Weber Week #2: Women's preview

Carla Taylor hopes to match Angela Munger's "Sacred Defense of 1,000 Wailing Dogs" this Saturday night*

*(The game, for logical reasons and time constraints [only so many trenches can be dug in 2 days] has been moved to The Somme, which is located in France. The last great game that took place there was July 1st, 1916, when the Allies tied the Germans in the infamous "Battle of the Somme.")

On to previewing the women's game on Saturday, which *FINALLY* will take place at night (who the hell schedules women's games for the early afternoon, anyway?!)

Both teams are nearly identical in OOC play, with ISU fielding a 6-14 overall and WSU fielding 6-13 overall. Also, both teams have had plenty of close losses as both have a tendency to be defensive-minded. This should make for a very fun match on Saturday. Fun as in a World War I-style, trench-fighting, yard-by-yard death match. Weberian Coach Carla Taylor is famous for producing gritty, defensive teams and with this new coaching staff we have this year, look for the game to be in the awe-inspiring scoring figures of high school girls' basketball games.

Now, going down the list on comparing these two programs and breaking them down:

Idaho State (6-14, 3-4 BS-C):

Best Win: Utah State. Any time you beat a Utah team, it's a good day because many in the region have this odd belief that Utah teams are superior in basketball. I say, nuts to that!

Worst Loss: Point wise, this is hard to do. Angela Munger's "Sacred Defense of 1,000 Wailing Dogs" has indeed kept this team close in many games. Most of the losses with 10 points or more are more or less because of Free-Throw Inflation (FTI). For the gut-wrenching variety, the Portland State loss has to be the worst because PSU is a great team and figures to challenge the Grizzly People for hegemony and the rights to you know, totally dominate this conference.



Bengal fans take out frustration of a bitter home loss to Portland State on a petty street vagrant.

Weber State (6-13, 1-6 BS-C)

Best Win: Hands down, Utah. Sure, it was on Weber's turf. But dem' Wahldcahtz shore took iet to dem' dahhned Yuutes! Like Idaho State, Weber State has since struggled to get a major victory, and like ISU employing Devin Diehl to pick off the wounded (Sac State comes to mind), they have utilized the special marksmanship of Ali Thorderson to pick off and kill any weaker teams with uncanny sniper accuracy seen only in games like Rainbow 6.

Worst Loss: Nebraska, for sure. Any time a team puts 94 points on another team that is defensive-minded, it's pretty bad.

Both teams have some personnel issues (from what I can glean from the rosters). ISU has only 8 active players for the game. Injuries and academic issues have depleted the fresh bodies that are vital to Coach Munger's trench warfare. Expect a stubbornness not seen since Sir Douglass Haig of the British Expeditionary Force and watch the players roll into the meat grinder. Not that we have a problem with it, because the Weberians have issues of their own: a young roster featuring 6 freshman and only 1 senior (the rest are split between Sophomores and Juniors). These young ones have spent the better part of their season constantly in a state of alert and frequently waking up at 3AM to Coach Taylor's poison gas drills and learning how to mend barbed wire (incredibly, Weber State reports no injuries. Kudos to Carla Taylor). The youth and inexperience will ultimately spell doom for the Weberians, as the carnage these young faces will see will be impressed on their fragile minds...FOREVER!!! HAHAHAHA!!! Seriously, though...

Weber State hopes to end a losing skid that has seen one of its worst starts in school history (conference-wise). They come up to Reed Gym where the court has a rather confined feel to it. This is what Munger and the staff want. This is what Sobo wants. This is what Ferdinand Foch wants, even though he's dead (he wants it anyways) and France is at peace with Germany. Another thing to be considered is that WSU hasn't beaten ISU at Reed since that 2005-2006 tournament game, 71-70. All streaks must come to an end at some point...over Jordan Green's dead body, it will. Look for Carla Taylor sending thousands of Weberians into entrenched Bengalian machine gun positions ala the Grand Duke Nicholas on the Eastern Front. That's it. IT'S OVAAH! Also, look for the Weberians to have a pre-drafted peace treaty, ready to be signed when the gruesome battle ends in a 37-32 final score.

For Sobo, Defense, and the Munger Way!