TBBL 3/2009 - Mersin 84, Kayseri 82

For the first time in a long time, Ivory Latta got to say hello to her old Atlanta Dream teammate Tamera Young. (As well as 2008 teammate Kasha Terry.) This time, they would be on the opposite sides of the battle, with each team hoping to get over .500. Latta was the number one scorer for Mersin (2-1) and Young tied for the top scorer for Kayseri (1-2), but it looks like Mersin squeaked by with the win at home, 84-82.

The box score is here. Usually, the Turkey Women's Basketball League will at least have a write-up, and some pictures. I think this is the very first time I've seen a box score without a write-up. And of course, no pictures, as those usually come a day later.

So all we have is the box score. Seems like it was a close game. It was Kayseri that came up on top in the first quarter, leading 22-15 over Mersin, one of the heavyweights of the TBBL. Mersin would have to scrap their way back, and were only down by three points at halftime, 42-39.

Coming out of the first half, Mersin outscored visiting Kayseri 25-19 to take a 64-61 lead into what must have been a hard-fought fourth quarter, but Mersin came out on top.

Let's look at the Four Factors of the game:

Field goal percentage: Kayseri 49 percent, Mersin 46 percent. However, Mersin took 71 shots compared to Kayseri's 51. Mersin was 12-for-22 from the 3-point range.
Turnovers: Kayseri 17, Mersin 19. Almost even.
Offensive rebound percentage: Mersin 31 percent, Kayseri 11 percent. Another big edge for Mersin, as Kayseri only had three offensive rebounds.
Free throws: Kayseri 23-for-29, Mersin 6-for-8. This is where Mersin almost lost the game - on the free throw line. Mersin committed 22 fouls in the game (and Sariye Gokce fouled out); Kaseri only committed 13.

And now, the game performances:

Mersin

Ivory Latta: 24 points, 6 assists. She was only 3-for-11 from 2-point range, but a deadly 5-for-6 from behind the 3-point arc.
Erlana Larkins: 10 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists. Larkins's double-double was not the only one of the game.
Barbara Turner: 10 points, 4 rebounds.
Olympia Scott: 8 points, 6 rebounds. 4 turnovers.

Kayseri

Latoya Pringle: 18 points, 13 rebounds, for the other double-double. 6-for-13 overall shooting, and five turnovers.
Tamera Young: 18 points, 4 steals. 7-for-10 overall shooting. A very pleasant performance.
Julie McBride: 16 points, but 6 turnovers. The Syracuse grad briefly played for the Chicago Sky in their inaugural year.
Kasha Terry: 6 points and 3 rebounds in 14 minutes of play.

Out on the Town

Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamera Young meet before Young takes off for Europe - probably at a club known as Opera ATL. Clearly, they're going to stay good friends.

I got this from Holdsclaw's Twitpic. KariWNBAFaninMi writes "Thats a nice pic. I wished she still played for Atlanta :(". Holdsclaw responds, "You and me both".

P. S. @Chold1 also has words of wisdom regarding that Russian gazillionaire buying the New Jersey Nets: "Being the wealthiest man isn't the same thing as being the smartest man."

Meadors: "I Didn't Want to [Trade Young]"

Here is a quote from Ken Sugiura's article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

"I didn't want to [trade Young], Dream coach and general manager Marynell Meadors said. "She wanted to be traded, according to her and her agent. I tried to accomodate her."

Will happiness reign and a hundred thousand flowers bloom? Time will tell. (If you missed the article, it was buried under the last page of the sport section, under an article about fishing. No joke.)

The Newest Member of the Dream: Armintie Price

I believe it was Chantelle Anderson who wrote that trades were the hardest part of the sports business - you can give your heart and soul to a team and its community, but in the end, you're just a commodity to be bought, or sold, or tossed to the side. Two WNBA players have learned that lesson today: Tamera Young, and Armintie Price.

Young was a first round draft pick in 2008 out of James Madison University. Young and Amber Holt were the only players from mid-major universities to make the first round of the 2008 WNBA Draft and was the first player ever to be drafted out of James Madison. Things were looking up for Young, and the fans in Atlanta found Young one of the few highlights of the season, with Young's characteristic pigtails sparking "Pigtail Power" signs all over Philips Arena.

