12-01-2022, 11:00 AM
I am not going to put that much stock in this game. I saw a team that was a bit off, and I believe that was due to just coming off the Hawaii trip. Lots of games played there and some fun stuff for the players, but were they able to practice aside from getting ready for the next game? They probably had one day of practice for this game. I just feel like this was a bit of a trap game, and while issues that arose in it like the perimeter defense, need to be fixed, a lot of the fix might just be getting in the gym for a solid few days to work on Stanford, not on what is needed specifically for the next game. Also, give Santa Clara credit for playing a good game and hitting their shots. They ran their offense well.
As far as Jones is concerned, I think we all agree she really, really, really needs a three point shot, now and for the pros. Teams are sagging way off her now. If she hasn't been able to get that shot going by now, being a senior, she probably won't, which is a shame, because it will definitely limit her in the pros by a lot. She is having trouble now because she is often trying to drive into a crowd and then finagle herself some sort of space to shoot. That will be much harder in the WNBA. It isn't easy now. She is just so talented she can make it work fairly often.
So what is the solution? Playing her at the 4 means we sit way too much talent on the bench. We already can't find enough minutes for all the bigs. Playing Jones at the 4 again would also not help her in the long run. I don't know why she is quite so hesitant to try open, in rhythm threes. She hit them in bunches in some big games in previous seasons. She just looks way off mentally trying to shoot them this year. If playing her at the 4 is out, what is the answer?
I agree it would be nice to get more offense from Lepolo, specifically more threes. From the looks of it, she knows that and Tara knows that, and they are working on it. Lepolo looked quite comfortable making threes in the open practice, not so much in games...yet. I am in the camp that says wait and see. Tara talks to her a ton during games (I sit where I can see the bench relatively closely) so she has a lot to think about in games. That will get a lot easier with time and she may well be able to focus more on her own offense. She actually has the highest overall shooting percentage of any of the guards who might handle the point, so it is not like we have someone waiting in the wings who has been gunning threes with ease. I think we all agree Jones is not a pg and after all the talk of that, she hasn't been playing there much at all.
So if you don't like Lepolo at the point, who gets the job? Nivar has a 1:1 A:TO ratio and while I would love to see more of her it would be at the 2 or the 3 so her dynamic scoring ability could be utilized. Harriel's offense stats are similar to Lepolo's, although she's had much less time. She could be an option for more time at the point, but from what I've seen I don't think she should replace Lepolo, just maybe give her some more minutes there and see how her ball handling and passing hold up against better teams.
I would like to see more playing time generally for Bosgana, Nivar, Harriel, and Betts. I assume the coaches thought Santa Clara would be tough for Betts because she would have to guard a lot on the perimeter. She's going to face teams like that in her career so she needs to get used to it. This game was maybe too close to mess around if she had trouble but generally I think they need to squeeze out some more time for her. It's just so hard to do. Every game we wonder hey why didn't we see more of Belibi, Prechtel, or Betts. Just not enough minutes for everyone.
As far as Jones is concerned, I think we all agree she really, really, really needs a three point shot, now and for the pros. Teams are sagging way off her now. If she hasn't been able to get that shot going by now, being a senior, she probably won't, which is a shame, because it will definitely limit her in the pros by a lot. She is having trouble now because she is often trying to drive into a crowd and then finagle herself some sort of space to shoot. That will be much harder in the WNBA. It isn't easy now. She is just so talented she can make it work fairly often.
So what is the solution? Playing her at the 4 means we sit way too much talent on the bench. We already can't find enough minutes for all the bigs. Playing Jones at the 4 again would also not help her in the long run. I don't know why she is quite so hesitant to try open, in rhythm threes. She hit them in bunches in some big games in previous seasons. She just looks way off mentally trying to shoot them this year. If playing her at the 4 is out, what is the answer?
I agree it would be nice to get more offense from Lepolo, specifically more threes. From the looks of it, she knows that and Tara knows that, and they are working on it. Lepolo looked quite comfortable making threes in the open practice, not so much in games...yet. I am in the camp that says wait and see. Tara talks to her a ton during games (I sit where I can see the bench relatively closely) so she has a lot to think about in games. That will get a lot easier with time and she may well be able to focus more on her own offense. She actually has the highest overall shooting percentage of any of the guards who might handle the point, so it is not like we have someone waiting in the wings who has been gunning threes with ease. I think we all agree Jones is not a pg and after all the talk of that, she hasn't been playing there much at all.
So if you don't like Lepolo at the point, who gets the job? Nivar has a 1:1 A:TO ratio and while I would love to see more of her it would be at the 2 or the 3 so her dynamic scoring ability could be utilized. Harriel's offense stats are similar to Lepolo's, although she's had much less time. She could be an option for more time at the point, but from what I've seen I don't think she should replace Lepolo, just maybe give her some more minutes there and see how her ball handling and passing hold up against better teams.
I would like to see more playing time generally for Bosgana, Nivar, Harriel, and Betts. I assume the coaches thought Santa Clara would be tough for Betts because she would have to guard a lot on the perimeter. She's going to face teams like that in her career so she needs to get used to it. This game was maybe too close to mess around if she had trouble but generally I think they need to squeeze out some more time for her. It's just so hard to do. Every game we wonder hey why didn't we see more of Belibi, Prechtel, or Betts. Just not enough minutes for everyone.