[chimera]

re: physical play - I would much rather have the game be too physical vs. too ticky-tack. If the refs get sent too far in the other direction, we end up with a game with too many calls, too many free throws, players fouling out, arguments, replay reviews, etc. Ideally it's somewhere in the middle, but I lean way toward letting the players play. Yes, it benefited Texas yesterday. So be it. Our team knows if they want to repeat as national champion they'll need to overcome that type of play. I don't think they are complaining about that.

re: MT's question "So, what was so good about Lacie that her +/- was 19 in 25 minutes?  She only made 2 points herself and missed 5 3FGA shots.  I didn't check,  but I'd guess she wasn't in when Texas made their four 3PT shots.  Maybe her defense was stopping that?"

There's a lot there. She did get in foul trouble at the end so maybe wasn't on the court for their 3 point shots. And yes, she excels in areas like defense, deflections, etc. that don't show up in the box score. But maybe it's less about what she specifically did and more about what her being on the court enabled others to do. The fact that Texas outscored us by 24 in the 15 minutes when she wasn't in the game probably means that others were not playing well when she wasn't in the game. I think the reason for that has to do with the positions and roles of the other players and what it does to their effectiveness. For instance, the more Haley and Lexie have to handle the ball, the less they get to play at their natural wing spots. They are out of position when the offense is initiated. Maybe the most interesting one here is Anna. I view Anna purely as a role player. She excelled last year as Robin to Kiana's Batman and they made a great complimentary back court. She wasn't asked to do much offensively other than shoot it when she was wide open and to her credit she made the other teams pay last year by shooting it so well from 3. She also could relax some on offense and focus on defense, her specialty. But it looked to me like Anna wasn't herself against Texas on either side of the court. I would guess that without Lacie on the court, it put even more pressure on Anna to be something she's not - a ball handler and a scorer. Anna might end up playing less this year because we need another offensive threat on the court without Kiana there to create. It will be really interesting to see what combinations Tara tries and it could take quite awhile to find the answer.

I've been pondering similar thoughts about Wilson and about why things went well when Lacie was in.  I know +/- can be misleading.  That said, I do believe in this case there is something to it, for the reasons you lay out.  I don't think pg by committee is necessarily bad.  I do think it is not great when the committee consists of players who are out of their usual and more natural positions.  Jones can bring the ball up, but much better if she only does so when she gets a rebound and goes, not when she is trying to run the offense.  She can score and create much better when she gets the ball in the flow of the offense, not when she herself is the initiator.  Same for Lexie who did score well in this game, and did not bring the ball up all that much, but really shouldn't need to be handling the ball as much as she did far from the basket trying to work the offense into shape.  The team stood around too much, and maybe that was early game lack of offensive flow, or maybe it was also somewhat due to people trying to initiate the offense who are not really suited to doing that.

I do think we need more from Wilson as a 6th year player.  No doubt she is more comfortable in the role she had last year.  She is a capable shooter and decent driver, however, and came in as a point guard, I believe.  My hope for her before this season was that she would work hard on her offense and other pg skills and take over the position early on.  Maybe that will yet happen.  My other hope was for Van Gytenbeek to emerge as our pg, either starter or backup to Wilson.  I retain some hope that it was just her relative lack of experience vs a high pressure team like Texas that kept her on the bench and that she will be groomed for more playing time as the season goes on.  

To my mind it is much better to leave all the other players at their natural positions and take whatever we can get from our true point guards, which would be Wilson and Van Gytenbeek mostly, with some help from Hamilton (she was not Northwestern's primary pg for most of her career I believe and it is hard for someone to come in as a new player, learn our system quickly and run the team anyway) and Lacie, who at least played the position some before college.  Jones and Lexie should be doing what they did last year basically, as far as helping with ball handling.  Unless they feel Van Gytenbeek and Wilson are not up to the job now and won't be in the future (gulp!), the simplest and hopefully best long term solution is to let Wilson and Van Gytenbeek run the point, live with their mistakes, even if it costs a game or two early on., and let them learn.  I mean what they chose already resulted in a loss, so...

