As far as losses go, this was a much, much better loss than the debacle at Indiana. Agara is indeed becoming a superstar. Bosgana, Demetre, and Harriel turned out to be very productive too. The coaching seemed excellent. Kate very obviously had the team ready to start the game, and made adjustments that were helpful going into the second half.
LSU won the game by making many, many, two point jumpers. They have shooters who seemingly can't miss from mid range. That is the goal of every defense--stop the layups and the treys. And LSU had the shooters who could beat us anyway. They also made 40% of their treys, and in the end we made only 30%. But the shots they were making were generally contested. I think in the end, they just shot the ball better than we did.
The stat that our players should contemplate is that we led the game for 38 minutes. We are very close to the No. 5 team. If we can improve in a few small but significant ways, we can make the elite 8.
How to improve? Ball control. LSU had 11 steals, we had 2. That has been a category that has been a major improvement for us this year, but then again we have never played a team with the kinds of guards that LSU has. In our first really serious test against a quality pressure defense, it turns out we have a ways to go. Another stat that was caused by the same pressure defense--we had 12 assists and LSU had 21. They knew how to disrupt our passes. And every other team with a quality roster will watch this tape and do likewise.
In short, we need to improve how we run our offense against a quality pressure defense.
To add to that, our defense broke down. Giving up 80 points in regulation is not good. We were beaten in large part by Williams, who scored 32 and went 5/9 from three point range. We were packing the paint and she made us pay from long range and everywhere in between. Who is going to be our shut-down perimeter defender who we can sic on the hot shooter?
All that said, I would have given our odds of taking this game to overtime at less than 10%. Despite the loss, I am now convinced that we are a better team than many believed.
LSU won the game by making many, many, two point jumpers. They have shooters who seemingly can't miss from mid range. That is the goal of every defense--stop the layups and the treys. And LSU had the shooters who could beat us anyway. They also made 40% of their treys, and in the end we made only 30%. But the shots they were making were generally contested. I think in the end, they just shot the ball better than we did.
The stat that our players should contemplate is that we led the game for 38 minutes. We are very close to the No. 5 team. If we can improve in a few small but significant ways, we can make the elite 8.
How to improve? Ball control. LSU had 11 steals, we had 2. That has been a category that has been a major improvement for us this year, but then again we have never played a team with the kinds of guards that LSU has. In our first really serious test against a quality pressure defense, it turns out we have a ways to go. Another stat that was caused by the same pressure defense--we had 12 assists and LSU had 21. They knew how to disrupt our passes. And every other team with a quality roster will watch this tape and do likewise.
In short, we need to improve how we run our offense against a quality pressure defense.
To add to that, our defense broke down. Giving up 80 points in regulation is not good. We were beaten in large part by Williams, who scored 32 and went 5/9 from three point range. We were packing the paint and she made us pay from long range and everywhere in between. Who is going to be our shut-down perimeter defender who we can sic on the hot shooter?
All that said, I would have given our odds of taking this game to overtime at less than 10%. Despite the loss, I am now convinced that we are a better team than many believed.