The Beast : All In On Katie Meier’s Team

Tuesday night I packed the family in the car and fought Palmetto traffic to head to the Gables to watch the No. 9 Miami Hurricanes face the always-tough Rutgers Scarlet Knights. How could I pass up the offer? The Hurricane Club was offering free tickets, it’s free parking, great family-friendly entertainment, and these girls are freaking good.

Meier’s team exemplifies everything we teach our kids about sports. They are tenacious. They are resilient. They are selfless and enthusiastic. If you coach a Little League team in any sport, throw on a tape of Katie’s team and let them do the talking for you.

Miami was down by as many as sixteen points. But, as they almost always do, the combination of Moe Moe (Shenise Johnson) and Bay Bay (Riquna Williams) heated up, Miami came back, winning the game in double over time.

Bay Bay had a career high thirty-six points and the two phenoms combined for sixty-one.

Here’s something I WASN’T thinking while we were watching the thrilling game: this is women’s basketball. OK, so there was no dunking. Other than that, what wasn’t to like?

Good passing? Check. Some thrilling reverse lay ups? Check. Three balls out the yin-yang? Check. Blocked shots? Check. Driving the lane? Check. Everything that defines a good basketball game made it’s way to the floor of the Bank United Center on Tuesday night.

This team is really good and you’d be remissed if you didn’t go and check them out.

Here’s another incentive, it’s cheap. In this day and age, when the economy is still in the gutter, and disposable income is still creeping it’s way back from the nether regions, an affordable two hours of high paced entertainment has to be something families can take advantage of.

We just got done with a tumultuous 6-6 football season. Get the bad taste out of your mouth by going to see some high-level, winning basketball. You’ll thank me.

IN OTHER NEWS : I’m not surprised to see Tommy Streeter and Marcus Forston go pro. It happens this time of year.

I’ll be honest, I think both could have used another year to further there development, but I understand their decision. Streeter had about as good of a season as you could have after being in the doghouse for three years. He’s not getting any taller or faster and maybe his workouts alone will move him into a higher draft position.

I thought if he came back and had another stellar year, he’d be looking at at least a second round pick. I’m not sure he goes that high this year. As for Forston, according to reports, his family is in a tough situation and you can’t blame a kid for wanting to help his family.

On the other hand, if he came back, worked his tail off and had a decent year, wouldn’t he be able to help more? That was just me thinking out loud.

As always, we wish these guys the best, and will root for them no matter what as they become the next generation of @ProCanes. The question is, who’s next? I’m guessing Lamar Miller might be the next guy to call Drew Rosenhaus or one of his colleagues. He could be followed by Olivier Vernon and Ray-Ray Armstrong, too. One never knows.

I know this, Al Golden is going to have a lot of bodies to replace. If you’re a high school player or JUCO transfer out there and you want to play right now, this is the place to come and that’s not necessarily a bad position to be in if you are “The U”.

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