Lots of great comments, as usual, by Baez87 and 81alum, among others.
This reminded me of those wars we used to have with ASU when Charli Turner Thorne's teams were relentless and you figured if you could get into the high 50s you'd have a win. Credit Cal for some excellent strategy and execution on both defense and offense. I thought they had many more good looks than we did and had they hit more open shots would have won going away.
Something that has been concerning me the last five games is how cold both Ashten and Brooke have been. During this period, Ashten is 0-10 and Demetre is 1-14 from three. So our two best big deep threats (with apologies to Cam) have been 1-24! Not that defenders are ever going to leave Ashten open, but I noticed that Brooke was getting a little of the Agnes treatment a couple of times when they left her wide open in the right corner. She never used to hesitate and I'm betting Ashten never will, but Brooke seems to be more of a pass-first perimeter option than the former shoot-first-if-open threat. I hope neither of those two are starting to lose confidence in their shot, just as I hope Kiki is not letting the traveling, missed bunnies and blocks deter her from being aggressive down low.
The problem with our bigs getting cold from outside is that it means less room for everyone else to drive in the paint, notably Haley, but also Cam, Hannah on back-door cuts, etc. I love it when our bigs are draining threes from the outside and everyone else has a lane to cut to the basket, but when these shots stop falling, it has a significant impact on how effective our offense can be. Talana being willing to take and hit the three is brobdingnagian. I can't wait until Ashten and Brooke start to heat up again. What I'd really like to see is Elena and/or Indya also become reliable perimeter threats. Unlike Hannah, they are capable of creating their own shot -- and if we can get them to be better defensively, they might be able to give us something that Agnes just doesn't seem destined to be able to pull off.
This was a good game for us -- and a good coaching tool for the staff -- to help prepare us for a trip to LA next week.
This reminded me of those wars we used to have with ASU when Charli Turner Thorne's teams were relentless and you figured if you could get into the high 50s you'd have a win. Credit Cal for some excellent strategy and execution on both defense and offense. I thought they had many more good looks than we did and had they hit more open shots would have won going away.
Something that has been concerning me the last five games is how cold both Ashten and Brooke have been. During this period, Ashten is 0-10 and Demetre is 1-14 from three. So our two best big deep threats (with apologies to Cam) have been 1-24! Not that defenders are ever going to leave Ashten open, but I noticed that Brooke was getting a little of the Agnes treatment a couple of times when they left her wide open in the right corner. She never used to hesitate and I'm betting Ashten never will, but Brooke seems to be more of a pass-first perimeter option than the former shoot-first-if-open threat. I hope neither of those two are starting to lose confidence in their shot, just as I hope Kiki is not letting the traveling, missed bunnies and blocks deter her from being aggressive down low.
The problem with our bigs getting cold from outside is that it means less room for everyone else to drive in the paint, notably Haley, but also Cam, Hannah on back-door cuts, etc. I love it when our bigs are draining threes from the outside and everyone else has a lane to cut to the basket, but when these shots stop falling, it has a significant impact on how effective our offense can be. Talana being willing to take and hit the three is brobdingnagian. I can't wait until Ashten and Brooke start to heat up again. What I'd really like to see is Elena and/or Indya also become reliable perimeter threats. Unlike Hannah, they are capable of creating their own shot -- and if we can get them to be better defensively, they might be able to give us something that Agnes just doesn't seem destined to be able to pull off.
This was a good game for us -- and a good coaching tool for the staff -- to help prepare us for a trip to LA next week.