01-09-2025, 11:18 PM
This win was exactly what the team needed to restore some confidence and optimism. The smiles on the faces of our players after the win was over were priceless. I don't think our team smiled that much after the last natty. The players clearly felt a gigantic weight on their shoulders and they just shed it.
At the chalk talk we learned some interesting things from Heather Oesterle. She said the coaches were pleased with some of the improvement they saw from the team the last few games, despite the losses. It is a young team that has a lot to learn. She indicated that the nature of the league was such that it was rare to play against a team with more than one "big" on the floor at a time--games would usually be against 4 guards or 5 guards, and that was an adjustment. I asked about Kennedy Umeh. Kennedy suffered a serious concussion but was just cleared to play again after the Clemson game. However, her play will depend in part upon match ups. There will be some teams that will have a big player similar to her who she can guard, but some ACC teams--including FSU--do not. Oesterle had recently been on a trip and observed our incoming recruit Hailee Swain. She gushed over her. Swain sounds like a Candice Wiggins or Kiana Williams type player who will likely lead the team for 4 years. "We are building something here" she said and certainly made the future seem quite promising.
As for the game, it is not surprising that we had 18 turnovers--6 on Agara alone. This is part of what FSU does, part of their specialty. Nor is it surprising that we out rebounded FSU by a large margin. FSU does not focus on rebounding--they focus on sending people on the break to make a fast tempo game. That leads to more offense for them and more offense for their opponents. What IS surprising is that we out shot them 51% to 39%. In fact, the most shocking stat of all: we won the game while taking 65 shots while FSU took 83 shots. I can't remember a stat like that before. The winning team took 18 fewer shots than the loser.
At the chalk talk we learned that we would essentially be playing 5 defenders on FSU's 3 scorers. Two of their starters would mostly be left alone. We would be stationing two players on the blocks to prevent layups, attempting to force the talented FSU scorers to make jump shots rather than layups. I have to say that the strategy worked quite well. The two FSU players we sagged off of were 0-4 and 1-2 for the game. The three starting scorers got 24, 23, and 19 points respectively, but those numbers were a little lower than usual for them and a bit inefficient. Naismith candidate Latson was 8-22 when she is normally above 50%. While giving up 84 points is not a great defensive showing, it is in fact 12 points below the FSU average.
The game, however, was won in large measure because we finally seem to have fixed our offense. 89 points against anyone, not least a major conference powerhouse, is good work. Multiple players drove on the basket and finished. Agara did so with some regularity, Heal, Bosgana too. The ability to drive and finish is a critical antidote to the suffocating perimeter defenses we have been facing. And guess what? Those drives opened up the three point line, and we got back to 40% three point shooting including Demetre at 5/9.
Lots and lots of problems that still need fixing. Free throw shooting was pretty bad--Shay has had issues with that all year, and tonight it really counted. We still struggle with in-bounding the ball. We will also face teams where we can't sag off of anyone, and how are we going to stop the drivers then? But those are all problems that will be a lot easier to fix with some confidence and optimism returning to the team.
Based on tonight's performance I think Ijiwoye is doing enough to keep starting and get more minutes. Clardy did not, in my opinion. Heal came in for her and scored 14 to her 0, and did so with fewer turnovers even though playing against some excellent stealers. None of our point guards this year seem to get a lot of assists....I am beginning to think that is a product of the system. Agara leads the team in assists, and Bosgana and Demetre and Clardy are all tied right behind.
What a difference a game can make. Sunday will be an even bigger challenge. Winning that game would truly reverse the direction of the whole season. But winning tonight's game is a major step forward.
At the chalk talk we learned some interesting things from Heather Oesterle. She said the coaches were pleased with some of the improvement they saw from the team the last few games, despite the losses. It is a young team that has a lot to learn. She indicated that the nature of the league was such that it was rare to play against a team with more than one "big" on the floor at a time--games would usually be against 4 guards or 5 guards, and that was an adjustment. I asked about Kennedy Umeh. Kennedy suffered a serious concussion but was just cleared to play again after the Clemson game. However, her play will depend in part upon match ups. There will be some teams that will have a big player similar to her who she can guard, but some ACC teams--including FSU--do not. Oesterle had recently been on a trip and observed our incoming recruit Hailee Swain. She gushed over her. Swain sounds like a Candice Wiggins or Kiana Williams type player who will likely lead the team for 4 years. "We are building something here" she said and certainly made the future seem quite promising.
As for the game, it is not surprising that we had 18 turnovers--6 on Agara alone. This is part of what FSU does, part of their specialty. Nor is it surprising that we out rebounded FSU by a large margin. FSU does not focus on rebounding--they focus on sending people on the break to make a fast tempo game. That leads to more offense for them and more offense for their opponents. What IS surprising is that we out shot them 51% to 39%. In fact, the most shocking stat of all: we won the game while taking 65 shots while FSU took 83 shots. I can't remember a stat like that before. The winning team took 18 fewer shots than the loser.
At the chalk talk we learned that we would essentially be playing 5 defenders on FSU's 3 scorers. Two of their starters would mostly be left alone. We would be stationing two players on the blocks to prevent layups, attempting to force the talented FSU scorers to make jump shots rather than layups. I have to say that the strategy worked quite well. The two FSU players we sagged off of were 0-4 and 1-2 for the game. The three starting scorers got 24, 23, and 19 points respectively, but those numbers were a little lower than usual for them and a bit inefficient. Naismith candidate Latson was 8-22 when she is normally above 50%. While giving up 84 points is not a great defensive showing, it is in fact 12 points below the FSU average.
The game, however, was won in large measure because we finally seem to have fixed our offense. 89 points against anyone, not least a major conference powerhouse, is good work. Multiple players drove on the basket and finished. Agara did so with some regularity, Heal, Bosgana too. The ability to drive and finish is a critical antidote to the suffocating perimeter defenses we have been facing. And guess what? Those drives opened up the three point line, and we got back to 40% three point shooting including Demetre at 5/9.
Lots and lots of problems that still need fixing. Free throw shooting was pretty bad--Shay has had issues with that all year, and tonight it really counted. We still struggle with in-bounding the ball. We will also face teams where we can't sag off of anyone, and how are we going to stop the drivers then? But those are all problems that will be a lot easier to fix with some confidence and optimism returning to the team.
Based on tonight's performance I think Ijiwoye is doing enough to keep starting and get more minutes. Clardy did not, in my opinion. Heal came in for her and scored 14 to her 0, and did so with fewer turnovers even though playing against some excellent stealers. None of our point guards this year seem to get a lot of assists....I am beginning to think that is a product of the system. Agara leads the team in assists, and Bosgana and Demetre and Clardy are all tied right behind.
What a difference a game can make. Sunday will be an even bigger challenge. Winning that game would truly reverse the direction of the whole season. But winning tonight's game is a major step forward.