Summary of chat with Jia Perkins

Here's a summary of the chat with Jia Perkins from the Chicago Sky Message Boards

Where was jump shot last season?
Actually my jump shot has always been there. I was playing the point guard so I wasn't trying to be as aggressive offensively. The three pointer I just worked on that in the off season.

On the 39 Pt game:
Of course I was pleased with my stats but more pleased with the Win. That was definetly my coming out game.

Love watching her and her shoot:
Thanks I appreciate that. I try to make a difference right when I step out on the court.

Best advice for up and coming player:
I would tell her to never let anyone or anything discourage you from living your dreams. Always believe in yourself.

About the team:
We have a pretty funny team, I don't think I could just choose one. I would say I hang out with Chasity the most! We love going and getting some Cold Stone icecream.

I love Chicago! I have made some great friends here. I think we can win it as well. You know anything can happen during the playoffs. We have already beaten some good teams.

Can you dunk? No I can't dunk, I'm getting old.

Do you think you will win the 6^th man award?
No I don't think I would win 6th man of the year. I'm really not the sixth man off the bench. I think other players have been playing well the entire season and I just started playing well in July.

About making an all-star team?
No I never thought about that! It would be a blessing though.

Team:
Well I think we need to focus on our team defense. I don't think we have a problem scoring but sometimes we don't focus on making defensive stops. Thats whats going to get us in the playoffs.

About taking the last shot with game on the line?
Very comfortable. If I'm hot why not.

Favorite basketball moment?
My favorite moment was when my dad and I got inducted into the hall of fame at our high school.

My family doesn't treat me any different from anyone else in the family. The biggest obstacle was probably coming back from my pregnancy.

What city should have a wnba team?
Dallas! Thats close to the house.

Heard listen to music before games, any other pre game rituals?
I don't have any other pre-game rituals.

About Charlotte losing its wnba team?
I hating hearing about it because I had friends there and like going back to that city.

Personal
I have two tatoos but I didn't think anyone could see them. The one on my shoulder says Faith and has a chinese symbol. Another one on my lower back that says Blessed!

I really don't have a favorite WNBA player but my favorite NBA player is Allen Iverson.

About daughter:
She is good. Thanks. She is here with me now. My mom just left yesterday and left Lirah with me. I did miss her while she was away but my mom really needed her so that made it easier for me.

Nickname
Actually Candice has given me a nickname that I have had for a while now. I don't think I can say what it is online but ask Candice when you see her and see if she tells you. I Hate It!

I like to go shopping on Michigan Ave. I don't have a car right now because it wouldn't make sense for me to buy one when I am overseas most of the year.

Article updates

I guess summer has been quite busy. I just realized I have a number of links to articles to post. Last week we took SkyDramaQueen to camp, so my mind was a little preoccupied. All four of us went to the Indiana game. Then we drove off to camp the next afternoon. So we missed the San Antonio game. But it looks like the Sky is back in the playoff race.

Here's a few articles detailing the past few weeks.

Games

• Canty delivers twice for Sky in clutch
• OT win gives Sky new hope
• Losing streaks are history as Perkins, Sky top Fever
• Detroit 92, Chicago 84
• Detroit 78, Chicago 65
• Sky (8-12) at Fever (15-4) – Preview
• Indiana 75, Chicago 74
• Chicago 68, Indiana 65
• Sky Rally To Top Fever
• Perkins takes control in fourth quarter of Sky's win
• Chicago 83, Detroit 73
• Sky Scorch Shock; Ford Out
• Phoenix 98, Chicago 96
• Sky would like to take this one back
• Chicago 88, Houston 70
• Dales, Sky beat Comets by largest margin in franchise history
  

Players

• 'Confident' Perkins afire for Sky
• Catchings sisters still a team
• Brooke Wyckoff’s AIM page
• Sky's Dupree plays with stellar approach

Team

• Burke’s Blog: Heading Down the Home Stretch – July 28, 2007
• Sky Prepares for WNBA 2nd Half (video)
  

WNBA

• Detroit rides six-game win streak back to No. 1
• Sparks' Fernandez, Spencer top rookies – Armintie Price is ranked 4th in their rankings
• WNBA.com Power Rankings: July 31, 2007 – Sky are number 8.
• Rookie Rankings: July 25, 2007 – No. 1: Armintie Price – Honorable Mention: Cathy Joens
  

Chicago Sky Chat with Dominque Canty

Here's an attempt at summarizing the points of the Chat with Dominique Canty from the Chicago Sky Message boards. Again, I qualify this as only an attempted summary because of the format of the chat.

