12-02-2017, 08:46 AM
Preliminary:
We play Baylor away and will face Kalani Brown, a 6'7" center who is hitting 77% of her shots and is averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds. Throw in Lauren Cox (who was missing when UCLA gave them their only defeat of the year) and a strong supporting cast and we will have our work cut out for us. If we hit threes like the second half of the USF game and do it all game long, then we will have a chance. The problem with doubling up on Brown or Cox (the way we did successfully to Griner 5 years ago) is that Baylor has a 40% three point shooter and a 70% three point shooter (12 of 17 so far.) This looks very, very difficult. Sadly, I think we are at the point where we really need some victories--the "learning by losing" mantra has outlived its usefulness.
Overview:
Focusing on the bright spots: Shannon Coffee played well in extensive minutes, going 4/8 from three point range and sometimes even pushing enormous Kalani Brown out of the paint. Also Kianna Williams is beginning to blossom, scoring 13 with 2 assists and no turnovers. The negative: we could only defend Baylor by wracking up oodles of fouls, our turnovers were bad, our rebounding was worse, we could get nothing going in the paint, and we shot 29%.Â
Flow of the game:
The first quarter was truly dreadful. Had we done better in that quarter we might have made a competitive game out of it. But we wound up with only 8 points, all coming from Williams. Two baskets in one quarter for the team. Ugh. The second quarter we actually outscored Baylor, and could have done better but for a couple of costly mistakes. A foul inside negated a Romano three point basket and we immediately gave up a couple at the other end, or we would have cut the deficit to 6. Instead we went into halftime down 13.
The second half was more of the same, except that Coffee began sinking treys. The third quarter was not the disaster that the first quarter was, but we gave Baylor way too many offensive rebounds and an easy basket with five seconds that should have been stopped. Johnson fouled out early in the 3rd quarter--she was by far our best rebounder and finished with a team leading 10 despite playing only half the game. Their Kalani Brown kept wracking up points and had 28 by the end of the game. Smith finally hit some treys but it was clear she was intimidated inside. By the end of the 3rd our shooting was 25%, theirs was 39%. They had 14 offensive rebounds, we had 8. And they led 58-40. I felt our defense let up its intensity some in the fourth quarter and many of the 23 points we gave up were preventable--silly fast breaks off of sloppy passes, etc. Still, overall, we held Baylor to significantly under its usually shooting percentages and points, so I guess our defense was not horrid.
Performances:
Baylor had 54 points in the paint, we had 18. It felt like we were on the receiving end of one of those Nneka/Chiney teams with Baylor able to pass it inside to their bigs with impunity. We also had 0 fast break points. After a dreadful first quarter for turnovers we got them under control and were down only 14 to their 10 by the end of the game. We had only 10 assists to Baylor's 19.
Shannon Coffee really deserves a shout-out. Not only did she make 4/8 treys, she also put it on the floor once and drove up the right rail for a scoop in. Her size and strength did help muscle Kalani Brown out of the paint. Her rebounding is quite mediocre (3) but she had an assist, a steal, and a block to go with her 2 turnovers. She showed she can give us useful minutes when matched up against another big.
Kiana Williams started very well but wound up 4/15. She is showing why she was so highly rated. She is not yet up to where she needs to be--she does not look to pass as much as she should, she sometimes takes hasty shots. But she can hit the trey and has a great stop-and-pop midrange jumper which she is willing to take--although it was not going in today. As she gains confidence in her shot and experience running the offense, I predict she will get more and more minutes at point. She was given 34 minutes--Sniezek 6.
Dodson played hard and did give us 7 points and 7 rebounds with only 2 fouls. Brown schooled her a couple of times by putting the ball down and going around her tight defense for a layup. Â
It is not very insightful to single out any other players for their performances. Johnson and Smith are discussed above. Sniezek did not attempt a shot. Romano was 1/4, Carrington was 1/5, Wilson was 1/6, Fingall was 0/4 and Jerome was 0/2. Clearly our offense was not working.
Conclusion:
We have two weeks off for finals, then we have 5 home games in a row. We need both the time and the home games, badly, to get into shape. We have some easy games (UNLV, Western Illinois) but also some hard games (Tennessee, UCLA, possibly USC) in that stretch. Hopefully we will see McPhee back. Hopefully Williams will continue on her tear. Hopefully being at home will help us with our confidence. Hopefully all these tough games we have lost really will pay off by giving our players greater skill and inspired play. Hope, hope, hope.
