Odds and Ends

After Tuesday's cuts, the Storm is left with just eight players who practiced Tuesday morning, which could make practice light for a while. (This is when the team's practice squad, mostly made up of male players, becomes useful.) Reinforcements should be on the way, with invitees Kerri Gardin and Brooke Queenan due in before too long. Tye'sha Fluker is also expected to arrive fairly soon.

The timetable is longer for the Storm's key players. Coach Donovan said Tuesday that she anticipates Janell Burse and Betty Lennox returning around May 2, Barbara Turner around May 5 and Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson (and Francesca Zara, playing with them in Russia) around May 10.

Speaking of Sue and LJ, their Spartak team defeated Dynamo Moscow 81-70 Monday in Game 1 of their best-of-three series. Jackson had 26 points on 9-of-11 shooting, Bird six assists. Game 2 is Thursday.

Wanted to highlight this from today's Katie Gearlds feature:

"Obviously I've got the stereotype of being a typical slow white girl," said
Gearlds. "I try to make up for that with my size and my length. That's something
we've been working on a little bit - getting me to use my hands. I think I'll be
alright. I'm pretty smart and I'll get quicker one of these days."

Let there be no doubt she's quick-witted.

In addition to talking about her long-lost brother Leandro Barbosa, Iziane Castro Marques also talked for the first time about deciding to re-sign with the Storm as a free agent during the off-season. According to Izi, there was never much doubt:

"I always wanted to come back to Seattle because I'm settled here. I had a good year here last year. This is my place. I know everybody. I have friends here outside the court, so it's a known place for me. I'm not used to it, because I'm always changing teams, but I'm kinda getting tired of that. I think it was a good decision for me to come back and keep going what I had done in the two years."