• Played in Detroit 4 years. Houston – 4 years. Overseas a lot and coached at Chicago State University for 2 years.
• Ankle is better, but not yet 100%.
• About playing with Tina Thompson, Sheryl Swoopes, and Dawn Staley – Loved playing with them. Learned how to be a leader from Tina. Tina is competitive in practice and games and made Dominique play as hard as possible. Dawn taught her a lot about the post position. Sheryl is sweet and cares a lot about people. She misses playing with all of them.
• Play in Gydnia in the off season. Holdsclaw will play with her.
• Favorite players were MJ (Michael Jordon) and Scottie Pippen.
• Didn’t really pattern her game after anyone. Played a lot with guys.
• Advice to anyone wanting to play: My advice to any one that wants to play ball is to practice how you play. Become a gym rat stay ahead of everyone else.
• Parents always supported her, although her mother didn’t want her to play at first. Her father convinced her mother.
• She didn’t know there would be a WNBA when younger, so she looked forward to playing overseas.
• Chicago is beautiful.
  

Personality & background

• Attended Manierre on the North Side – grammer school
• Laid back. Pretty much same personality on and off court.
• Doesn’t say a lot, but if she has something to say she will say it.
• Loves being back home in Chicago. Hasn’t played in front of family and friends since high school.
• City is great, team is great, fans are wonderful.
• Doesn’t have a favorite song to listen to before the game.
• Drives a Dodge Durango.
• If stuck on an island for a month 3 things she would bring: Tupac CD, Water, and her basketball.
• Sky blue is her favorite color.
  

Sky

• Good chance at the playoffs. Every team in the East is neck to neck. Playing Detroit and Indiana may have helped. Top teams in the East and they played well fought games.
• Loves playing with the Sky. Young team that will do whatever it takes to win.
  

What would it take to get to the playoffs?

I don’t believe the Sky is mathematically eliminated from the playoffs yet, but it is going to be an uphill struggle to make the playoffs. Can they do it? What will it take?

• Free throws – We have had too many games where our lack of making the free throws has hurt.
• Physical play – At the beginning of the year, the Sky looked much more physical under the basket than they do now. I’m not sure what happened. I haven’t gone back and looked at rebounding statistics and compared games, but lately it seems they aren’t in position to rebound.
• Someone to get hot at the other Forward position – Candice is great as the one forward. The other forward position just seems to be absent. No one seems to be a really consistent scorer from that position, and they aren’t really rebounding either.
• Play the whole game – Just seems like the focus gets lost in the third and/or fourth quarter. I thought the overtime wins would have taught the Sky how to close out the game, but they don’t seem to be there quite yet.

We may not make the playoffs, but I’m a Chicago sports fan, so that’s nothing new in this city. For a new team, the Sky hasn’t looked bad. And if we don’t make the playoffs, “There’s always next year.”

Chat with Candice Dupree

The Chicago Sky just had a chat session with Candice Dupree on their message board. I’m not really sure if the message board is a best tool for a chat session. Maybe more training is needed by the Sky to make it efficient.

Here’s some of what we learned:

• Candice started playing basketball at about the age of 10. She did play basketball before college.
• Candice has a fraternal twin sister. Candice is the younger of the two. They are complete opposites.
• On being compared to Tim Duncan. – She doesn’t know who first started comparing her to Tim Duncan, but it was first brought up during college.
• Candy Jo isn’t her favorite nickname, “It started out as a joke last season and now I'm stuck w/ it for life.”
• Her high school number was 24. When she got to college, 24 was taken, and 2 was also taken. She decided to go with number 4.
• Prefers Philly cheese steak sandwich over Chicago deep dish pizza.
• She doesn’t go out much in Chicago, except to shop on Michigan Avenue. She does not have a favorite shoe.
• She’s never been on the Chicago Sky message board before today.
• Listens to pretty much any kind of music.
• On fans: ” Thanks, it's good to know that I have fans all over the world. I need to go to Brazil one day. I've heard it's beautiful!! “
• Still trying to figure out her dream car.
• Doesn’t follow the NBA much except for individual players. Heard that the Bulls did well.
  

