03-13-2013, 06:19 AM
The PAC-12 network replayed the semis and the final last night, and so I took a second look at the games back to back. I watched Chiney closely through both games. Her demeanor was noticeably more subdued in the finals--even to the point that she was not smiling and bouncing around before the game as she usually does.
That said, I saw nothing drastically wrong with her in the first half--other than she picked up the two fouls and had to sit the last eight minutes. She started the game like the same old Chiney--even to the point that the announcers marvelled at her easy bucket and said "nothing came this easy for Chiney last night." But then she started missing free throws and layups, and frankly, I don't think it had very much to do with the UCLA defense. Brewer was not really defending her yet.
When Chiney came back in the 2nd half Brewer spent a lot more time defending Chiney and things got ugly. The officiating was partly to blame--it seemed that Brewer was allowed to push Chiney with her body over and over again even while Chiney was in the act of shooting, and this was not called. Once it even resulted in a Chiney travel when it should have been a Brewer foul. Chiney even hit the floor on these shoves and they were not called. After picking up two ticky tack fouls in the first half on herself, it must have been doubly frustrating for Chiney to be engaged in a Sumo wrestling match in the second. And that is exactly what it was, with Chiney giving away a lot of weight.
The announcers said UCLA went to a 1-2-2 zone, and while I don't understand what that is, right after they mentioned it I saw two bigs between Chiney and the ball--she was double teamed but not "sandwiched" the way we played Griner, but instead both the defenders were denying her the entry pass. I also noticed that Chiney was not moving as often or as fast, and seemed to be having difficulties pushing back against Brewer. Her teammates were also not looking to get the ball to her that much after all their repeated failures to do so earlier.
The other thing I noticed is that Joslyn's ineffectiveness allowed UCLA to double team Chiney with impunity. They eventually sagged off of Jos pretty completely and dared her to do damage--which she could not. Her jump shot was anemic, probably reflecting her red blood cell count. Perhaps they were all too aware of Joslyn's illness and decided they would not put much effort into guarding her until she made them pay. But for all the talk about Chiney being 1/9, keep in mind that Joslyn was 1/6.
Finally, I now remember what Tara said about conditioning earlier this year. They backed off the Susan Borchardt conditioning program from last year after the various foot injuries. Tara implied that too much conditioning work tends to bring on those nagging injuries, and conditioning was not that important in WBB anymore--especially with all the constant TV ad breaks. She might well be correct, with the sole exception of a tournament like this with 3 games in 3 days against well known opponents who all three decided to beat up on the focus of our offense.
That said, I saw nothing drastically wrong with her in the first half--other than she picked up the two fouls and had to sit the last eight minutes. She started the game like the same old Chiney--even to the point that the announcers marvelled at her easy bucket and said "nothing came this easy for Chiney last night." But then she started missing free throws and layups, and frankly, I don't think it had very much to do with the UCLA defense. Brewer was not really defending her yet.
When Chiney came back in the 2nd half Brewer spent a lot more time defending Chiney and things got ugly. The officiating was partly to blame--it seemed that Brewer was allowed to push Chiney with her body over and over again even while Chiney was in the act of shooting, and this was not called. Once it even resulted in a Chiney travel when it should have been a Brewer foul. Chiney even hit the floor on these shoves and they were not called. After picking up two ticky tack fouls in the first half on herself, it must have been doubly frustrating for Chiney to be engaged in a Sumo wrestling match in the second. And that is exactly what it was, with Chiney giving away a lot of weight.
The announcers said UCLA went to a 1-2-2 zone, and while I don't understand what that is, right after they mentioned it I saw two bigs between Chiney and the ball--she was double teamed but not "sandwiched" the way we played Griner, but instead both the defenders were denying her the entry pass. I also noticed that Chiney was not moving as often or as fast, and seemed to be having difficulties pushing back against Brewer. Her teammates were also not looking to get the ball to her that much after all their repeated failures to do so earlier.
The other thing I noticed is that Joslyn's ineffectiveness allowed UCLA to double team Chiney with impunity. They eventually sagged off of Jos pretty completely and dared her to do damage--which she could not. Her jump shot was anemic, probably reflecting her red blood cell count. Perhaps they were all too aware of Joslyn's illness and decided they would not put much effort into guarding her until she made them pay. But for all the talk about Chiney being 1/9, keep in mind that Joslyn was 1/6.
Finally, I now remember what Tara said about conditioning earlier this year. They backed off the Susan Borchardt conditioning program from last year after the various foot injuries. Tara implied that too much conditioning work tends to bring on those nagging injuries, and conditioning was not that important in WBB anymore--especially with all the constant TV ad breaks. She might well be correct, with the sole exception of a tournament like this with 3 games in 3 days against well known opponents who all three decided to beat up on the focus of our offense.