High-level thoughts:
-Was really impressed with Arizona. I've had questions for a while because they've faced few top teams since Louisville. But they were hitting clean jumpers from all over and while not the highest percentage shots, if they go in, it's really hard to defend them. They were also really physical on defense, though I feel like Missy uncharacteristically swallowed her whistle a bit on defenders (maybe due to Barnes's criticism after the Oregon game she also called). But we contained Cate Reese and no one else was able to give them enough offense.
-JVG! Wow! I didn't realize that she's really more of a substitute for Jump than for Lacie/Wilson/Kiana. We definitely need to get her in the mix more, but I understand why Tara hasn't so far: where do you play her? As of now, Jump still has more physicality on defense, almost half a foot more reach (6'0" vs. 5'7ish"), and more shot variety. Totally agree with Teej that JVG needs to add floaters and maybe stop and pop or step-back into her arsenal, because I don't see her ever getting to the rim very effectively - neither fast enough nor physical enough, in addition to her height. (Also, her having been out for a while with a concussion definitely helps explain her absence from so many games this season where you'd ordinarily think she'd have been subbed in.)
-Jones had a bad game, but all credit to Yeaney, who was really, really effective at limiting her. It was clear to me that after Jones burned them in the NCAA title game, their scout plan was to take her out of the game, and they were really effective at it.
-We need to keep working on our inbounding. We look like a top 25 team in almost every area but some of our inbounding this season feels like a HS JV squad. I'm actually more sanguine than most here about Jones's turnovers that result from overly ambitious entry passes, because they often work and when they do, they're great at juicing our offense. But the inbounding turnovers are just inexplicable unforced errors.
-No minutes from Kiki, which was a little surprising to me after the ASU game. It seems like she's settling in as the sub for Brink because the games she has played the most (Tennessee, WSU, ASU) are the ones Brink has played in the least. Whereas Belibi and Prechtel seem to rotate both in sub for Brink but also with her. Interesting to see how Tara thinks about her chess pieces.
(01-30-2022, 06:03 PM)Card10Fan Wrote: How would those at the game describe the crowd? Looked large on TV but only listed at 3,400. With the free bobblehead giveaway, thought it might be more. We have a tremendous team and are the defending champs, wish we could get more people to attend games. Granted, I understand the Covid concerns. Attendance should still be higher IMO.
That was me. Turned down a free ticket because I didn't think it'd be enjoyable wearing an N95 for two hours straight while trying to cheer, and given numbers just didn't want to chance it. Was bummed to miss it - seemed like a great game, and not nearly as crowded as I was expecting (friend who bought the tickets said it was almost sold out).
(01-30-2022, 06:36 PM)treetop11 Wrote: The refs were awful. Let 'em play is one thing, but there were several times that our players got shoved/smacked, a couple of times knocking our player down, and no call. I'm disregarding the number of times our players got hacked shooting, but you can't allow pushing and knock downs, players can get hurt. And most of the fouls called us were very ticky-tack and a couple were phantom. The refs just wanted to keep the game close so as not to diminish a top P12 team.
Yes, usually with Missy she is predictable, but this game was all over the place. I felt like Wilson, in particular, was getting abused, as was Jones on a few of her layup attempts, but then totally bizarre tacky calls with no contact. To the point where the ESPN2 game crew literally dissected one no-call talking about how the ball handler has to be allowed freedom of movement and how Wilson was repeatedly being denied it in ways that should be called a foul. I suspect the PAC-12 network discourages announcers from criticizing the refs but there was sure a lot more griping from the ESPN2 crew than I can recall from 95% of games I watch on TV.