Game Ten: UTEP 74, Missouri 60

"We played our last home game of the season before going to New Mexico for their tournament. We know that Baylor is coming up next. We're not supposed to talk about it until after this game, so we wanted to get this game out of the way.

Missouri is around the bottom of the Big Twelve. If we couldn't beat the Tigers, we weren't going to beat Baylor, no way.

I don't know what it was, but I just had...swagger. I was c'mon-c'mon-c'mon-let's-play-this-game! I guess there was something really evil inside me because I caught the eye of #55 (Wanette Preus). Missouri was the opposite of Utah. A bunch of black girls and a few white girls. I said, "Hey #55! Mustache!"

She had a mustache. I can't deny it. She looked at me like, "say, WHAT?" And she walks toward me but the other girls pull her away.

I smiled. I got inside her head. #55 played about two minutes before they sat her ass right on the bench. She kept trying to find me and go after me, and her coach sat her down. We built up a big lead on Missouri, and we knew were were going to win. All of those Missouri girls went right after me, determined to teach me a lesson for hurting ol' #55's feelings. Bump and claw, bump and claw. #11 (Nita Clinger) said something to me before the half that I don't think I've heard anyone said. I was "#13! #13, you bleeding c__t!" The referee turned right around and slapped #11 with a big fat "T".

The second half we coasted. We were up by 20, but I shot for shit. 8-for-30 shooting. Those Missouri girls were wearing me out. We were up by over 20, Coach put me on the bench. Late in the game, Missouri turned on the press, and they kept it on. We sort of wore out at the end, but we were up by so much that the Tigers couldn't come back. We won by 14.

After the game, Coach looked at me and said, 'You better pick and choose your moments, Brenda.' I don't know what to make of that."

--Brenda Dean




I thought Missouri was going to be a lot tougher - Big Twelve team vs. C-USA team - but they proved to be surprisingly lightweight. Part of it was that Missouri got hit with two quick forced rests and one of them was Wanetta Preus, one of their better, high-stamina shooters. Missouri's lack of depth hurt them.

I remember a comment by Frisco Del Rosario when he wrote about an NCAA player that averaged over 6 turnovers per game. Unfortunately, Statis Pro Basketball does not factor a player's tendency to turn the ball over into the game. It sort of assigns turnovers equally, or at the least, turnovers are motivated more by opposing steal factors and random chance. Nothing inherent in the player's card tilts a player's chances of turning over in any particular direction.

The next team up is Baylor. In my universe, I have four teams invited to the fictional New Mexico Classic - UTEP, New Mexico, Idaho State, and some other low-ranked, unnamed team. However, the other team bailed out and there was a chance for New Mexico to get Baylor. So the question was: play the traditional New Mexico-UTEP game or give up the chance for Baylor.

Result: Baylor will play UTEP and New Mexico will get Idaho. New Mexico figures that UTEP will lose to Baylor, and then New Mexico gets to play Baylor after they beat Idaho. Win win for everyone - except for fans of the traditional rivalry game.

Next time, I'll build the schedule better and not forget that New Mexico-UTEP match.

As for the press, with UTEP up about 23 points, Missouri turned on the press late in the game. On the Fast Action Cards there is an option called "Press". If the defense calls for a Press, all Action and Advance phases are replaced with the results under "Press". Sometimes, the press fails and you get a result for the offensive called "Pass to choice, who scores". Other times, you get "Line Violation" or "Double Dribble", and you get the chance for a turnover. It was definitely true that UTEP was slowing down the game - UTEP doesn't run up the score - but that press really worked for Missouri.

AP Poll RPI: 48
Coaches Poll RPI: 42

UTEP will break into the next Coaches Top #25 poll - one of the 31 voters will put UTEP at the bottom of his or her list. One total vote for UTEP, to be listed in the scrap votes at the end under the 25th team. One vote, and hopefully, more to come.

