‘Big Girl’ Needs Big Building, So Pond Gets Call

When the Long Beach StingRays took a look at the schedule and saw that “Big Girl” was finally coming to the Southland on Saturday, they began looking for a building with a higher roof.

Kara Elizabeth Wolters, who also answers to Big Girl, is 6 feet 7. She’s the tallest player in the American Basketball League and also carries a heavy burden, the dreaded “big potential” tag.

Accordingly, the StingRays-New England Blizzard game has been moved from the 4,200-seat Pyramid at Long Beach State to the 18,000-seat Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

Actually, Wolters would have fit into the Pyramid just fine. No overhanging scoreboard.

But attendance at StingRay games is not so fine.

By a margin of more than 1,000 a game, it’s the worst in the ABL. The league wants to see if playing at the Pond will make a difference.

If it doesn’t, or if a number of promotional gimmicks don’t work, color the StingRays gone for next season . . . to Long Island or Dallas.

Wolters could get lonely playing before a normal StingRay crowd. The Blizzard rookie routinely played before sellout crowds of 8,200 at the University of Connecticut and her new team is the runaway ABL attendance leader at 9,797 a game.

The StingRays average 1,845.

The Blizzard drew 15,213 Saturday for a game against Colorado at the Hartford Civic Center, where hundreds were turned away, according to a Blizzard spokesman.

(Sudden thought: What are the odds that the ABL and NCAA would have record crowds on the same day? The UConn and Tennessee women drew 24,597 Saturday in Knoxville.)

While Blizzard crowd counts are up, Big Girl’s minutes are down and she’s not happy about it.

Why is she averaging only 20 minutes a game?

“Ask the coach,” she said.

We did, last October.

Even then, Wolters was playing only 20 minutes a game. Yet she has led the ABL in blocks all season.

Of the league’s 99 players, none has a bigger upside, according to her coach, K.C. Jones.

“Kara has off-the-chart potential,” he said.

“You’re talking about a 6-7 woman with real athletic skills. She’s the equivalent of a 7-3 guy who can really play. But she’s only 22 and has some defensive shortcomings. We’ve got to eliminate those.”

Consistency is also a goal Jones has set for Wolters.

When New England (14-14) beat Columbus in Hartford on Dec. 27, Wolters had 17 points and 10 rebounds in 18 minutes. But Friday at Columbus, she had four points and three rebounds in nine minutes.

Potential is a big burden for Big Girl.

“I know I’m not close to my potential . . . but I also feel I’m not being used effectively,” she said.

“I know certain players in the league can take me one on one, but I can adjust and learn. But to do that, I need to play.”

She wouldn’t name names, but it’s known 6-2 Columbus veteran Valerie Still has played Big Girl like a violin, drawing her out into unfamiliar territory--15, 18 feet from the basket--then driving around her.

Maybe she’ll get more schooling at the Pond, when she takes on two of the best big players in the ABL, Long Beach’s Yolanda Griffith and Venus Lacy.

The College Scene

The UCLA (1-1 in the Pacific 10) and USC (1-1) women visit the Oregon schools this weekend. After that, Stanford makes its annual Los Angeles visit, at USC on Jan. 16 and UCLA on Jan. 18.

It looks as if the arrival of the women’s pro leagues means an automatic attendance jump at UCLA and USC games.

Present Friday at one end of the Pauley Pavilion press table for Arizona-UCLA were L.A. Sparks Coach Julie Rousseau and General Manager Rhonda Windham. At the other end: Long Beach StingRay General Manager Bill McGillis, Coach Maura McHugh and assistant Michele Cherry.

Layups

Don’t be surprised if Nancy Lieberman-Cline is named coach of the WNBA’s expansion team in Detroit. . . . The StingRays’ Griffith has dropped to fourth among ABL scorers but still leads in rebounding with an 11.7 average, field-goal percentage at 55% and steals with a 2.9 average. . . . Has anyone noticed that UC Santa Barbara is 9-4 and has beaten USC, Colorado and Florida, when the Gators were ranked fifth?