Professional

• She is proud of being an all-star for 2 years in a row.
• What she thinks about before the game: “I just think about the game and how aggressive I'm going to be. Try to focus on knocking down shots.”
• About playing against Kamesha – “Well we didn't really get to play "against" each other. Our teams played each other. It was neat seeing her out on floor, but this time on the opposing team. She played really well so I was happy for her.”
• On the Detroit game (July 10, 2007) – “I thought I played like trash...lol. Umm the highs were that competed really well w/ Detroit. The lows, we weren't able to get stops are crucial points in the game.”
• One word to describe Stacy Dales – hilarious.
• When asked how the team felt about playing the Fever and Shock some many times in a row – “Intimidated...NEVER. We're excited about rising to the challenge and looking forward to proving ourselves.”
• She doesn’t come out after games because she has to do things like deal with the media and other stuff.
  

Temple and Dawn Staley

• Misses the camaraderie of the team and coach.
• Staley prepared Dupree physically and mentally for the playing in the league
• She stays in touch with Dawn Staley, and will see her at the all star game.
• Coach Chaney would sometimes go to the women’s basketball practices and do some coaching.
• Play center in college.
  

She thanked all her fans at the end of the hour. Her sister was also online and there was some interplay between both of them. From the chat, you get the feeling she is a very hard working and humble young lady.

There were a lot of unanswered questions. Some of them were about playing in Poland, players on the Sky, and young ladies asking for advice about how to get to the WNBA. It would have been nice to get some answers to those kind of questions, but the chat was only one hour long, and I’m still not sure this is the best method to hold a chat (although I am not sure what is the best method). Now, it would be nice if the Sky web person or someone in the communications department would go through the topic, come up with a list of unanswered questions. See if they could get Candice to answer them, and then just post a message with the answers or put together some article answering the questions.

Chicago Sky vs Detroit Shock

I’m not even going to discuss the Sky loss to the Detroit Shock. All I have to say is that the Sky needs to put a full game together. I thought after the 2 overtime wins that maybe the Sky was over the daze they seem to get into during the 2nd half of a game, but it looks like I was wrong.

As for media coverage, the Sky/Shock game was on ESPN2. Our satellite was out. I listened to the game on WVON. I don’t mind listening to the games, but you do need to know some basketball terminology and it’s hard to picture how a team is playing. Now, usually when I listen to the game, I bring up the scoreboard on the WNBA site. I guess since this was an ESPN2 game, they don’t update the scoreboard on the WNBA site until the game is over. ESPN2 has a scoreboard, but it was slow to update even though I had it set to autoupdate every 30 seconds. They were just really behind in the action. I also like the WNBA interface better. It looks like neither of the Chicago online versions of the paper had a reporter covering the game because only one paper has the associated press article, and the other paper didn’t have any article yet.

Disappointing Losses

With 6 minutes to go on Saturday, July 7, you had the feeling that the Sky could beat the Washington Mystics. With 5 minutes to go, you knew the Sky had lost the game. The Sky did look rather blasé as they came out to the court at the beginning of the game. Washington was an important game. The Sky’s next five games are with the conference leading Indiana Fever and Detroit Shock. The Sky just seem to lose focus as the game continued. At one point, the Sky had an 11 point lead. Our free throw percentage was up to 76.9%. Just think a few more free throws and we win the game.

In this game, we also seem to have problems with physical players. Sanford seem to be all over the Sky players on Saturday night. She didn’t score a lot or rebound a lot, but she did a lot of holding, pushing, and playing physically. I also think the refs weren’t focusing on some of the stuff that was going on there, but we could have been doing the same thing and I would have thought that we weren’t fouling.

I did not listen to the Sky Fever game on July 8. From the comments I read on the Sky message board, it was a good thing that I missed the game. The Sky scored only 9 points in the 2nd quarter. We only made 35.4 of our field goal attempts. The Sky didn’t make a field goal for the first 3:19 minutes of the game and the first 5:35 minutes of the second quarter. I expect things like that in a junior high game, not a professional game. The Sky ended up losing big time to the Fever 86-70.

