[76lsjumb]

Tara addressed the rebounding issue vs Iowa State.  Cam was on the bench and Kiki was taking most of the shots.  Voila, our second worst rebounding percentage of the season. (Our worst was the P12 conference final where Tara decided to implement that wacky new defense on the fly - our rebounding percentage dropped from 50% the first time we played USC to a miserable 36.8%).

I was actually encouraged by the Iowa State game.  The matchups were not good for us, Brink fouled out in 23 minutes, Iowa State hit 12 threes (on only 19 attempts), and we still pulled out the win.  

Also, I would be very surprised if NC State can duplicate what Iowa State did on threes.  Iowa State is #6 in the nation in 3 point shooting percentage.  NC State is #120. (Their 2 pt shooting percentage rank is not much better at 109.)  Their guards are fast and will get their shots off, but they will need a bit of luck to get a high percentage of them to drop like Iowa State.  And Brink will discourage their drives.  (Even in Juju's 51 point game against Stanford, none of her points were scored on drives against Brink.)  They may drive just to try to draw fouls on Brink though.

What scares me the most about NC St is not their offense, but rather the defensive ability of their guards.  Rivers, Hayes and Baldwin are all 5 star recruits and NC St's defense is ranked #7 in the country.  (Rivers particularly scares me - her Defensive Win Shares stat is ranked #10 in the country.)  I'll be looking to see whether they are able to disrupt our offense (not turnovers per se - they don't force a lot of those like Arizona - but making us take shots we don't want to take).  Nevertheless, it also takes a lot of energy to play that kind of defense.  So this could be another game where our offense looks much better in the second half as the opponent tires.

“…making us take shots we don’t want to take…”?

It seems to me that our problem is more often not taking shots we really ought to take. I’d love a defense that makes us take shots whether we like them or not… :-)

[76lsjumb]

Tara addressed the rebounding issue vs Iowa State.  Cam was on the bench and Kiki was taking most of the shots.  Voila, our second worst rebounding percentage of the season. (Our worst was the P12 conference final where Tara decided to implement that wacky new defense on the fly - our rebounding percentage dropped from 50% the first time we played USC to a miserable 36.8%).

I was actually encouraged by the Iowa State game.  The matchups were not good for us, Brink fouled out in 23 minutes, Iowa State hit 12 threes (on only 19 attempts), and we still pulled out the win.  

Also, I would be very surprised if NC State can duplicate what Iowa State did on threes.  Iowa State is #6 in the nation in 3 point shooting percentage.  NC State is #120. (Their 2 pt shooting percentage rank is not much better at 109.)  Their guards are fast and will get their shots off, but they will need a bit of luck to get a high percentage of them to drop like Iowa State.  And Brink will discourage their drives.  (Even in Juju's 51 point game against Stanford, none of her points were scored on drives against Brink.)  They may drive just to try to draw fouls on Brink though.

What scares me the most about NC St is not their offense, but rather the defensive ability of their guards.  Rivers, Hayes and Baldwin are all 5 star recruits and NC St's defense is ranked #7 in the country.  (Rivers particularly scares me - her Defensive Win Shares stat is ranked #10 in the country.)  I'll be looking to see whether they are able to disrupt our offense (not turnovers per se - they don't force a lot of those like Arizona - but making us take shots we don't want to take).  Nevertheless, it also takes a lot of energy to play that kind of defense.  So this could be another game where our offense looks much better in the second half as the opponent tires.

“…making us take shots we don’t want to take…”?

It seems to me that our problem is more often not taking shots we really ought to take. I’d love a defense that makes us take shots whether we like them or not… :-)