a handful of collegians or ex-collegians and is led by two veterans – Teresa Gabriele and Kim Smith – who didn’t play professionally anywhere last season.

But the truth is that, just like the men, this is a program on the rise; getting out of the first round was a significant accomplishment and while I know there will be a high level of disappointment at how the tournament ended, the big picture looks pretty good.

They’ll get their old nemesis Greece in the final game Saturday morning.

And that, my friends, will wrap up a big summer for Canada Basketball, one in which I think the program gained some momentum among fans across the country.

We’ll take a look at where they are here sometime early next week when there’s been a little time to digest everything.

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Who knew we had so many English majors out there in readerland.

Look, here’s the deal: This is more conversational than formal; there will be flaws in sentence structure, there may be a split infinitive here and there, and there could very well be a spelling mistake or two that creeps in.

Sorry.

But, believe it or not, none of it is done intentionally; I do take pride in anything that has my name attached to it and if there are mistakes, I don’t feel very good about them.

However, there will be mistakes of grammar and spelling and who knows what else.

Tough noogies.

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Okay, so I got one very nice Vancouver travelogue from one Irregular and I’ve been told about a place for great brisket (a personal favourite) and I’ve got something about a Pan-Indian place and I’ll certainly find time to walk the seawall but I’ll take any suggestions for places a busy tourist might hit.

What with practices noon-3 everyday, a scrimmage Sunday and the game Wednesday there won’t be a lot of downtime but there’ll be some and I could use the help.

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Let’s dip quickly into the mail bag, shall we?  

Q: Hey Doug. Just saw the posting about Jay hinting that Kleiza might start, and it got me thinking. Of all the years you have been following the team what was the worst coach vs GM relationship in regards to lineup discussions? I know that BC has built this line up and must have an opinion on how it operates but does he let Jay make the decisions? I do remember back in Year 1 that Isiah and Brendan Malone had differing opinions on lineups - Brendan wanted to be competitive and Isiah wanted to develop.

 

Oliver H, Toronto

A: Worst here?

It’s never been really bad, actually. But there certainly was some, um, dispute between Sam and Rob Babcock over the use of Rafael Araujo. I think, no, I know, Sam wanted to bring him along a lot slower than his boss did and the coach, doing the right thing, bowed to the request of his boss.

Brendan and Isiah did certainly have a breakdown in communications late in that first year. I remember very late in that season, Brendan was miffed about being hounded to play kids who couldn’t really play and send out a lineup that was, um, unique. I can still remember the look on Isiah’s face when we interviewed him at halftime in the media area of The World’s Worst Basketball Venue.

And, as I recall without even going to my guide, they lost by 40 to Orlando that night.

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How much does this suck?

Finally get to see some live sports on TV at an ugly hour of the morning (6 a.m. comes early around these parts) and there’s stupid rain in Wales.

Grrr.

I’ve got the Euros in the Ryder Cup, by the way.

(Think that’s the influence of covering the Euro-Raptors?)

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Speaking of mail, there’s a five-hour WestJet flight awaiting me this afternoon and I’ll need something to do to pass the time.

(It’s my first foray on that airline, hope it’s a good one).

So click here, write words, send ‘em in and let me have something to do.

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Comments

[d]

Doug,

Go to a beer store and grab yourself Howe Sound Brewing Pumpkineater Ale !!! Best beer for the nippy fall weather you will have when you arrive !!! Brewed in that little town between Van and Whistler, Squamish !

Oh, and a nice place on a sunny day would be the patio at Chill Winston in Gastown ! Great food too !

Peace

D