With a weak Atlanta team in 2008, Young was able to average 22.6 minutes a game and score 7.3 points per game. However, she only shot 33.3 percent from the field and 69.1 percent from the free throw line. The hope was that Young would improve over the 2009 season. However, the Dream signed Chamique Holdsclaw in the off-season and Angel McCoughtry was signed as the #1 pick of the 2009 WNBA Draft. With so many talented players to choose from, Young found herself fighting for playing time.

She suffered an ankle injury that took her out of several games. By that time, she was left as the last option and it looked like she would never fight her way off the bench. Her shooting hadn't improved, her rebounding power had dropped precipitously and she was still in the sub-70 percent range in free throws. Fans wondered if there was some sort of hostility between Meadors and Young, or if Meadors's pride - Young was a first round pick after all - was the only thing keeping Young with Atlanta.

Today, the other shoe dropped. Young was traded to the Chicago Sky for Armintie Price. Price was the #3 draft pick of the 2007 WNBA Draft. Price was a forward-guard, five inches shorter than Young and a lot smaller. It seemed like an even-for-even trade.

According to the Font of All Knowledge - Wikipedia - Price comes from a religious family - she's a member of the Apostolic Faith - to the point where she wore a skort during her high school basketball career to please her mother (she wasn't even allowed to play basketball until the eight grade). Price has a blog on Yardbarker and a web site of her own, which gives some details about her faith. Price needed something akin to a parental dispensation when she left for college so she could abandon the skorts. (The Apostolics forbid women to wear pants.)

She was known as a relentless player at Ole Miss, and was the only guard ever to lead the Southeastern Conference in rebounding. As Carol Ross, her coach at Mississippi said, "People want to put her in a box, and there is no box for her."

Price earned SEC Defensive Player of the Year honors twice over her four years at Mississippi. She was All-SEC First Team in her senior year, and was named as a third-team AP All American. Her final year was marked with a sad benchmark - the death of her mother from ovarian cancer.

In her first year with the Sky, she scored 7.9 poitns per game and 6.0 rebounds per game and was named the 2007 WNBA Rookie of the Year. However, her production and minutes declined every year after that. In 2008 she was only a part-time starter and scored 6.9 ppg. This year, she hasn't started at all and averages only 3.5 ppg in just 14.7 minutes of play.

(* * *)

So how can we evaluate the trade? I'll do it using three different metrics:

1) Total Adjusted Wins Score, which is not only an additive metric, but a cumulative one - which means it awards on volume as well as quality.
2) Adjusted Wins Score per 33 1/3 minutes - if you want a per-minute AdjWS, then just divide by 33.333333....
3) Diamond Rating, which makes a stab at determining how good a player would be if they had more minutes.

For Total Adjusted Wins Score:

Price: 6.2 (77th out of 159)
Young: -3.4 (113th out of 159)

Before we consider AdjWS the be-all-and-end-all of metrics, Total AdjWS considers Tamera Young a better player than Chamique Holdsclaw! AdjWS absolutely hates shooting inaccuracy and turnovers and fouls, but doesn't consider all that a player brings to a table. Holdsclaw might be the kind of player that defies all metrics.

Maybe we need Adjusted Wins Score Per 33 1/3 minutes:

Price: 0.65
Young: -1.69 (Holdsclaw's is only -0.37 - Holdsclaw's Total score is worse than Young's simply because she's played more minutes.)

And now, we'll haul out Diamond Rating, which does a lot of comparisons and tries to project what a player might be able to do with better minutes. Only players who have played > 2.0 mpg and < 21.0 mpg are eligible.

Price: 7.39 (34th out of 89)
Young: -4.14 (61st out of 89)

It looks as though the Dream might have gotten the better end of the deal. Before saying so, Young might have simply needed a better atmosphere to blossom. That just happens. Her first year, she was forced to play starters minutes because the team was so bad; the second year she got no time at all because of the people in front of her (and maybe, because of other factors).

The great thing is that a move to a new city means a new chance to make a first impression. Here's hoping that both Armintie Price and Tamera Young make those good impressions. Pleasant Dreams welcomes Arminite Price to the Atlanta Dream - I think you'll like our fans a lot.

Tamera Young to Chicago; Armintie Price to Atlanta?

Update on the latest breaking news. Tamera Young is about seven minutes away as I type this from flying to Chicago. Little Smooth is no longer a member of the Atlanta Dream, and the era of Pigtail Power is over.

