Sunday, March 21, 2010

Round One-Stanford vs. UC Riverside

No surprise, number one seed Stanford beat number sixteen seed UC Riverside Saturday night 79-47.  Did you expect something else? Well, okay, I am sure you have been bombarded with the fact that the only number one seed to lose to a number sixteen seed in men’s or women’s basketball tournament history was, is, and ever shall be Stanford.

History did not repeat itself. Although UC Riverside made it close by hitting a couple of threes to make it 18-16 with about 12 minutes left. Then our beloved Nneka Ogwumike took over. Plus Jeanette Pohlen got some threes in there, too.

Wow, Nneka jumps high! Some of her rebounds were amazing. I know Brittney Griner can dunk and all, but she’s 6’8” with an 88” wingspan. Nneka’s only 6’2. Oh, BTW, Nneka, make those foul shots, girl!

What was up with Kayla Pedersen wearing a sleeve on her elbow? Is she hurt? Didn’t find any mention of it anywheres on that there Internet. She had a slow start and didn’t score a basket the whole first half. She finally made two free throws in the closing minutes of the first half for her first points. Being the consummate all-around player, she ended up with 15 for the game despite sitting out many minutes as part of Head Coach Tara VanDerveer’s plan to rest the starters.

So the game was fun, the house was packed with red, looked about 80% full, but man, the NCAA sure made the experience more difficult than it had to be. We (C and R, remember us?) entered in the game with two water bottles and the attendant said as long as the bottles were sealed and not open, we could take them inside.  We left the game to walk across the street for some (cheaper) dinner and brought back more sealed water bottles. Attendant number two said no one no how could bring in water, sealed or not. What? Of course we mistakenly entered through the player’s guest and family entrance the first time so maybe there are different rules for family members and other celebrities (yes, that was Jennifer Azzi we saw for the umpteenth time this year, as R had to grab C and point her out and say, “There’s Jennifer Azzi!” five times, three of which Jennifer Azzi heard.).

So when the second attendant said no water bottles, we protested we brought them in the first time, but the attendant was havin’ none of it. She finally pointed to the wall and said, “Look at all the water bottles I’ve confiscated.” And this is an “Only in Palo Alto” moment. Lined up against the wall were about thirty various water and sports bottles, mostly the stainless steel kind, Klean Kanteen, Sigg and the like, to reduce, reuse and recycle. The owners were clearly going to come back and get them after the game. So R chugs one of our disposable water bottles down (We know, bad planet-dwellers, slap on wrist) and we go around the corner. We have one water bottle left and outside food. Did she say anything about outside food? We don’t know.  And C’s tinkle bells! She has a baggie full of them, plus special ones she made for C and R’s special fans. C will be more upset if her tinkle bells get taken away then the food and water.

Soooo, we made it inside with the water bottle, bag of chips and a sandwich and all tinkle bells intact. We can’t tell you how we go them in, (plus R will be mad at C if she does tell) Geez, now C is paranoid for Monday’s game. They have probably passed out pictures of C and R to all the entrances to Maples, labeled rebel lawbreakers and water smugglers and oh, tinklers. And yes, sometimes our rebel water drinking leads us to excessive tinkling. (sorry, couldn’t resist!)

So we are in stupid Maples with our stupid contraband with our stupid $5 general admission tickets. Well, considering they are selling the very same tickets for $20 now, we don’t feel so stupid. We head upstairs for the general admission section. We thought it was all the seats up high without backs, but no, general admission seats are limited to one seat in the northeastern southwest section by the video tape cameras, and the third row from the top behind the band. Geez, we could not legally sit anywhere! Really, there were about four small sections we could sit in.

And to make matters worse, Iowa beat Rutgers and C picked Rutgers so her bracket is all messed up and R picked stupid Iowa and now she is ahead of me in the bracket contest and kept bragging all night. Although that was a good game, Iowa was spunky, and C loves spunky. Rutgers did not look impressive. Little number 24 for Iowa kept getting all the weak side rebounds as Rutgers did not rebound well.

OMG, we almost forgot to tell you the best part of the night. C went out at half time to meet some fans of the blog. Our Montana friend, N, and some of our girl’s basketball team were sitting with us, so R stayed to guard our seats. A wise move as there was only 6 general admission seats in the house. C met with them and gave them the special tinkle bells. In exchange, they made us cookies! Homemade snicker-doodle cinnamon thingies. They were great! (And how did THEY sneak them inside?) C and R and the girls ate them up, even the ones H knocked over and fell to the ground! Well, we figured five-second rule was in effect. So from now on, if you write in to C and R, you have to send cookies, too!

After the game (Sigh, no victory balls allowed) we said hi to Mr. Tinkle. C had to hide her shame for jinxing his Montana team by tuning in and causing them to lose. He remembered the girls and asked us how the season went. We shared that we lost in our tournament, too. Mrs. Tinkle had to go back to Montana and get on with life and laundry. Sorry we missed you again, Mrs. T. Joslyn played inspired and it is clear she likes playing at home. About those threes she missed, tell her to use her legs just a teeny bit more! Maybe we will see you in Sacramento!

Well, game Monday at 6:30 PM at Maples. We promise to eat and drink before we go inside. Scrappy Iowa won’t get as many rebounds against our trees. Then it’s off to Sacramento!

More Stanford Tournament Stuff at the original C and R's Stanford Women's Basketball Blog

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