Lawson, Bird to battle for Philly stakes
By Mechelle Voepel
Special to ESPN.com
PHILADELPHIA -- You remember Asteroids, right? You're the little spaceship gun in the middle, and all these rocks are coming at you from all sides.
|  | | Sue Bird drives for two of her 19 points for UConn. |
At first, you're spinning 180 degrees and shooting like crazy and you're feeling OK, you're surviving. But the asteroids keep coming, and you're still spinning and shooting but there's too many of them. They're too fast, they're crashing into you, you can't stop them, arrrrrgggggghhh ....
So that's what Penn State felt like Friday night at the Women's Final Four semifinals, the same as what a lot of teams have felt this season facing Connecticut.
The Huskies have Shea Ralph, who usually looks like if she doesn't win every game she's just going to fling herself off a cliff because she can't stand it. They have Svetlana Abrosimova, who has learned to put up with Geno Auriemma and vice versa, who does all this graceful stuff that even he has to appreciate.
They've got Asjha Jones, Tamika Williams, Swin Cash and Kelly Schumacher inside, and if those four don't clobber you, Stacy Hansmeyer and Paige Sauer are there, too.
They've got Kennitra Johnson, who's quick and smart and does what she should on defense, even though she's just a freshman.
Yeah, they've got all that. Um, have we forgotten anybody?
Heh, heh, heh ...
"All these tough guys on our team, the ones that look real tough," Auriemma says, "who'd guess the toughest one is that little girl from Syosset, N.Y.?"
Yeah, that little girl, the one who looks like she took piano lessons from your aunt, the one who's being so polite to all the reporters cramming around her in the Connecticut locker room.
Everybody's pressing in on her, jockeying for position, trying to hear what she's saying. Sue Bird only did one thing wrong Friday night. She didn't talk loud enough.
But don't worry, let's just wedge our way in here and see what she had to say after UConn's 89-67 victory.
"It felt good today, it felt good to be where I am," she said. "I'm glad they can depend on me."
Bird had 19 points and five assists in 34 minutes Friday, but one stat was also huge: zero turnovers. In fact, UConn as a team had just 12.
You know how many games are lost because of turnovers? Well, I don't exactly know either, but it's a whole heck of a lot. And when you have someone who can direct the offense, be the leading scorer and not have any turnovers ....
Wait a minute, who are we talking about here? Sue Bird or Kara Lawson? Guess what? We're talking about both.
In the first semifinal of the night, Tennessee's 64-54 victory over Rutgers, Lawson had 19 points, three assists and no turnovers.
Yep, just a couple of 19-year-olds scoring 19 points and running the show on the biggest stage for women's college hoops. And, fittingly, they get to go head-to-head on Sunday in the national championship game.
Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said nothing Lawson does surprises her, that she's probably the best freshman she has had as far as running the half-court game. Summitt doesn't just toss out bouquets like that all the time, so you know it means something.
And Auriemma likes to be Mr. Wiseacre, but there's no mistaking the way his eyes shine when he's talking about Bird. The obvious person to compare her to is Jen Rizzotti, but Bird really doesn't seem that much like that former UConn great in demeanor.
Maybe it was the knee pads or whatever, but Rizzotti always looked kind of like, you know, the little action figures in "Small Soldiers." Like a warrior ready to go at it even if both arms were about to fall off.
It's not that Bird is any less tough or less competitive, she just doesn't look as spectacularly battle-weary as Rizzotti usually did. But as far as getting the job done? Hey, she's more than doing that.
"She's always in," Auriemma said of Bird. "It's like, she might have one foot outside the door, but her game never actually leaves the room."
That's his way of saying he doesn't have to worry about her losing focus like he does with some of the other Huskies. You know Auriemma, he's hilarious sometimes.
Friday night, they brought Ralph and Abrosimova to the media room after the game, those two being the so-called "designated spokespeople" for the team. Meaning Bird, the one everyone wanted to talk to, was left in the locker room and scads of people kept coming in and climbing all over each other to hear her.
But anyway, Auriemma makes his opening statement saying, "We didn't get a great game out of Svet or Shea, and it shows you the depth of our team and the quality of our depth, that without two of our best players, we still managed to play a really, really good game."
So what are Svet and Shea supposed to say after that fine introduction? Later, someone asked them about how they went about shutting down Penn State guard Helen Darling, who didn't score, and Auriemma answered, "Neither of them can answer that because neither of them had anything to do with it."
Ralph just laughed.
"That's not true," she said. "I played defense against her for a little bit. At the end."
Ralph didn't have any trouble taking Auriemma's barbs, nor did she have any difficulty giving a heap of credit to Bird.
"She's been the MVP of our team this year," Ralph said.
In a way, you might say the same thing about Lawson. Not that All-Americans Tamika Catchings and Semeka Randall aren't incredibly valuable, but you wonder if Tennessee would be here without Lawson, just as you wonder if UConn would make it without Bird.
We don't have to wonder, though. There will be a whole floor full of MVPs on Sunday night. Bird vs. Lawson is just one of the stories.
But what a story.
Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached via e-mail at mvoepel@kcstar.com. |
Kara Lawson drives the lane and makes the scoop shot.