02-02-2020, 01:47 AM
I was also at the game on Friday evening.
My overall impression leaving after the victory was that we are a very good team, but not a great team in our current iteration, chiefly because of our turnovers and offensive deficiencies.
That 9-0 run by UW in the second quarter caused by our numerous turnovers was created by our careless mistakes rather than anything Washington did. We must cut down on the preventable mistakes, like attempting low percentage passes into traffic or dribbling through multiple defenders or trying to hand off the ball to a teammate with a defender right there to intercept the ball. It doesn't matter in games like Friday's where we were the superior team but against teams like Oregon, they are going to make you pay, which they did when we got demolished.
We can't make preventable mistakes like that, the reward for the high-risk pass with a defender clogging up the passing lane is not worth it or trying to break up a double team by yourself when you lack the strength or size advantage.
Additionally, because our shooting can be so streaky, we need as many opportunities to shoot the ball as we can and by turning the ball over, we deprive ourselves the chance of scoring.
I am not sure I like this Princeton offense very much. By now, every team has game-planned and watched videos of the plays and positioning of our players and then to add further impediment, some teams, like UW apply the full-court press to minimize the amount of time we have to run through sets and then as the shot clock winds down, we need a Plan B.
Unfortunately, Plan B usually involves a player creating something on their own. Two of our players who can do that the best (Haley and DiJonai) are currently sidelined, so Kiana is our best hope at creating some offense on her own. Lexie is a great shooter, but she can't just drive to the basket by herself without a play setting her up to do so.
Other observations from the game:
Here's hoping every week they get better and better and they'll come back for the stretch run against our tough second half of the schedule coming up.
My overall impression leaving after the victory was that we are a very good team, but not a great team in our current iteration, chiefly because of our turnovers and offensive deficiencies.
That 9-0 run by UW in the second quarter caused by our numerous turnovers was created by our careless mistakes rather than anything Washington did. We must cut down on the preventable mistakes, like attempting low percentage passes into traffic or dribbling through multiple defenders or trying to hand off the ball to a teammate with a defender right there to intercept the ball. It doesn't matter in games like Friday's where we were the superior team but against teams like Oregon, they are going to make you pay, which they did when we got demolished.
We can't make preventable mistakes like that, the reward for the high-risk pass with a defender clogging up the passing lane is not worth it or trying to break up a double team by yourself when you lack the strength or size advantage.
Additionally, because our shooting can be so streaky, we need as many opportunities to shoot the ball as we can and by turning the ball over, we deprive ourselves the chance of scoring.
I am not sure I like this Princeton offense very much. By now, every team has game-planned and watched videos of the plays and positioning of our players and then to add further impediment, some teams, like UW apply the full-court press to minimize the amount of time we have to run through sets and then as the shot clock winds down, we need a Plan B.
Unfortunately, Plan B usually involves a player creating something on their own. Two of our players who can do that the best (Haley and DiJonai) are currently sidelined, so Kiana is our best hope at creating some offense on her own. Lexie is a great shooter, but she can't just drive to the basket by herself without a play setting her up to do so.
Other observations from the game:
- I didn't see Maya, Haley or DiJonai at the game at all, from what I can tell. I don't know whether that is a good or bad sign or nothing at all. The optimist in me is trying to reason that the staff knew they weren't ready this weekend and wanted at least one of them to prepare back on campus for the home series against the SoCal schools next weekend, but that is just speculation and wishful thinking on my part
- However, the other 12 players there were all dressed and looked ready to go, so at least 80% of the squad can play, so purely by a numbers point, that is an improvement. However, the three missing players are all important parts of the puzzle for us
- My heart skipped a beat when Lacie fell down, struggled to get up, limped off the floor and went immediately to the locker room before halftime. We do not need any more injuries to important players. However, she was out early before the second half, testing out her movement and after a little trepidation at first, it seemed (at least from my vantage point) that she was moving without any issues
- Lexie's shooting stroke is beautiful, she rarely missed any of her 3-pointers in the warmups and it looked so smooth. One of the UW fans around me commented after she hit corner 3's from both corners that she could hit them from anywhere
- I was really hoping Fran would have made that dunk. I saw that breakaway and I was like, "could this be it?" A UW fan was complaining on how it was showboating and that Tara probably yanked her because of it, but I was thinking there was little harm by her attempting it
- Even though she was not very successful, I am heartened to see Hannah Jump attempt to expand her game beyond hitting treys. I really appreciate her willingness to introduce new facets into her game and make her offensive game more well-rounded. Considering the frustration with some of our other players for not trying different things (even when the opposing defense gives them the opening), it's really nice to see Jump, midway through her freshman year, willing to experiment with new moves and options. If she can work on that over the summer and add in a near-automatic midrange jumper and drives to the basket given the right matchup, it will make her 3-point shooting that more dangerous as opponents can't just sell out on the trey
- The UW fans were noticing that not only Melgoza's shots weren't falling, their entire offense was discombobulated and not taking good notice of the shot clock winding down. I would like to think our defense played a significant role in that, but UW had a few good looks and some of their shots barely missed too
Here's hoping every week they get better and better and they'll come back for the stretch run against our tough second half of the schedule coming up.