[81alum]

Comment on Brink:   Towards the end of the prior game her arms got tangled with the opponent, I believe on a rebound.   Brink not only did not attempt to untangle, but seemed to purposefully entwine both arms around one of her opponents arms while simultaneously acting like she (Cam) was doing nothing wrong.   Poor acting and poor judgement maybe out of frustration, and I think she (Cam) got called for the foul.   I yelled at the TV, "sit her down" and about a half second later Fran ran to the scorer's table.  Only point here is that along with the fouls last night seems like Brink just needs to play a bit smarter & stay a tad calmer and the foul count will drop.

I went back and rewatched the fouls on Brink.

1. The foul at 7:04 in the 1st did not seem particularly bad.  She rotated to defend against Horsten and Horsten ran into her.  Brink was probably not set for long enough and so it was a blocking call, but it was not egregious.  Her arms could possibly have been more straight up but the foul was called on her body and not being set.

2. The 2nd foul at 8:38 in the 2nd was a moving screen on offense, and she was definitely moving.  But note that this was not about being overly aggressive on defense.

3. The 3rd foul at 8:33 in the 3rd she was on defense against Key.  She was trying to push the larger Key out of the paint (and not succeeding) prior to the pass.  The pass came into Key who made a spin move and the basket.  Brink's contact with Key was not that strong--forearm on the back at the start, there was no arm check or hacking, arms stayed up.  Yes this was a foul, probably, but not a particularly bad one--modest contact on Key's back as she spun.  Key had been pushing the lighter Brink all over the paint at the other end and this looked like similar play but not as effective.

4. The 4th foul at 5:20 in the 3rd Brink rotated to try to stop or block Dye's shot under the basket after Dye blew by Jones.  Brink's error was (I think) leaving her feet to reach for the block, but she was also inside the restricted zone so maybe it wouldn't have mattered.  I guess she should just have let Dye score once Dye got around Jones, but our team is taught to give help.  This one looks more like a mental lapse than the others.

5. The 5th foul at 8:28 in the 4th she was on defense against Key and did not get called on Key's attempt.  The O-board went to Dye and she was called for a foul on Dye's putback.  I did not see a lot of contact from the camera angle--it looks like Brink may have put her hands on the front of Dye as she turned to face her but there was no shove.  Again, it is hard to say this was a bad foul.

Three of her fouls came when she rotated off of her main defensive assignment and made contact while providing help.  One was an offensive foul.  Only 1 foul came on her primary defensive assignment.

In short, all 5 calls were probably technically correct although some of them might not have been called in a less closely refereed contest, and three of them did not look like bad fouls at all.  The 2nd foul on the moving screen was the most obvious of the five, the 4th was possibly a mental lapse, but the other three were all close calls that went against her.  I don't think this is quite as bad as the announcers made it out to be as "a loss of defensive discipline" or whatever they said.  The game was called much tighter inside than we are used to and as evidence of thisTennessee's Key also fouled out.

I do worry about Brink defending Boston--mainly that Boston's size will allow her to muscle her way deep into the paint and Brink is too light to stop it.  Perhaps she will have to front Boston to deny her receiving passes.  Hopefully Belibi will be back by then--we might need her.  Will have to take a look at the game from the semis and see how we handled Boston.

[81alum]

Comment on Brink:   Towards the end of the prior game her arms got tangled with the opponent, I believe on a rebound.   Brink not only did not attempt to untangle, but seemed to purposefully entwine both arms around one of her opponents arms while simultaneously acting like she (Cam) was doing nothing wrong.   Poor acting and poor judgement maybe out of frustration, and I think she (Cam) got called for the foul.   I yelled at the TV, "sit her down" and about a half second later Fran ran to the scorer's table.  Only point here is that along with the fouls last night seems like Brink just needs to play a bit smarter & stay a tad calmer and the foul count will drop.

I went back and rewatched the fouls on Brink.

1. The foul at 7:04 in the 1st did not seem particularly bad.  She rotated to defend against Horsten and Horsten ran into her.  Brink was probably not set for long enough and so it was a blocking call, but it was not egregious.  Her arms could possibly have been more straight up but the foul was called on her body and not being set.

2. The 2nd foul at 8:38 in the 2nd was a moving screen on offense, and she was definitely moving.  But note that this was not about being overly aggressive on defense.

3. The 3rd foul at 8:33 in the 3rd she was on defense against Key.  She was trying to push the larger Key out of the paint (and not succeeding) prior to the pass.  The pass came into Key who made a spin move and the basket.  Brink's contact with Key was not that strong--forearm on the back at the start, there was no arm check or hacking, arms stayed up.  Yes this was a foul, probably, but not a particularly bad one--modest contact on Key's back as she spun.  Key had been pushing the lighter Brink all over the paint at the other end and this looked like similar play but not as effective.

4. The 4th foul at 5:20 in the 3rd Brink rotated to try to stop or block Dye's shot under the basket after Dye blew by Jones.  Brink's error was (I think) leaving her feet to reach for the block, but she was also inside the restricted zone so maybe it wouldn't have mattered.  I guess she should just have let Dye score once Dye got around Jones, but our team is taught to give help.  This one looks more like a mental lapse than the others.

5. The 5th foul at 8:28 in the 4th she was on defense against Key and did not get called on Key's attempt.  The O-board went to Dye and she was called for a foul on Dye's putback.  I did not see a lot of contact from the camera angle--it looks like Brink may have put her hands on the front of Dye as she turned to face her but there was no shove.  Again, it is hard to say this was a bad foul.

Three of her fouls came when she rotated off of her main defensive assignment and made contact while providing help.  One was an offensive foul.  Only 1 foul came on her primary defensive assignment.

In short, all 5 calls were probably technically correct although some of them might not have been called in a less closely refereed contest, and three of them did not look like bad fouls at all.  The 2nd foul on the moving screen was the most obvious of the five, the 4th was possibly a mental lapse, but the other three were all close calls that went against her.  I don't think this is quite as bad as the announcers made it out to be as "a loss of defensive discipline" or whatever they said.  The game was called much tighter inside than we are used to and as evidence of thisTennessee's Key also fouled out.

I do worry about Brink defending Boston--mainly that Boston's size will allow her to muscle her way deep into the paint and Brink is too light to stop it.  Perhaps she will have to front Boston to deny her receiving passes.  Hopefully Belibi will be back by then--we might need her.  Will have to take a look at the game from the semis and see how we handled Boston.