[81alum]

[quote author=81alum link=topic=14458.msg154044#msg154044 date=1453529490]
[quote author=TheFarm07 link=topic=14458.msg154043#msg154043 date=1453528860]
Please tell me how our uptempo offense only led to 57 points? I think we need booster rockets to get to 60 points these days

The uptempo offense referred to faster and longer passes.  Unfortunately, a number of them sailed out of bounds.  Tara has commented on how Kerr doesn't worry about turnovers.  This is a hard lesson for her.  She instinctively wants to slow the game down and take care of the ball.  But I do think a slow-paced game may destroy the offensive rhythm of the players.
[/quote]

I am not much of a basketball strategist, but it seems like just attempting longer and faster passes are not an end to itself.  You mentioned exhausting the US.C team using this tactic, given we had a deeper bench.  But within an offensive scheme, isn't the different nature of the passes designed to try to exploit possible openings/mismatches so that we can get into a better position to shoot the ball more often or push tempo down the court before the defense sets up, hence enabling us to attempt more shots and thus, hopefully put more points on the board?

Because in my head (and again I'm not a basketball mastermind), by making longer and faster passes without changing anything else, aren't you adding more risk without any added reward?
[/quote]
Many were passes up court to force SC to run.  We had players breaking early even before the rebound was secure to be ready to receive a long pass, and thus SC had to run back on defense early to avoid our fast break.  Marta was bringing the ball up the court with her head up always looking for a pass to accelerate the break.  Once we settled into the halfcourt I think passing and pace were more energetic too, but not all that different from prior games.  The difference is that Marta deliberately "pushed" the pace to maintain a credible threat of a fast break whenever possible.  This made SC run.

Another thing to keep in mind--SC specializes in creating turnovers and that is one of its best statistics this season.  They had 11 steals.  That leaves 8 unforced errors, more or less, and most of those were on passes that didn't quite work.

Another observation.  Turnovers by quarter: 6 6 2 5.  Three of the turnovers in the 4th quarter came in that silly stretch in the last 30 seconds.  So, in general, we dramatically cut back on turnovers for all the minutes that mattered in the second half.

[81alum]

[quote author=81alum link=topic=14458.msg154044#msg154044 date=1453529490]
[quote author=TheFarm07 link=topic=14458.msg154043#msg154043 date=1453528860]
Please tell me how our uptempo offense only led to 57 points? I think we need booster rockets to get to 60 points these days

The uptempo offense referred to faster and longer passes.  Unfortunately, a number of them sailed out of bounds.  Tara has commented on how Kerr doesn't worry about turnovers.  This is a hard lesson for her.  She instinctively wants to slow the game down and take care of the ball.  But I do think a slow-paced game may destroy the offensive rhythm of the players.
[/quote]

I am not much of a basketball strategist, but it seems like just attempting longer and faster passes are not an end to itself.  You mentioned exhausting the US.C team using this tactic, given we had a deeper bench.  But within an offensive scheme, isn't the different nature of the passes designed to try to exploit possible openings/mismatches so that we can get into a better position to shoot the ball more often or push tempo down the court before the defense sets up, hence enabling us to attempt more shots and thus, hopefully put more points on the board?

Because in my head (and again I'm not a basketball mastermind), by making longer and faster passes without changing anything else, aren't you adding more risk without any added reward?
[/quote]
Many were passes up court to force SC to run.  We had players breaking early even before the rebound was secure to be ready to receive a long pass, and thus SC had to run back on defense early to avoid our fast break.  Marta was bringing the ball up the court with her head up always looking for a pass to accelerate the break.  Once we settled into the halfcourt I think passing and pace were more energetic too, but not all that different from prior games.  The difference is that Marta deliberately "pushed" the pace to maintain a credible threat of a fast break whenever possible.  This made SC run.

Another thing to keep in mind--SC specializes in creating turnovers and that is one of its best statistics this season.  They had 11 steals.  That leaves 8 unforced errors, more or less, and most of those were on passes that didn't quite work.

Another observation.  Turnovers by quarter: 6 6 2 5.  Three of the turnovers in the 4th quarter came in that silly stretch in the last 30 seconds.  So, in general, we dramatically cut back on turnovers for all the minutes that mattered in the second half.