Thanks for the writeup, 81! I missed the first quarter and came in mid-way through the second, but from what I saw, I continue to be impressed by our frosh and the improvement in our sophs. They seemed to carry us most of the night. It's truly been years since we've had so many offensive threats both inside and out. Seven players made treys and shotmaking was coming from all over the floor. That was so much fun to see.
Williams is scary good for being weeks into her sophomore year. She can score from anywhere, has great court vision, and plenty of speed, even when hobbling on a bad ankle. At times, she made it look ridiculously effortless. It's been since Candice Wiggins that we've had that kind of all-court playmaker. I like so much of what Sniezek does running the point, but having a PG who can score from everywhere just opens up the floor so much more for everyone else, and it's a brobdingnagian part of why our team is averaging 94 points per game.
Also super impressed by Dodson's improvements. She seems so much more comfortable trying to score under the basket, and her court vision and anticipation have improved substantially too. You wouldn't normally expect a 6'3" post/power forward player to be your assists leader, but she was all over the court. Really liked what I saw from her on offense.
Alanna also seems to have made meaningful strides over the summer. 81, you're absolutely right, she's performing magnificently as a stretch 4, taking things from outside or finding her way inside.
Loved what I saw from the Hulls. Not everything went in, but boy do they have Carrington/McPhee levels of grit and tenacity. I would not want to be the opposing team on offense staring down Dijonai, Lexie, and Lacie.
Speaking of defense... we need to work on that. A lot. In part, that's the tradeoff with having no Sniezek or Kayl on the floor - they were often our best defenders from the perimeter and in the paint, respectively, and while their replacements are substantially fueling our offense, Williams still has a ways to go to consistently cover the opposing point. I also think McPhee was somewhat underrated on D because most of the highlight reel was her ridiculous trick shot playmaking. But she was really tenacious about looking for steals and denying shots in a way that Williams, Brown, and Wilson are not (yet). Agreed that Dijonai is a brobdingnagian asset there - hopefully she can shoot her way back into form, as her offensive production seems to be off from last year (and especially last fall, when she was tearing it up in McPhee's absence).
Alongside defensive lapses, rebounding also wasn't as great as it could be; some of that is what happens when we play a lot of Princeton with outside treys and they slack off a bit and play loose man D (which they seemed to do a lot, leaving a lot of open treys). Statistically, they should get more than 50% of those rebounds under those circumstances. However, there were times where I felt like we slacked off a little bit around the rim on both offense and defense. Maybe that's a tradeoff we have to accept when running Princeton sets, because when our shots clanked off, it often seemed like there were four Dons folding in on the basket against our one post player positioned inside. If it were possible to break down the statistics, I actually thought our third and fourth chance rebounding rate was close to 100% - once we had our other players under the basket, we were fine, but for the first rebound off the glass, we were usually simply outmanned given court positioning.
Finally, it was fun to see Brewer and Moschkau, who don't usually get much playing time. Brewer really seemed to excel in her limited minutes on both offense and defense, with a really terrific block and a nice basket. Moschkau also has a beautiful shot and could definitely be an offensive weapon... but she really needs to work on her D, and I can see why Tara rarely puts her in, because she got beat pretty badly twice in her limited time on court at the end. She should take a few pointers from the Hulls in terms of not being afraid to go after it! I also feel like the coaches should have her sit down for a one-on-one coffee date with Bonnie. I recall Bonnie having a similarly beautiful shot from day one but also having early difficulties transitioning to college D. Yet over her time at Stanford she became a very proficient defensive wing, which led to more time on court and more opportunities to have those ridiculous outside shooting nights.
Williams is scary good for being weeks into her sophomore year. She can score from anywhere, has great court vision, and plenty of speed, even when hobbling on a bad ankle. At times, she made it look ridiculously effortless. It's been since Candice Wiggins that we've had that kind of all-court playmaker. I like so much of what Sniezek does running the point, but having a PG who can score from everywhere just opens up the floor so much more for everyone else, and it's a brobdingnagian part of why our team is averaging 94 points per game.
Also super impressed by Dodson's improvements. She seems so much more comfortable trying to score under the basket, and her court vision and anticipation have improved substantially too. You wouldn't normally expect a 6'3" post/power forward player to be your assists leader, but she was all over the court. Really liked what I saw from her on offense.
Alanna also seems to have made meaningful strides over the summer. 81, you're absolutely right, she's performing magnificently as a stretch 4, taking things from outside or finding her way inside.
Loved what I saw from the Hulls. Not everything went in, but boy do they have Carrington/McPhee levels of grit and tenacity. I would not want to be the opposing team on offense staring down Dijonai, Lexie, and Lacie.
Speaking of defense... we need to work on that. A lot. In part, that's the tradeoff with having no Sniezek or Kayl on the floor - they were often our best defenders from the perimeter and in the paint, respectively, and while their replacements are substantially fueling our offense, Williams still has a ways to go to consistently cover the opposing point. I also think McPhee was somewhat underrated on D because most of the highlight reel was her ridiculous trick shot playmaking. But she was really tenacious about looking for steals and denying shots in a way that Williams, Brown, and Wilson are not (yet). Agreed that Dijonai is a brobdingnagian asset there - hopefully she can shoot her way back into form, as her offensive production seems to be off from last year (and especially last fall, when she was tearing it up in McPhee's absence).
Alongside defensive lapses, rebounding also wasn't as great as it could be; some of that is what happens when we play a lot of Princeton with outside treys and they slack off a bit and play loose man D (which they seemed to do a lot, leaving a lot of open treys). Statistically, they should get more than 50% of those rebounds under those circumstances. However, there were times where I felt like we slacked off a little bit around the rim on both offense and defense. Maybe that's a tradeoff we have to accept when running Princeton sets, because when our shots clanked off, it often seemed like there were four Dons folding in on the basket against our one post player positioned inside. If it were possible to break down the statistics, I actually thought our third and fourth chance rebounding rate was close to 100% - once we had our other players under the basket, we were fine, but for the first rebound off the glass, we were usually simply outmanned given court positioning.
Finally, it was fun to see Brewer and Moschkau, who don't usually get much playing time. Brewer really seemed to excel in her limited minutes on both offense and defense, with a really terrific block and a nice basket. Moschkau also has a beautiful shot and could definitely be an offensive weapon... but she really needs to work on her D, and I can see why Tara rarely puts her in, because she got beat pretty badly twice in her limited time on court at the end. She should take a few pointers from the Hulls in terms of not being afraid to go after it! I also feel like the coaches should have her sit down for a one-on-one coffee date with Bonnie. I recall Bonnie having a similarly beautiful shot from day one but also having early difficulties transitioning to college D. Yet over her time at Stanford she became a very proficient defensive wing, which led to more time on court and more opportunities to have those ridiculous outside shooting nights.