[chimera]

I'm starting to wonder if something is more systematically off with Kiana Williams. She has had flashes of her old self this season, but for the most part, she's had a rough shooting stretch that began this spring, continued into the Pan-Am this summer, and has largely plagued her this fall. Coming into this game, if you can believe it, she had the third worst shooting percentage on the entire team, ahead of only Lacie Hull and Anna Wilson...

And I agree here as well. The combination of Williams being in a slump and Carrington being off the floor has hurt us badly.  We are not going to beat too many elite teams if that continues--no matter how good Jones turns out to be (and she is good--but we need her to replace Alanna Smith's production--not Williams's and Carrington's.) 

I am concerned not only about Williams' shooting slump--she seems to be having an assist slump as well.  This year she is averaging 3.6 assists per game, last year she averaged 4.7--and last year's stats include a lot of very tough games.  Here are her assists recently:
Davis: 1
Texas: 1
Tennessee: 7
Ohio State: 2
Mississippi State: 1
Syracuse: 7
Cal Baptist: 2

Now what do you notice about this pattern?  The two games when she had 7 assists are the two games when we shot lights-out from three.  The other games when she had only 1 or 2 assists are games in which we struggled with three point shooting.  Williams gets almost all her assists now from three point shots.  Maybe that is appropriate for the Princeton, since the interior feeds are usually provided from the high post where she doesn't play and where she lacks the height to play--but this is different from last year.

Harder to judge her defense, but she was on the floor when teams like Cal Baptist and Davis started shooting lights-out from the perimeter. 

Something definitely seems not right for Williams.

Now, as for Davis being particularly well prepared to defend the Princeton--they were.  But they were last year when we squashed them, twice.  Texas and Davis have shown how to sharply curtail the back door cuts.  The entire Pac 12 has seen us run the Princeton for a while now, and they all will be watching the film.  I think we need to expect every team to be doing what Texas and Davis did to disrupt us--until we start hitting our threes again.  In a way, it is the same problem we have had playing against the zone--although these defenses are not zones.  I don't think the back door cuts work until we force the opposing defenses to space out, and having multiple players hitting treys accomplishes that.  It worked pretty well for Davis.

During the game I thought we did not have enough three point shooting out there too often.  Williams seems hesitant to take her threes now.  Jones doesn't take them often and they sagged off her.  Lexie and Lacie will shoot, but Lexie was sitting with foul trouble a lot during the second half.  Jump was in for a bit but fouled a couple of times and did not stay out there very long.  Wilson hasn't shot threes well or taken many for the past couple of seasons.  Part of the reason we were struggling was not hitting threes, but we weren't taking many, and many of those taken were not in rhythm.  Player gets ball, is open but is not thinking shoot, and the opportunity goes, or they shoot after a brief hesitation, but not as good a shot that way as if right in rhythm.  Hard to make threes when the offense doesn't get the shooters open and when it does, some of them are not ready to let fly.

[chimera]

I'm starting to wonder if something is more systematically off with Kiana Williams. She has had flashes of her old self this season, but for the most part, she's had a rough shooting stretch that began this spring, continued into the Pan-Am this summer, and has largely plagued her this fall. Coming into this game, if you can believe it, she had the third worst shooting percentage on the entire team, ahead of only Lacie Hull and Anna Wilson...

And I agree here as well. The combination of Williams being in a slump and Carrington being off the floor has hurt us badly.  We are not going to beat too many elite teams if that continues--no matter how good Jones turns out to be (and she is good--but we need her to replace Alanna Smith's production--not Williams's and Carrington's.) 

I am concerned not only about Williams' shooting slump--she seems to be having an assist slump as well.  This year she is averaging 3.6 assists per game, last year she averaged 4.7--and last year's stats include a lot of very tough games.  Here are her assists recently:
Davis: 1
Texas: 1
Tennessee: 7
Ohio State: 2
Mississippi State: 1
Syracuse: 7
Cal Baptist: 2

Now what do you notice about this pattern?  The two games when she had 7 assists are the two games when we shot lights-out from three.  The other games when she had only 1 or 2 assists are games in which we struggled with three point shooting.  Williams gets almost all her assists now from three point shots.  Maybe that is appropriate for the Princeton, since the interior feeds are usually provided from the high post where she doesn't play and where she lacks the height to play--but this is different from last year.

Harder to judge her defense, but she was on the floor when teams like Cal Baptist and Davis started shooting lights-out from the perimeter. 

Something definitely seems not right for Williams.

Now, as for Davis being particularly well prepared to defend the Princeton--they were.  But they were last year when we squashed them, twice.  Texas and Davis have shown how to sharply curtail the back door cuts.  The entire Pac 12 has seen us run the Princeton for a while now, and they all will be watching the film.  I think we need to expect every team to be doing what Texas and Davis did to disrupt us--until we start hitting our threes again.  In a way, it is the same problem we have had playing against the zone--although these defenses are not zones.  I don't think the back door cuts work until we force the opposing defenses to space out, and having multiple players hitting treys accomplishes that.  It worked pretty well for Davis.

During the game I thought we did not have enough three point shooting out there too often.  Williams seems hesitant to take her threes now.  Jones doesn't take them often and they sagged off her.  Lexie and Lacie will shoot, but Lexie was sitting with foul trouble a lot during the second half.  Jump was in for a bit but fouled a couple of times and did not stay out there very long.  Wilson hasn't shot threes well or taken many for the past couple of seasons.  Part of the reason we were struggling was not hitting threes, but we weren't taking many, and many of those taken were not in rhythm.  Player gets ball, is open but is not thinking shoot, and the opportunity goes, or they shoot after a brief hesitation, but not as good a shot that way as if right in rhythm.  Hard to make threes when the offense doesn't get the shooters open and when it does, some of them are not ready to let fly.