ALWAYS ON THE RUN

If you run into Strength and Conditioning Coach Daniel Roose on a Friday in the offseason and he seems particularly giddy, it’s for good reason. In general, Roose gets as excited about working out players in the offseason as I do about splitting aces and all-you-can-eat wing Tuesdays. But Friday’s are on another level for Roose. That’s when he tests the basketball team with a series of insane workouts. There’s a nickname for those workouts, but I can’t print it here.

Word is that today the guys kicked things off with something called the “The Parking Deck Mile”. Players start by running up and around the Bowe Street Parking Deck, then back down. Then, it’s down Marshall Street to the corner of Harrison Street and back to the loading dock. Allegedly, it’s a full mile. Because of Mickey Mouse NCAA rules, I can’t tell you who ran how fast or did what, but it’s safe to say that guys are working hard.

Also, just so we’re clear, that was the warm-up for the day. The guys hit the weights afterwards.

BRILLIANT!
Here at Around The Horns, we’re always looking for ways to generate revenue for the athletic department. After a couple years of slinging t-shirt ideas and other goodies, we’ve discovered the mother load. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this first. LSU announced that it is going to begin brewing its own beer. Can you say, license to print money?

ONE HIGHBROW,ONE LOWBROW

HIGHBROW
First, the smart stuff. Mike Litos makes a modest proposal for a CAA basketball kickoff extravaganza, which actually isn’t a bad idea. Read it and then come back to the blog.

It’s worth a lively discussion. I still think Atlantic City is a better location than Philadelphia, for a couple of reasons. No. 1, it’s more of a destination city. No. 2, it’s a better place to promote the festive atmosphere he’s driving towards. No. 3, no CAA school resides in its borders. No. 4, and this is speculation, albeit educated speculation, Boardwalk Hall would likely come at a more reasonable price than any Philly venue.

The chances of an event like this happening are remote, mainly because schools won’t want to give up a home game and potential revenue. Unless you’re Towson or Georgia State, in which case you might save money. That being said, I love the idea because it’s totally outside the box. Nobody really does anything like this, and it would make a splash.

I also need a work-sponsored trip to Atlantic City. Not even going to lie about that.

LOWBROW
Now this is how you handle a job interview.

JERSEY SURE: HOLLINGSWORTH COMFORTABLE IN NEWARK

Quanitra Hollingsworth is averaging 5.1 points and 3.6 rebounds this season.

NEWARK, N.J. – Quanitra Hollingsworth settles her foot atop of an ice pack and melts into a folding chair at her locker. She’s a little worse for wear tonight. She’s been nursing a sore plantar fascia in her foot and her New York Liberty just dropped a disappointing 68-59 contest at home to the Connecticut Sun, one of their biggest rivals in the Eastern Conference.

Despite a few physical and emotional bumps and bruises, she smiles speaks comfortably. One bad night isn’t going to get her down. In reality, she’s been playing the best ball of her short WNBA career and she knows it. Meanwhile, her new team, the Liberty, has won seven of 10 and is just a game out of first place. It could be worse, and in fact, it has been.

After two nondescript seasons with the Minnesota Lynx, who drafted her with the ninth overall pick in 2009, Hollingsworth was traded to the Liberty in May. As a result, the former VCU wunderkind has seen a radical change in the direction of her career.

This season, Hollingsworth is averaging better than five points and nearly four rebounds per game. If she qualified, her .526 field goal percentage would be among the league leaders. As the season has moved forward, her minutes have increased, a trend indicative of Liberty Coach John Whisenant’s increasing comfort level with the 6-5 center. She’s played 20 minutes or more in five of the Liberty’s last eight contests. The Liberty is 6-2 in those games and Hollingsworth is averaging 7.0 points and 4.5 rebounds. Hollingsworth often plays alongside 6-4 Kia Vaughn to give the Liberty an imposing frontcourt presence.

Q MUSINGS

NEWARK, N.J. – I’m attending my first WNBA game tonight. I’m here to see former Ram Quanitra Hollingsworth, who is playing with the New York Liberty, take on the Connecticut So-What-If-We-Play-In-A-Casino Sun. I’ll be posting a feature on Q in a day or two, but I’ll try to post some tidbits from tonight’s game for your entertainment.

