As Rachel Kane lay in pain on the McCarthey Center floor, her coach made a long walk from the bench to Kane at midcourt.
Kelly Graves knelt beside Kane, holding her hand tightly and whispering reassuring words to her, while his senior point guard clutched her knee, grimacing in pain.
Finally, as Kane was carried off the floor of the silent arena, Graves headed back to the bench. The reality of the moment finally catching up with him, he took a deep breath and hung his head in sadness, collecting himself. Trying to turn his attention back to the game, he yelled out a "Let's go white!" but the look in his eyes and the sound of his voice was evidence that his heart still wasn't back into it. Graves had seen this kind of injury happen to Kane before.
Later, it was confirmed: For the third time in her tenure at Gonzaga, Kane tore her ACL. The same injury that cost Kane her freshman and junior seasons had reared its head once more.
Her senior season, and her career at Gonzaga, was over.
The first reaction would undoubtedly be anger. After all, how in the world is it fair for this to happen to Kane, a team leader, hard worker and proven veteran? After working so hard to come back from this injury twice, how is it fair that fate decided to pull a Tonya Harding on her one good knee and end her senior season in the midst of the Bulldogs dominating the WCC? Quite frankly, it isn't fair, and it isn't right.
But, in another show of what makes this women's basketball program so special, the team is finding opportunity from the ashes of disappointment.
Graves has always praised Kane's basketball knowledge, and while she no longer can take advantage of that knowledge on the court, now she will be using it on Gonzaga's bench, helping Graves as a de facto assistant coach.
"With Rachel being out, I actually think she can help us even more, because she can sit here and watch," Graves said. "Rachel's a very smart player. I think she can sit on the sidelines and really help coach, unlike we can, because Rachel's been so close to the game herself."
Kane's influence has been felt by everyone on the team, no one more so than freshman point guard Courtney Vandersloot, with whom Kane embraced the role of mentor. Upon Kane's taking the freshman under her wing, Vandersloot has emerged as a top-notch point guard and her pairing with the reliable Kane on the court only utilized her talents more. Now, Kane will be able to guide the young guard even more as Vandersloot's own personal coach, and who better to pick for the job than someone whom Vandersloot credits all her improvement to.
Kane may not be directing the offense, but she is still a member of the team.
That shows how important Graves' program considers everyone involved. Rather than move on after the injury and push Kane to the background, they are embracing her, allowing her to still be an important part of a team that owes a lot of their success to Kane's efforts.
This is more than just a basketball team. Sure, it is still a business, and the pressure to win is ever-present, but this doesn't fully steer the mindsets of those involved in the program. To see how truly this team and its coaches care about one another is something you don't see as often or as openly elsewhere.
Rachel Kane may have blown out her knee and collapsed to the floor during that fateful play, but from the way her teammates and coaches have banded together for her, it looks like Kane - and her knee - will have all the support they will ever need.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
As history shows, Zags excel when doubted
I have to be honest. For the past several weeks, part of me has wanted to write off this season's Gonzaga Bulldogs.
Following the stunning defeat by Texas Tech, the gut-punching loss to Washington State and the upset by Oklahoma worthy of a double-take on that evening's SportsCenter, I was convinced that this team wasn't going anywhere. Their wins came against sub-par competition, they lost all their biggest games this season, and overall didn't have the look of a team ready to go anywhere this year.
Yet, every time I sat down and attempted to finally do it - to finally write off this season and thereby exorcise these negative perceptions and emotions - my fingers clenched together, my hands froze up and I found myself staring stone-faced at a blinking cursor on a blank screen.
I couldn't do it.
It baffled me. Why couldn't I write off this team? Then the reason became clear. More than just an epiphany or divine inspiration, the reason was so blatantly obvious I almost had to smack myself.
These are the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
You never write off the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
This is a program built on out-of-nowhere success. No one thought much of a group of partiers named Jeff Brown, Geoff Goss and Scott Spink, and then that group played their hearts out and led the Zags to their first WCC regular season title and a trip to the NIT.
Nobody thought a 5-foot-8-inch guard named Quentin Hall could make an impact, and then "Q" locked down University of Minnesota All-American Quincy Lewis to give the Zags a 1999 NCAA tourney first round win.
Nobody had the 1995 Zags on their radar, and then a bald-headed Australian named Jon Rillie brought the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Tournament.
Nobody batted an eye when the Bulldogs hired a young graduate assistant coach from Oregon in 1990, and now Mark Few has a .802 career winning percentage.
And sure, as of a few weeks ago this year's team may not have looked like contenders on the outside, but then again, neither did the 1999 Zags and they were minutes away from going to the Final Four. It doesn't matter what the Bulldogs may look like on the surface; as history shows, inside they have the hearts of winners.
