LadySwish musings from the Final Four

Classy in defeat

What struck us from the Final Four:

*Geno. How classy. Only minutes after Notre Dame shocked UConn, he had a microphone stuck in his face and offered some pretty nice words. Unlike Pat Summitt, whose indictment of her team seemed unnecessarily brutal, Geno had only poignant remarks about his Huskies and all Maya Moore had accomplished the last four years.

*Is the in-game interview the worst idea ever?

*Or is it the social media correspondent? Actually we like the idea, but it has to have some structure. Could you have the tweets in a crawl? Also, wouldn't it be cool to see what some of the players are saying? For example, Tina Charles tweeted the whole game including, "Lorin never shoots the ball. It KILLS me."

Too much.

*Camera didn't catch Maya Moore heading out of her last collegiate game. We saw it on replay, but that's hardly the same. Funny considering ESPN's history with "Maya-cam."


*We've seen enough of Condoleezza Rice to last a lifetime.


*And while we're on TV coverage, every coach in America is in the stands. Wouldn't you have loved to have seen some of them? Mulkey? Summitt? Debbie Ryan, even? Rather than having sideline reporters who add very little, how about having the sideline reporters roam the stands for famous faces?

*What was Xavier thinking when A&M coasted the length of the floor to stun Stanford? What goes around comes around?

*Do you get the feeling Virginia just wasn't willing to pay the bucks for Nikki Caldwell that is pocket change for LSU?

*What happened to Tiffany Hayes?

*Bria Hartley and Meighan Simmons: Life is tough for freshman point guards when the stakes are high.

*How many games do you think The Cardinal would have won in the Big East? The Big 12?

*Lorin Dixon is the new Maria Conlen of UConn.

*"Fourth time is the charm" is low hanging fruit for headline writers.

*Maya Moore's hair hasn't moved in four years. Contrast that with Geno, who is always running his fingers through his.

Prez?

*Why was Doris Burke fawning over Maya Moore during Notre Dame's moment?

He'd be cute on court.

*There should be a Husky on the court just like there is a Butler bulldog.

*3,000 empty seats? At the Final Four? Now that's a problem.

*Gary Blair for president.

*Yeah, Griner is good. But so is Nnemkadi Ogwumike.

Na'ama Shafir, Toledo

*The best story you probably don't know about: Junior guard Na'ama Shafir scored a career-high 40 to lead Toledo over USC 76-68 in the WNIT title game before a sellout crowd of 7,301 in Ohio. No, that's not the story. Shafir is an Orthodox Jew. She had to get permission from her rabbi to play, had to walk to and from the arena (Shabbit prevents riding in motorized vehicles) and could not speak to the media afterward due to religious restrictions.

*No knock to either A&M or Notre Dame, but UConn and Baylor shouldn't have to beat the same team four times in a season.

*We'll miss Maya.

*Notre Dame vs. A&M; who do you like. We're going Irish.