|
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Its a Minnesota father-daughter tradition. Every March, if Lynx point guard Lindsay Whalen is home instead of playing overseas, she and her dad, Neil, take in an early day of the state high school hockey tournament at the Xcel Energy Center.A scheduling conflict at the Target Center forced the Lynx to shift the first two games of their WNBA semifinal series with Phoenix to Xcel, the NHL arena 10 miles east of Minneapolis, across the Mississippi River. So when Whalen took the court for Game 1 on Wednesday night, with Minnesota facing archrival Phoenix in this round for the fourth consecutive season, the surroundings were more familiar to her than her teammates.It helped that the Lynx shipped their home court from Target Center rather than using Xcels. Whalen and Maya Moore quickly made themselves comfortable, standing out in a game featuring 11 Olympians from Rio and virtually no defense.Moore scored 13 of her 31 points in the runaway second quarter, and Whalen had 19 points and seven assists as the top-seeded Lynx won easily, 113-95, setting a WNBA record for points in regulation playoff game. Game 2 of the best-of-five series is Friday (ESPNews, 8 p.m. ET).They pretty much dominated every facet of the game, said Phoenix guard Diana Taurasi, one of the Mercurys six Olympians. There are a lot of things we have to prioritize, and we didnt do any of them today. We didnt limit anyone. They got what they wanted, when they wanted. Thats just a lack of team defense, which the last couple of weeks weve been pretty good at.Six Lynx players scored in double figures, including reserves Renee Montgomery (11 points) and Natasha Howard (10), as Minnesota shot 63.9 percent from the field. Center Sylvia Fowles had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Taurasi finished with 25 points and Brittney Griner had 16 for Phoenix, which lost despite shooting 53.5 percent from the field. Minnesota owned a 38-20 rebounding edge, limiting the 6-foot-8 Griner to two rebounds, none offensive.Things were so out of hand by the end of third quarter that Mercury coach Sandy Brondello gave Taurasi, Griner, Penny Taylor and Candice Dupree the rest of the night off. Down by 20, theres no use trying to beat a dead horse, Brondello said.The teams hadnt met since June 7, playing their three-game series in the regular seasons first three weeks (the Lynx swept). The eighth-seeded Mercury won back-to-back single-elimination games in the WNBAs new playoff format to reach the semis. But they were no match for the Lynx, rested and fresh after 10 days off and aiming to become the first WNBA team since the 2001-02 Los Angeles Sparks to repeat.Whalen, one of Minnesotas four U.S. Olympians (plus Anna Cruz of Spain), delivered the signature moment in a 14-0 second-quarter run that put the Lynx up 39-25. She finished a fast break with a behind-the-back dribble in the lane and a hesitation layup, wowing the boisterous crowd of 9,013. She waited for a late-arriving Taurasi -- an Olympic teammate in Rio last month -- to sail past before banking it in.Phoenix never came closer than 12 points the rest of the way, and trailed by 25 in the third quarter.I was just trying to push the tempo, Whalen said. Coach [Cheryl Reeve] worked me a lot this year on getting in there, making a move, changing directions. I was able to get it done that time.I almost lost it. Another inch one way and it would have been a turnover and they would have been running the other way. I was a little bit good and a little bit lucky on that play.Said Taurasi: I want to act surprised and I want to act like, How did she do that? But Im not. Ive played with her and against her for so long. She has the ability to do things that no one else in the world can do, especially when shes engaged like that.Shes one of the best players in the world. Sometimes, theyre better than you. Today she made a lot of those plays where she was just better than us.Lynx players wore purple sneakers to honor the memory of Prince, their highest-profile fan who hosted an impromptu victory party at Paisley Park last season after the Lynx won their third WNBA championship in five years. Designated fashionista Seimone Augustus generally picks the color for the Lynx playoff sneakers, but players said this was a team-wide call.Minnesotas home away from homeRelocating playoff games because of building conflicts is an unfortunate fact of life in the WNBA, something the Lynx managed to avoid until this season.Several months ago, Target Center officials pushed back a five-day appearance by Cirque du Soliel, originally slated for the Olympic break, to install a new scoreboard as part of the buildings $130 million renovation. Rescheduling Cirque to Sept. 28-Oct. 2 forced the Lynx to find another venue for Games 1 and 2, abandoning an arena where the Lynx posted the leagues best home record since 2014 (43-8).The Lynx already contracted to play next summer at Xcel, the home of the NHLs Minnesota Wild, during the final stage of renovations. Xcel officials agreed to host these playoff games as well, with the Wild shifting three days of training camp to another location.Xcel general manager Jack Larson said the building hadnt hosted a basketball game since the 2001 state high school boys tournament. So most Xcel workers had no practice experience assembling a basketball floor.The Lynx shipped their court across town on three semi tractor-trailers. Target Center operations director Tom Renner supervised a crew of 20 that put it together in time for the Lynx to practice last Monday. They broke it down for a Wild preseason game Tuesday night, then restored it for Wednesdays shootaround.We could take a second and bemoan it, but it really doesnt do us any good, Reeve said. The mindset is, we are very fortunate we have a beautiful facility in St. Paul. And we said we dont care where the game is played. Its about us being together, and our fans. If were all there, thats our home court.The Lynx, and Whalen, certainly made it feel like home Wednesday night. .C. Lions has come to an end. Banks told TSN on Jan 2 that he had no interest in playing out the option year of his contract with the Lions in 2014, and he again made that clear in a conversation with Lions GM Wally Buono last week. . 