Fueled by my ignorance and my disregard for the history of Gonzaga basketball, I was wrong about this year's team and its chances.
The fire that the Bulldogs have shown in the past three weeks is already conjuring up memories of those past teams. Few has coached this team back to an elite level, with his current lineups and offensive schemes totally dismantling the Bulldogs' WCC opponents. David Pendergaft has already broken his record for dives and floor burns fighting to help his team. Jeremy Pargo has let his resolve as a leader shine through, willing himself to lead his team despite an ailing back.
In short, these Bulldogs knew their backs were against the wall and they have stepped up and shown their ability to overcome.
The last time the Bulldogs lost was Dec. 29, and now, as they make their annual tear through conference play, I'm hoping - and expecting - that this team proves my original thoughts wrong. You can see it coming together: their swagger, their confidence, their efficiency. It won't be long now to see yet another Bulldog team prove its strength and snatch success amid the clouds of false doubt.
After all, that's what the Bulldogs do.
Following the stunning defeat by Texas Tech, the gut-punching loss to Washington State and the upset by Oklahoma worthy of a double-take on that evening's SportsCenter, I was convinced that this team wasn't going anywhere. Their wins came against sub-par competition, they lost all their biggest games this season, and overall didn't have the look of a team ready to go anywhere this year.
Yet, every time I sat down and attempted to finally do it - to finally write off this season and thereby exorcise these negative perceptions and emotions - my fingers clenched together, my hands froze up and I found myself staring stone-faced at a blinking cursor on a blank screen.
I couldn't do it.
It baffled me. Why couldn't I write off this team? Then the reason became clear. More than just an epiphany or divine inspiration, the reason was so blatantly obvious I almost had to smack myself.
These are the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
You never write off the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
This is a program built on out-of-nowhere success. No one thought much of a group of partiers named Jeff Brown, Geoff Goss and Scott Spink, and then that group played their hearts out and led the Zags to their first WCC regular season title and a trip to the NIT.
Nobody thought a 5-foot-8-inch guard named Quentin Hall could make an impact, and then "Q" locked down University of Minnesota All-American Quincy Lewis to give the Zags a 1999 NCAA tourney first round win.
Nobody had the 1995 Zags on their radar, and then a bald-headed Australian named Jon Rillie brought the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Tournament.
Nobody batted an eye when the Bulldogs hired a young graduate assistant coach from Oregon in 1990, and now Mark Few has a .802 career winning percentage.
And sure, as of a few weeks ago this year's team may not have looked like contenders on the outside, but then again, neither did the 1999 Zags and they were minutes away from going to the Final Four. It doesn't matter what the Bulldogs may look like on the surface; as history shows, inside they have the hearts of winners.
Fueled by my ignorance and my disregard for the history of Gonzaga basketball, I was wrong about this year's team and its chances.
The fire that the Bulldogs have shown in the past three weeks is already conjuring up memories of those past teams. Few has coached this team back to an elite level, with his current lineups and offensive schemes totally dismantling the Bulldogs' WCC opponents. David Pendergaft has already broken his record for dives and floor burns fighting to help his team. Jeremy Pargo has let his resolve as a leader shine through, willing himself to lead his team despite an ailing back.
In short, these Bulldogs knew their backs were against the wall and they have stepped up and shown their ability to overcome.
The last time the Bulldogs lost was Dec. 29, and now, as they make their annual tear through conference play, I'm hoping - and expecting - that this team proves my original thoughts wrong. You can see it coming together: their swagger, their confidence, their efficiency. It won't be long now to see yet another Bulldog team prove its strength and snatch success amid the clouds of false doubt.
After all, that's what the Bulldogs do.
Friday, January 25, 2008
SportsCamp - January 26
The first Gonzaga Bulletin of 2008 hit newsstands yesterday, and if they had bothered to put it online when they could have, this blog would have been updated much sooner. If you happen to be in the Spokane area, be sure to pick one up; there's plenty of good stuff in the sports section this week.For those who like to follow sports from afar, I've got all your Bulletin links right here:
- Kevin O'Brien wrote a great article on former Bulldogs assistant Bill Grier coming back to Gonzaga for the first time as San Diego head coach. It's worth the read for Grier's characterization of the experience.
- Tony Schick has all your GU women's basketball updates. Thank God Heather Bowman is healthy again!
- Everything you ever wanted to know about Ray Giacoletti.
- Gonzaga Soccer is finally getting a new stadium. About damn time.
On a personal note, I just want to say I'm astounded at the number of Gonzaga writers interested in writing for the Sports section this year. Last semester we had trouble just finding people, now we have more than we ever wanted. I'm looking forward to reading all of your articles in the coming months.