GAMETIME
* The Liberty go scoreless the final 3:00 or so as Connecticut closes on a 10-0 stretch. The Sun take this one, 68-59, and snap the Liberty’s four-game winning streak. Hollingsworth finished with three points, three rebounds and one block in 28 minutes. She also helped limit Tina Charles, who averages nearly 18 points and 11 rebounds, to just 15 and 4.

* Hollingsworth had a nice stretch here in the fourth where she forced a steal, later grabbed a big rebound over Charles and then drew a charge a few possessions later. None of it seems like it’s going to matter, however, as the Liberty have imploded in the fourth. Going nearly three minutes without a bucket down the stretch.

* Is it bad that during the Foxwoods’-sponsored roulette contest, all I can think about is that the wheel only has 22 numbers, instead of the normal 35 (plus zero)? I think that’s bad.

* With 5:38 remaining, Hollingsworth levels an unidentified Sun player with a devastating screen at the top of the key. The ball swings around to Cappie Pondexter, who buries a three to put New York ahead, 59-58.

* 1:51 into the fourth quarter, with the Liberty up three (56-53), Vaughn tweaks something in her leg and struggles to get up and down the floor. Whisenhunt nods to Hollingsworth, who will have fill some big shoes. Vaughn has been the Liberty’s best player tonight.

* For some reason, the Liberty mascot decided to “plank” during a timeout. Nobody knows why, really. We just all hope that planking stops sometime real soon.

*Q draws consecutive fouls in the second half as the Liberty suddenly decide to throw it to her in the post on back-to-back possessions. Q makes 1-of-2 free throws, the Liberty’s first of the night. 39-36 Sun, 6:30 left in the third quarter.

* After filling up the stat sheet with exactly one rebound in the first half, Hollingsworth opens the third quarter scoring for the Liberty.

* Hollingsworth and Kia Vaughn (from Rutgers) went head-to-head in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, but with the Liberty, they play alongside each other for long stretches.

* 3:51 left in the second quarter and Hollingsworth still hasn’t recorded a point, rebound or assist, but the Liberty lead, 31-28.

* Hollingsworth is starting to get into the head of star Tina Charles here in the second quarter. On one possession, Hollingsworth locked down Charles at the top of the key, causing the Sun player to travel. On the other end, Hollingsworth posted up Charles, who delivered a forearm shiver to Q’s back to draw a foul.

* After a quiet first quarter. Hollingsworth opens the second quarter on the bench. The Liberty promptly give up offensive rebounds on three straight possessions. I keep watching the bench to see how long it takes Liberty Coach John Wisenhunt to call on Q. As it turns out, it took just 1:57. Moments later, she tipped an offensive rebound to Kia Vaughn, who scored a bucket to pull the Liberty within 26-23.

* Between quarters, the Liberty displayed a video “remember when”, as part of an effort to celebrate the team’s 15th anniversary. It asks fans to guess which year is featured in the video. The best part was that halfway through, it displayed a full screen logo that said “2000 WNBA Finals”. Wanna guess the correct answer?

* Despite being in its 15th season, the WNBA still struggles to attract fans consistently. So some teams have decided to take a regional approach to stocking their rosters. The Sun boast five UConn grads, while the Liberty is carrying three former Rutgers stars.

* A la European soccer. A number of WNBA teams have begun selling advertising on their jerseys where the team name used to go. The Liberty are now sponsored by Foxwoods Casino. The irony is that the Sun play at the Mohegan Sun Casino, Foxwoods’ direct competitor.

PREGAME
* Mapquest tells me it’s a 41 minute ride from Stanhope, N.J., where my in-laws live, to the Prudential Center in Newark, the Liberty’s temporary home. But I know better. Before moving to Virginia in 2005, I lived in New Jersey for four years. Mapquest approximate times are only good at 3 a.m. I left at 4:30 p.m., hoping to get to the arena by 6:00. Traffic wasn’t bad until I got downtown, so after parking in some shady lot by Penn Station and walking over it was about 5:40. Not bad.

* Naturally, one of the first people I see is longtime women’s basketball writer Mel Greenberg. Mel is based out of Philadelphia, but I’m convinced that he covers every women’s hoops game in the northwest corridor. If 10 girls decide to throw down at the Knights of Columbus in Elizabeth, N.J., Mel will be there.

