[2006alum]

This game turned around about 2/3 of the way through the 2nd quarter.

Prior to that, the SLO defense was really messing us up.  They were body checking all of our off-ball players whenever they went in motion, they moved people in and out of the lanes we traditionally use for the motion part of the Princeton motion offense.  The officials showed they simply would not call any off-ball fouls.  Combine that with us going cold from three--even when open--and we labored to maintain a six point lead.  Some of the non-calls went our way.  I think both sides got away with some really extreme moving screens.  They finally called one on Nunu, I think, but for the longest time it seemed that almost anything would go.

Then toward the end of the second quarter we began driving to the basket every chance we got--multiple players did it.  Suddenly fouls started to be called.  Clearly the officials were quite prepared to call fouls against overly aggressive defenders who made on-ball contact, even if they ignored everything in the off-ball game.  I think this must have been a coaching decision to change our approach, since it happened abruptly and all players seemed to do it.  After that switch our lead steadily grew, and with Tess Heal's four point play it began to mushroom.  

A few observations:

1) Per the chalk talk:  Lepolo sprained her ankle earlier this season to go along with her off season knee surgery.  And apparently the two injuries can set each other off.  There are good days and bad days for her.

2) Also per the chalk talk: Given our personnel, the coaches think Heal would ideally play the 2, but with Lepolo's injury she has been doing a lot at the 1.

3) I think the story of the post-Indiana games so far has been Heal's emergence on offense and Ijiwoye's emergence in general.  I really thought Clardy and Harriel should be the starters, but we are developing a true conundrum with regard to which of those 4 should get the most minutes.  Heal just looks so mature out there on the court, never looks rattled, always keeps her eyes up looking for opportunities.  And tonight was the first night I saw how she got so many free throws last year.  5/5 from the line, 4/5 shooting, with 3 assists and 1 turnover.  What we would have given for a guard that could regularly do that in the last few post-Kiana Williams years.  But we have her now.  And Ijiwoye's unique speed and defense may make her just invaluable and impossible not to play.  She also produced a couple of take-your-breath-away moves.  She is going to be a lot of fun to watch develop.

4) Stevenson is making progress, showing more confidence, scoring more and making good decisions.  She was our 5th player in double digits tonight.  4/4 from the field, 5 rebounds, and an assist in 14 minutes.

5) Demetre's step back jumper was once again can't-miss-deadly.  Can she keep that up all year?

6) Ogden just can't seem to get her offense consistently on track.  On a night with 5 players in double digits, she was 0/2 in 15 minutes.  She is a puzzle to me--so obviously talented, but it doesn't always produce results.

7) Agara had another good night--except her free throw shooting was off.  3/6, and even the makes looked a little sketchy.  Last year and earlier this year she was a particularly outstanding free throw shooter.  I hope tonight was an aberration.

A few things to add to 81Alum's excellent account:

1. In the first half, we were getting some good looks for 3-pointers...we just weren't hitting them. If we had, we would have been 6-9 points farther ahead.
   
2. Heal does look like more of a 2 than a 1, but needs must. One other thing...she had several openings for 3's in the second half and passed the ball every time. She's a good shooter and I think she needs to take them.
   
3. Heal also has a knack of driving to the hoop (as advertised) and scoring shots that our other guards can't or won't do. She also looked like she was reacting faster tonight that in previous game, which is good.
   
4. Stevenson has very good fundamentals IMO, especially on rebounding and boxing out. I'd love to see her offensive game develop.
   
5. Agree about Ogden's offense - good defense, though.
   
6. Agara got partially taken out of the game by foul trouble...
   
7. Harriel is a great shooter, but she plays at a more relaxed tempo.
   
8. Ijiwoye changes the whole speed of the team. Ordinarily, the rhythm is pass...pass...pass - with her its pass.pass.pass. She seems to be able to beat most people off the dribble (been a long time since a Stanford guard could do that) and when she does, the defense reacts and then - bam - a pass into the post for a layup. This team, in my opinion, will have greater success the faster they play - especially against big teams.
   

Great thoughts 81 and Liveoak. Last night was my first home game in person, so just a few things to add:

-Completely agree about Shay. She's a revelation in terms of the sparkplug speed and energy she brings to the floor. We looked much better in transition than in our setpieces, and she almost ways gave us at least a shot at a fast break possibility every time she brought the ball up the floor. She did get beat a couple of times on defense when she needed to shift and lost her new target, but I thought we looked by far the best with her running the point, and it's not coincidental our 20-1 run came during her period getting us up the floor. I want to see more of her, now, and in every game.

-Demetre (or Deme3 as Marty puts it!) has really turned into a swiss army knife of a player - she can score from nearly anywhere, rebounds well, has become a much better at the box out, and seems to be directing our team on defense. Not coincidentally, she was our leading scorer last night and +39 in the +/-. At one point in high school I think she was either the top of second highest ranked recruit, and it's nice to finally see her fully living up to the potential she has long had.