Since the games were local, the online versions of the Chicago Tribune must have covered the game. The Chicago Sun-Times only has the AP articles about the games. Figures that the games we win aren’t covered, and the games we lose are. Here are the articles from the Chicago Tribune.

• For Sky player, father knows best
• Sky fail to hold late lead vs. Mystics
• Rocky start to rough stretch for Sky
• Sky's Dupree added to All-Star roster
  

Here are some other articles of interest:

• Keep the change: Order stays the same in power rankings - (Nancy Lieberman says Coach Bo might need to be considered Coach of the Year).
• Rookie Rankings: June 27, 2007 - Armintie is ranked no. 3.
• Lauren Jackson and Jia Perkins Named Western and Eastern Conference Players of the Week - Perkins is the first player to tally 30+ points and 10+ assists in a single game. 39 points mark the most points scored by a WNBA player this season.
• Sky Re-Signs Cathy Joens
• WNBA Announces Reserves For 2007 All-Star Game
• Preview: Sky (8-10) at Shock (12-5)
• In East, others are more deserving than DeForge, Braxton
• Day In The Life Of Jia Perkins
• Washington 77, Chicago 73
• Indiana 86, Chicago 70

Overtime Victories

If one listened to or read the Chicago sports media, you would think the most exciting sports event of the weekend was the Cubs beating Milwaukee in 2 out of 3 games. As a Cub fan, I will admit this is important, but it didn’t move the Cubs ahead in the standings in the pitiful Central division. The Sky moved into 3rd place in the Eastern conference. (This is only the Sky’s second season, as compared to the long dry spell of the Cubs. Yes, I am a Cubs fan.)

The most exciting games of the weekend involved the Sky. The Chicago Sky traveled to Sacramento to take on the Western Division champions, the Sacramento Monarchs. The Sky pulled out the game in double overtime. Jia Perkins starting in place of Dominque Canty, scored 39 points. Aramis Ramirez’ walk off home run on Friday was nothing compared to the hot hand of Jia Perkins.

Sunday night, the Sky moved on to Los Angeles to meet the Sparks. Another overtime win. This time, Candice Dupree carried the team on her shoulders, although a double-double was just missed by Perkins, Armintie Price and Chastity Melvin. Dupree is so good, you expect her to score at least 20 points per game.

Of course, neither game would have to go to overtime if we could shot free throws. The Sparks shot 100% from the free throw line, and the Monarchs shot 100% until the last couple minutes of the game. Whereas, the Sky tends to shoot in the 60% range.

It would have been great to see these two games televised. I listed to them through the radio broadcast on the web. Basketball is somewhat harder to listen to than baseball or football. Skyfencer and Skydramaqueen couldn’t follow the game. You need to know the terminology to pick it up on the radio. Even I wanted to see what was happening. On the radio, you can’t really see if someone like Price is causing troubles for the opposing players with great defensive plays. The radio doesn’t let you see, Perkins smooth shot. I believe some games are available through the NBA pass, but I really don’t want to purchase the whole NBA pass package. I enjoy listening to Les Grobstein and Tauja Catchings on the audio broadcast. They know basketball, and Grobstein brings a Chicago fan perspective to his comments.

Unfortunately, both these games were out of town, so there was no television broadcast in Chicago. Sacramento had 7,000 fans at the game, Los Angeles had 7,500. I wonder if Chicago’s fan base would grow if they could see games, especially when they are so exciting. Again, the 2 major Chicago papers only have AP articles for the games.

The Sky players are appearing at the Taste of Chicago this week. According to the web site, the players are there on July 2, July 4, and July 6 at 3 pm at the Sports Pavilion at Buckingham Fountain. I know if a season tickets holder’s newsletter, it actually had the players that would be present, but the web site doesn’t have that information. Of course, the web site doesn’t have anything about this on the home page either, it’s listed in the community calendar.

Here’s a few articles about the games from this weekend.

