28 March 2011
The End of the Season for Gonzaga
Stanford is a very good team, and they proved it tonight. Courtney Vandersloot is a very good player (at one point she scored eighteen points in a row for Gonzaga), but the rest of her team couldn't hit their shots, and Stanford could.
Still, it was very exciting, and I can't wait to see her play in the WNBA. According to the announcers, in the third grade she wrote a paper about how it was her dream to play in the WNBA. I think it's safe to say that she'll be a first-round draft pick on April 11.
Speaking of Courtney Vandersloot's childhood, I was a little disappointed when the announcers said (during the Louisville game on Saturday) that her favorite player was Gary Payton. I was hoping for a Storm player! This article, however, does refer to Sue Bird being Courtney's "childhood hero": "Vandersloot’s childhood idol, Sue Bird, who plays for the Seattle Storm, had 1,378 points and 585 assists at Connecticut [compared Courtney's 2,073 points and 1,118 assists]."
Apparently she's quite shy. In this article says that she "went to USA Basketball trials a few years ago and admitted she 'said 10 words the whole time'."
And speaking of the WNBA draft (which I was three paragraphs ago), here's the Storm's "Draft HQ". I'm actually more excited to see where Courtney Vandersloot ends up than I am to see who the Storm picks. Aside from Tanisha Wright (2005), no one they've drafted in the last few years has stuck around. On the other hand, they picked up Tanisha the season after they won their first championship, so maybe they'll get another good one this year.
As part of the Storm's Draft HQ, they have a breakdown of the top point guard draft prospects. Courtney Vandersloot's on the list, of course, but Stanford's Jeanette Pohlen isn't, which is a major omission, so I'm a little puzzled. Still, it's fun to see Storm coach Brian Agler say of Vandersloot, "I think she's got a very similar skill set to Sue Bird. Does she have the potential to be a Sue Bird? I think she does, but why Sue is so great is her poise and her composure and those things."
Still, it was very exciting, and I can't wait to see her play in the WNBA. According to the announcers, in the third grade she wrote a paper about how it was her dream to play in the WNBA. I think it's safe to say that she'll be a first-round draft pick on April 11.
Speaking of Courtney Vandersloot's childhood, I was a little disappointed when the announcers said (during the Louisville game on Saturday) that her favorite player was Gary Payton. I was hoping for a Storm player! This article, however, does refer to Sue Bird being Courtney's "childhood hero": "Vandersloot’s childhood idol, Sue Bird, who plays for the Seattle Storm, had 1,378 points and 585 assists at Connecticut [compared Courtney's 2,073 points and 1,118 assists]."
Apparently she's quite shy. In this article says that she "went to USA Basketball trials a few years ago and admitted she 'said 10 words the whole time'."
And speaking of the WNBA draft (which I was three paragraphs ago), here's the Storm's "Draft HQ". I'm actually more excited to see where Courtney Vandersloot ends up than I am to see who the Storm picks. Aside from Tanisha Wright (2005), no one they've drafted in the last few years has stuck around. On the other hand, they picked up Tanisha the season after they won their first championship, so maybe they'll get another good one this year.
As part of the Storm's Draft HQ, they have a breakdown of the top point guard draft prospects. Courtney Vandersloot's on the list, of course, but Stanford's Jeanette Pohlen isn't, which is a major omission, so I'm a little puzzled. Still, it's fun to see Storm coach Brian Agler say of Vandersloot, "I think she's got a very similar skill set to Sue Bird. Does she have the potential to be a Sue Bird? I think she does, but why Sue is so great is her poise and her composure and those things."
Labels: college basketball, Seattle Storm, WNBA
# posted by mamurd @ 10:38 PM 
