11-14-2014, 09:13 PM
Overview:
Tara's new motion offense and a vigorous, pressing defense wore down Boston College and blew the came open in the second half. Four players scored in double digits.Â
Flow of the Game
Before the game Kate talked to fans and discussed this year's freshmen. Kaylee has been a "pleasant surprise" and is learning much faster than they expected. She is in excellent shape and is a monster rebounder. She still needs to work on her offensive moves but will see a lot of minutes. Brittany McPhee is a great scorer but had to miss six weeks due to injury, and those are important weeks for a freshman, so she is playing catch-up. She is particularly good as a slasher but her outside shot has been coming along nicely. Tailor Rooks has a more physical body than anyone else they have that can play that position, but needs to work her way into shape to adjust to the college game. Kate also talked about the new offense, the desire to spread defenses to create lanes, etc. Erica and Amber are both much improved over last year. Amber is now excellent going to her right and not just her left, and is much more vocal.
The atmosphere is improving. There were 3200--still short of the 4000+ we would get on a weekend afternoon, but respectable. The band and dollies were back and sounded and looked nice. The announcer pronounced Kaylee and Kailee properly--but we have to wait for Betty Ann Boeving to resume her regular announcing.
Amber, Lili, McCall, and Kaylee started as expected, but this time it was Greenfield who got the start. Tara rotated players regularly, so that all 15 players got minutes. Amber had 29 minutes, 7 players had 17 minutes or more.Â
The game started the way you might expect a first game to start--with easy misses and a bit of sloppy play. Our offense got quite a few beautiful plays with Lili and others cutting to the basket, but Boston College sank trey after trey to stay in contact. It was clear that our defense of the three point line was deficient--and this was a point Kate said we needed to emphasize. Often BC would get a three point shooter open in the corner when we shifted to defend elsewhere. As the half ground along I thought the sloppiness inherent in starting a new system was keeping the game close and I was mildly worried. With about 5 minutes left in the half BC tied the game. Oh boy.
In the first 10 minutes of the second half, though, we expanded our lead from 7 to 30 points. Everyone seemed to contribute to this. BC got 3 fouls on its two best scorers, and the Stanford defense just seems to have worn them down. More important, we changed our defense and did a much better job guarding the perimeter. BC was not able to get many easy treys. Over the last 10 minutes Tara gave an increasing number of players some minutes.
Performances
Lili Thompson set a career high with 26 points, including 3/4 three point shooting. There were few times when her frenetic pace got out of control and she turned it over 4 times, but I chalk that up to learning the pacing and passing in the new system.
Erica McCall set a career high with 16 points on 7/11 shooting. Most important, she did not have a single foul--which she was plagued with last year. She is learning how to defend without fouling and that will help her stay on the floor.
Amber Orrange tied a career high with 9 rebounds. She also had 6 assists and 3 steals with only 1 turnover. She did not try a three point shot.
Taylor Greenfield had 10 points. She cut to the basket numerous times and was 3/4. However, a couple of times she tried to force her way inside and turned it over or fouled. She too is adjusting to a system in which she is expected to slash to the basket.
Kaylee Johnson started and rotated in and out quite a lot. She had only 2 points and 4 rebounds.Â
Kailee Johnson had a good game in some respects off the bench. She had 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks! Clearly her defense was excellent. But she also fouled a lot--4 times--and for a stretch it seemed she fouled on each defensive possession.Â
Karlee Samuelson scored 8, had 3 assists, and had good minutes. Bri Roberson and Alex Green rotated in as part of the keep-them-fresh and keep up the tempo strategy. They both looked good, scoring, pressing, defending in their limited minutes.
We saw Britanny McPhee and Tailor Rooks each score their first official college points on nice plays.
Overall, we held BC to 40% shooting while we shot at 65%. We shot 64% of our threes.
Looking Ahead
When Geno sees this tape he is going to shake his head. He might have nothing to worry about--we might in fact be crushed given how young and inexperienced we are with our new offense. But he can just throw in the trash can all of the last 12 years of scouting reports. For us to make UConn an entertaining game we will need superb defense from our youngsters and great three point shooting. UConn is not a deep team, so maybe we can wear them down a little. Who knows, maybe Tara was trying out that strategy tonight. It worked. As Boston College got tired its defense flagged and its shooting flagged.
One thing is for certain--all of us who complained about the passing-around-the-perimeter stagnation of last year have no cause for complaint on that score this year. There seems to be a rule that after a certain number of passes, if you don't get someone open, you have to take it to the basket. There were a few ill advised drives and some charging fouls, but on balance it worked a lot more often than it failed. It is fun to watch.
