[TheFarm07]

At the Cardboard conclave ar the half, I bemoaned Iriafen’s lack of defense. I don’t expect her to be Brink, but I do expect her to defend her opponent.  She was often not guarding anyone when shots went up, and when she was, her arms weren’t up. 

But as I watched the 2nd half and watched her drop her raised arms as her opponent shot over her, it struck me that she was probably under orders not to defend so as to not pick up fouls. My assumption that the coaches must have told her this points to an inability to defend, but that this game was on the coach’s instructions.

If your inference is correct, that only underscores the underperformance/lack of confidence in the rest of our lineup. For a defense-minded coach to advise a player not to play tight defense, as to avoid fouls so that they can stay out on the floor because they are so vitally needed on offense, emphasizes the lack of reliable scoring potential we have with our other All-American caliber star unavailable.

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After this game, does anyone out there still think Lepolo is an adequate or acceptable point guard? 39 minutes played, 2 points, 2 assists, and 7 turnovers. And it's not as if this Arizona team is to be confused with South Carolina. Why does Bosgana start? She played only 3 minutes whereas Clardy played 20. Let Clardy start. Look at the lines of Bosgana, Ogden, Agara, and Harriel. The four of them played a total of 28 minutes and scored a total of 3 points among them. Not going to cut it. Against quality D, the Cardinal is basically a two- or three-person team, depending on whether Jump is on or off that day. Jump played all 40 minutes and after hitting those two early threes, only scored 7 the rest of the way. Demetre did a fairly nice job standing in for Brink, although her trey shot was off and she got no foul shots in 35 minutes. At this point, I am increasingly skeptical that the Cardinal will win the Pac-12 tournament, much less get to the EE or FF. I think we are at serious risk of losing the same frustrating way we did last year to Ole Miss. Any team that plays relentless D, be it Colorado, Texas, USC, Ole Miss, or South Carolina, is going to give our guards fits, cause a ton of turnovers, and make it very difficult to make clean entry passes to Brink and Iriafin.

I was just going to write that Lepolo's worst game of the season played a noticeable role in our loss. Her strength and role is managing the offense and ball control. Well, our offense struggled and she turned the ball over 7 times while only recording 2 points and 2 assists. With these types of games, that has a significant effect on the team as she can't make up for it by generating offense on her own.

Compare that to JuJu, who had an astonishing 10 turnovers but more than made up for it with 42 points in USC's big win over Colorado.

[TheFarm07]

At the Cardboard conclave ar the half, I bemoaned Iriafen’s lack of defense. I don’t expect her to be Brink, but I do expect her to defend her opponent.  She was often not guarding anyone when shots went up, and when she was, her arms weren’t up. 

But as I watched the 2nd half and watched her drop her raised arms as her opponent shot over her, it struck me that she was probably under orders not to defend so as to not pick up fouls. My assumption that the coaches must have told her this points to an inability to defend, but that this game was on the coach’s instructions.

If your inference is correct, that only underscores the underperformance/lack of confidence in the rest of our lineup. For a defense-minded coach to advise a player not to play tight defense, as to avoid fouls so that they can stay out on the floor because they are so vitally needed on offense, emphasizes the lack of reliable scoring potential we have with our other All-American caliber star unavailable.

---

After this game, does anyone out there still think Lepolo is an adequate or acceptable point guard? 39 minutes played, 2 points, 2 assists, and 7 turnovers. And it's not as if this Arizona team is to be confused with South Carolina. Why does Bosgana start? She played only 3 minutes whereas Clardy played 20. Let Clardy start. Look at the lines of Bosgana, Ogden, Agara, and Harriel. The four of them played a total of 28 minutes and scored a total of 3 points among them. Not going to cut it. Against quality D, the Cardinal is basically a two- or three-person team, depending on whether Jump is on or off that day. Jump played all 40 minutes and after hitting those two early threes, only scored 7 the rest of the way. Demetre did a fairly nice job standing in for Brink, although her trey shot was off and she got no foul shots in 35 minutes. At this point, I am increasingly skeptical that the Cardinal will win the Pac-12 tournament, much less get to the EE or FF. I think we are at serious risk of losing the same frustrating way we did last year to Ole Miss. Any team that plays relentless D, be it Colorado, Texas, USC, Ole Miss, or South Carolina, is going to give our guards fits, cause a ton of turnovers, and make it very difficult to make clean entry passes to Brink and Iriafin.

I was just going to write that Lepolo's worst game of the season played a noticeable role in our loss. Her strength and role is managing the offense and ball control. Well, our offense struggled and she turned the ball over 7 times while only recording 2 points and 2 assists. With these types of games, that has a significant effect on the team as she can't make up for it by generating offense on her own.

Compare that to JuJu, who had an astonishing 10 turnovers but more than made up for it with 42 points in USC's big win over Colorado.