11-25-2012, 06:18 PM
Despite competition from the Forty Niners game, 3500 came out to welcome the team home after its amazing Hawaii trip, and to see the number one team in the nation drub Long Beach State. The atmosphere was odd--no band, and the regular announcer was gone--but the team seemed to have enough intensity.
After the game Chiney and then Tara came out and talked to the crowd. Chiney is a riot. Asked by a youngster to give one word that described herself, she said "introverted" and the crowd cracked up.Â
Tara did say something interesting about training. She said they are not doing as much of it as they had before--in an effort to prevent foot injuries. I presume this is a reference to Mikaela and others. She said she talked to Kim Mulkey and the Baylor coach complained about all the foot injuries they were having. Tara seems to think (with our depth) that it is better to conserve wear and tear on feet than to do too much training. Besides, she said, all the TV timeouts reduce the need for training.
When Tara described the game, she kept coming back to Amber's play. Amber is developing into a fabulous point guard. Today she had 9 assists to 1 turnover--and the turnover was a potentially good pass that was mishandled. The opponents sagged off of her at first, and she hit jumpers until they felt they had to try to guard her again. She scored the first 7 points on three long jumpers. Then she began her pick and roll action. Tara said we saw a lot of "new stuff that hopefully will look a lot better in three months." I get the impression that Tara is redesigning the offense around Amber.
Getting to the game, strong contributions from Taylor, Bonnie, and Joslyn helped us hit 10/24 three point shots. Joslyn had 18 points and 7 rebounds, Chiney had 16 points and 11 rebounds. One of these games Amber is going to have a triple double--she keeps getting rebounds--7 this time.Â
I do have one concern, and that is Toni's health. I'm not sure what is going on there--maybe Tara just knows she is prone to injury and is saving her, but she played only 11 minutes and scored only 2 points. When Toni was in, she guarded Long Beach's best player, so Tara must think that Toni is our best perimeter defender. But this is not the first game that Toni has been used very sparingly or not at all. I wonder if she is still getting over that undisclosed illness.
Jasmine Camp and Sara James each got more minutes and more points than Toni. I remember a year ago that Amber and Jasmine were pretty much equal, with Jasmine edging out Amber for minutes against Connecticut. What a difference a year of experience makes. Jasmine is pretty much a freshman now after her injury and sitting the year out. She looks quick, and yet has a ways to go before she will catch up with Amber. A year of experience makes a big difference, though Jasmine may well blossom now that she is healthy.
Tess got 9 minutes. Tara said she is improving a lot in practice and will play her way into more time as the year goes on. She got three rebounds. I noticed that every time she brought the ball down the Long Beach players reached in to try to grab the ball from her--they were clearly coached to do that, and they succeeded in tying it up a couple of times on her. At the very end of the game, Tess had the ball around the free thrown line and the whole crowd was begging her to shoot it, but she passed it out. She does need a tad more aggression about taking shots when they are available.
It is an odd Fall season, with relatively few home games. We won't have another home look until December 15 against Pacific, and then not again until Connecticut.
After the game Chiney and then Tara came out and talked to the crowd. Chiney is a riot. Asked by a youngster to give one word that described herself, she said "introverted" and the crowd cracked up.Â
Tara did say something interesting about training. She said they are not doing as much of it as they had before--in an effort to prevent foot injuries. I presume this is a reference to Mikaela and others. She said she talked to Kim Mulkey and the Baylor coach complained about all the foot injuries they were having. Tara seems to think (with our depth) that it is better to conserve wear and tear on feet than to do too much training. Besides, she said, all the TV timeouts reduce the need for training.
When Tara described the game, she kept coming back to Amber's play. Amber is developing into a fabulous point guard. Today she had 9 assists to 1 turnover--and the turnover was a potentially good pass that was mishandled. The opponents sagged off of her at first, and she hit jumpers until they felt they had to try to guard her again. She scored the first 7 points on three long jumpers. Then she began her pick and roll action. Tara said we saw a lot of "new stuff that hopefully will look a lot better in three months." I get the impression that Tara is redesigning the offense around Amber.
Getting to the game, strong contributions from Taylor, Bonnie, and Joslyn helped us hit 10/24 three point shots. Joslyn had 18 points and 7 rebounds, Chiney had 16 points and 11 rebounds. One of these games Amber is going to have a triple double--she keeps getting rebounds--7 this time.Â
I do have one concern, and that is Toni's health. I'm not sure what is going on there--maybe Tara just knows she is prone to injury and is saving her, but she played only 11 minutes and scored only 2 points. When Toni was in, she guarded Long Beach's best player, so Tara must think that Toni is our best perimeter defender. But this is not the first game that Toni has been used very sparingly or not at all. I wonder if she is still getting over that undisclosed illness.
Jasmine Camp and Sara James each got more minutes and more points than Toni. I remember a year ago that Amber and Jasmine were pretty much equal, with Jasmine edging out Amber for minutes against Connecticut. What a difference a year of experience makes. Jasmine is pretty much a freshman now after her injury and sitting the year out. She looks quick, and yet has a ways to go before she will catch up with Amber. A year of experience makes a big difference, though Jasmine may well blossom now that she is healthy.
Tess got 9 minutes. Tara said she is improving a lot in practice and will play her way into more time as the year goes on. She got three rebounds. I noticed that every time she brought the ball down the Long Beach players reached in to try to grab the ball from her--they were clearly coached to do that, and they succeeded in tying it up a couple of times on her. At the very end of the game, Tess had the ball around the free thrown line and the whole crowd was begging her to shoot it, but she passed it out. She does need a tad more aggression about taking shots when they are available.
It is an odd Fall season, with relatively few home games. We won't have another home look until December 15 against Pacific, and then not again until Connecticut.
