Katie Mattera to Chicago

Have height, will travel. Katie Mattera, formerly of the Atlanta Dream (as Katie Feenstra) ends up with the Chicago Sky after the Sky waived Brooke Wyckoff. Wyckoff blew out her ACL and she's out for the year.

I expect Art Eckman to take a few trips to Chicago. And Mattera can say hello to former teammate Tamera Young. It looks like the Sky are becoming "Atlanta North".

Katie Mattera Released

Katie Mattera was released today by the San Antonio Silver Stars.

We might know her better as Katie Feenstra. Mattera played for the Dream during the 2008 season. We wish her the best of luck at the Atlanta Dream Blog.

Silver Stars Bible Study Camp To Open; Katie Mattera Newest Member

From the San Antonio Silver Stars:

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Silver Stars have signed center Katie Feenstra Mattera to a free agent contract, Head Coach and General Manager Dan Hughes announced today. Per team policy, terms of the contract have not been released.
“We are pleased to have Katie join the Silver Stars,” said Hughes. “She will add an interior presence with strong rebounding, plus she is an outstanding teammate.”

Indeed. Katie Mattera's not as bad as some Dream fans made her out to be in 2008.

Let's see...Becky Hammon, Erin Buescher, Katie Mattera and draftee Megan Frazee...this team has God on speed dial.

Dream Waive Katie Feenstra/Katie Mattera

I get off the plane, check my hotel room, check what's going on the day before Draft Day, and guess what happens?

It's true. Katie Mattera, formerly Katie Feenstra, has been waived by the Dream.

It's starting to look a lot like Snow and Anderson as our centers. What does this mean for Draft Day? Who knows?

Good luck, Katie. You might not have been the best center in the world...but you were a lot better player than a lot of people gave you credit for, which sadly includes some Dream fans. The best of luck.

Congratulations, Katie MATTERA

The Atlanta Dream Diary, the Atlanta Dream website and probably the Atlanta Dream organization bring all Dream fans the news that Katie Feenstra and Todd Mattera were married on November 8th, 2008.

Mrs. Mattera's new diary is here.

The story of Katie's wedding is up at the Dream website, along with wedding photos.

Katie mentions that next season, she will be going by her married name, Katie Mattera. Gonna have to get used to that. But best wishes to Todd and Katie Mattera!

Random Stuff

Don't have much time at the terminal, so here goes:

* Had a great visit with Ethan Johnson - the writer who is half of ethmar.com - where we talked about the W, major league soccer, women's basketball, and wine among other things.

He had this thought: we know that Katie Feenstra takes religion seriously. She's married by now - she got married this month. Ethan pointed out that if she takes her husband's family name...then this is the last we've heard of "Katie Feenstra", so to speak. (Of course, Feenstra could hyphenate her name. Hope the Dream have some extra letters of the alphabet.)

* A nice human interest story with the Dream organization making a contribution. It looks like the Dream know how to pay it forward, too.

Kit at Birthday Dinner for Big South Conference

From The News and Advance in Lynchburg, VA:

* Katie Feenstra. A three-time Big South women’s basketball player of the year who was nominated for the Wade Trophy, Wooden Award and Naismith Award, Feenstra was a major reason why the Flames made their historic Sweet 16 run. Feenstra was in attendance at Thursday’s celebration dinner, but she had to duck out early. That’s understandable. A center for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, Feenstra has a game against Washington Friday to prepare for.

Kit! Don't fill up on bread!

Kit the Killer

Swanny has his "Transgressions" statistics up at Swanny's Stats, where we learn some interesting things regarding who fouls and who doesn't for the Dream.

Katie Feenstra is second in the league in offensive fouls committed with 19, beat out only by Nakia Sanford of the Mystics with 21. I suspect, however, that Feenstra "commits" most of these fouls due to her size, as refs assume "the big woman done it". I also suspect that once you get a reputation for committing offensive fouls, your reputation precedes itself. "It must have been Kit, she fouls all the time."

On the other hand, Izi Castro Marques has not committed an offensive foul this year. She's played 372 minutes, putting her in fourth place in the WNBA for 2008. The leaders are Swin Cash and Sheryl Swoopes of Seattle, which gives you a clue as to why Seattle is doing so well. Not only that, Izi's also in fourth place in Most Minutes Played Without Drawing an Offensive Foul.

Jennifer Lacy and Betty Lennox are in the top 10 in Most Offensive Fouls Drawn. (Plenette Pierson of Detroit and Nakia Sanford of Washington are tied for the lead.) Lacy has drawn 13 offensive fouls, good for fifth. Betty Lennox, at 11, is tied for eighth with three other players.

What about travelling? Katie Feenstra and Betty Lennox are tied for second, wtih 10 each, along with Charde Houston of the Lynx.

As for three-second lane violations, Kasha Terry has committed five this year and Katie Feenstra has committed four. I don't know what to say about this particular stat, but if I could figure out what to say about it, it wouldn't be good.

