Just skimmed the replay, mostly focusing on the first half. I'm not as discouraged after watching as I was when I first saw the box score, but largely because of how it played out on the court.
First, it's worth remembering the context of tonight's game, the third of the season: There are 200 player minutes per game (40 minutes x 5 players on the floor), and last season Bird, Karlie, McPhee, Roberson, and Fingall combined for 131.3 of them, on average. And of our average 71.7 points scored per game last season, those 5 accounted for 50.9 of the points. That means tonight we were without 65% of our player time from last season and 71% of our scoring. Alanna and Kayl also had to sit for significant time in the second half due to foul trouble. Take them out, and we're up to 165.9/200 minutes (83%) and 63.8/71.7 points (89%).
In that context, our horrible second half performance makes more sense. It doesn't excuse some really terrible passing and bizarre shot selection choices, but it does explain a bit why it seemed like we were all over the map. Some plays were really pretty, like a memorable inside-outside pass from Carrington at the perimeter, to Alanna inside, to Williams for the open three from behind the arc. Dodson also had a couple of nice shots, Kayl had some of the best offensive moves I can remember seeing from her since her freshman year, and, of course, Carrington was our do-it-all go-to player this game. But with a shooting-averse Marta largely running an offense, there was simply no experienced and reliable scorer on our side of the floor at all when Alanna or Carrington swapped out. And when Alanna was on the floor, they sagged big and double-teamed her, which led to so many errant treys.
In that sense, I'm actually less worried about the turnovers than the terrible 3 point shooting, because with such a rotating cast of inexperienced personnel, at least some of the sloppiness was understandable. Romano had 28 minutes, Carrington 31, and Wilson 13. With the partial exception of Carrington, they were only playing junk minutes last year. Among our frosh, Jerome got 22, Dodson 17, and Williams 14. Yeah, what they did with those minutes wasn't all that much, but their freshmen year, Bird averaged 3.3 points per game, Karlie 2.4, and Bri 1.6. If you're not KLS, an Ogwumike, or Stewwie, it's going to take time to become a consistent offensive threat, so I think our expectations have to be somewhat tempered in that respect.
The three point shooting concerns me more because I don't think it's easy to coach your players into becoming great 3 point shooters, so there's only so much Tara & co. can do about that. We had a lot of open looks we didn't make. It felt a bit like Carrington was deliberately trying to shoot herself out of the 3 point slump, to no avail. Romano was also colder than she has been the last few games, going 1/7. Those two combined were 1/15. I liked that Marta was trying to take cuts to the basket and drew some good fouls to get on the board, but she just has to develop a credible 3-pt shot or defenses can sag and take away easy looks (and passes) inside.
I share 81's view that each game diminishes my short-term expectations for this team. I got some healthy scorn for exploring the possibility that we could start the season at 6-7, but honestly, does anyone think we could beat Baylor, OSU (again), or Tennessee based on last night's game? A very plausible loss to Gonzaga and that lands us at 6-6 starting conference play against UCLA. That projection changes if we get McPhee back, but even then, it'll be a push to beat even one of Baylor, OSU, or Tennessee.
Carrington's development has been a genuinely pleasing turn of events, and it's apparent that she's essential to our offense when McPhee is off the floor. But one or more other players are going to need to step up or we're going to be off to a very rocky start to conference play.
And a side-note: the announcers said Fingall got knocked around in practice and wasn't cleared to be on the floor yet, which made me think she might be in concussion protocol? Hopefully it's just precautionary and nothing more...
First, it's worth remembering the context of tonight's game, the third of the season: There are 200 player minutes per game (40 minutes x 5 players on the floor), and last season Bird, Karlie, McPhee, Roberson, and Fingall combined for 131.3 of them, on average. And of our average 71.7 points scored per game last season, those 5 accounted for 50.9 of the points. That means tonight we were without 65% of our player time from last season and 71% of our scoring. Alanna and Kayl also had to sit for significant time in the second half due to foul trouble. Take them out, and we're up to 165.9/200 minutes (83%) and 63.8/71.7 points (89%).
In that context, our horrible second half performance makes more sense. It doesn't excuse some really terrible passing and bizarre shot selection choices, but it does explain a bit why it seemed like we were all over the map. Some plays were really pretty, like a memorable inside-outside pass from Carrington at the perimeter, to Alanna inside, to Williams for the open three from behind the arc. Dodson also had a couple of nice shots, Kayl had some of the best offensive moves I can remember seeing from her since her freshman year, and, of course, Carrington was our do-it-all go-to player this game. But with a shooting-averse Marta largely running an offense, there was simply no experienced and reliable scorer on our side of the floor at all when Alanna or Carrington swapped out. And when Alanna was on the floor, they sagged big and double-teamed her, which led to so many errant treys.
In that sense, I'm actually less worried about the turnovers than the terrible 3 point shooting, because with such a rotating cast of inexperienced personnel, at least some of the sloppiness was understandable. Romano had 28 minutes, Carrington 31, and Wilson 13. With the partial exception of Carrington, they were only playing junk minutes last year. Among our frosh, Jerome got 22, Dodson 17, and Williams 14. Yeah, what they did with those minutes wasn't all that much, but their freshmen year, Bird averaged 3.3 points per game, Karlie 2.4, and Bri 1.6. If you're not KLS, an Ogwumike, or Stewwie, it's going to take time to become a consistent offensive threat, so I think our expectations have to be somewhat tempered in that respect.
The three point shooting concerns me more because I don't think it's easy to coach your players into becoming great 3 point shooters, so there's only so much Tara & co. can do about that. We had a lot of open looks we didn't make. It felt a bit like Carrington was deliberately trying to shoot herself out of the 3 point slump, to no avail. Romano was also colder than she has been the last few games, going 1/7. Those two combined were 1/15. I liked that Marta was trying to take cuts to the basket and drew some good fouls to get on the board, but she just has to develop a credible 3-pt shot or defenses can sag and take away easy looks (and passes) inside.
I share 81's view that each game diminishes my short-term expectations for this team. I got some healthy scorn for exploring the possibility that we could start the season at 6-7, but honestly, does anyone think we could beat Baylor, OSU (again), or Tennessee based on last night's game? A very plausible loss to Gonzaga and that lands us at 6-6 starting conference play against UCLA. That projection changes if we get McPhee back, but even then, it'll be a push to beat even one of Baylor, OSU, or Tennessee.
Carrington's development has been a genuinely pleasing turn of events, and it's apparent that she's essential to our offense when McPhee is off the floor. But one or more other players are going to need to step up or we're going to be off to a very rocky start to conference play.
And a side-note: the announcers said Fingall got knocked around in practice and wasn't cleared to be on the floor yet, which made me think she might be in concussion protocol? Hopefully it's just precautionary and nothing more...