Saturday in the City Watching Some Basketball

So C and R got to see some Stanford basketball this weekend. We went to the SF ProAm women's basketball summer league and met up with Twitter buddy S and her buddy K. It was nice to see they were real people and not automatons just typing away on a keypad!

The Stanford players and alumni were on the South Bay team. The other team didn’t have enough players so four of the South Bay team went over to play. Boy C and R were impressed with Markisha Coleman, an old Stanford alum. She was one of the players who went over to the other team, but man was she fast and fearless and often popped the ball from many a freshman’s hands.

The remaining players on South Bay were four healthy freshmen and veteran Joslyn Tinkle, plus a couple others we did not know.  So wait a minute, C and R wanted to know, was this a forfeit? Results were inconclusive. Well, we asked two people and one said yes and one said they didn’t know, so that is the extent of our reporting skills.

But we did get the scoop about the injured freshmen from a real reporter, Judy Richter of the Fast Break Club, who said two of the freshmen are hurt, Alex Green tore her ACL in November and Erica Payne had a sprained ankle. Chiney Ogwumike is not playing this summer to save herself for the World University Games in China coming up in about a month. Read more of Judy’s report on the day for the Fast Break Club.

So when the game started, we, C and R and Twitter Buddies, noticed Tinkle had two things in mind to work on that day. One was to shoot some threes (Kayla Pedersen is now gone). She shot three three-pointers in her first three touches on the ball. All missed, unfortunately, but stay tuned for the second half. Then she worked on point number two, drive to the basket and finish strong, which she did well. Freshies were a little intimidated to start the game and their team was down by 11 points at half.

Then the second half became the Tinkle Show (and here C and R were without their Tinkle Bells). She worked the ball inside again and could not be stopped. She finished with her right hand, she finished with her left hand. She threw a hook. She stepped back and shot some threes (this time they went in and soon her team were ahead by 1 with two minutes to go). It went down to the wire and South Bay pulled out the win, and Tinkle had 37 points. She was on fire, as R said.

We all were impressed with Stanford freshmen guards Amber Orrange (not typo, double "r" is correct, will give C fits) and Jasmine Camp. They pushed the ball quickly. Especially Amber, and both drove to the basket aggressively in the second half, something Stanford will need in the upcoming season.

All in all it was a fast paced game and fun to watch. It definitely had the feel of a pick up game, albeit one played at an extremely high level. Man, the young ones were fast. And oh, we actually got to see Britney Spears in person. She is the baller that played for the University of Colorado and shares the same name as the pop star. She played on the other team. She was chosen in the second round of the WNBA but didn’t make the Mercury. She is listed to play in Spain this coming year. She was good on Saturday, and we wish her the best of luck. While at Colorado, Britney also played with Whitney Houston. Small world.

Come out next Saturday if you missed all the fun. South Bay plays July 2 at 12 PM again.