On Women's Basketball

Iowa review

Posted by: Tony Bleill

Friday, January 16, 2009 12:57 AM

Here's hoping your car started when you got in Thursday night after the Illini game. One of the writers visiting from Iowa said the termperature was 26-below when he left Iowa City on Thursday morning. So, Champaign must've felt like Florida to him.

In any event, it was a sparse crowd that ventured out to watch the Illini's loss to Iowa. There were more positives than Monday's loss ... baby steps, right? Jenna Smith was a beast on the boards, and Lacey Simpson wasn't far behind. The Illini didn't shoot well, again, but they took better shots and had a little more flow to the offense. They looked to score in transition. And they got to the foul line 21 times. All good stuff.

But the defense took a night off, and it was costly. Jolette Law said the players didn't adequately absorb the scouting report, which meant the Hawkeyes' three-point shooters had a field day. Kristi Smith was on fire, and Law wasn't happy that the Illini didn't pay as much attention to her as the report urged. (Iowa outscored Illinois 30-3 from behind the arc. Ouch.)

Kristi Smith, however, isn't an easy matchup. If you come out on her to contest those threes, she has the quickness to drive around any of the Illini's backcourt players. She can make life miserable for a lot of people, no matter how you try to defend her.

--Need a Kelsey Bone fix? Her Dulles High team in Sugar Land, Texas, is No. 7 in USA Today's Super 25 national rankings. Dulles is 24-2 heading into Friday night's game.

I'm told that Bone might be making her announcement regarding her college choice at the McDonald's All-American Game in Miami on April 1. For Texas, Texas A&M, South Carolina or Illinois, there will be no April Fool's. Only April Joy.

--Here's an interesting look at the struggles the Big Ten has faced in recent seasons. The league is down again, perhaps not quite as bad as last season -- which was awful -- but still in a rebuilding mode.

I don't buy Coquese Washington's reasoning that playing 18 league games hurts the league when it comes to RPI and tournament seeding. That's nonsense. Your RPI would be boosted by playing against two Big Ten teams as opposed to playing two cupcakes that you'd beat. Plus, tournament seedings aren't affected by wins against cupcakes. It just doesn't work that way.

You want to know why the Big Ten is down? Because there's no talent. It's in the ACC, the Big 12, the SEC and the Big East. Look at the recruiting lists for the last five or six years. The kids on those lists aren't flocking to Big Ten schools. Jolette Law is trying to change that, and so is Coquese Washington. Both have signed outstanding recruiting classes, and they're trying to boost the league's profile. But it's obvious, just from watching games, that the league needs a serious boost in talent.

I mean, no one can even score. Look at the halftime scores from tonight's games: Michigan 17, Michigan State 16. Minnesota 26, Ohio State 20. Purdue 23, Penn State 19. Those are halftime scores. And that doesn't even include Illinois, the worst offender in the Big Ten bunch.

Talented teams score points. Connecticut averages 88 points a game, North Carolina 86. It is no secret that those are two of the most talented teams in the country, and they also happen to be ranked Nos. 1 and 2.

 

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