"We flew into Memphis on Thursday to begin a big road trip. We play five out of the next six games on the road. Our next opponent is Memphis, and we know that Memphis isn't very good. But after we lost to SMU at home, Coach Ballard warned us about this road trip and to take every opponent seriously. So we do.
The new ESPN polls are out and I look at wherever UTEP is. I could be playing for Connecticut or Tennessee, and I wonder how things would be different if it weren't for the accident. That loss to SMU made us lose 16 votes in the Coaches' Poll. Only two coaches think we're a top 25 team. We're off everyone else's radar, and a win against Memphis won't impress anybody.
The upperclassmen say that every time we go to Memphis the coaches take us somewhere to see something important or fun if we have time. The university considers this part of a culture-building exercise. We went to see Sun Studios because it was relatively cheap - you don't think that the university is going to pay for that but the students could pay for it out of their pockets. (We had some, uh, "help" in paying for it.) Toya (LaToya Lloyd) said that she was tempted to cut a few records herself. Toya and Wilhelmina Moss started making up a blues ditty on the spot. I don't think the other tourists cared for their singing.
We got to play at the FedEx Forum. We were the first game of a double-header with the men's Memphis team. It was their last scheduled game there this year and some of the men's fans took the opportunity to watch us. I wonder how many were paying attention and how many were waiting for the men's game. (My guess: 5/95).
Seems that their coach must have told them to play hard defense and not take too many shots - to slow us down. Coach Ballard was telling us that she wanted more ball movement, and that Toya and I are were to try to find someone for the dime. So they were playing slow, we were playing slow and it was a slog.
I knew what kind of game it was #35 (Letell Hanson) hit a 3-pointer to start the game and picked up the foul too. We never lost the lead from the first basket and we charged out to a 13-4 lead. We led by 23 points at one time, 57-34.
That was when Coach told us to slow the game down even more. "Let's not blow these guys out." Coach said it because Memphis was just a bunch of slow girls. That roof would have to cave in for us to lose this game. She wanted touches after "1001, 1002". We tried to get a passing game going and Memphis scored the next 14 points because they knew we were still trying to figure it out. They closed to 57-49.
But Toya - who hadn't scored a field goal all night - woke up in the end when we were all in the bonus. She scored like 8 points in the last five minutes of the game, two baskets (one for 3 points) and some free throw shots.
Next up is Alabama-Birmingham. No plane for us, we get in a bus. I should have bought a harmonica to play on the trip so that Toya can practice her blues. How many notes can I learn before we get there?"
- Brenda Dean
Well, there you have it from the horse's mouth herself. Dean only ended up with 10 points in this game, but she shot 4 for 7 and had 3 rebounds and a steal. Letell Hanson's 20 point game was rather surprising. As for Memphis, they shot themselves out of the game - they only hit 14.8 percent of their shots in the first half and only hit 27.7 percent for the game. This game would probably lead to one of those perplexing interviews coaches give - really, what can you say when you've hit less than one of the five shots you've attempted. (Lyn Yeats had a 6-for-22 night, she took 22 of Memphis's 54 shooting attempts.)
Here are the final results in both polls - what each poll would look like if it included all positions instead of the Top 25, and if it were maintained on a game-to-game basis:
AP Poll Rank: 49
Coaches Poll Rank: 39
Not good enough quite yet to get in at-large in the NCAA Tournament. The Miners need to win a few more games to do that.
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