[pefloresjr]

Three bad in bounds passes against Utah,
two by Lacie and one by Haley.

Team in general does not pass the ball well.  Some are just sloppy, lazy passes and others are simply trying to make passes to someone who is not open, particularly when trying to get the ball inside.  We also try to force the ball inside too often by driving into the lane where there is no where to go leaving the player with an impossible shot or a turnover.  Since teams seem determined to take away our inside game, we ought to move the ball around the perimeter much faster.  Too often a player gets it, looks for a pass inside, or a lane to drive, and then passes it on putting little pressure on the defense.

I have seen what you observed too, but it can be a bit deceptive.  With the Princeton there is a premium on making passes to a player cutting to the basket, and some of those passes fail, are deflected etc.  Otherwise we would just endlessly pass the ball around the perimeter--something this board has widely criticized.  The hope is that the times the inside passes lead to scores will greatly outnumber the times they lead to turnovers--but if teams pack the paint then we can't pass inside and need to shoot threes.

What we are doing this year is generally working.

Last year we had 14.6 assists per game.  This year 18.6--a big increase.  That is a sign of a good passing team--perhaps the best we have been in years.  I looked back 10 years and this is the highest assists per game we have had in that time.  No year was above 15 until you get back to 2010-11 which was at 17.  That was the year of the two Ogwumikes, Pohlen, Pedersen,

Turnovers are down a little from a year ago.  Last year was 13.7 turns per game, this year 13.0.

All that said, I did not think that either last year or this year that our inbounds plays were as good as they should be.  We had games last year too where we gave the ball over on inbounds passes.  That is clearly a part of our game that needs to improve.

In our one loss this year our offense was good enough.  We were having an off night shooting and still scored 72 points.  I put the Colorado loss pretty much entirely on our defense, which allowed a season high in points against us by a long ways.  The offense can be better, but it would not have mattered if our defense played an average game.  It didn't, and that is most concerning.  Cori Close has watched our Colorado game probably about five times by now to pinpoint what she can do.

Agreed.  Teams that pass more and try to get the ball inside will have some turnovers.  Some of the turnovers are the result of "forcing it" but that is generally a hindsight conclusion about a pass that didn't work.  The ones that do work, even if risky, are never called out as "forcing it."  It is a very difficult, fine line to determine and the players can't be perfect in live competition.  I love the fact that we are passing a lot and getting the ball to our post players pretty regularly.  The turnovers that are easier to legitimately critique are those like the inbounds pass from Wilson to Williams that likely cost us the game.  I think the team will learn from that because it came at so late in the game.  

Cheers,
Pete F.

[pefloresjr]

Three bad in bounds passes against Utah,
two by Lacie and one by Haley.

Team in general does not pass the ball well.  Some are just sloppy, lazy passes and others are simply trying to make passes to someone who is not open, particularly when trying to get the ball inside.  We also try to force the ball inside too often by driving into the lane where there is no where to go leaving the player with an impossible shot or a turnover.  Since teams seem determined to take away our inside game, we ought to move the ball around the perimeter much faster.  Too often a player gets it, looks for a pass inside, or a lane to drive, and then passes it on putting little pressure on the defense.

I have seen what you observed too, but it can be a bit deceptive.  With the Princeton there is a premium on making passes to a player cutting to the basket, and some of those passes fail, are deflected etc.  Otherwise we would just endlessly pass the ball around the perimeter--something this board has widely criticized.  The hope is that the times the inside passes lead to scores will greatly outnumber the times they lead to turnovers--but if teams pack the paint then we can't pass inside and need to shoot threes.

What we are doing this year is generally working.

Last year we had 14.6 assists per game.  This year 18.6--a big increase.  That is a sign of a good passing team--perhaps the best we have been in years.  I looked back 10 years and this is the highest assists per game we have had in that time.  No year was above 15 until you get back to 2010-11 which was at 17.  That was the year of the two Ogwumikes, Pohlen, Pedersen,

Turnovers are down a little from a year ago.  Last year was 13.7 turns per game, this year 13.0.

All that said, I did not think that either last year or this year that our inbounds plays were as good as they should be.  We had games last year too where we gave the ball over on inbounds passes.  That is clearly a part of our game that needs to improve.

In our one loss this year our offense was good enough.  We were having an off night shooting and still scored 72 points.  I put the Colorado loss pretty much entirely on our defense, which allowed a season high in points against us by a long ways.  The offense can be better, but it would not have mattered if our defense played an average game.  It didn't, and that is most concerning.  Cori Close has watched our Colorado game probably about five times by now to pinpoint what she can do.

Agreed.  Teams that pass more and try to get the ball inside will have some turnovers.  Some of the turnovers are the result of "forcing it" but that is generally a hindsight conclusion about a pass that didn't work.  The ones that do work, even if risky, are never called out as "forcing it."  It is a very difficult, fine line to determine and the players can't be perfect in live competition.  I love the fact that we are passing a lot and getting the ball to our post players pretty regularly.  The turnovers that are easier to legitimately critique are those like the inbounds pass from Wilson to Williams that likely cost us the game.  I think the team will learn from that because it came at so late in the game.  

Cheers,
Pete F.