* Of course I forgot my camera. I want desperately to take pictures of a number of things, especially the woman in the front row with the giant, red afro. No luck tonight.

* Plenty of good seats available. Considering that it’s Friday in Newark and this team is only here for a year, I can’t imagine they’re killing it at the gate. Compound that with Jersey’s tradition of weekend flight to the Shore, and you have one sparsely populated arena.

* This will be a matchup of the No. 2 (The Liberty) and No. 3 (The Sun) teams in the Eastern Conference. The Liberty have won four straight games, a streak that has coincided with Hollingsworth’s emergence. In those four games, Q has averaged 8.2 points and nearly five rebounds a game off the bench.

* Before each game, the Liberty has one player grab the microphone to greet the crowd. Luckily for me, tonight it’s Q who gets the call. With a smile, she thanks the crowd for showing up tonight and asks them to cheer the Liberty on to a win. Short. Sweet.

* Boom. This story is really coming together. Q receives her first New York Liberty start and just the second of her career tonight. I wish I could say I totally planned that. Not like you’d know any different. Let’s stick with the story where I planned this.

* I wonder how the people of Newark feel when they announce “Welcome your New York Liberty!” I guess this is how the people of Anaheim feel about the Angels?

R.E.S.P.E.C.T IS SPELLED E.S.P.Y.

‘sup?

ESPY RUNAWAY?

Gimmie, gimme, gimme.

The ESPYs are Wednesday night. I admit that in the past, I haven’t really cared much about the ESPYs. As big a sports fan as I am, it always seemed like an awkward construction. They’ve always sort of been like a Hallmark Holiday of sports. It’s Sweetest Day, but with linebackers.

But hey, now that VCU is nominated for “Best Upset”, I’m the biggest ESPY-backer there is. At the very least, the Rams get more national exposure and some pretty swanky gift bags. In reality, the Rams are a big favorite to take the award. Consequently, this is the only time VCU has been favored since early March.

This should be a runaway train. Here are the nominees:
Blame over Zenyatta, Breeder’s Cup
Fabricio Werdum stuns Fedor Emelianenko, MMA
Seahawks upset Saints, NFL Wild Card Playoffs
VCU, NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament

No, seriously, that’s it. Horse racing, yeah, right. MMA? Bwahahaha. Seahawks over Saints? Um, the Seahawks were the home team. Lock it up. This trophy is coming back to Richmond. If VCU doesn’t ship the ESPY, I’ve driving to Los Angeles to kick Seth Myers in the teeth.

If you consider that these awards are picked by a fan vote, it makes it even more clear. Nobody cares about horse racing. MMA has a fervent fan base, but the sport still doesn’t appeal to the public at large. I think the Seahawks-Saints game could give the Rams a run for their money, but it shouldn’t. Each of these nominees essentially scored one big upset. The Rams did it five times in three weeks. One was a very minor upset (USC), two were pretty big (Georgetown and Florida State), one was very big (Purdue) and one was as big as a Justin Beiber middle school concert tour (Kansas). Game. Set. Match. All I want to hear now is, would you like to carry the trophy back on the plane, Mr. Smart, or would you like us to ship it to you.

QUICK HITTERS
Somebody recently mentioned to me how hard Rob Brandenberg has been hitting the weight room this summer. The word on the street is that after missing two layups against Butler, Superberg has really taken things to heart.

Scott Day told me today that, “Brandon Rozzell literally knows everybody in Richmond.” I guess they were walking through Richmond International Airport and Rozzell ran into “like seven” different people that he know. They don’t call him The Mayor for nothing.

THE HANGOVER 3: H.O.R.S.E.

I wanted to shoot a H.O.R.S.E. game with Brandon Rozzell today, since it’s one of the first days that the auxiliary gym has been available. Shooting at Club Franklin is no good because the lighting is garbage and Siegel has been booked since forever. Rozzell had initially agreed, but then he told me he was going to Jamal Shuler’s bachelor party down at the beach yesterday. I figured the chances of Brandon making it back up here before noon were pretty slim, so I told him we’d just push to Monday. Hopefully, we can knock out an entertaining (also read: embarrassing) video for you guys soon.

