Kia's Payback?

The good news is Essence's lip, while maybe not blistex-commercial-ready, is fine. The better news - stay with me on this one - is that Kia was still gleeful over splitting it.

"I'm just getting her back for what she did during USA Basketball," Kia said, as E, the cut plainly obvious and her lip clearly swollen, just stared at her.

Yesterday, the pair had gone up for a rebound against Robert Morris, Kia's elbow caught E's face on the way down and E needed two stitches and a numbing. Well, apparently, the same thing happened when the two played on the USA U21 World Basketball Championship team this summer. Only it was E's elbow and Kia's eye that time.

"She gave me a black eye," Kia said loudly. Seeing E still not blinking, she swallowed her bottom lip with her mouth and said, "you can do this. I couldn't hide a black eye!"

Poor Brittany Ray, squat between the two of them, kept shrinking further into her hoodie, I did my best to stay quiet and finally E rolled her eyes. And Kia laughed. And it really was the sweetest sound.

Something's been up with Kia this year. Maybe it's just that she never had her sophomore slump. She took an enormous leap last year, people have obviously keyed on her this year in a way they never had and like assistant coach Marianne Stanley said today, "what she's gone through is very common." Still, Kia's such a competitor, none of that appeased her. And, as a result, she's been unusually cranky for a lot of the year. The crazy red wig she'd wear to press conferences didn't come out. The jokey jabs at her teammates and Coach Stringer, they stayed away too. She didn't smile as much around the media, and worse, she didn't pull out the rowdy, nutty, totally inspiring antics on the court that fueled her teammates.

Now she absolutely is. When conversation turned to Iowa's love for Coach Stringer, she mock instructed the Iowa press to tell its fellow citizens: "I know they still want her back, but they can't have her." She graciously said Iowans have treated she and her teammates well because of Stringer, before cutely predicting, "That'll change tomorrow around 8:30." Kia pretended she'd broken Epiphanny Prince's hand and she hassled her teammates. And it was exactly the Kia the Scarlet Knights have come to expect.

"A pain," Essence said. And then she sighed, "Our pain."

Comments

[J]

I really like these personal stories that add insight into these wonderful players and coaches. Keep up the good work! I have a feeling about this squad. They have been waiting for this for a year. They will not be denied!