Tara's new motion offense and a vigorous, pressing defense wore down Boston College and blew the came open in the second half. Four players scored in double digits.Â
Flow of the Game
Before the game Kate talked to fans and discussed this year's freshmen. Kaylee has been a "pleasant surprise" and is learning much faster than they expected. She is in excellent shape and is a monster rebounder. She still needs to work on her offensive moves but will see a lot of minutes. Brittany McPhee is a great scorer but had to miss six weeks due to injury, and those are important weeks for a freshman, so she is playing catch-up. She is particularly good as a slasher but her outside shot has been coming along nicely. Tailor Rooks has a more physical body than anyone else they have that can play that position, but needs to work her way into shape to adjust to the college game. Kate also talked about the new offense, the desire to spread defenses to create lanes, etc. Erica and Amber are both much improved over last year. Amber is now excellent going to her right and not just her left, and is much more vocal.
The atmosphere is improving. There were 3200--still short of the 4000+ we would get on a weekend afternoon, but respectable. The band and dollies were back and sounded and looked nice. The announcer pronounced Kaylee and Kailee properly--but we have to wait for Betty Ann Boeving to resume her regular announcing.
Amber, Lili, McCall, and Kaylee started as expected, but this time it was Greenfield who got the start. Tara rotated players regularly, so that all 15 players got minutes. Amber had 29 minutes, 7 players had 17 minutes or more.Â
The game started the way you might expect a first game to start--with easy misses and a bit of sloppy play. Our offense got quite a few beautiful plays with Lili and others cutting to the basket, but Boston College sank trey after trey to stay in contact. It was clear that our defense of the three point line was deficient--and this was a point Kate said we needed to emphasize. Often BC would get a three point shooter open in the corner when we shifted to defend elsewhere. As the half ground along I thought the sloppiness inherent in starting a new system was keeping the game close and I was mildly worried. With about 5 minutes left in the half BC tied the game. Oh boy.
In the first 10 minutes of the second half, though, we expanded our lead from 7 to 30 points. Everyone seemed to contribute to this. BC got 3 fouls on its two best scorers, and the Stanford defense just seems to have worn them down. More important, we changed our defense and did a much better job guarding the perimeter. BC was not able to get many easy treys. Over the last 10 minutes Tara gave an increasing number of players some minutes.
Performances
Lili Thompson set a career high with 26 points, including 3/4 three point shooting. There were few times when her frenetic pace got out of control and she turned it over 4 times, but I chalk that up to learning the pacing and passing in the new system.
Erica McCall set a career high with 16 points on 7/11 shooting. Most important, she did not have a single foul--which she was plagued with last year. She is learning how to defend without fouling and that will help her stay on the floor.
Amber Orrange tied a career high with 9 rebounds. She also had 6 assists and 3 steals with only 1 turnover. She did not try a three point shot.
Taylor Greenfield had 10 points. She cut to the basket numerous times and was 3/4. However, a couple of times she tried to force her way inside and turned it over or fouled. She too is adjusting to a system in which she is expected to slash to the basket.
Kaylee Johnson started and rotated in and out quite a lot. She had only 2 points and 4 rebounds.Â
Kailee Johnson had a good game in some respects off the bench. She had 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks! Clearly her defense was excellent. But she also fouled a lot--4 times--and for a stretch it seemed she fouled on each defensive possession.Â
Karlee Samuelson scored 8, had 3 assists, and had good minutes. Bri Roberson and Alex Green rotated in as part of the keep-them-fresh and keep up the tempo strategy. They both looked good, scoring, pressing, defending in their limited minutes.
We saw Britanny McPhee and Tailor Rooks each score their first official college points on nice plays.
Overall, we held BC to 40% shooting while we shot at 65%. We shot 64% of our threes.
Looking Ahead
When Geno sees this tape he is going to shake his head. He might have nothing to worry about--we might in fact be crushed given how young and inexperienced we are with our new offense. But he can just throw in the trash can all of the last 12 years of scouting reports. For us to make UConn an entertaining game we will need superb defense from our youngsters and great three point shooting. UConn is not a deep team, so maybe we can wear them down a little. Who knows, maybe Tara was trying out that strategy tonight. It worked. As Boston College got tired its defense flagged and its shooting flagged.
One thing is for certain--all of us who complained about the passing-around-the-perimeter stagnation of last year have no cause for complaint on that score this year. There seems to be a rule that after a certain number of passes, if you don't get someone open, you have to take it to the basket. There were a few ill advised drives and some charging fouls, but on balance it worked a lot more often than it failed. It is fun to watch.