• Monarchs Soaked by the Sky
• Sky Take Sparks to OT, Then Leave Them There
• Perkins scores 39 as Sky win
• Dupree forces overtime as Sky hold back Sparks
  

Losing is hard after showing the potential to win

Since my last post the Sky has lost twice. I was at the Sky game against the Mystics. The game was not good. Again, we couldn’t get the ball to bounce the right way into the basket. We also seem to have no defense. It was the most disappointing game of the season. Now, we know the team can win games, but they just came seem lifeless in this game.

Dominique Canty also got hurt during the game. Rumors are she could be out for up to 4 weeks. She is on the West coast trip, so maybe it isn’t that bad.

Then on Tues, the 26^th, the Sky lost to the Seattle Storm. I didn’t have a chance to listen to the game (I was watching the Cubs game). Perkins actually led the Sky in scoring. We only shot 40%. I would think it is hard to win when shooting 40%. The statistics for the two teams aren’t a great deal apart. The Storm did have more points in the paint. Also looks like Lauren Jackson killed us. We really need to start beating these teams.

The Tues. game was an away game (so it looks like our local Chicago papers didn’t cover it, at least they don’t have any articles online).

Here’s some articles I’ve come across lately.

• Mystics light up the Sky - Sky vs Mystics
• Canty hurt as Sky falls below .500 – Sky vs Mystics
• Washington 99, Sky 86
• Sky (6-7) at Storm (6-6) Preview
• Jackson's 33 points, 12 rebounds give Storm edge over Sky

• Chat with Chastity Melvin – Transcript of a chat with Chastity Melvin
• Kayte's Dogs In The City
• Top three stay the same in Week 6 power rankings –Sky moved down
• The WNBA: Now what?

The Pavilion

The Sky play their home games at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) Pavilion. I of go back and forth on whether I like to go to games at the pavilion or not. There are definitely some problems, but they could probably be fixed in anyone care to put money into the facility.

I’ve been a ticket season holder for 2 seasons. Last year we had tickets in the mezzanine. This year, we moved down to the first floor. The Pavilion is small (I believe it only seats 6000). You can see from everywhere. So sightlines are not a problem. There is actually plenty of leg room in between rows. The Pavilion was built before arenas were concentrating on jamming people into the venue. Of course, the seats are old and they aren’t the most comfortable and there are no drink holders. (I like drink holders). Although, there is plenty of leg room, there isn’t a lot of shoulder room. You definitely get to know your neighbor.

The only ushers that check section tickets are those than patrol the section on the floor by the court. Now, when only 2000 people attend most games this probably shouldn’t be a problem. But every game we are at, there is someone sitting in the wrong section, and then the people who actually have the seats show up, and there’s people moving and shifting all over. This is probably a minor problem, and maybe I’m the only one who is tired of all the shifting and moving. I’m usually trying to watch the game, which I guess if I didn’t want to bother with people I could do in my own home. Of course, I’m assuming someone is paying ushers to do something besides just stand at the top of the stairs.

Food choices at the Pavilion are awful. Choices are basics: burgers, hot dogs, brats. In a town known for pizza, the choice is Pizza Hut. Russell’s Barbeque has a stand, but that’s only good if you want meat and chicken nuggets. They use to have shrimp, but now only have it occasionally. Last year, the Sky had a few tables selling sandwiches and sushi, but I tried both and neither were worth the money that was charged. But the same thing can be said for Wrigley Field also.

Although the food is bad, and the ushers don’t really check sections, the people working in food services and ushering/ticket taking are really nice. The people working the merchandise booths are nice and helpful. The Sky seems to have plenty of staff around during games also.

For the most part, the Pavilion is in a great location. It is right off the Eisenhower and Kennedy expressways. From the Oak Park area it only takes about 15-20 minutes. From Naperville it’s going to take longer but that there’s a distance issue there. But even from Naperville or Evanston, it is a pretty straight trip. I love being only about 20 minutes away from the game.