The most likely candidate for being Young's replacement is Armintie Price, a 2007 graduate of the University of Mississippi. Carol Ross, currently an assistant head coach at Atlanta, was the head coach at Ole Miss during Price's final year.

More on this later, obviously.

Little Smooth is Gone

Apparently, Tamera Young either has been/is about to be traded by the Atlanta Dream.

According to Young and Holdsclaw on Twitter:

@tyoung11 And I'm up still packing........ Way too many clothes and shoes....

@tyoung11 I'm going to miss my ATL fam soooooooo much @shanna_monic @chold1 @jlacy21 @vetto @cjatl @addic_tive and my team and loyal supporters...


@chold1 Good morning. I'm headed to practice I hope today is a betta day. I'm gonna miss my lil sis @tyoung11. Wishin her da best on her new journey.

The thing is, we don't know to what team or for whom. The current candidate is Chicago. But I'm not putting my bets on anything until I hear from the DFO.

P. S.: Tamera Young might be (almost) gone, but her presence still adorns the upper banner of the Dream's website. I wonder if they'll get the game intro film edited in time?

P. P. S: According to Twitter, Young is leaving on a jet plane for Chicago at 10:30 am. Which means that the Sky have a new forward. But who do we get from the Sky?

P. P. P. S: It's definitely not Kristi Toliver or K. B. Sharp.

P. P. P. P. P. S.: I suspect strongly that it's Armintie Price. Price is a graduate of the University of Mississippi, and was a senior there during Carol Ross's last year at Ole Miss.

P.^6 S.: According to our esteemed commenters (I can't get Twitter at work), Young has confirmed the trade to the Chicago Sky.

Little Smooth Back on Saturday

From Tamera Young on Twitter:

@tyoung11 For all my wondering supporters YES I will be playing Saturday as long as coach puts me in *smile*




The Dream has its full compliment back. Woo hoo!

Little Smooth Working on that Ankle

If you ever wanted to know what Tamera Young's ankle looks like, this is it.

By the way, Exodus 20:12? One of the Ten Commandments. From the King James Version: "Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee."

Incidentally, Tamera was at the Dream game last night. If you didn't recognize her, this is what she looked like.

Tamera Young Out for a Week

My sources tell me that Tamera Young twisted her ankle pretty badly. She'll be out today and out against the Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday for sure.

Get well, Little Smooth.

Dreaming (Literally) On the Way to Chicago

"zzzzzzzzzzz"

There's a "veritable plethora" of pictures posted by Tamera Young and Chamique Holdsclaw. You can't stop their cameras! You can only hope to contain them!

1. Izi and Erika share a moment. (Chamique "Big Smooth" Holdsclaw is the phootgrapher.)
2. Mining nose candy? (Big Smooth took this one.)
3. Shalee Lehning, down for the count? (Another Big Smooth production? - posted above)
4. Michelle Snow can't stay awake either. (From Little Smooth.)
5. Angel can't stay off the phone. (From Big Smooth)
6. Jennifer Lacy catches up on a movie at the airport, but we know how it ends. (From Little Smooth.)

A Special Announcement from Chamique Holdsclaw

Via YouTube:



A No-Prize to the first person who can tell me what "skips" are.

Tamera's Ink

From Little Smooth herself on Twitter:



Very nice ink. (*) It looks like Tamera Young is going to be very motivated this year.


(*) See? I used "ink"! I'm getting the hang of this modern lingo. Soon, I'll own an iPod.

WNBA: Car Talk

Tamera Young's ride.

Chamique Holdsclaw on Twitter asks "Why does Tamera (Young) have a 22 sign in gleam on the hemi charger but is rolling on factory, hmm?"

Being tragically unhip, I didn't understand that sentence. My wife suggests that Big Smooth is talking about Little Smooth's rims, and that Big Smooth is puzzled that Young has factory rims for her nice car.

Angel McCoughtry pipes up. "Wow, all the vets have Hummers, Maybacks, Bentleys and Ferraris...must be nice." To which Chamique responds, "Girl, you got a Bentley, what are you complaining about? ::LOL::" Later, Young opines that factory rims are only for BMWs.