Game Three: UTEP 74, Fresno State 72

"What a game. It's 2 am and I'm high. I'm stoned on basketball. Fresno State came to El Paso, and they were tough. They could shoot, they had a lot of energy, and #22 (Amie Havener) could really rush the basket.

They played us close. It was touch and go the whole first half, and we were up by one, 38-37 at halftime. I was in a zone in that early part of the game, and I was just under 20 points. Everyone was simply looking at me and I knew that if I was open, someone was going to find me. I went wild. I got 36 points against Fresno State. Had nine rebounds. I wanted 10, because a double-double would be cool but I got beaten up enough under the basket. Move me to the #2, coach! Don't make me play forward!

Patty Clark got suspended for fighting in the game, and Martie (Marta Jaworski) was playing center. She wasn't hitting anything, but she kept getting those rebounds for us - she ended up with 13. We kept trying to fight Fresno State off, and we led by ten at one point in the second half, but they caught up with us and put that press on us. Forced a couple of turnovers, and I was to blame for one of them. #44 (Iesa Blumenfield) hit a shot with six seconds left to tie the game at 72-72 and Coach Ballard is drawing up this play which is as confusing as hell. I'm just nodding my head, trying to pretend that I know what was going on. I just don't want to go into overtime, because I'm out of gas, chucking up bricks near the end.

So we have the last possession and Josie (Josina Costa) takes the inbound and passes the ball to Marta. Marta is looking for Josie again under the basket but can't find her. So Marta, who hasn't hit a shot all night, fires a mid-range jumper with like half-a-second left and she just plants it! Everyone jumps right off the bench. The pep band starts playing "Shadows on the Mountain" and Fresno State's coach is challenging the shot, saying that time expired when Marty hit it.

The band keeps playing "Shadows" while the refs look at the video. Marty took the shot with 0.7 seconds left. The basket is good and the band breaks into "Miners Fight". It was great to have such a great game, but I don't think I was the star. When Marty hit that last second shot, she was the star."

--Brenda Dean



My wife asked me what I got out of playing a card game when video games existed. The above is what I get out of a card game.

I've played very few Statis Pro Basketball games like this one, where the game is very tight all the way through and you feel as if you're slogging you're way through the game. With UTEP up by 10 late in the half, Fresno State began to come back.

There is an option called "PRESS" in the Fast Action Deck. The defense can state they are pressing, and for that offensive possession, the offense must read under the "PRESS" option. Two out of three times, UTEP lost the ball and Fresno State began to turn it on. With just a few cards left, Iesa Blumenfield took a shot off the secondary and hit it, tying the game with just two cards left.

The first card was "Pass to Center" under the ACTION phase, so Marta Jaworski had to shoot off the SECONDARY phase. And with the last card of the game...the shot result is "22". Two points. Game over.

I needed all of my six Home Field Advantage points. I decided this time that I would use those points to keep Brenda Dean from fouling, if a foul ever indicated that Dean got the foul. Dean was hot in the first part of the game, scoring like twelve of the first thirteen points. Down at the end, with two Home Field points yet, Williamette Moss got a forced rest. I could either ignore the forced rest or lose my points or sit her down.

I sat her down. Smart decision.

I had started the game and played it early in the morning during the week before work. By the time Frisco Del Rosario commented on Amie Havener's ability to shoot the three and get the offensive rebound, I was in mid game and I started back up with an offensive possession. I gave her a 3-point attempt, and she missed the shot, I flip over the card, and under rebound, it said, "Offense F1" - Havener. Is that weird or what?

If you look over the box score, you'll notice that both sides took a lot of field goals. I was really trying to give everyone as many 3-point shots as possible, something I've been a little weak on in past games.

Furthermore, Dean got very close to a 40-point game. You don't see 36-point games much in women's basketball. However, playing as the UTEP coach, the great part of the game wasn't Dean's 36 points - it was Jaworski hitting that shot with the final card. That was just sweet.