07-19-2021, 04:19 PM
(07-19-2021, 01:18 PM)bl82 Wrote:(07-19-2021, 09:04 AM)Hulk01 Wrote: Anna Wilson ensures that we won't have trouble against teams with great guards. She takes point guards completely out of their games.
last year, she held her matchups, who averaged 17.4 points per game, to 8.7 a game. Our trouble was with bigs.
And our defense against bigs should improve substantially this year. Most importantly, Cam is a year older and smarter. She will still be aggressive, but showed considerable progress over the course of year about what it takes to keep out of foul trouble. I expect this to be priority #1 in terms of coaching and personal development this year. Ashten will not get any quicker, but she too has learned to use body position and better timing for shot blocking to be more effective on defense. I'd love for her to find just another 3-4 inches of hops. A potential of immense proportions defensive plus is Kiki Iriafen. She is an athletic, long all-around talent who has the potential to be an elite defender. She may surprise us with her rebounding, quickness and potential to make things happen all over the court.
Also, don't forget that Lexie and Lacie were often our most effective defenders against bigs, with their extremely quick and aggressive double-teams often disrupting opponent post players leading to dozens of steals, tie-ups and general frustration for opponent bigs.
Since we didn't lose anyone over 5'8" from last year's team, we can only be better on defense against the bigs.
My understanding of Jordan Hamilton as a player is that she is a great defender. So I am going to assume that she is at least as good if not better than Williams in that department. Plus Iriafen has the potential to be very good defensively along with Belibi, Prechtel and Brink getting better too. So I think assuming we are the same or better than last year is a safe assumption.
The big question mark is who is going to replace Williams scoring and specifically dribble penetration and 3 point shooting
