01-17-2021, 11:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-17-2021, 11:50 PM by BillBradley.)
I think our ladies are very talented and the pieces fit together well. They enjoy each other, play hard, unselfish, and have what it takes to win a natty. I also think this could be the best team Tara has ever coached. However, I'm concerned they lost this one. Great teams find ways to win games when they aren't at their best. What happened? I don't think a single player would blame the nomad existence. IMO (and this is a sports message board so this is what we get to do:), it came down to 2 things. Note: I am a big Tara fan.
1) We made no defensive adjustments on Hollingshed. Frankly that's unacceptable, especially for a HoF coach. We hardly ever had Lexie and Lacey (our best defenders, gritty, long and 6'2") on the floor at the same time, and NEITHER guarded her in the second half. She was owning Haley, trip after trip. You have to adjust. Make her work, deny, double, jump every ball screen. Her points came way too easily.
2) We got nothing in transition. We walked the ball up and settled for a half court game, which is exactly what Colorado wanted. We have the athletic advantage and the depth. Kiana, Anna, Lexie, Lacey - I will put their fitness up against anyone, even at altitude. But we never pushed the tempo and we just weren't efficient enough with our half court sets. Our bigs were clearly exhausted at times, but not our guards.
I also wasn't a fan of the late timeout call that resulted in the steal off the inbounds pass. I realize that shouldn't have happened, but still don't think it benefited us to stop the clock, let them set their D and put a plan in place.
As other posters have mentioned, hopefully they will show their stuff in the next two games and never look back.
1) We made no defensive adjustments on Hollingshed. Frankly that's unacceptable, especially for a HoF coach. We hardly ever had Lexie and Lacey (our best defenders, gritty, long and 6'2") on the floor at the same time, and NEITHER guarded her in the second half. She was owning Haley, trip after trip. You have to adjust. Make her work, deny, double, jump every ball screen. Her points came way too easily.
2) We got nothing in transition. We walked the ball up and settled for a half court game, which is exactly what Colorado wanted. We have the athletic advantage and the depth. Kiana, Anna, Lexie, Lacey - I will put their fitness up against anyone, even at altitude. But we never pushed the tempo and we just weren't efficient enough with our half court sets. Our bigs were clearly exhausted at times, but not our guards.
I also wasn't a fan of the late timeout call that resulted in the steal off the inbounds pass. I realize that shouldn't have happened, but still don't think it benefited us to stop the clock, let them set their D and put a plan in place.
As other posters have mentioned, hopefully they will show their stuff in the next two games and never look back.