Jones has always been this way to a degree--an unselfish player who only "takes over" in big games and in crunch time. I've always felt her unselfishness seems almost lackadaisical at times. Given we have played no one who has challenged us, this is the Jones I would expect. But 3/11 with 4 turnovers seems subpar for Jones.
Not sure if anyone noticed, but Lepolo was 3/4, missing one three point attempt, but showing some facility in driving. The 4 turnovers were not good (to go with 4 assists), but then Jones also had 4 turnovers and only 1 assist.
Looking at the season stats so far, Nivar, Bosgana, and Emma-Nnopu have all averaged the same number of minutes per game so far. Emma-Nnopu may be starting, but the three of them are essentially splitting a single position at 13 mpg. I think Tara is giving them all a chance to shine as she makes the tough decision about who will eventually get most of the minutes, or whether all three remain in the rotation. Emma-Nnopu's offense was better last night, going 3/5 and hitting a trey in the mix. I get the feeling that Bosgana's defense vs. Emma-Nnopu's offense may prove the determining factors as the season wears on, unless Nivar develops really fast.
I've been trying to figure out if we are still playing the Princeton. Maybe it is just the personnel changes but the offense looks quite different to me this year. I'm not seeing the point guard hand off on the perimeter nearly so much, for example, nor have I seen that many back-door cuts or attempts to set up back-door cuts. In any case, while we can argue about playing a series of puffcakes, we have not put up so many points and won by such enormous margins even when we played puffcakes in the past. Something is clicking.
Jones and Lepolo are such radically different types of point guards that comparing them seems silly. Both are doing well statistically, although neither of them did as well last night as in prior games. I wonder if this might represent an advantage to swap them in and out of the point guard role as a change of pace and as a way to make us harder to scout, as opposed to eventually settling on one.
I think I must now agree that our pre-South Carolina schedule could have used at least one game with stiffer competition. These are great games for such a deep team like ours since so many players get to play, but there is a point of diminishing returns to playing weaker teams and we have passed that point. It may not have been clear how dominant our third string was going to be when the schedule was put together. But the fact that we are pummeling opponents while our two all-Americans are having mediocre performances makes me uncomfortable. We need to do more to get Jones and Brink up to top form before Nov 20th.
Not sure if anyone noticed, but Lepolo was 3/4, missing one three point attempt, but showing some facility in driving. The 4 turnovers were not good (to go with 4 assists), but then Jones also had 4 turnovers and only 1 assist.
Looking at the season stats so far, Nivar, Bosgana, and Emma-Nnopu have all averaged the same number of minutes per game so far. Emma-Nnopu may be starting, but the three of them are essentially splitting a single position at 13 mpg. I think Tara is giving them all a chance to shine as she makes the tough decision about who will eventually get most of the minutes, or whether all three remain in the rotation. Emma-Nnopu's offense was better last night, going 3/5 and hitting a trey in the mix. I get the feeling that Bosgana's defense vs. Emma-Nnopu's offense may prove the determining factors as the season wears on, unless Nivar develops really fast.
I've been trying to figure out if we are still playing the Princeton. Maybe it is just the personnel changes but the offense looks quite different to me this year. I'm not seeing the point guard hand off on the perimeter nearly so much, for example, nor have I seen that many back-door cuts or attempts to set up back-door cuts. In any case, while we can argue about playing a series of puffcakes, we have not put up so many points and won by such enormous margins even when we played puffcakes in the past. Something is clicking.
Jones and Lepolo are such radically different types of point guards that comparing them seems silly. Both are doing well statistically, although neither of them did as well last night as in prior games. I wonder if this might represent an advantage to swap them in and out of the point guard role as a change of pace and as a way to make us harder to scout, as opposed to eventually settling on one.
I think I must now agree that our pre-South Carolina schedule could have used at least one game with stiffer competition. These are great games for such a deep team like ours since so many players get to play, but there is a point of diminishing returns to playing weaker teams and we have passed that point. It may not have been clear how dominant our third string was going to be when the schedule was put together. But the fact that we are pummeling opponents while our two all-Americans are having mediocre performances makes me uncomfortable. We need to do more to get Jones and Brink up to top form before Nov 20th.