Also, be sure to order your copy of the greatest publication ever produced by VCU Athletics, the Commemorative Final Four Edition of the Ram Report. Eddie Johnson and I have been working on this thing for a while, and I hope it captures at least some of the fun and excitement of the three weeks the Rams spent turning college basketball on its ear. Additionally, for every copy sold, I get 50 cents. EDIT: I get nothing.

VIDEO OF THE DAY
Norwood Teague sat down yesterday for a pretty informative interview as part of the new “Thoughtful Thursday” segment.

Q FINDING A HOME IN NYC…ACTUALLY NEWARK

The Quanitra Hollingsworth phenomenon was my first big undertaking after joining VCU for the 2005-06 school year. It was Q’s redshirt freshman year and she became quite the story. I was the women’s basketball sports information director, and it was my job to get her story (she was the youngest D-I player in the country) to as many media outlets as possible. Despite the fact that she was a precocious 16-year-old, ‘Q’ did  countless interviews that I set up, including every possible local outlet, a number of national publications and some media posts that a surely not even in business anymore.

For that reason, I watch Hollingsworth’s career closely, and really want to see her do well in the WNBA. After a couple of nondescript seasons in Minnesota – where they never seemed to figure out how to use or develop her – it appears that Hollingsworth is settling into a role with the New York Liberty (who are actually playing this season in Newark, N.J. because of major renovations at Madison Square Garden).

Through 10 games, she’s averaging 3.9 points and 3.6 rebounds, but in her last three contests, those numbers have improved to 6.3 points and 5.7 rebounds. Additionally, she’s shooting a career-best .552 from the floor. I watched Hollingsworth and the Liberty play the Los Angeles Sparks a couple of weeks ago on ESPN and I was impressed with what I saw. She was flying all over the floor, snagging rebounds, getting stops and scoring timely buckets. It’s the first time I’ve watched her since she left VCU and felt like she looked really comfortable.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who noticed. Greg Fernandez recently published this nice piece on Hollingsworth for the team’s website.

OTHER LINKS!
The Commonwealth Times runs like, one paper a summer, but they published some good stuff. Here’s a solid feature by Jim Swing on the effect of VCU’s Final Four run.

So now Roy Williams is a crappy in the NFL and in the dating game. Go figure. Pretty much the worst wedding proposal ever, right?

This. Is. Awesome.

FORMER RAMS RETURN TO VCU FOR SUMMER WORKOUTS

WHIFFLEBALL CHAMPIONS

Happy belated July Fourth. I hope everybody enjoyed the long weekend. I spent Sunday over at Daniel Roose’s, where there were burgers, beverages and some serious, real deal, championship-caliber whiffleball. I had heard that the whiffleball games over there were pretty serious – Roose is a strength coach, and by nature, those guys are normally pretty intense. What I wasn’t prepared for was a complete diamond – with foul poles – mapped out in the back yard.

Games are three-on-three and last three innings. Everybody has to hit from their opposite or non-dominant side. So, if you’re right-handed, you have to bat, lefty. Pitches are thrown underhand and have to have an arc (turns out, it’s a lot less of and arc than you’d think). Stats are kept in a binder. Yes, I’m being serious. I’m also being serious when I tell you that I’m insanely sore today. I can also tell you that my team of myself, Scott Day and Hack (I don’t know his real name, but Hack is a pretty awesome name either way), finished 6-2, despite that 1,000-degree heat. Boom.

Anyway, new men’s basketball staffers Jamion Christian and Mike Morrell were also in attendance. When Morrell walked around to the back yard for the first time, he said “Wow” about four times before he had a chance to say hello. Then he had to run to change into athletic shorts and tennis shoes. Pretty easy to blow out a flip flop during whiffleball.

Both guys acquitted themselves well and seem like great additions to the staff. It’s also worth noting how young VCU’s coaching staff is now. Christian, Morrell and Will Wade are all under 30. Shaka Smart is 34. Mike Rhoades is the saavy vet at 38 years young. They’re all extremely impressive, as well.

LINKS!
The most despised owner in sports. Yeah, it’s pretty much who you think it is.

This kid is my favorite person of the day.

Reality TV Fantasy League Scoreboard. One of the real gems of the new Grantland website.