-I was also really impressed by Stevenson. She is not going to outmuscle a 6'7" big in the paint, but she has excellent fundamentals, boxes out well, and is always looking for the ball. I thought she handled several really off-balanced passes nicely and made every shot she took. This was the first time I could see why she was B1G FOTY.

-Similarly impressed by Heal. As you both said, she's just really solid, scrappy, and can manufacture on her own. I agree that she should take those threes when open - honestly, if anything, I felt like the most glaring weakness on offense was too much passing up open looks. (Other than Bosgana, who seemed to take anything she was given, including a few questionable shots.)

-In terms of Ogden, I feel she's still not playing within herself. She always feels a little rushed, and impatient, and I feel like it leads to her turnovers and stupid fouls when she's just trying to do too much, too quickly. I kind of get the sense that she feels like she needs to prove herself every time she's subbed in, and I wish she could just relax a bit and play loosely. The games where she has, she looks so much better, because she actually has a pretty complete skillset when she lets it come to her.

-To me, Harriell looked better last season, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if that awkward mask she's wearing impairs her vision a bit, and therefore both her shot and her peripheral vision on offense and defense. Her strength last season was more as a sniper outside shooter and a lockdown pickpocket on defense, but I've never been sold on her running our offense.

-Clardy didn't especially impress me last night. She has some great moves when she drives to the basket but she seemed somewhat indecisive with the ball in her hand and the outside shot she apparently had earlier in the season I was not seeing. 

-Nunu did Nunu things. Not sure about the free throws, hopefully that was an aberration because she's one of our best prospects for taking the ball to the hoop and manufacturing fouls. 

-Ume only got junk time so I didn't get much of an impression one way or the other, but with her size and relative quickness, I would have liked to see KP sub her in sooner, especially once Nunu was playing with four fouls...

All in all, the team I saw was more or less the team I was expecting to see - when our offense is moving fluidly and our guards are playing with pace, we get some beautiful cuts and passes. When we stands around at the periphery with the ball and jack up treys, we live or die by whether we have hot hands.  But at this point, I would use our early games to get Shay and Ume more experience, because I think we will need them both in the ACC, where we'll face a lot of speedy guards, and also more size than teams like Cal Poly will be throwing at us.

[2006alum]

This game turned around about 2/3 of the way through the 2nd quarter.

Prior to that, the SLO defense was really messing us up.  They were body checking all of our off-ball players whenever they went in motion, they moved people in and out of the lanes we traditionally use for the motion part of the Princeton motion offense.  The officials showed they simply would not call any off-ball fouls.  Combine that with us going cold from three--even when open--and we labored to maintain a six point lead.  Some of the non-calls went our way.  I think both sides got away with some really extreme moving screens.  They finally called one on Nunu, I think, but for the longest time it seemed that almost anything would go.

Then toward the end of the second quarter we began driving to the basket every chance we got--multiple players did it.  Suddenly fouls started to be called.  Clearly the officials were quite prepared to call fouls against overly aggressive defenders who made on-ball contact, even if they ignored everything in the off-ball game.  I think this must have been a coaching decision to change our approach, since it happened abruptly and all players seemed to do it.  After that switch our lead steadily grew, and with Tess Heal's four point play it began to mushroom.  

A few observations:

1) Per the chalk talk:  Lepolo sprained her ankle earlier this season to go along with her off season knee surgery.  And apparently the two injuries can set each other off.  There are good days and bad days for her.

2) Also per the chalk talk: Given our personnel, the coaches think Heal would ideally play the 2, but with Lepolo's injury she has been doing a lot at the 1.

3) I think the story of the post-Indiana games so far has been Heal's emergence on offense and Ijiwoye's emergence in general.  I really thought Clardy and Harriel should be the starters, but we are developing a true conundrum with regard to which of those 4 should get the most minutes.  Heal just looks so mature out there on the court, never looks rattled, always keeps her eyes up looking for opportunities.  And tonight was the first night I saw how she got so many free throws last year.  5/5 from the line, 4/5 shooting, with 3 assists and 1 turnover.  What we would have given for a guard that could regularly do that in the last few post-Kiana Williams years.  But we have her now.  And Ijiwoye's unique speed and defense may make her just invaluable and impossible not to play.  She also produced a couple of take-your-breath-away moves.  She is going to be a lot of fun to watch develop.

4) Stevenson is making progress, showing more confidence, scoring more and making good decisions.  She was our 5th player in double digits tonight.  4/4 from the field, 5 rebounds, and an assist in 14 minutes.

5) Demetre's step back jumper was once again can't-miss-deadly.  Can she keep that up all year?

