[81alum]

Whether in zone or man to man, Missouri State seemed to concentrate on clogging the lane. The reason those threes were dropping so well was that most of them were wide-open looks. If you discount threes taken by the end of the bench and post players with delusions of grandeur, we hit 54 percent from out there.

It's a good thing the threes were on, because our post players mostly got pushed around a lot. Missouri State, though smaller, outrebounded us by a horrifying 40-26, and the various Kailees and Kaylees contributed only five points total. (McCall, as 81alum noted, looked a lot better on offense.) I'm not sure what the points in the paint totals were, but I'll bet they favored Missouri State heavily.

Can't agree with 81alum on Dayton, though. The flyers were an excellent team last year, but they lost a lot to graduation. This year they look more like a very young team -- eight freshman and sophomores on the roster -- with irregular flashes of talent. They played excellent defense today against Maine -- the Black Ursines rarely got a good look at the basket and broke 30 only with a scoring flurry the final two minutes en route to a 58-37 victory. Player to watch: Guard Amber Deane, No. 5, whose surprise slashes to the basket always seemed to catch Maine by surprise.

Random notes:

** Kailee Johnson was walked to the locker room between the third and fourth quarters. After a while, she returned to the bench, but I don't think I saw her in the game again. There was no obvious incident on the court in which she might have been hurt.

** I don't understand the economics of some of these November tournaments at all. There were less than 200 fans in the arena (small but nice, with a capacity of around 8,000) for the Dayton-Maine game, probably right around 200 for Stanford-Missouri State, and perhaps less than 100 by the end of the session. With no ticket sales and no TV, how does this thing make any money?

On the other hand, perhaps this was atypical. Several arena workers told me the men's tournament early in the week drew very well. And a Connecticut fan sitting near me said that last year, when UConn played in the women's tourament, there were several thousand people in the stands.

Such a tiny crowd, with no cheerleaders or bands, led to some odd moments. Some of the Maine players did organized cheers. And Tara's shouted instructions to her team could occasionally be heard in the stands on the opposite side of the court, where I was sitting.

Probably no more than a dozen people were cheering for Stanford. But from somewhere the arena obtained a recording of the LSJUMB version of All Right Now and played it several times, including at the end of the game as the players walked off the court. When it was played during pre-game warmups, I saw Kate Paye quietly clapping along.

Thank you Garvin for your eyewitness account!

With regard to Dayton, I was operating off of Graham Hayes's write up as reported over at the Fast Break Club:
http://fbccardinalnews.blogspot.com/2015...lyers.html
Dayton is significantly taller in the post than we are, and apparently has an experienced backcourt.  Hayes thinks they are the best mid-major team.  But since you had a chance to see them play, I feel some reassurance.  But why do I feel like this is a Chattanooga type situation? 

[81alum]

Whether in zone or man to man, Missouri State seemed to concentrate on clogging the lane. The reason those threes were dropping so well was that most of them were wide-open looks. If you discount threes taken by the end of the bench and post players with delusions of grandeur, we hit 54 percent from out there.

It's a good thing the threes were on, because our post players mostly got pushed around a lot. Missouri State, though smaller, outrebounded us by a horrifying 40-26, and the various Kailees and Kaylees contributed only five points total. (McCall, as 81alum noted, looked a lot better on offense.) I'm not sure what the points in the paint totals were, but I'll bet they favored Missouri State heavily.

Can't agree with 81alum on Dayton, though. The flyers were an excellent team last year, but they lost a lot to graduation. This year they look more like a very young team -- eight freshman and sophomores on the roster -- with irregular flashes of talent. They played excellent defense today against Maine -- the Black Ursines rarely got a good look at the basket and broke 30 only with a scoring flurry the final two minutes en route to a 58-37 victory. Player to watch: Guard Amber Deane, No. 5, whose surprise slashes to the basket always seemed to catch Maine by surprise.

Random notes:

** Kailee Johnson was walked to the locker room between the third and fourth quarters. After a while, she returned to the bench, but I don't think I saw her in the game again. There was no obvious incident on the court in which she might have been hurt.

** I don't understand the economics of some of these November tournaments at all. There were less than 200 fans in the arena (small but nice, with a capacity of around 8,000) for the Dayton-Maine game, probably right around 200 for Stanford-Missouri State, and perhaps less than 100 by the end of the session. With no ticket sales and no TV, how does this thing make any money?

On the other hand, perhaps this was atypical. Several arena workers told me the men's tournament early in the week drew very well. And a Connecticut fan sitting near me said that last year, when UConn played in the women's tourament, there were several thousand people in the stands.

Such a tiny crowd, with no cheerleaders or bands, led to some odd moments. Some of the Maine players did organized cheers. And Tara's shouted instructions to her team could occasionally be heard in the stands on the opposite side of the court, where I was sitting.

Probably no more than a dozen people were cheering for Stanford. But from somewhere the arena obtained a recording of the LSJUMB version of All Right Now and played it several times, including at the end of the game as the players walked off the court. When it was played during pre-game warmups, I saw Kate Paye quietly clapping along.

Thank you Garvin for your eyewitness account!

With regard to Dayton, I was operating off of Graham Hayes's write up as reported over at the Fast Break Club:
http://fbccardinalnews.blogspot.com/2015...lyers.html
Dayton is significantly taller in the post than we are, and apparently has an experienced backcourt.  Hayes thinks they are the best mid-major team.  But since you had a chance to see them play, I feel some reassurance.  But why do I feel like this is a Chattanooga type situation?