1 position. The Mustangs (6-0), who beat Queens 50-31 last weekend, earned 17 first-place votes and 287 points in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada. Western was last ranked first in the country in October 2011. .875,000, avoiding arbitration. Clippards deal Monday means all eight Nationals players who filed for arbitration wound up settling before a hearing. . The FA rejected Wilsheres appeal that the length of his punishment was "clearly excessive" and said Thursday his suspension begins with immediate effect. He will miss league matches against Chelsea on Monday and West Ham on Dec. . JOHNS, N. GRAPEVINE, Texas -- Penn State fans want answers.We beat Ohio State and won the Big Ten. Why arent we in?The Big 12 commissioner wants clarity.We just added a conference championship game for the sake of the playoff, but Ohio State didnt even need to win its division.Athletic directors across the country want a blueprint on how to schedule.Washington got in with one of the worst nonconference lineups in the country; can we do that, too?The third season of the College Football Playoff has brought some confusion, but it has also revealed a clarity that will be difficult for many outside the committee room to understand and accept: In order to pick the four best teams, the committee will sometimes be as inconsistent as the sport itself.Fans and coaches craving step-by-step instructions for how their team can get into the playoff can forget it. There isnt any if-then promise. The criteria that have been repeated ad nauseum -- conference championships, head-to-head results, strength of schedule and common opponents -- are guidelines, not answers. The tiebreakers didnt come into play between Penn State and Ohio State because the committee never deemed their résumés comparable enough.Quite simply, they deemed the Buckeyes unequivocally better.This year was different than the previous two, but the committee did set a precedent beyond its inclusion of Ohio State -- by illustrating that there are no precedents in a subjective system determined by 12 people.Football seasons are like snowflakes; theyre all different, CFP executive director Bill Hancock said. Next year well be standing here talking about some other way it fell out.There will be times when a weak nonconference schedule can be overcome, as No. 4 Washington did with wins against Stanford, Utah, Washington State and Colorado. There will be years when the eye test trumps the head-to-head result, as was the case with No. 3 Ohio State and No. 5 Penn State. There will also be seasons in which two teams from the same conference get in, or a two-loss team is in, and a woeful nonconference lineup keeps a champion out.The committees protocol went out the window this year, but in came a breath of fresh air -- the reminder that finding the four best teams overrides anything else in the committee handbook.Fundamentally we kept in mind that our job is to determine who are the best teams, committee chairman Kirby Hocutt said. That is what we did.It wasnt about Penn State winning the Big Ten championship. It was about the committee thinking Washington and Ohio State were both better than the Nittany Lions. Period. It wasnt about Washingtons nonconference schedule. It was about Jake Browning, Myles Gaskin, John Ross and Budda Baker.ddddddddddddAs we looked at those key statistics from an offensive standpoint, from a defensive standpoint, from starting field position differential, the edge was to Washington, Hocutt said. You look at turnover margin, Washington ranks first in the country in turnover margin compared to Penn State, ranking 50.Those on the outside have grown accustomed to the committee justifying its rankings by referring to wins against teams with records over .500, and wins against top-10 teams, but Hocutt was prepared to go beyond the schedule, and provide the numbers to back up their opinions.He told us why Washington was better.Those five former coaches in the room? They know how hard it is to win a conference title, and the value of a head-to-head win, but their voices in the room were influential in guiding the committee beyond resumes and into the talent.As we looked to our coaches to share their perspective on what they saw on the field, Hocutt said, it was determined that Washington was the more talented team.It wasnt that conference championships dont matter -- Clemsons title is a big reason it jumped Ohio State for the No. 2 spot. Washington never would have gotten in without beating a top-10 Colorado team and topping its résumé?with the Pac-12 title.It was that Penn States conference title wasnt enough to overcome its non-competitive showing in a 39-point loss to Michigan.The committee had reasons for every decision it made. It just wasnt in sync with what we heard the first two years, when so much emphasis was placed on conference title games (Ohio State, 2014) and head-to-head results (TCU-Baylor, 2014).But just when you think it overlooked its protocol, there is an example of how the committee followed it.Im not sure Ohio State would have been in the [playoff] this year, Hancock said, if it hadnt gone and played Oklahoma.So strength of schedule does matter. And it can be overcome.But I believe, I feel strongly about this, that the way to be sure you get in the playoff is to let your players show what they can do against the best competition, Hancock said. I dont envision that part of it changing.The playoff is not going to change. The protocol is not going to change. The last thing the CFP wants to do is mimic the knee-jerk reactions of the BCS.We are confident that this process, this protocol, works well, and this playoff is extremely popular, Hancock said. Were extremely proud of it.The only thing thats really guaranteed in this system?Somebody is going to get left out. ' ' ' balls. ' ' 'performed." ' ' '
|