If the Sky changed venues would I still have season tickets? Probably even though any venue would be more than 20 minutes from home. If the Sky stays at the Pavilion would I still get season tickets? Probably, even though I think some changes would be beneficial to the experience at the Pavilion. So, how do I really feel about the Pavilion? I use to watch the Bradley Lady Braves play at the Robertson Memorial Field house in Peoria. The amenities were awful because the men’s team played down at the Civic Center, so no upkeep was going on at the Field house. I use to love those games. You could see the game, you were close enough to the action so you felt like part of the game. I attended Bulls games at the old Chicago Stadium. Although the United Center is a much better customer experience, I still miss the way the old Chicago Stadium moved when it was full of cheering fans. I don’t have those kinds of feelings for the Pavilion. Right now, the Pavilion seems like a rusty old relic from the 1970s. I love that as a fan I am close to the action. As the crowd grows and the Sky wins, the attitude at the Pavilion will give the other teams the feeling that they are in Chicago Sky territory. But as of yet, I just don’t have that feeling that this is the greatest venue for the game. I wish I had that feeling, but maybe it will come with time.

I came across two more interesting articles.

• Sky Upended in Final Seconds by Powell, Monarchs
• Conversations with independent WNBA owners
  

Odds and Ends

Last night’s game was a home game so both the Chicago newspapers actually had articles on the game rather than just the AP feed. Last year we would have never even been in a game like this, much less lose by 2 points.

• Sky upset hopes slip away
• Sky hangs tough, drops a close one
• Lawson, Powell lead Monarchs over Sky (the AP feed)
  

Our next game isn’t until Saturday, the 23rd. Looks like Keke Palmer from Akeelah and the Bee is returning home to Chicago to sing the National Anthem. The WNBA Be Fit tour will be held out in the parking lot before the game. It is also at Ford City sometime later in the summer.

Supposedly, the first break out for the All Stars ballot is out. I haven’t found it on the WNBA site but several message boards have talked about it. Candice Dupree is not in the top 2 or 3 for forwards. Dales and Canty were at the bottom of the list. Melvin and Christainsen were not close to the top. I’ve also been writing in Armintie Price on my ballots. Ballots can be cast once a day online at the WNBA site. It’s easy to find the ballot. You can also punch the ballot cards at Sky games. (Maybe that’s a job to keep the kids busy during the game).

Sky lose by 2 to the Monarchs (Sac. 54, Sky 52)

Tonight was just one of those nights when the Sky couldn't get the ball to bounce the right way. I lost count of how many balls just bounced off the rim. The Sky field goal percentage was only 31%, but the Monarchs weren't much better at 38.6%. We also didn't look as sharp at rebounding as we have the last couple games. Our 3 pt scoring was absent, but so was the Monarchs.

The game was rather low scoring. The biggest point spread was by the Monarchs with 7. The lead changed several times. The Sky had a run going in the last 3 minutes but they couldn't sustain it. The Monarchs made a basket with something like 10 seconds left to put them ahead.

The crowd was really loud at the Pavilion tonight. Everyone was into the game. Armintie Price did the welcome speech, and she has been the best player to do it. She was full of excitement. Our rookies are looking good, there was some good plays by Price and Carla Thomas. Stephanie Raymond and Claire Coggins saw some playing time also. We could have used some more scoring by our veteran players, but I guess that's just the way the ball bounces. Believe me that ball was bouncing everywhere tonight.

We tried to take some pictures at the game. Melissa Manchester sang the National Anthem.

The WNBA site has a nice article about Candice Dupree. She's now a part of their power rankings.

Sky wins their 6th game!

The Chicago Sky trounced Connecticut to earn their sixth win of the season on Sunday. We are doing better than last year. I wasn’t able to see the game (busy with Father’s Day). Sounds like Dupree had an excellent game and is being considered an all-star player. Dupree was named player of the week for the Eastern Conference.

All the articles I found are based on the same Associate Press report. I guess the Chicago newspapers didn’t send anyone to cover the games.

• Dupree sparks milestone win for Sky
• Dupree scores 28 as Sky top last season’s mark for win
  

Next up are the Monarchs on Tues. June 19. It’s a home game for the Sky. It’s amazing how quickly a season changes. A few weeks ago, I might think we had no chance to beat the Monarch. I look now and we are only one win behind them. We are playing better than .500 which is more than one can say for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. The preview for the game favors the Monarchs, but I’m sure we will give them a good game, as long as we play all four quarters.