The Two Towers

It appears that work is not only picking up, it will stay picked up until around July 27 -- which is when I go on vacation with my wife. I'll try to keep the blog updated, but I can't make promises. I will try to keep the Hollinger Rankings updated on Rebkell, at minimum.

There's some great reading at Score Atlanta (or is that "Score Atl"). Josh Bagriansky writes:

Another revelation has been the combination of 6-foot-8 Katie Feenstra and 6-7 Allison Bales in the post. Although she didn’t use them together much against Chicago, Meadors said she expects to use the duo in certain situations, starting against the Fever tomorrow.

Unfortunately, this combination hasn't worked all year. We're not Ruth Riley and Ann Wauters, no matter how much Meadors wishes it were so. Then again, maybe today is the day for it to all come together.

Assisted and Unassisted Field Goals

Some interesting stats by Swanny. Go for the complete list at the link.

Swanny has three list where Atlanta has players on the top 10 or 20. The first is Highest Percentage of Assisted Field Goals. We have two players on that list. Stacey Lovelace is fifth with 85.7 percent of her field goals coming on assists (30-35). Katie Feenstra is eighth on the list with 82.8 percent (24-29). (The leader? Noelle Quinn of the Lynx, with 88.9 percent assisted.)

The second list is Highest Percentage of Unassisted Field Goals. Ivory Latta is ninth on that list with 65.6 percent (40-61). (The leader? Ticha Penicheiro of the Monarchs with 88.1 percent unassisted.)

The third list might be the most interesting...Top Assist Pairs. Tied for tenth with two other pairs is the pair Betty Lennox FROM Ivory Latta. Ivory, when she isn't making her own shots, has assisted Betty 19 times this year. The top of the list is Lauren Jackson FROM Sue Bird, an amazing 44 times.

Player Profile: Katie Feenstra

Name: Katie Feenstra
Born: November 17, 1982 (25)
Place of Birth: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Height: 6-8 (2.03 m)
Weight: 240 (108.9 kg)

High School: Grand Rapids Baptist High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Colleges: Liberty

Years Pro: 3

Position: Center

Kudos:
1) Scored 46 points in a game in high school
2) Missed the first 14 games of her college career due to a dislocated knee.
3) Big South all-time leader in blocked shots
4) One of only two players in NCAA history to lead the nation in field goal percentage in two consecutive seasons (2004-05) at Liberty.
5) First player in Big South history to be named Player of the Year three times.
6) Only player in the country to lead her conference in points, rebounds, blocks and field goal percentage as a senior.
7) Got to play alongside her sister, Maribeth Anderson, at Liberty.
8) Member of the 2007 USA Women's Basketball Team

Nickname: Kit, after the character from "A League of Their Own".

Profile: As they say in Wikipeida, Katherine Ruth Feenstra is one of the tallest players in WNBA history. She's in a tie for second tallest player ever (Zheng Haixia is the tallest ever) and she's the current active tallest player. She comes by her height honestly, the child of a 7-0 father and a 6-4 mother.

Most likely, however, Feenstra took more abuse because of her height than her religion. She was a foot taller than the other girls, and the abuse would rain down from the rafters whenever her high school played road cames.

Feenstra, however, toughed it out. At the end of her high school career, she wanted to go to a college where others shared her strong Christian beliefs. Despite big-name women's basketball programs knocking on the door, this left only places like Oral Roberts or Liberty.

Feenstra chose Liberty, where she majored in physical education. After her successful career at Liberty -- where the Flames actually made it to a Sweet Sixteen berth -- Feenstra plans on teaching and coaching.

After Liberty, Feenstra ended up with the Silver Stars, managing 8.8 points a game. One of the toughest adjustments for the somewhat sheltered Feenstra (in her words) was the fact that there are open lesbians in the WNBA. Rather than making a scene, Feenstra simply learned to deal with it and as far as we know, Feenstra's beliefs don't disrupt team chemistry. However, living in San Antonio gave her a chance to share both church attendance and faith with NBA player David Robinson.

Size, of course, brings its advantages and disadvantages. Feenstra wears a size 17 men's sneaker, so finding shoes that fit must be a chore. What's worse, Feenstra has been stalked, and more than once. I found some of the biographical info for this entry on a page for "amazons", written by someone who apparently had a fetish for tall women. (Author's note: Stalking is NOT COOL. If you don't know that, go back to kindergarden and/or get different parents to teach you.)

One interesting tidbit: Feenstra eats a mint before stepping out on court. Thank goodness that Feenstra hasn't been showered with mints tossed from the stands - although if I ever get to meet her, I might hand her one with a "good luck".

A worrisome fact is that Feenstra's minutes seem to increase with bad teams and decrease with better ones. Furthermore, she might be top ten in field goal percentage, but she's also top ten in turnovers. If Feenstra can hang on to the orange-and-white ball, this might be a good opening season for the Dream.