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I only caught the game from the last few minutes of the first half on, but I thought we looked pretty evenly matched out there, with our brobdingnagian edge on rebounds and o-boards in particular carrying the day. Solid performance, but I wasn't exactly breathing easy until the last 2-3 minutes. It seemed like their zone was flummoxing us once again - other than Williams and Smith, it doesn't seem like our team has gotten much more comfortable against the zone. And unsurprisingly, they are our two players who can both take shots from the arc, make jumpers in the lanes, and drive to the hoop. That kind of versatility is so key, and I think their swarming us inside is part of why McPhee had a relatively quiet night (although she was our leading rebounder).
In particular, I really liked seeing how Williams was creating her own shots. The fake to Jerome followed by a curl drive to the hoop was terrific (and she called that one herself), and I also liked her step-aside trey late in the game. She seems so calm and self-possessed. I don't remember any of our players being so centered in themselves since Nneka - even Chiney had a tendency to be a bit wilder and more emotional, which probably made her more effective as a team leader, but also led to some slightly more spastic shots, especially in her freshman and sophomore years. Nneka from day one played a very calm, measured, focused game, and Williams seems much the same. It feels like she knows exactly where she is on the court and where she needs to be, like she sees everything a half step ahead of everyone else. I felt like Nneka was also like that, and I'm loving it. It also makes her extremely hard to defend, because she does not have go-to moves the way McPhee, for example, does.
One thing I noticed that struck me was that Carrington actually seems a little afraid to have to shoot the three. There was one sequence where we were passing around without much luck, the clock was down to about 7, someone inside passed it out to her at the right corner, there was no man covering her, and she hesitated and almost looked to pass before realizing there wasn't time, and then shot an extremely hesitant three that airballed. I haven't remembered her ever looking that afraid to shoot before, and it makes me wonder if her second-half slump is partially mental (with the other part being that with Williams' blossoming and McPhee's return, there's less time for her to play her way out of it). In particular, I worry a bit about the concussion she apparently got from practice, because I remember she got one during the McDonald's AA game and then went something like 0-9 shooting, with a number of airballs, almost as if her depth perception wasn't quite right. In that case, she'd just gotten the concussion, but it's now been a while since she had to sit out those two games as a precaution. I feel like since she came back, her shooting hasn't been as on point, and I've noticed several airballs that I don't remember seeing as much earlier in the season. Has anyone else noticed this? Hopefully I'm unnecessarily worrying?
Finally, I thought Gonzaga's defense got a little too aggressive at the end, especially in the last minute or two where it was pretty clear they weren't going to climb back. I'm all for going full court press at the 4-5 minute mark where a possible steal can generate some quick points, but they were mugging Marta and I thought one of the fouls on her toward the end should have been an unsportsmanlike. Given how close the refs were calling the game at the beginning, they strangely seemed to let up toward the end. I did feel a bit like they were trying, at the margins, to keep it close.
Still, we advanced with a solid win, and got some nice bench contributions from Carrington, Fingall, and Jerome. Eager to see what Tara cooks up against FGCU. If there's any coach I trust to come up with an effective game plan on 48 hours' notice, it's Tara.
