[BostonCard]

Yep, can't help but agree. Turning a game into a perimeter shooting contest when that's not your strength - just a head scratcher. Ga Tech doing what every team should do against us: completely sag off our players who can't shoot and watch us swing it around the perimeter.  Can we please:

1) Go inside
2) Get up on them and force them to actually work for some shots vs. giving them wide open 3's. A 25% 3 point shooter is way better than that when left WIDE OPEN. I also wouldn't mind have them score over our 6' 5" rim protector
3) Perhaps let others try to hit some shots? When it gets like this, I feel like you have to get Amborn in the game. Loved Alex's 3 at the end of the half. She is still so underutilized. So frustrating.

Sure hope Lara's OK.

This analysis is internally inconsistent and is not supported by the facts of the game.

On the season, Stanford is a 29.8% three point shooting team (200th in the country), so it makes sense for GA Tech to sag off our players and pack the inside.  But you know who is an even worse three point shooting team than Stanford?  Georgia Tech on the season is a 26.5% three point shooting team.  So employing the same strategy against them that they employed against us makes sense, and turning the game into a perimeter shooting contest is not that crazy, when, on the season, you are the better three point shooting team.  Yes, sagging off means that they will have some open three point shots, which, to their credit, they made (although their game average of 32% was only 1 - 2 made threes higher than what they do for the season; they didn't exactly "go off" on us).  The key, though is that Georgia Tech made 57% of their two point shots (21/37), and 30% of their three point shots, so their effective field goal percentage was actually higher from 2 than 3.  Defending the three more aggressively might have helped lower their three point percentage a tad, but it wasn't the problem; the problem was we weren't defending the two very well, regardless of strategy.  AS for our human rim protector, she had one block in 25 minutes.  Given Tech's two point field goal percentage, they were not much bothered by her.  In fact, Georgia Tech had the same number of blocks (4) as we did.

Yeah, in retrospect, our effective field goal percentage from the two was 43%, which wound up being better than our three point eFG% (30%), which would support that a mix with more twos would have been more efficient.  But that has the benefit of hindsight; given Tech's strategy of sagging off it makes sense to shoot the three.  You just have to make those shots; a you point out, a 29.8% three point shooting team should be better than that when left open... but sometimes the shots simply don't fall.

As to letting other try to hit shots, I agree that it might have made sense to throw Amborn in, if for no other reason than to hit a couple of threes to soften the defense.  But the three point shooting was pretty well distributed otherwise; all five starters had at least 4 three point shots.  I know you liked Alex' three at the end of the half, but it was the only one she made (out of 4 shots).  Plus, if she is on the periphery shooting threes, who do you "go inside" to?  The problem for us is that our guards went a combined 0/12 from three, and our best three point shooter today (Somfai) was also our most productive player inside.  Alas, she can't be both places at once.

There's a lot of frustration, and for good reason.  Whatever we are doing is clearly not working.  But an analysis that basically is "this is not working, so we should be doing 'not this'" is a logical fallacy.

BC

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[quote="Nobadeer" pid='445469' dateline='1770588900']
Any word on Lara? Did she play in the 2nd half? (Yes, I turned tge game off.)

Unless the box score is wrong, she got 35 minutes, so she was in most of the second half.

BC

[BostonCard]

Yep, can't help but agree. Turning a game into a perimeter shooting contest when that's not your strength - just a head scratcher. Ga Tech doing what every team should do against us: completely sag off our players who can't shoot and watch us swing it around the perimeter.  Can we please:

1) Go inside
2) Get up on them and force them to actually work for some shots vs. giving them wide open 3's. A 25% 3 point shooter is way better than that when left WIDE OPEN. I also wouldn't mind have them score over our 6' 5" rim protector
3) Perhaps let others try to hit some shots? When it gets like this, I feel like you have to get Amborn in the game. Loved Alex's 3 at the end of the half. She is still so underutilized. So frustrating.

Sure hope Lara's OK.

This analysis is internally inconsistent and is not supported by the facts of the game.

On the season, Stanford is a 29.8% three point shooting team (200th in the country), so it makes sense for GA Tech to sag off our players and pack the inside.  But you know who is an even worse three point shooting team than Stanford?  Georgia Tech on the season is a 26.5% three point shooting team.  So employing the same strategy against them that they employed against us makes sense, and turning the game into a perimeter shooting contest is not that crazy, when, on the season, you are the better three point shooting team.  Yes, sagging off means that they will have some open three point shots, which, to their credit, they made (although their game average of 32% was only 1 - 2 made threes higher than what they do for the season; they didn't exactly "go off" on us).  The key, though is that Georgia Tech made 57% of their two point shots (21/37), and 30% of their three point shots, so their effective field goal percentage was actually higher from 2 than 3.  Defending the three more aggressively might have helped lower their three point percentage a tad, but it wasn't the problem; the problem was we weren't defending the two very well, regardless of strategy.  AS for our human rim protector, she had one block in 25 minutes.  Given Tech's two point field goal percentage, they were not much bothered by her.  In fact, Georgia Tech had the same number of blocks (4) as we did.

Yeah, in retrospect, our effective field goal percentage from the two was 43%, which wound up being better than our three point eFG% (30%), which would support that a mix with more twos would have been more efficient.  But that has the benefit of hindsight; given Tech's strategy of sagging off it makes sense to shoot the three.  You just have to make those shots; a you point out, a 29.8% three point shooting team should be better than that when left open... but sometimes the shots simply don't fall.

As to letting other try to hit shots, I agree that it might have made sense to throw Amborn in, if for no other reason than to hit a couple of threes to soften the defense.  But the three point shooting was pretty well distributed otherwise; all five starters had at least 4 three point shots.  I know you liked Alex' three at the end of the half, but it was the only one she made (out of 4 shots).  Plus, if she is on the periphery shooting threes, who do you "go inside" to?  The problem for us is that our guards went a combined 0/12 from three, and our best three point shooter today (Somfai) was also our most productive player inside.  Alas, she can't be both places at once.

There's a lot of frustration, and for good reason.  Whatever we are doing is clearly not working.  But an analysis that basically is "this is not working, so we should be doing 'not this'" is a logical fallacy.

BC

---

[quote="Nobadeer" pid='445469' dateline='1770588900']
Any word on Lara? Did she play in the 2nd half? (Yes, I turned tge game off.)

Unless the box score is wrong, she got 35 minutes, so she was in most of the second half.

BC