After a week of travel, catching up on our last three games. Really encouraging week of basketball, to beat Baylor at home, then go on the road and really show up Tennessee, and then grit it out against a very upset-hungry Buffalo squad. What's probably most impressive to me is that we won each of the three games in very different fashions against very different offenses and defenses.
Vs. Baylor, I was impressed by how well we shut down Brown. Tara is of course the master of taking away the other team's best player, but nonetheless, a 5 pt performance has to be her lowest output in years.
Vs. Tennessee, I was so impressed by how many different players were offensive threats. It's clear this was a game our team really, really wanted, because even when they started the full court press in the third quarter and we lost our lead, our team stayed steady, didn't lose its cool, and fought back to have a solid lead in the final minutes. This was the strongest I've seen our team vs. a press defense in as long as I've followed the women's team, so at least since the Wiggins era. Carrington definitely pulled a McPhee, hitting shots from all over the court, making her basically impossible to guard. 81 already mentioned it, but Holly's press conference was garbage. She didn't give our team any credit and suggested none of the Vols but Westbrook was playing hard, but I though Meme Jackson and another one of their guards were very dogged on defense and for the most part I thought the Vols were doing well to contest our shots. We just had a lights-out shooting performance and they got a little lost on offense. This was probably the most complete game I've seen from our team since the Appel-Nneka-Pohlen-Pedersen era, in terms of getting offensive output from everyone on the floor. The past few seasons we've had 1-3 players who really weren't major offensive threats (Johnson, Roberson, and Sniezek), and it was refreshing to see a more "complete" team that had five players willing to both shoot or take it to the basket.
Vs. Buffalo, I was having flashbacks of our games against Colorado last season. I felt like they played a very similar kind of game, with a zone that was speedy enough to contest outside shots but really limit inside passes, and a grade 11/10 for effort on defense to try to get steals and disrupt passes essentially The. Entire. Game. And just like Colorado, their offense was pretty limited, so they had to hope for a really low scoring game, and we had enough runs to keep it from being too close down the stretch. I suspect if we hadn't subbed in our bench to get the Canadians playing time it would have been more of a 15-point margin rather than 7.
In terms of individual performances across the three games that are memorable to me:
Smith is just a stud. No two ways about it. Her game has blossomed so much in the past season; she has a truly complete game. She still has troubles with fouls and turnovers, but she's become our most reliable, solid player and is stepping up to be the senior leader this young team needs. Kudos to her for getting so much national attention.
Williams continues to impress in terms of her all-court game and skills handling the point. I feel like her shooting has been a little bit off over these three games but she's continued to have great court vision and get her teammates great looks.
Carrington really does seem like McPhee 2.0 - hustle, aggression, no fear, and the ability to completely take over a game seemingly out of nowhere. Part of what is so impressive about her is that she almost has a second mode that other teams don't scout, which means that when she goes into McPhee Mode, they don't have an easy answer. Then, much like McPhee sometimes would, she retreats and has a very quiet game or two.
Dodson is making brobdingnagian strides. I love seeing her moves around the basket, and for her size she's really fast and agile. Staying out of foul trouble will be the key to getting her enough court time this year to transcend to being the starter-worthy player we'll need her to be next season.
Fingall has also impressed me - even in the games when she hasn't been scoring, she's been our best defender at boxing out on rebounds and contesting loose balls in the paint. Her shot still doesn't seem to fall as much as it should, but overall, I continue to be impressed.
Lacie has really stepped up well in the absence of her more-prolific twin. They have an uncanny ability to poke balls out and contest shots without fouling, although in the Buffalo game she had a few silly fouls that sent her off the floor too early. Getting a consistent offensive performance from her will be key - she was really on fire against Tennessee and that meant we truly had scoring threats from 1 through 5.
I'm liking what I'm seeing from Brown in terms of her willingness to be aggressive and get into traffic, although her game is beginning to model Sniezek's in ways I'm not thrilled about - she doesn't take outside shots when she has open looks, and she sometimes just drills down the lane and hopes to get a foul on a deeply contested no-prayer shot. Now she's 10 games into her freshman season, so there's lots of time to develop stop and pop and three-point shots, but I don't remember her recruiting profile suggesting that she was allergic to jumpers.
Edited to add: Last but not least, Coffee break! Mulkey gave an extremely memorable and funny press conference after the Baylor loss, and my favorite line (and there were a number of laugh-out-loud funny ones) was this: "Someone should whisper 'Baylor' in Coffee's ear before every game," when she gets subbed in, because she is somehow Baylor's kryptonite, or Baylor is her Popeye's Spinach.