6) Ogden just can't seem to get her offense consistently on track.  On a night with 5 players in double digits, she was 0/2 in 15 minutes.  She is a puzzle to me--so obviously talented, but it doesn't always produce results.

7) Agara had another good night--except her free throw shooting was off.  3/6, and even the makes looked a little sketchy.  Last year and earlier this year she was a particularly outstanding free throw shooter.  I hope tonight was an aberration.

A few things to add to 81Alum's excellent account:

1. In the first half, we were getting some good looks for 3-pointers...we just weren't hitting them. If we had, we would have been 6-9 points farther ahead.
   
2. Heal does look like more of a 2 than a 1, but needs must. One other thing...she had several openings for 3's in the second half and passed the ball every time. She's a good shooter and I think she needs to take them.
   
3. Heal also has a knack of driving to the hoop (as advertised) and scoring shots that our other guards can't or won't do. She also looked like she was reacting faster tonight that in previous game, which is good.
   
4. Stevenson has very good fundamentals IMO, especially on rebounding and boxing out. I'd love to see her offensive game develop.
   
5. Agree about Ogden's offense - good defense, though.
   
6. Agara got partially taken out of the game by foul trouble...
   
7. Harriel is a great shooter, but she plays at a more relaxed tempo.
   
8. Ijiwoye changes the whole speed of the team. Ordinarily, the rhythm is pass...pass...pass - with her its pass.pass.pass. She seems to be able to beat most people off the dribble (been a long time since a Stanford guard could do that) and when she does, the defense reacts and then - bam - a pass into the post for a layup. This team, in my opinion, will have greater success the faster they play - especially against big teams.
   

Great thoughts 81 and Liveoak. Last night was my first home game in person, so just a few things to add:

-Completely agree about Shay. She's a revelation in terms of the sparkplug speed and energy she brings to the floor. We looked much better in transition than in our setpieces, and she almost ways gave us at least a shot at a fast break possibility every time she brought the ball up the floor. She did get beat a couple of times on defense when she needed to shift and lost her new target, but I thought we looked by far the best with her running the point, and it's not coincidental our 20-1 run came during her period getting us up the floor. I want to see more of her, now, and in every game.

-Demetre (or Deme3 as Marty puts it!) has really turned into a swiss army knife of a player - she can score from nearly anywhere, rebounds well, has become a much better at the box out, and seems to be directing our team on defense. Not coincidentally, she was our leading scorer last night and +39 in the +/-. At one point in high school I think she was either the top of second highest ranked recruit, and it's nice to finally see her fully living up to the potential she has long had.

-I was also really impressed by Stevenson. She is not going to outmuscle a 6'7" big in the paint, but she has excellent fundamentals, boxes out well, and is always looking for the ball. I thought she handled several really off-balanced passes nicely and made every shot she took. This was the first time I could see why she was B1G FOTY.

-Similarly impressed by Heal. As you both said, she's just really solid, scrappy, and can manufacture on her own. I agree that she should take those threes when open - honestly, if anything, I felt like the most glaring weakness on offense was too much passing up open looks. (Other than Bosgana, who seemed to take anything she was given, including a few questionable shots.)

-In terms of Ogden, I feel she's still not playing within herself. She always feels a little rushed, and impatient, and I feel like it leads to her turnovers and stupid fouls when she's just trying to do too much, too quickly. I kind of get the sense that she feels like she needs to prove herself every time she's subbed in, and I wish she could just relax a bit and play loosely. The games where she has, she looks so much better, because she actually has a pretty complete skillset when she lets it come to her.

-To me, Harriell looked better last season, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if that awkward mask she's wearing impairs her vision a bit, and therefore both her shot and her peripheral vision on offense and defense. Her strength last season was more as a sniper outside shooter and a lockdown pickpocket on defense, but I've never been sold on her running our offense.

-Clardy didn't especially impress me last night. She has some great moves when she drives to the basket but she seemed somewhat indecisive with the ball in her hand and the outside shot she apparently had earlier in the season I was not seeing. 

-Nunu did Nunu things. Not sure about the free throws, hopefully that was an aberration because she's one of our best prospects for taking the ball to the hoop and manufacturing fouls. 

-Ume only got junk time so I didn't get much of an impression one way or the other, but with her size and relative quickness, I would have liked to see KP sub her in sooner, especially once Nunu was playing with four fouls...

All in all, the team I saw was more or less the team I was expecting to see - when our offense is moving fluidly and our guards are playing with pace, we get some beautiful cuts and passes. When we stands around at the periphery with the ball and jack up treys, we live or die by whether we have hot hands.  But at this point, I would use our early games to get Shay and Ume more experience, because I think we will need them both in the ACC, where we'll face a lot of speedy guards, and also more size than teams like Cal Poly will be throwing at us.