03-09-2021, 12:30 PM
81alum, I was going to create a similar thread, but you beat me to the punch.
We are also of similar minds in regards to worrying and to our assessment of the team.
Like you, I see our post position as a potential area of concern. Brink is awesome and when she's in the game, she's a difference maker on both ends of the court. However, the question is whether she can stay on the court and not pick up fouls. Tara knows she has a tendency to get them, so she will quickly pull Cameron if she gets an early foul, which brings Prechtel off the bench.
In my opinion, at the moment, Prechtel is a better shooter than Cameron is, but she lacks the paint scoring ability Brink has and while we have a plethora of capable shooters on the team, our ability to post up and score in the paint is much more limited. So not having Cameron playing takes that element away from our offense. Fran showed in bursts at the beginning of the season, especially in the first ASU game, that she can score in the paint, but she has not shown anywhere near that output ever since. Can she bring that back in time for the tournament?
I agree that our shooting and not just our 3-point shooting can go cold at times. As we saw, when our long range shots are landing, it opens up so many avenues for our offense, but teams will be content to let us blast away if those shots aren't going through the net and if teams have good post defenders, that might take away our drives to the basket.
I haven't really watched any other non-Stanford wBB games this season, except for most of the S. Carolina-UConn game. For UConn, locking down Bueckers is obviously important, I think Cameron will be matched up against Nelson-Ododa and I've been surprised at how much Westbrook has largely been a non-factor. I think we have good perimeter defenders to guard her and Christyn Williams.
For South Carolina, their go-to player is Boston. Like Brink, she not only scores and has a little range (she can knock down a 3 from time to time like Brink), but she can also block (2.8 b/g). That matchup will come down to whoever can keep out of foul trouble and we can potentially put Prechtel as another person to absorb fouls. Their point guard Henderson is fast, much like MacDonald, but she is also turnover-prone (2.8 to/g). Their other main guard Zia Cooke is also prone to coughing the ball up (2.4 to/g), so the Hull sisters and Wilson who are excellent at pressuring their player and stealing the ball should be matched up against them.
We are also of similar minds in regards to worrying and to our assessment of the team.
Like you, I see our post position as a potential area of concern. Brink is awesome and when she's in the game, she's a difference maker on both ends of the court. However, the question is whether she can stay on the court and not pick up fouls. Tara knows she has a tendency to get them, so she will quickly pull Cameron if she gets an early foul, which brings Prechtel off the bench.
In my opinion, at the moment, Prechtel is a better shooter than Cameron is, but she lacks the paint scoring ability Brink has and while we have a plethora of capable shooters on the team, our ability to post up and score in the paint is much more limited. So not having Cameron playing takes that element away from our offense. Fran showed in bursts at the beginning of the season, especially in the first ASU game, that she can score in the paint, but she has not shown anywhere near that output ever since. Can she bring that back in time for the tournament?
I agree that our shooting and not just our 3-point shooting can go cold at times. As we saw, when our long range shots are landing, it opens up so many avenues for our offense, but teams will be content to let us blast away if those shots aren't going through the net and if teams have good post defenders, that might take away our drives to the basket.
I haven't really watched any other non-Stanford wBB games this season, except for most of the S. Carolina-UConn game. For UConn, locking down Bueckers is obviously important, I think Cameron will be matched up against Nelson-Ododa and I've been surprised at how much Westbrook has largely been a non-factor. I think we have good perimeter defenders to guard her and Christyn Williams.
For South Carolina, their go-to player is Boston. Like Brink, she not only scores and has a little range (she can knock down a 3 from time to time like Brink), but she can also block (2.8 b/g). That matchup will come down to whoever can keep out of foul trouble and we can potentially put Prechtel as another person to absorb fouls. Their point guard Henderson is fast, much like MacDonald, but she is also turnover-prone (2.8 to/g). Their other main guard Zia Cooke is also prone to coughing the ball up (2.4 to/g), so the Hull sisters and Wilson who are excellent at pressuring their player and stealing the ball should be matched up against them.