Sky beats the NY Liberty: 73-66

We tie last year's 5 win season. Candice Dupree and Arminitie Price look like a great foundation for a dynasty. I know, I shouldn't talk dynasty when we haven't even made it into the playoffs.

The Sky made it through the 3rd quarter. We still seem to lose steam during the quarter. Our free throw shooting still seems quite suspect.

Melvin looked great at the beginning, but she got into foul trouble. Dupree proved herself to be an all star. She did it all and 24 points. I'm surprised Price only had 7 points, but she was all over th court. Dales, Wyckoff and Canty showed why there are valuable veterans. At several points during the game, one of those three made a move that said, "It's okay, we are going to put this game away."

I'm sure my kids won't let me go to a game again. It was Dad and Daughters night, so the girls and DisneyDad went to the game. I watched it at home. I just know that they will decide I am some bad luck charm. They probably won't be back for awhile. One of the major credit cards was having an autograph session with Price and Melvin. The girls always like the after game sessions.

Let's go Sky!

Half time: Sky vs Liberty

Sky is up by 4 at half time.

Chastity Melvin looks good. I don't remember her being such a force against the Storm. But she seems to be making her presence known.

Candice Dupree is having a great game. I love watching Armintie Price. On the television they mentioned Price was a top sprinter in high school; I guess that explains how she gets down court so fast.

Stacy Dales has been knocking down three's.

We haven't been to the foul line much. Which is good, because we've lost a few games because of free throw shooting.

On television they are doing a feature on Stephanie Raymond from Rockford, IL. 1st woman drafted out of Northern Illinois University.

Looks like kids might have gotten Stand Tall shirts at the game. A lot of kids are wearing them.
Melissa Manchester is singing the national anthem at the next home game.

Now, we are going into the dreaded 3rd quarter. I don't usually get to watch the game on television. I really like Nikki McCray as an announcer. I wish they had shown the RIC sky playing. DisneyDad called during the 2nd quarter, but he doesn't seem to understand that he can't be heard because of all the background noise. I must admit I really don't mind watching the game in a quiet atomsphere.

Let's Go Sky!

Article about Claire Coggins

The Chicago Sky Message Board had a post about an article about rookie Claire Coggins. The article, Sky High, is from the Lee's Summit Journal.

Go Sky!

Preview: NY Liberty at Chicago Sky

Friday night the New York Liberty comes to visit the Chicago Sky. The Liberty is 6-2, and the Sky is 4-5. The Liberty hasn’t played much on the road, maybe this can work to our advantage. I hope the players on the Sky know that Chicago always does our best to show New York that we are not the Second City. (I guess now, we probably have to go out of our way to show we aren’t the third city in the country). Yahoo Sports has a preview article for the game.

After reading the article it looks like the Sky is quite aware that they need to finish games. At half time, the game against the Storm looked great. Then it seemed like another team came out of the locker room. In the last few minutes, they looked good again, but it was too late. We really seem to have troubles handling teams with big players. Lauren Jackson was in foul trouble, but when she was in the game we seemed to have problems getting around her arm span.

I’ll watch the Sky at home tomorrow night. DisneyDad and the girls are going to the game since it is Dad and Daughters night. I’m kind of looking forward to it. I’m planning out what I want for dinner. If it’s nice, I’m taking the radio outside and sitting outside. I love going the excitement of actually being at the game, but sometimes it distracts me as I watch the game.

Earlier I mentioned how Chicago kind of has a chip on its shoulder when it comes to the city of New York. In my younger days when the Bulls had not yet won a NBA championship, we hated the Detroit Pistons. They weren’t as nice as Michael Jordan and the Bulls. One of the players that personified the Pistons was Bill Laimbeer. I came across this article from the Hartford Courant about WNBA coach Bill Laimbeer. Somethings never change.

Let’s Go Sky!

Sky vs Storm (June 12, 2007)

We just got back from the Sky game. We lost. We were ahead in the first half, but the Sky seems to have a problem playing consistently through 4 quarters. The game itself was great fun.

DisneyDad mentioned during the game that we should start a blog and get press passes. Although, I don't see us getting press passes, I thought it would be cool to have a Chicago Sky Blog. So, I set one up rather quickly. I'll write more and make introductions at a later time.

Let's Go Sky!