[BosCard]

The challenge our team faced last year is that we were one-dimensional on offense and easy to defend.  Our starting lineup at the end of the season was Sniezek, Williams, McPhee, Smith and Johnson.  Teams mostly played a zone or saggy man defense against us that was designed to force our not so great three point shooters (i.e. everyone but Williams) to shoot threes.  That defense took away most of our offense and neutralized our best players.  When you have teams playing way off Sniezek, McPhee and Johnson, it creates a very clogged lane.  Thus McPhee had no space to drive which was her best offensive move.  Similarly, Smith had 3 players swarming around her in the post and thus it was difficult to get a pass in let alone have Smith make a post move if she caught it.

Having all the players on the floor be credible offensive threats is so important because it spreads out the spacing which makes everyone a better offensive player.  My guess is that Williams is our primary point guard for the rest of the year.  She is just as good of a scorer as a PG than she was as a SG.  This is because she has a great pull-up three off the dribble.  She doesn't need to have a play run for her to get her open to hit a three like some other SG's need.  This also allows us to have more length on defense at the 2/3 positions with Carrington, Hull and Hull.  Sniezek is one of our best perimeter defenders but she still struggled mightily against really good penetrating guards like Ionescu or Mazyck.  They were too big/strong and would just penetrate and shoot over Sniezek or Williams.  This is where Carrington is very important because she has both the foot speed to stay in front of those guards and the length to bother their shots.  I don't think we have a large enough sample size to judge the Hulls' footspeed but they certainly have good anticipation and long arms which has lead to a lot of steals / disruption of passes.

[BosCard]

The challenge our team faced last year is that we were one-dimensional on offense and easy to defend.  Our starting lineup at the end of the season was Sniezek, Williams, McPhee, Smith and Johnson.  Teams mostly played a zone or saggy man defense against us that was designed to force our not so great three point shooters (i.e. everyone but Williams) to shoot threes.  That defense took away most of our offense and neutralized our best players.  When you have teams playing way off Sniezek, McPhee and Johnson, it creates a very clogged lane.  Thus McPhee had no space to drive which was her best offensive move.  Similarly, Smith had 3 players swarming around her in the post and thus it was difficult to get a pass in let alone have Smith make a post move if she caught it.

Having all the players on the floor be credible offensive threats is so important because it spreads out the spacing which makes everyone a better offensive player.  My guess is that Williams is our primary point guard for the rest of the year.  She is just as good of a scorer as a PG than she was as a SG.  This is because she has a great pull-up three off the dribble.  She doesn't need to have a play run for her to get her open to hit a three like some other SG's need.  This also allows us to have more length on defense at the 2/3 positions with Carrington, Hull and Hull.  Sniezek is one of our best perimeter defenders but she still struggled mightily against really good penetrating guards like Ionescu or Mazyck.  They were too big/strong and would just penetrate and shoot over Sniezek or Williams.  This is where Carrington is very important because she has both the foot speed to stay in front of those guards and the length to bother their shots.  I don't think we have a large enough sample size to judge the Hulls' footspeed but they certainly have good anticipation and long arms which has lead to a lot of steals / disruption of passes.