01-22-2023, 12:44 PM
Finally had a chance to watch the Utah game and generally liked what I saw. A few scattered thoughts:
-Mid-Range Jumpers: First and foremost, wow, was Tara reading this forum? Each of Brink, Jump, and Jones hit those early, and Jones and Jump hit them often, and it really opened up our offense. No idea why we didn't try that more against USC, but I'm glad to see it's very much in our repertoire, and hopefully will remain part of our standard offensive sets.
-Bench: While I agree we need to get more production from our bench, my general impression was that almost all our plays were set up to get the ball to Brink, Jones, or Jump, so other than Nivar, Emma-Nnopu, and Belibi (who's a "bench" player in name only), the rest of the bench took a total of 3 shots. Hard to have much to say about the bench when they basically weren't asked to do much, offensively.
-Lepolo/Nivar: I'm really hopeful Lepolo's injury was minor and she'll be back ASAP, but I was encouraged by how Nivar acquitted herself. Her shots were not falling, and a 1-7 shooting % will not cut it over the long term, but she's a playmaker, has great court vision and ball handling, and doesn't seem intimidated. I feel like we'll see a lot of her today against Colorado, because her style matches up well against Colorado's very physical, gritty, pressuring play style.
-Jones. As usual, she matches up best against teams where their size can't take away her inside game, and Utah's not an especially post-heavy team, so she had a field day inside. I suspect it won't be as easy given how physical Colorado is, coupled with their greater size inside.
This team vs. 2020-21: I actually don't know that I think we're that much worse off than we were then -- I just think we caught lightning in a bottle, and several other teams (UConn when not depleted with injuries, and SCAR) are better than they were two seasons ago. I do agree that Williams is a brobdingnagian loss for us, but as jonnyss noted, she was not her usual self during our run. And although we don't have Lexlie Hull, the fifth starter was Wilson, and as much as I appreciated Wilson, I would already say Lepolo adds more to our team than Wilson did. (And Jump was essentially a non-presence during our Final Four games, so in that sense, she's apples and oranges today as compared to two seasons ago.)
To me, the major question is whether we want a second true big starting alongside Brink: at the beginning of the season, Iriafen seemed like an obvious answer, but against Utah, we went with essentially four guards and Brink most of the time, and that seemed to work pretty well (admittedly, it was also the obvious choice given their lack of size and outside shooting ability).
For all the talent we have in the post, though, none has been a consistent offensive producer apart from Brink - Iriafen, Belibi, and Prechtel have each had moments, and they each have different strengths and weaknesses as a post player, but none is so compelling as to obviously deserve a starting position. (Iriafen is the closest, and she's still very productive when the ball is in her hands, but her scoring seems to have trailed off along with her now mostly MIA midrange jumper.) The problem if we don't go with a second big is who the third true guard should be - while Emma-NNopu brings a ton of energy, length, and defensive prowess, she just can't seem to find the basketball, and coupled with Lepolo, who still is a little shot-shy, that leaves us with two not-especially-scoring minded players...
So I guess the main difficulty is that our team has many more options than it did two seasons ago, but perhaps a less obvious starting five than we had then, which I suspect is what's causing our angst.
-Mid-Range Jumpers: First and foremost, wow, was Tara reading this forum? Each of Brink, Jump, and Jones hit those early, and Jones and Jump hit them often, and it really opened up our offense. No idea why we didn't try that more against USC, but I'm glad to see it's very much in our repertoire, and hopefully will remain part of our standard offensive sets.
-Bench: While I agree we need to get more production from our bench, my general impression was that almost all our plays were set up to get the ball to Brink, Jones, or Jump, so other than Nivar, Emma-Nnopu, and Belibi (who's a "bench" player in name only), the rest of the bench took a total of 3 shots. Hard to have much to say about the bench when they basically weren't asked to do much, offensively.
-Lepolo/Nivar: I'm really hopeful Lepolo's injury was minor and she'll be back ASAP, but I was encouraged by how Nivar acquitted herself. Her shots were not falling, and a 1-7 shooting % will not cut it over the long term, but she's a playmaker, has great court vision and ball handling, and doesn't seem intimidated. I feel like we'll see a lot of her today against Colorado, because her style matches up well against Colorado's very physical, gritty, pressuring play style.
-Jones. As usual, she matches up best against teams where their size can't take away her inside game, and Utah's not an especially post-heavy team, so she had a field day inside. I suspect it won't be as easy given how physical Colorado is, coupled with their greater size inside.
This team vs. 2020-21: I actually don't know that I think we're that much worse off than we were then -- I just think we caught lightning in a bottle, and several other teams (UConn when not depleted with injuries, and SCAR) are better than they were two seasons ago. I do agree that Williams is a brobdingnagian loss for us, but as jonnyss noted, she was not her usual self during our run. And although we don't have Lexlie Hull, the fifth starter was Wilson, and as much as I appreciated Wilson, I would already say Lepolo adds more to our team than Wilson did. (And Jump was essentially a non-presence during our Final Four games, so in that sense, she's apples and oranges today as compared to two seasons ago.)
To me, the major question is whether we want a second true big starting alongside Brink: at the beginning of the season, Iriafen seemed like an obvious answer, but against Utah, we went with essentially four guards and Brink most of the time, and that seemed to work pretty well (admittedly, it was also the obvious choice given their lack of size and outside shooting ability).
For all the talent we have in the post, though, none has been a consistent offensive producer apart from Brink - Iriafen, Belibi, and Prechtel have each had moments, and they each have different strengths and weaknesses as a post player, but none is so compelling as to obviously deserve a starting position. (Iriafen is the closest, and she's still very productive when the ball is in her hands, but her scoring seems to have trailed off along with her now mostly MIA midrange jumper.) The problem if we don't go with a second big is who the third true guard should be - while Emma-NNopu brings a ton of energy, length, and defensive prowess, she just can't seem to find the basketball, and coupled with Lepolo, who still is a little shot-shy, that leaves us with two not-especially-scoring minded players...
So I guess the main difficulty is that our team has many more options than it did two seasons ago, but perhaps a less obvious starting five than we had then, which I suspect is what's causing our angst.