[81alum]

Lili's less than stellar performance today may have been due to having the ring & pinkie fingers of her right hand taped -- broken pinkie? Didn't keep her from playing for 36 minutes.

I completely missed this.  Interesting.  It would be a more plausible explanation for why she went from 11/15 against WSU to 3/15 against C.al just because she is "streaky."

I REALLY wish the referees would take a look at Anigwe's go-to post move - she's hooking the defender with her off-arm almost every time, starting on the right block, sweeping her left arm down and around the defender's hip to pin her, then pivoting to the hoop.

Your observations are always golden, VG.  I watched her carefully and could not articulate what it was that bothered me, but you nailed it.  Something else I noticed about her was how effective she was at backing in to the paint.  Not to be indelicate, but she absolutely bulldozed people with her butt--they could not get any leverage to keep her from backing in to the paint before she had the ball.  Then she would receive the pass and--legal or not--that is one freshman who did not take 3 years to develop a back-to-the-basket move.  It made me think that we would be better off fronting her--a strategy that we usually use against taller players when we want to deny them the ball and feel we can't prevent them from scoring if they get it in close.

Someone asked at the Chalk Talk why we did not recruit her.  Tempie said that with many players it is obvious early that they cannot get past admissions, and so they are not even worth watching in high school.  Someone also asked how many players we had recruited who had been admitted and who chose to go elsewhere.  A decade ago Tara had mentioned 7 in her entire career.  Tempie said only 1 in recent years--Katie Lou.  I did not speak up, but we know of one other, obviously, after Pivec displayed her admissions letter.  It might be more complicated than we understand, I suppose. 

[81alum]

Lili's less than stellar performance today may have been due to having the ring & pinkie fingers of her right hand taped -- broken pinkie? Didn't keep her from playing for 36 minutes.

I completely missed this.  Interesting.  It would be a more plausible explanation for why she went from 11/15 against WSU to 3/15 against C.al just because she is "streaky."

I REALLY wish the referees would take a look at Anigwe's go-to post move - she's hooking the defender with her off-arm almost every time, starting on the right block, sweeping her left arm down and around the defender's hip to pin her, then pivoting to the hoop.

Your observations are always golden, VG.  I watched her carefully and could not articulate what it was that bothered me, but you nailed it.  Something else I noticed about her was how effective she was at backing in to the paint.  Not to be indelicate, but she absolutely bulldozed people with her butt--they could not get any leverage to keep her from backing in to the paint before she had the ball.  Then she would receive the pass and--legal or not--that is one freshman who did not take 3 years to develop a back-to-the-basket move.  It made me think that we would be better off fronting her--a strategy that we usually use against taller players when we want to deny them the ball and feel we can't prevent them from scoring if they get it in close.

Someone asked at the Chalk Talk why we did not recruit her.  Tempie said that with many players it is obvious early that they cannot get past admissions, and so they are not even worth watching in high school.  Someone also asked how many players we had recruited who had been admitted and who chose to go elsewhere.  A decade ago Tara had mentioned 7 in her entire career.  Tempie said only 1 in recent years--Katie Lou.  I did not speak up, but we know of one other, obviously, after Pivec displayed her admissions letter.  It might be more complicated than we understand, I suppose.