Moving on...
The Bulldogs and No. 1-ranked Memphis tip off in just over 7 hours as of this posting, and I need to go to bed so I can wake up and watch it. As a fun little poll, what do you think Gonzaga student fans are going to be doing on an earlt Saturday morning: do they go easy on the drinking tonight in order to get up and watch the game? Do they brave an awful hangover to support the Zags? Or do they think Gonzaga has no shot and elects to sleep in tomorrow? In all honesty, my money's on the hangovers.
- The Spokesman's Jim Meehan has a preview for the big game tomorrow.
- Ever the diligent worker, Meehan also has a nice Q & A with Josh Heytvelt.
- One of my favorite sportswriters in the world, Bud Withers, examines the"Zag Effect" on the WCC.
- Withers also has a game preview.
That's all the news that's fit to print. I'll see you in front of the TV screen in 7 hours.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
A view of a coach ... thanks to ESPN
Wow, it seems you cant’ go anywhere on the web today without running into a Gonzaga journalist’s account of being at last night’s Gonzaga-San Francisco matchup. The Old Boss Tim Bross (holy crap, a nickname!) covered the game last night for the Gonzaga Bulletin, and wrote an excellent behind-the-scenes look at a student-journalist’s experience.
However, last night I swallowed my pride for the prospect of a substantial paycheck by working for The Worldwide Leaders themselves during their telecast of ESPN Big Monday.
(Yeah, yeah, let the letters pour in. The truth, however, is this: groceries aint cheap.)
My official title was “production assistant,” but in actuality I was nothing more than a manservant for every beck and call of the producer (do I smell urine? Because I must have been a peon).
Nevertheless it was great to see the inner workings of an actual, nationwide remote broadcast, something that I hope to get into professionally myself some day. These guys were on top of the ball right from the get-go; even as I ran to get copies or bottled water for people, I was able to see how The Show works.
Every camera op knew the exact location of where their equipment needed to be. Every microphone was tested to absolute, crisp perfection. Even Terry Gannon (a very underrated play-by-play man, in my opinion) pre-recorded promos for ESPN Super Tuesday and NBA Wednesday in pitch-perfect “announcer voice.”
And this was 6 hours before tipoff!
These productions owe a lot to the level of technology they are outfitted with. They had three different channels for CG elements, meaning that they never screwed up on what was put on screen. And multiple non-linear editing systems inside the production truck allowed them to create eight packages before the game. (I’ll admit that probably sounded like gibberish to those uninitiated to broadcasting. Translation: All those promos for other shows with the Gonzaga court in the background, all the Eddie Sutton interviews, even close-up tracking shots of screaming fans, were all recorded and edited before tipoff.)
Everything was timed out so that there were no surprises. Hats off to a crew that overprepared and taught me a thing or two about the bid’ness.
But because everything gets set up hours before tipoff, there are plenty of times where you are forced to sit around and do nothing. It was during one of those times when I found myself sitting alone in the McCarthey Athletic Centre stands watching Eddie Sutton coach his team.
Several of my esteemed colleagues have already weighed in on the subject of Sutton’s arrival at USF, undoubtedly there simply to get win number-800. Old Boss Tim Bross calls the move selfish, and Kevin O’Brien thinks it’s hurting the team.
But there’s more than meets the eye regarding this Eddie Sutton story.
Prior to the game ESPN ran an interview with Sutton in which he stated the reason he came back was because he loved teaching the game to young players. At Monday’s practice, here was a man, 72 years old, going onto the court to run drills with his team. He pulled his guards aside and instructed them that getting open wasn’t a footrace, it’s a stop-and-go, opportunistic ability. He was telling his big men that the proper way to set a screen was to actually make contact, not the matador crap scene too often by big men these days. He even set a few picks himself and demonstrated how to react to the defender’s switch. He wasn’t just trying to coach them on their set plays, he was teaching them what makes those plays work.
I saw Eddie Sutton genuinely attempting to teach the Dons how to play basketball.
I also saw how little his team respected him.
The body language spoke volumes about the team’s attitude toward the coach. As they halfheartedly ran through sets, missing assignments or altogether stopping during plays, Sutton would bark at them about what they were doing wrong. The yelling yielding little results, as the mistakes piled up.
Center Hyman Taylor summed up the team’s feelings by his own practice behavior. As Sutton would yell out plays like “Hoosier,” Taylor would look around confused as the play commenced, prompting Sutton to angrily ask what the problem was.
“What’s the matter? You don’t know where you’re supposed to be?” Sutton would yell.
“I don’t know this play!” A frustrated Taylor would respond.
