[M T]

Overview
As for the negatives--I was pretty unhappy with the way we played with Chiney on the bench.  Clearly our offense just doesn't know how to function without her.  There is no plan-B.  If she gets into foul trouble, injured, and of course when she graduates--we have a long ways to go to be effective.

Actually, I was pretty happy how we played with Chiney out.  Scorewise, we pretty much held our own against the #14 team without the player-of-the-year.  Chiney with 7:25 left in the first half with the score 26-17; at the end of the half, the score was 35-28.  We only lost 2 points in that time.  And we even played Tess for nearly 2 minutes in that time.  Expand that rate to a whole game, and the score would be 49-58.

The bad side of it was that Kailee got 2 fouls while Taylor, Mikaela, and Karlie each got 1.  The season stats indicate that ASU is very good at creating fouls.  But, while we committed 5 fouls, ASU committed 4.

A good portion of that time had our other bigs dealing with a 6'5" player.  That definitely impacted our offense.  And, in my opinion, Amber's attempts at offense during this time were fraught with problems.

The TV crew (headed by Jim Watson) for this game wasn't that good tonight.  Amongst other things, it took them FIVE minutes playing time to realize that Chiney wasn't in the game.  They only figured it out during a time-out.

In the sense of "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", I expect Chiney was reminded of her role as the main offensive player.  I saw her let ASU offensive players go free in the second half.  I also expect the other players have gained confidence that they won't be blown out with Chiney on the bench against a good team.

Jasmine was the only player who didn't play.  I didn't notice if she was suited up.  Anyone know anything?

It seems to me that Tara is getting a little soft:  I think she's leaving Chiney in longer than I would like, well after the game is decided.  Whether it is to let her have better stats for player-of-the-year or be more likely to get the all-time scoring lead, I don't know.  I'd hate to risk an injury, and a chance at a national title, for those.

For the last 2 games, Chiney was 25/31, averaging an amazing 80.6%.  Over the 2 games, she hit 25 shots but was only fouled 3 times.  She must have been so good in the Arizona game that no one could even foul her  (yeah, right). I guess the AZ players were out guarding the 3 point line.

But Chiney doesn't get PAC-12 player of the week.  You see, we only played one game (AZ) this past week.  We'll shortly get to play 3 games in a week (U$C, k.al, and, oh yea, k.al again).

[M T]

Overview
As for the negatives--I was pretty unhappy with the way we played with Chiney on the bench.  Clearly our offense just doesn't know how to function without her.  There is no plan-B.  If she gets into foul trouble, injured, and of course when she graduates--we have a long ways to go to be effective.

Actually, I was pretty happy how we played with Chiney out.  Scorewise, we pretty much held our own against the #14 team without the player-of-the-year.  Chiney with 7:25 left in the first half with the score 26-17; at the end of the half, the score was 35-28.  We only lost 2 points in that time.  And we even played Tess for nearly 2 minutes in that time.  Expand that rate to a whole game, and the score would be 49-58.

The bad side of it was that Kailee got 2 fouls while Taylor, Mikaela, and Karlie each got 1.  The season stats indicate that ASU is very good at creating fouls.  But, while we committed 5 fouls, ASU committed 4.

A good portion of that time had our other bigs dealing with a 6'5" player.  That definitely impacted our offense.  And, in my opinion, Amber's attempts at offense during this time were fraught with problems.

The TV crew (headed by Jim Watson) for this game wasn't that good tonight.  Amongst other things, it took them FIVE minutes playing time to realize that Chiney wasn't in the game.  They only figured it out during a time-out.

In the sense of "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger", I expect Chiney was reminded of her role as the main offensive player.  I saw her let ASU offensive players go free in the second half.  I also expect the other players have gained confidence that they won't be blown out with Chiney on the bench against a good team.

Jasmine was the only player who didn't play.  I didn't notice if she was suited up.  Anyone know anything?

It seems to me that Tara is getting a little soft:  I think she's leaving Chiney in longer than I would like, well after the game is decided.  Whether it is to let her have better stats for player-of-the-year or be more likely to get the all-time scoring lead, I don't know.  I'd hate to risk an injury, and a chance at a national title, for those.

For the last 2 games, Chiney was 25/31, averaging an amazing 80.6%.  Over the 2 games, she hit 25 shots but was only fouled 3 times.  She must have been so good in the Arizona game that no one could even foul her  (yeah, right). I guess the AZ players were out guarding the 3 point line.

But Chiney doesn't get PAC-12 player of the week.  You see, we only played one game (AZ) this past week.  We'll shortly get to play 3 games in a week (U$C, k.al, and, oh yea, k.al again).