11-06-2025, 12:51 PM
Excited to attend my first game this season tonight. Finally got to watch our opening game, so a few scattered thoughts ahead of that:
-Someone said we need to look for Eschmeyer inside more. I actually thought we did, and did well, early in the game, and they was a large part of why they went and stayed in a modified zone to take those passes to her away. I recall Ijiwoye having two turnovers on bad passes to Eschmeyer within minutes of each other and I think we got more skittish after that, rightly so. Unfortunately Lepolo is also not amazing at placing those kinds of entry passes because she's not a credible threat to take it to the hoop herself so her defender sags and is in position to intercept it.
-That said, Lepolo had a number of incredibly accurate and fast cross court passes to power our fast break offense and I can see why KP keeps her on the court so much despite her limitations. I have not seen Clardy have that kind of accuracy and power on her passes, and it really does fuel our offense when we have fast players like Swain and Somfai.
-I would throw MAS into the camp of noticeably improved players. She is finishing better around the rim and she seems a little faster and more court aware - she also had some great hi low passes to Eschmeyer and Somfai and I loved seeing her confidently take and make a three when her defender sagged off. Having an additional post who can swing out and play as more of a 3 gives us so much versatility in our lineups now that we have a ton of scoring threat bigs (Nunu, Somfai, Eschmeyer, MAS).
-The puzzle I have long had with Ogden is that she does both really savvy and talented things and really clumsy and bone headed things. Often on back to back plays. I am not quite sure what to make of her because at her best she has the quickness and court savvy of a guard in a forward's body and at her worst she has the clumsiness of a big being abused by savvy guards.
-Agree with everything everyone has said about our McDonald's frosh. They are incredibly poised from day one and I just hope we can retain them because they're all dynamic playmakers and with the exception of the peak Appel/Ogwumike(s)/Pohlen/Pedersen and Williams/Hull(s)/Jones/Brink eras, we have rarely had that across the 1-5 positions. I don't think we have a perfect solution at the 1 (Swain and Clardy are both more naturally combo guards), but we have the best nucleus for a dynamic set of two-way threats across our starting lineup since the Hulls and Williams graduated.
-Someone said we need to look for Eschmeyer inside more. I actually thought we did, and did well, early in the game, and they was a large part of why they went and stayed in a modified zone to take those passes to her away. I recall Ijiwoye having two turnovers on bad passes to Eschmeyer within minutes of each other and I think we got more skittish after that, rightly so. Unfortunately Lepolo is also not amazing at placing those kinds of entry passes because she's not a credible threat to take it to the hoop herself so her defender sags and is in position to intercept it.
-That said, Lepolo had a number of incredibly accurate and fast cross court passes to power our fast break offense and I can see why KP keeps her on the court so much despite her limitations. I have not seen Clardy have that kind of accuracy and power on her passes, and it really does fuel our offense when we have fast players like Swain and Somfai.
-I would throw MAS into the camp of noticeably improved players. She is finishing better around the rim and she seems a little faster and more court aware - she also had some great hi low passes to Eschmeyer and Somfai and I loved seeing her confidently take and make a three when her defender sagged off. Having an additional post who can swing out and play as more of a 3 gives us so much versatility in our lineups now that we have a ton of scoring threat bigs (Nunu, Somfai, Eschmeyer, MAS).
-The puzzle I have long had with Ogden is that she does both really savvy and talented things and really clumsy and bone headed things. Often on back to back plays. I am not quite sure what to make of her because at her best she has the quickness and court savvy of a guard in a forward's body and at her worst she has the clumsiness of a big being abused by savvy guards.
-Agree with everything everyone has said about our McDonald's frosh. They are incredibly poised from day one and I just hope we can retain them because they're all dynamic playmakers and with the exception of the peak Appel/Ogwumike(s)/Pohlen/Pedersen and Williams/Hull(s)/Jones/Brink eras, we have rarely had that across the 1-5 positions. I don't think we have a perfect solution at the 1 (Swain and Clardy are both more naturally combo guards), but we have the best nucleus for a dynamic set of two-way threats across our starting lineup since the Hulls and Williams graduated.