We play Baylor away and will face Kalani Brown, a 6'7" center who is hitting 77% of her shots and is averaging 23 points and 10 rebounds. Throw in Lauren Cox (who was missing when UCLA gave them their only defeat of the year) and a strong supporting cast and we will have our work cut out for us. If we hit threes like the second half of the USF game and do it all game long, then we will have a chance. The problem with doubling up on Brown or Cox (the way we did successfully to Griner 5 years ago) is that Baylor has a 40% three point shooter and a 70% three point shooter (12 of 17 so far.) This looks very, very difficult. Sadly, I think we are at the point where we really need some victories--the "learning by losing" mantra has outlived its usefulness.
Overview:
Focusing on the bright spots: Shannon Coffee played well in extensive minutes, going 4/8 from three point range and sometimes even pushing enormous Kalani Brown out of the paint. Also Kianna Williams is beginning to blossom, scoring 13 with 2 assists and no turnovers. The negative: we could only defend Baylor by wracking up oodles of fouls, our turnovers were bad, our rebounding was worse, we could get nothing going in the paint, and we shot 29%.Â
Flow of the game:
The first quarter was truly dreadful. Had we done better in that quarter we might have made a competitive game out of it. But we wound up with only 8 points, all coming from Williams. Two baskets in one quarter for the team. Ugh. The second quarter we actually outscored Baylor, and could have done better but for a couple of costly mistakes. A foul inside negated a Romano three point basket and we immediately gave up a couple at the other end, or we would have cut the deficit to 6. Instead we went into halftime down 13.
The second half was more of the same, except that Coffee began sinking treys. The third quarter was not the disaster that the first quarter was, but we gave Baylor way too many offensive rebounds and an easy basket with five seconds that should have been stopped. Johnson fouled out early in the 3rd quarter--she was by far our best rebounder and finished with a team leading 10 despite playing only half the game. Their Kalani Brown kept wracking up points and had 28 by the end of the game. Smith finally hit some treys but it was clear she was intimidated inside. By the end of the 3rd our shooting was 25%, theirs was 39%. They had 14 offensive rebounds, we had 8. And they led 58-40. I felt our defense let up its intensity some in the fourth quarter and many of the 23 points we gave up were preventable--silly fast breaks off of sloppy passes, etc. Still, overall, we held Baylor to significantly under its usually shooting percentages and points, so I guess our defense was not horrid.
Performances:
Baylor had 54 points in the paint, we had 18. It felt like we were on the receiving end of one of those Nneka/Chiney teams with Baylor able to pass it inside to their bigs with impunity. We also had 0 fast break points. After a dreadful first quarter for turnovers we got them under control and were down only 14 to their 10 by the end of the game. We had only 10 assists to Baylor's 19.
Shannon Coffee really deserves a shout-out. Not only did she make 4/8 treys, she also put it on the floor once and drove up the right rail for a scoop in. Her size and strength did help muscle Kalani Brown out of the paint. Her rebounding is quite mediocre (3) but she had an assist, a steal, and a block to go with her 2 turnovers. She showed she can give us useful minutes when matched up against another big.
Kiana Williams started very well but wound up 4/15. She is showing why she was so highly rated. She is not yet up to where she needs to be--she does not look to pass as much as she should, she sometimes takes hasty shots. But she can hit the trey and has a great stop-and-pop midrange jumper which she is willing to take--although it was not going in today. As she gains confidence in her shot and experience running the offense, I predict she will get more and more minutes at point. She was given 34 minutes--Sniezek 6.
Dodson played hard and did give us 7 points and 7 rebounds with only 2 fouls. Brown schooled her a couple of times by putting the ball down and going around her tight defense for a layup. Â
It is not very insightful to single out any other players for their performances. Johnson and Smith are discussed above. Sniezek did not attempt a shot. Romano was 1/4, Carrington was 1/5, Wilson was 1/6, Fingall was 0/4 and Jerome was 0/2. Clearly our offense was not working.
Conclusion:
We have two weeks off for finals, then we have 5 home games in a row. We need both the time and the home games, badly, to get into shape. We have some easy games (UNLV, Western Illinois) but also some hard games (Tennessee, UCLA, possibly USC) in that stretch. Hopefully we will see McPhee back. Hopefully Williams will continue on her tear. Hopefully being at home will help us with our confidence. Hopefully all these tough games we have lost really will pay off by giving our players greater skill and inspired play. Hope, hope, hope.