Overall, a very encouraging three-game sweep. Our ladies definitely earned their Christmas week off!
Vs. Baylor, I was impressed by how well we shut down Brown. Tara is of course the master of taking away the other team's best player, but nonetheless, a 5 pt performance has to be her lowest output in years.
Vs. Tennessee, I was so impressed by how many different players were offensive threats. It's clear this was a game our team really, really wanted, because even when they started the full court press in the third quarter and we lost our lead, our team stayed steady, didn't lose its cool, and fought back to have a solid lead in the final minutes. This was the strongest I've seen our team vs. a press defense in as long as I've followed the women's team, so at least since the Wiggins era. Carrington definitely pulled a McPhee, hitting shots from all over the court, making her basically impossible to guard. 81 already mentioned it, but Holly's press conference was garbage. She didn't give our team any credit and suggested none of the Vols but Westbrook was playing hard, but I though Meme Jackson and another one of their guards were very dogged on defense and for the most part I thought the Vols were doing well to contest our shots. We just had a lights-out shooting performance and they got a little lost on offense. This was probably the most complete game I've seen from our team since the Appel-Nneka-Pohlen-Pedersen era, in terms of getting offensive output from everyone on the floor. The past few seasons we've had 1-3 players who really weren't major offensive threats (Johnson, Roberson, and Sniezek), and it was refreshing to see a more "complete" team that had five players willing to both shoot or take it to the basket.
Vs. Buffalo, I was having flashbacks of our games against Colorado last season. I felt like they played a very similar kind of game, with a zone that was speedy enough to contest outside shots but really limit inside passes, and a grade 11/10 for effort on defense to try to get steals and disrupt passes essentially The. Entire. Game. And just like Colorado, their offense was pretty limited, so they had to hope for a really low scoring game, and we had enough runs to keep it from being too close down the stretch. I suspect if we hadn't subbed in our bench to get the Canadians playing time it would have been more of a 15-point margin rather than 7.
In terms of individual performances across the three games that are memorable to me:
Smith is just a stud. No two ways about it. Her game has blossomed so much in the past season; she has a truly complete game. She still has troubles with fouls and turnovers, but she's become our most reliable, solid player and is stepping up to be the senior leader this young team needs. Kudos to her for getting so much national attention.
Williams continues to impress in terms of her all-court game and skills handling the point. I feel like her shooting has been a little bit off over these three games but she's continued to have great court vision and get her teammates great looks.
Carrington really does seem like McPhee 2.0 - hustle, aggression, no fear, and the ability to completely take over a game seemingly out of nowhere. Part of what is so impressive about her is that she almost has a second mode that other teams don't scout, which means that when she goes into McPhee Mode, they don't have an easy answer. Then, much like McPhee sometimes would, she retreats and has a very quiet game or two.
Dodson is making brobdingnagian strides. I love seeing her moves around the basket, and for her size she's really fast and agile. Staying out of foul trouble will be the key to getting her enough court time this year to transcend to being the starter-worthy player we'll need her to be next season.
Fingall has also impressed me - even in the games when she hasn't been scoring, she's been our best defender at boxing out on rebounds and contesting loose balls in the paint. Her shot still doesn't seem to fall as much as it should, but overall, I continue to be impressed.
Lacie has really stepped up well in the absence of her more-prolific twin. They have an uncanny ability to poke balls out and contest shots without fouling, although in the Buffalo game she had a few silly fouls that sent her off the floor too early. Getting a consistent offensive performance from her will be key - she was really on fire against Tennessee and that meant we truly had scoring threats from 1 through 5.
I'm liking what I'm seeing from Brown in terms of her willingness to be aggressive and get into traffic, although her game is beginning to model Sniezek's in ways I'm not thrilled about - she doesn't take outside shots when she has open looks, and she sometimes just drills down the lane and hopes to get a foul on a deeply contested no-prayer shot. Now she's 10 games into her freshman season, so there's lots of time to develop stop and pop and three-point shots, but I don't remember her recruiting profile suggesting that she was allergic to jumpers.
Edited to add: Last but not least, Coffee break! Mulkey gave an extremely memorable and funny press conference after the Baylor loss, and my favorite line (and there were a number of laugh-out-loud funny ones) was this: "Someone should whisper 'Baylor' in Coffee's ear before every game," when she gets subbed in, because she is somehow Baylor's kryptonite, or Baylor is her Popeye's Spinach.
Overall, a very encouraging three-game sweep. Our ladies definitely earned their Christmas week off!