[chimera]

re: physical play - I would much rather have the game be too physical vs. too ticky-tack. If the refs get sent too far in the other direction, we end up with a game with too many calls, too many free throws, players fouling out, arguments, replay reviews, etc. Ideally it's somewhere in the middle, but I lean way toward letting the players play. Yes, it benefited Texas yesterday. So be it. Our team knows if they want to repeat as national champion they'll need to overcome that type of play. I don't think they are complaining about that.

re: MT's question "So, what was so good about Lacie that her +/- was 19 in 25 minutes?  She only made 2 points herself and missed 5 3FGA shots.  I didn't check,  but I'd guess she wasn't in when Texas made their four 3PT shots.  Maybe her defense was stopping that?"

There's a lot there. She did get in foul trouble at the end so maybe wasn't on the court for their 3 point shots. And yes, she excels in areas like defense, deflections, etc. that don't show up in the box score. But maybe it's less about what she specifically did and more about what her being on the court enabled others to do. The fact that Texas outscored us by 24 in the 15 minutes when she wasn't in the game probably means that others were not playing well when she wasn't in the game. I think the reason for that has to do with the positions and roles of the other players and what it does to their effectiveness. For instance, the more Haley and Lexie have to handle the ball, the less they get to play at their natural wing spots. They are out of position when the offense is initiated. Maybe the most interesting one here is Anna. I view Anna purely as a role player. She excelled last year as Robin to Kiana's Batman and they made a great complimentary back court. She wasn't asked to do much offensively other than shoot it when she was wide open and to her credit she made the other teams pay last year by shooting it so well from 3. She also could relax some on offense and focus on defense, her specialty. But it looked to me like Anna wasn't herself against Texas on either side of the court. I would guess that without Lacie on the court, it put even more pressure on Anna to be something she's not - a ball handler and a scorer. Anna might end up playing less this year because we need another offensive threat on the court without Kiana there to create. It will be really interesting to see what combinations Tara tries and it could take quite awhile to find the answer.

I've been pondering similar thoughts about Wilson and about why things went well when Lacie was in.  I know +/- can be misleading.  That said, I do believe in this case there is something to it, for the reasons you lay out.  I don't think pg by committee is necessarily bad.  I do think it is not great when the committee consists of players who are out of their usual and more natural positions.  Jones can bring the ball up, but much better if she only does so when she gets a rebound and goes, not when she is trying to run the offense.  She can score and create much better when she gets the ball in the flow of the offense, not when she herself is the initiator.  Same for Lexie who did score well in this game, and did not bring the ball up all that much, but really shouldn't need to be handling the ball as much as she did far from the basket trying to work the offense into shape.  The team stood around too much, and maybe that was early game lack of offensive flow, or maybe it was also somewhat due to people trying to initiate the offense who are not really suited to doing that.

I do think we need more from Wilson as a 6th year player.  No doubt she is more comfortable in the role she had last year.  She is a capable shooter and decent driver, however, and came in as a point guard, I believe.  My hope for her before this season was that she would work hard on her offense and other pg skills and take over the position early on.  Maybe that will yet happen.  My other hope was for Van Gytenbeek to emerge as our pg, either starter or backup to Wilson.  I retain some hope that it was just her relative lack of experience vs a high pressure team like Texas that kept her on the bench and that she will be groomed for more playing time as the season goes on.  

To my mind it is much better to leave all the other players at their natural positions and take whatever we can get from our true point guards, which would be Wilson and Van Gytenbeek mostly, with some help from Hamilton (she was not Northwestern's primary pg for most of her career I believe and it is hard for someone to come in as a new player, learn our system quickly and run the team anyway) and Lacie, who at least played the position some before college.  Jones and Lexie should be doing what they did last year basically, as far as helping with ball handling.  Unless they feel Van Gytenbeek and Wilson are not up to the job now and won't be in the future (gulp!), the simplest and hopefully best long term solution is to let Wilson and Van Gytenbeek run the point, live with their mistakes, even if it costs a game or two early on., and let them learn.  I mean what they chose already resulted in a loss, so...