Waxed

Sports has a language all its own, and it's not always easy to figure out the etymology of the more colorful terms. Take, for example, "waxed." Most dictionaries list the meaning of "to defeat soundly in sport," but they don't say more. How did the application of furniture treatment get transmogrified into a sports word?

One web site tied "waxing" in sports to an older term that has fallen out of favor, "shellacking." (As in, "we gave them a good shellacking.") That seems possible, but then you're faced with tying shellac -- a coating for wood -- into sport. After some time searching the web, I got nuttin'.

In the end, it doesn't matter -- waxing an opponent still means to defeat them soundly, thoroughly, and completely, wherever the word came from. Just like last night, in the end, it didn't matter what the Lady Cards did, or who they put on the floor, or whether they played zone or man or hard or soft or tight or loose. It didn't matter, because the Lady Cards got waxed. Soundly, thoroughly, three-coats-of-Simonize waxed. And I was there to watch.

 To say it was ugly is to say the Slugger Bat is tall. It was one of the worst beatings between two ranked teams I've ever seen. I think UConn got to 30 before the Cards got to double figures. The game was over within the first five minutes, and everyone in the XL Center knew it. Including, I think, the Lady Cards players.

Let me make one thing clear: they did not quit. I've got to hand it to them -- they kept battling, kept "bringing it" the entire 40 minutes. The problem was, on this night their "it" was nowhere close. From Angel on down, the team played one of their most disjointed games of the season. And when you're playing a team as complete and solid as this year's UConn team, playing your worst game in two months will get you waxed, every time.

I'm not a coach. I couldn't do Jeff Walz's job. I have, though, watched a lot (a LOT) of basketball, and I study the game as much as a fan can. So, here are a few pieces of analysis, based purely on what I saw last night:

Talent. When I talk about women's basketball to others, they invariably say "but when I watch it, the play is so poor and sloppy." I explain to them that in the men's game, there are a good percentage of great teams, a good percentage of very good teams, and relatively few really bad teams. In women's basketball, the percentage of great teams is much smaller, and the percentage of bad teams is greater.

Louisville is a very good team. UConn is a great team. Only one Louisville player would make the UConn squad, in my opinion. Geno Auriemma has built a program that the greatest players want to be a part of, and it shows. At every position, UConn has players that fit the position. Everyone goes off about Moore -- and she's superb, no doubt -- but I was more impressed with the quality top to bottom.

If Louisville wants to play at this level -- and they do -- then recruiting has got to be Job One. From what I hear, Walz is going some good work in that department. Let's hope so ... Angel's a senior, and I don't see anyone behind her that is ready to step up.

Tiredness. Everyone is going to talk about this, so I won't dwell on it. It was obvious that U of L was tired, and they deserved to be. Their previous two games were killers, while UConn had a small challenge from Nova for a half, then walked over them like they've walked over everyone. To their credit, as I noted above, the Louisville players didn't mail it in. Even tired, they kept playing hard and making UConn work for it.

Tightness. (Didn't plan the alliteration -- just happened. <g>) In terms of confidence, the team I saw Tuesday night was nowhere near the team I saw Monday night. From the opening tip, Louisville looked tight, scared, tentative. Some of the players had that "deer in the headlights" look. They passed up open shots, they waited a few seconds before passing or driving, they treated the ball like a hot potato. To me, it looked like they played not to lose from the outset. The contrast with UConn was dramatic.

Coaching. From what I can tell, Jeff Walz is a good coach, and is going to be a very good one as he grows into the job. There's one thing I can say, though -- he's got to learn to work the refs.

Almost the entire game, he was talking to the refs, calling to the refs, shouting at the refs, complaining to the refs. It got him a technical, and he probably deserved a few more. His approach to the refs seemed to be confrontation, all night.

It was the same on Monday night. And since it was the same crew, the technical may have been a hold-over call from Monday, as in "I'm going to shut you up now so I don't have to put up with your mouth the entire game." If Jeff is going to win games, he's got to pick his battles ... and that can't be the entire game.

Geno, of course, had nothing to say to the refs, because his team was playing well and most of the calls went his way. (Playing the Big East tourney on UConn's home court is another blog entry all its own.) Being Geno, he had to be a jerk, so he kept his starters on the court until a few minutes from the end, even when UConn was up by 30. But, that's Geno for you -- he doesn't want to just win, he wants to rub your nose in it.

He may be a jerk, but he's a great coach. His team was every positive adjective you can apply to a sports team: athletic, prepared, focused, poised, determined, well-coached. They knew what to do, and they played like a team. They ran their offense well, took advantage of what Louisville gave them, and fought like champs. They ARE champs. Based on what I saw, I'm not sure any other team has what it takes to beat them. At least, not this year.

The Lady Cards will be a 2 seed, I suspect, in the NCAA. They deserve it; the team I saw last night is not the team that came in second in the Big East. They will play again, and they will play better. The best scenario is that they learn from last night like the men learned from the Notre Dame debacle, and apply those lessons in the Big Dance. If they do, they could make the Elite Eight. Depending on the brackets, they could even make a Final Four, based on their defense and who else loses on the way.

Last night, though, they didn't look like an Elite Eight team. And UConn looked unstoppable.