Candid Moment

It looks like some of the Atlanta Dream players decided not to wait until training camp to get in shape. If you don't know the names, it's Jennifer Lacy, Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamera Young from left to right.

(Source: Chamique Holdsclaw, better known as @CHold1 on Twitter.)

Tamera Young Has a (Video) Blog

Tamera Young has a new video blog at the Atlanta Dream website. She answers a few questions about her first off-season, where she played basketball in both Spain and Latvia.

I got the impression that she liked Latvia more than she liked Spain. I also get the feeling that Tamera is a little more comfortable in front of the microphone. There's a more conversational aspect to her answers and much less terror in making a faux pas.

Click the link. Tamera's looking good, and I hope that she'll look just as good on the court this season.

BWBL Finals 2008 - Vilnius 68, SK Cēsis 47

Tamera, we hoped you liked Latvia. We'll see you in Atlanta!

Vilnius had been the champion of the BWBL for the previous nine years, so I'm sure they weren't intimidated by the arrival of SK Cēsis. They had beaten Cēsis in the BWBL Finals in the previous year. Vilnius started strong and finished strong, winning the Baltic Women's Basketball League championship 68-47.

The box score is here. Click "View match statistics" to see the box score. A gallery of images can be seen here.

It didn't take long for Vilnius to take an eight-point lead, 17-9 in the middle of the first quarter and ending the first 10 minutes with 26 points. Vilnius had an 11 points lead and they kept that lead going into halftime 39-28. In the second half, SK Cēsis had a hard time hitting anything, and when you're down 11 points, that's disaster. SK Cēsis only scored seven points in the final quarter and Vilnius would cruise to its tenth straight BWBL title with a 21-point victory.

Vilnius hit 45 percent of their field goal attempts in the game, whereas SK Cēsis only hit 37 percent. With Aušra Bimbaitė and Crystal Langhorne of Vilnius gobbling up rebounds, Vilnius outrebounded SK Cēsis 31-21. SK Cēsis only turned the ball over nine times, but Vilnius kept turnovers down to 12 and SK Cēsis had no way to get the ball back after their misses.

With the loss, SK Cēsis has no more games to play until September. Tamera Young can go home with a championship under her belt. She almost had two championships, but it was not to be.

SK Cēsis

Sandra Dijon: 13 points, 7 rebounds.
Ieva Tare: 9 points.
Tamera Young: 8 points, 7 rebounds. Fouled out.
Kristen Mann: 2 points in 27 minutes of play. Mann and Young must have been smothered.

Vilnius

Crystal Langhorne: 28 points, 9 rebounds from the Washington Mystics center.
Jurgita Štreimikytė-Virbickienė: 14 points from the ex-WNBA player. Štreimikytė-Virbickienė last played with the Indiana Fever in 2005.
Aušra Bimbaitė: 5 points, 17 rebounds. Bimbaitė was the rebound leader in the game.

BWBL Semifinals 2008 - SK Cēsis 49, Arvi (Lithuania) 43

Tamera Young helps SK Cēsis out of a hole.

The semifinals and finals of the Baltic Women's Basketball League are definitely tough. Four teams go into the semifinals and the games are strictly single-elimination. While TTT Rīga lost to Vilnius 77-55, SK Cēsis managed to make it to the finals of the BWBL for the second year in a row with a 49-43 victory.

The box score is here. Click "View match statistics" to see the box score. A gallery of images can be found here.

The best way to describe that first game was awful. Neither team broke the double digit barrier in the first quarter, and both teams were tied 9-9 after 10 minutes. SK Cēsis only managed six points in the second quarter with Arvi scoring the first six points of the second quarter, and SK Cēsis went into halftime down 21-15. Tamera Young began to feed the ball in the third quarter, finding enough SK Cēsis players to take SK Cēsis up to a 33-31 lead at the end of three quarter. A tense fourth quarter reulted in Arvi catching up, down just 41-39 with four minutes left, but SK Cēsis held off the Lithuanians long enough for the Semifinal victory.

I can only assume that both teams would have been happier just kicking the ball around the gym. SK Cēsis only hit 30 percent of their field goal attempts...but Arvi topped that with 26 percent. Arvi was a slightly better rebounding team, with the majority of rebounds for both teams being offensive rebounds. Turnovers were virtually identical, but with both teams shooting so poorly, free throw shooting turned out to be the key of the game. SK Cēsis hit six more free throws than Arvi, and that margin was reflected in the final score.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 22 points, 9 rebounds.
Tamera Young: 12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, 4 turnovers.
Ieva Tare: 5 points, all from free throws.

