Our social lives revolve around two things: Duke women's basketball and video games.
That's why we nearly soiled our pants when we found out our beloved women's basketball team is represented in Sony play-station's March Madness '99.
After reeling off 12 straight wins and beginning the ACC season 9-0, there's one question we wanted to know about the real women's basketball team-just how good is it?
Being Chronicle sports writers, we frown upon things like research and fact-checking, so we decided to answer that question the only way we know how-playing with the virtual women's team against reigning champ Tennessee-playstation style.
When all the dust had settled after 30 minutes of frantic button-mashing, soul-searching and pretending to be Coach G, we left Vic's room with bruised thumbs and battered egos.
Suffice it to say the Volunteers put a cyber-whooping on the Blue Devils.
Sparked by Chamique Holdsclaw's 23 points and teammate Michelle Snow's 26 points and 12 rebounds, the Lady Vols ran away and hid from the Blue Devils early by beginning the game with a 105-61 run.
A pissed-off Krista Gingrich drilled two late three-pointers, cutting the lead to under 40, but alas, Krista was unable to make up the 44 point deficit in the final 40 seconds. The Vols emerged in a squeeker, 105-67.
Now you could say that we suck as video gamers, but anyone who's seen us playing Baseball Stars on Friday and Saturday nights would beg to differ.
Our problem was that we couldn't adjust to the differences between the real Blue Devils and their cyber counterparts.
First off, Missy West and Naz Medhanie were nowhere to be found in the game. Five-foot-six Hilary Howard is listed at 6-3 in the game, and apparently, those extra nine inches made her outside shot atrocious. Her three-point rating is a dismal 10 out of 99.
Hilary's backcourt mate, Nicole Erickson, also sprouted 10 inches in cyberspace. But the 6-4 Erickson is, without a doubt, ranked the best player on the team.
Still, Erickson could only shoot 3-of-15 from the field and 1-for-8 from behind the three-point line in our game. Michele VanGorp was an uncharacterstic 3-of-14, but true to the real Gorp, she recorded no blocks.
Our other problem was that we were facing a Tennessee team that simply wanted it more. What made Holdsclaw's 23-point performance especially spectacular was that she was suffering from the flu. Not since Michael Jordan's performance in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals had we seen such a gutsy performance from an ailing athlete.
Now you say, "Hey jackasses, stop making excuses. Video games don't get the flu." But Holdsclaw must have been ill. Why else would she be so pale? In fact, every black person in the game looked like they were suffering from the flu. Everyone is white.
But the one bright spot for the Blue Devils came when we adopted a more physical approach on defense in the second half. We still couldn't rebound, steal or force a turnover, but we did knock Semeka Randall and Kristen Clement out of the game with injuries.
Come March, we hope Coach G adopts a similar strategy. Remember, the real Tennessee is a lot easier to defend when the Three 'Meeks are lying in the emergency room.
-By Victor Zhao and Neal Morgan
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