It seems that no matter whether Sutton’s motives for coaching the Dons are selfish or not, it certainly looked like he was leading a crew that had already abandoned ship. In their opinion, this will be a wasted year for the program, as they are forced to learn the plays and tendencies of a coach who never recruited them, and doesn’t plan to stay beyond one year.
In their view, he is using them.
Sutton said that he just wanted to teach players the game of basketball, whether that is true or not, only he knows. But no matter how badly he may want to teach, it won’t make any difference on a team that thinks it has no reason to learn.
However, last night I swallowed my pride for the prospect of a substantial paycheck by working for The Worldwide Leaders themselves during their telecast of ESPN Big Monday.
(Yeah, yeah, let the letters pour in. The truth, however, is this: groceries aint cheap.)
My official title was “production assistant,” but in actuality I was nothing more than a manservant for every beck and call of the producer (do I smell urine? Because I must have been a peon).
Nevertheless it was great to see the inner workings of an actual, nationwide remote broadcast, something that I hope to get into professionally myself some day. These guys were on top of the ball right from the get-go; even as I ran to get copies or bottled water for people, I was able to see how The Show works.
Every camera op knew the exact location of where their equipment needed to be. Every microphone was tested to absolute, crisp perfection. Even Terry Gannon (a very underrated play-by-play man, in my opinion) pre-recorded promos for ESPN Super Tuesday and NBA Wednesday in pitch-perfect “announcer voice.”
And this was 6 hours before tipoff!
These productions owe a lot to the level of technology they are outfitted with. They had three different channels for CG elements, meaning that they never screwed up on what was put on screen. And multiple non-linear editing systems inside the production truck allowed them to create eight packages before the game. (I’ll admit that probably sounded like gibberish to those uninitiated to broadcasting. Translation: All those promos for other shows with the Gonzaga court in the background, all the Eddie Sutton interviews, even close-up tracking shots of screaming fans, were all recorded and edited before tipoff.)
Everything was timed out so that there were no surprises. Hats off to a crew that overprepared and taught me a thing or two about the bid’ness.
But because everything gets set up hours before tipoff, there are plenty of times where you are forced to sit around and do nothing. It was during one of those times when I found myself sitting alone in the McCarthey Athletic Centre stands watching Eddie Sutton coach his team.
Several of my esteemed colleagues have already weighed in on the subject of Sutton’s arrival at USF, undoubtedly there simply to get win number-800. Old Boss Tim Bross calls the move selfish, and Kevin O’Brien thinks it’s hurting the team.
But there’s more than meets the eye regarding this Eddie Sutton story.
Prior to the game ESPN ran an interview with Sutton in which he stated the reason he came back was because he loved teaching the game to young players. At Monday’s practice, here was a man, 72 years old, going onto the court to run drills with his team. He pulled his guards aside and instructed them that getting open wasn’t a footrace, it’s a stop-and-go, opportunistic ability. He was telling his big men that the proper way to set a screen was to actually make contact, not the matador crap scene too often by big men these days. He even set a few picks himself and demonstrated how to react to the defender’s switch. He wasn’t just trying to coach them on their set plays, he was teaching them what makes those plays work.
I saw Eddie Sutton genuinely attempting to teach the Dons how to play basketball.
I also saw how little his team respected him.
The body language spoke volumes about the team’s attitude toward the coach. As they halfheartedly ran through sets, missing assignments or altogether stopping during plays, Sutton would bark at them about what they were doing wrong. The yelling yielding little results, as the mistakes piled up.
Center Hyman Taylor summed up the team’s feelings by his own practice behavior. As Sutton would yell out plays like “Hoosier,” Taylor would look around confused as the play commenced, prompting Sutton to angrily ask what the problem was.
“What’s the matter? You don’t know where you’re supposed to be?” Sutton would yell.
“I don’t know this play!” A frustrated Taylor would respond.
It seems that no matter whether Sutton’s motives for coaching the Dons are selfish or not, it certainly looked like he was leading a crew that had already abandoned ship. In their opinion, this will be a wasted year for the program, as they are forced to learn the plays and tendencies of a coach who never recruited them, and doesn’t plan to stay beyond one year.
In their view, he is using them.
Sutton said that he just wanted to teach players the game of basketball, whether that is true or not, only he knows. But no matter how badly he may want to teach, it won’t make any difference on a team that thinks it has no reason to learn.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Rip City c/o Spokane
After feeling the bliss of Portland and its newfound love for the Blazers over winter break, coming back to Gonzaga and having to deal with being away from my team can be hard, even frustrating at times. That's why every year, I make this on my door. Feel free to click and enlarge.
Just a little something to help me keep the faith.
Rip City!
Just a little something to help me keep the faith.
Rip City!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)