Arvi

Milda Sauliūtė: 10 points, 4 rebounds.
Laima Rickevičiūtė: 6 points, 8 rebounds.
Lizanne Murphy: 2 points and 3 rebounds for the Canadian player.

LSBL Finals 3/2008 - SK Cēsis 88, TTT Rīga 57

You should see what the coach was drinking!

This Thursday, the potential deciding game of the Latvian League's Finals were being played on the same day that new player were being drafted in the WNBA. There was a danger of the finals being overshadowed, and with SK Cēsis holding a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series, that danger was all the more. SK Cēsis would make short work of TTT Rīga on its own home court, winning 88-57 to sweep the Latvian finals and become the new Latvia Women's League Champions!

The box score is here. With the Latvian championship decided, the only thing left for SK Cēsis this season is to take the Baltic Women's Basketball League championship.

There are two galleries: a game gallery and a championship gallery.

Good rebounding got SK Cēsis off to a 7-0 start. TTT Rīga fought back to take a 12-10 lead of their own but SK Cēsis raced out ahead to take a 25-16 lead at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was horrible for TTT Rīga as they were held to nine points and by halftime, the visitors led 47:25 in front of a crowd of disappointed TTT Rīga fans. In the second half, the Latvian press reported that TTT Rīga came back onto the court a defeated team, going though the motions as SK Cēsis won each of the remaining quarters.

SK Cēsis hit 53 percent of their attempted field goals - and TTT Rīga only hit 34 percent of theirs. That was the game right there. TTT Rīga was outrebounded 42-31 but had more offensive rebounds than their opponents. TTT Rīga would turn the ball over only nine times...but SK Cēsis only had five turnovers. SK Cēsis went to the free throw line 25 times, hitting 20 shots.

TTT Rīga

Aija Brumermane: 10 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals.
Zane Eglīte: 7 points, 7 rebounds
Merike Anderson: 20 points on 8-for-20 shooting. 5 turnovers, 4 personal fouls.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 20 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists. 8-for-13 shooting, an amazing game.
Kelly da Silva Santos: 12 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists.
Tamera Young: 14 points, 9 rebounds in just 18 minutes played.

SK Cēsis-TTT Rīga Gallery - Game Two, LSBL Finals

Tamera Young stops to admire the hair of an opposing player.

The gallery from Game Two of the Latvian finals can be found here. There are some good Tamera Young pics here, so dig in...if SK Cēsis wins Game Three there might not be many more galleries!

LSBL Finals 2/2008 - SK Cēsis 60, TTT Rīga 51

I was wrong about the LSBL Finals - it's not a best of seven series, it's a best of five series. SK Cēsis had already taken a 1-0 lead on TTT Rīga's court and the game was to come back home to SK Cēsis. SK Cēsis continued to press the advantage, winning Game Two 60-51 in front of 1200 fans and taking a 2-0 lead in a best of three series. If SK Cēsis wins Game 3 on Thursday at Riga, they are the LSBL Champions.

The box score is here.

By the end of the first two minutes, SK Cēsis had a 7-0 lead in the game, and they kept that lead, leading 20-13 after one quarter, and by halftime, SK Cēsis had expanded the lead to 35-25. Both teams played more or less evenly throughout the second half, with TTT Rīga never able to decisively cut into SK Cēsis's lead.

Each time hit only 34 percent of its attempted field goals, but the big difference in the game was that SK Cēsis hit 8-of-24 of its 3-point field goals whereas TTT Rīga went 1-for-18. SK Cēsis out-rebounded their counterparts 38-27. Undoubtedly, the missed 3-pointers gave SK Cēsis plenty of rebounding opportunities.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 27 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists. A very nice game for the ex-Dream player.
Tamera Young: 8 points and 12 rebounds. Young went 4-for-9 and was just one basket away from the game's second double-double.
Elina Babkina: 15 points.

TTT Rīga

Aija Brumermane: 16 points, 8 rebounds. Fouled out.
Merike Anderson: 13 points, 4 rebounds, 4 personal fouls.

Pictures will come when the SK Cēsis website posts them.