[cardfan1996]

Nivar, Hannah, Bosgana, Haley and Brink

Nivar, Hannah, Haley, Brink, Ashten

I am not sold on Nivar at point this year.  I don't think there is time enough left in the year for her to develop into a championship caliber point guard.  In fact, she has been fairly reluctant to shoot and her FG% is 12% lower than Lepolo's.  That's a lot.  Her assist rate is pedestrian, too, with 1 assist every 12 minutes she plays.  She may well develop those skills heading into next year, but they are not there yet.  I am beginning to realize that Jones is probably the best option, despite all the obvious issues with it that we have talked about all year.

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Haley is also a dreadful (not strong enough word IMO) defender on the perimeter. She refuses to come out, get in a defensive stance and guard. She is equally horrible at running out to contest shots.

Being a 1 on offense does not mean defending the opponent's 1 on defense, so I don't see how playing Jones at point would have anything to do with her (curious) defensive lapses.

MT is the other Cardboarder who has often observed Jones' poor perimeter defense.  It is so obvious that I have to think it is by design.  We sag off whichever player we want to take the three, and Jones seems to be the designated sagger.  She is then available to cut off driving lanes and to double whenever the ball comes into the paint. 

What is the alternative interpretation?  That an All-American, #1 ESPN recruit playing for the winningest coach of all time is allowed to commit egregious defensive lapses over and over with no correction?  It just doesn't make sense to me.

In the past, there have been occasional admissions by Tara that we DON'T want to contest every shot--we want to contest all the good shooters and encourage the bad shooters to shoot.  I don't know if this is always what is happening with Jones, but my brain just boggles at any alternative explanation for Jones's frequent decisions not to contest a perimeter shot.  That does not mean that Tara's strategy necessarily works.  Elle Ladine is proof of that.

Then I don’t know who you lineup is then if you want Jones to play a 4 on defense. Brooke is probably the only player worse at perimeter defense (or any defense) than Haley. I give Haley the edge because of her strong defensive rebounding. Brooke can score. Brooke can pass (I would say even better than Haley which may be controversial). But Brooke does not play defense or rebound. Tara has surely known this since the S.Florida loss where we were demolished on the offensive boards by the player Brooke was suppose to block out and defend.

You said:
“What is the alternative interpretation?  That an All-American, #1 ESPN recruit playing for the winningest coach of all time is allowed to commit egregious defensive lapses over and over with no correction?  It just doesn't make sense to me.”

Haley is caught in switches all the time with good perimeter shooters and doesn’t guard them. If she is sagging, she is certainly not close enough to help anybody in the post out. She and Fran are the only players that are coached on a “neither here nor there” defensive strategy. They are neither close enough to contest the player they are responsible for, nor are they close enough to double effectively and frankly Brink doesn’t need their help. Fran’s lapses led to 3 straight 3-pointers by Westbrook in the UConn game. 9 easy pts on open shots in a game where points were hard to come by.

You are either coaching it or allowing it.

[cardfan1996]

Nivar, Hannah, Bosgana, Haley and Brink

Nivar, Hannah, Haley, Brink, Ashten

I am not sold on Nivar at point this year.  I don't think there is time enough left in the year for her to develop into a championship caliber point guard.  In fact, she has been fairly reluctant to shoot and her FG% is 12% lower than Lepolo's.  That's a lot.  Her assist rate is pedestrian, too, with 1 assist every 12 minutes she plays.  She may well develop those skills heading into next year, but they are not there yet.  I am beginning to realize that Jones is probably the best option, despite all the obvious issues with it that we have talked about all year.

---

Haley is also a dreadful (not strong enough word IMO) defender on the perimeter. She refuses to come out, get in a defensive stance and guard. She is equally horrible at running out to contest shots.

Being a 1 on offense does not mean defending the opponent's 1 on defense, so I don't see how playing Jones at point would have anything to do with her (curious) defensive lapses.

MT is the other Cardboarder who has often observed Jones' poor perimeter defense.  It is so obvious that I have to think it is by design.  We sag off whichever player we want to take the three, and Jones seems to be the designated sagger.  She is then available to cut off driving lanes and to double whenever the ball comes into the paint. 

What is the alternative interpretation?  That an All-American, #1 ESPN recruit playing for the winningest coach of all time is allowed to commit egregious defensive lapses over and over with no correction?  It just doesn't make sense to me.

In the past, there have been occasional admissions by Tara that we DON'T want to contest every shot--we want to contest all the good shooters and encourage the bad shooters to shoot.  I don't know if this is always what is happening with Jones, but my brain just boggles at any alternative explanation for Jones's frequent decisions not to contest a perimeter shot.  That does not mean that Tara's strategy necessarily works.  Elle Ladine is proof of that.

Then I don’t know who you lineup is then if you want Jones to play a 4 on defense. Brooke is probably the only player worse at perimeter defense (or any defense) than Haley. I give Haley the edge because of her strong defensive rebounding. Brooke can score. Brooke can pass (I would say even better than Haley which may be controversial). But Brooke does not play defense or rebound. Tara has surely known this since the S.Florida loss where we were demolished on the offensive boards by the player Brooke was suppose to block out and defend.

You said:
“What is the alternative interpretation?  That an All-American, #1 ESPN recruit playing for the winningest coach of all time is allowed to commit egregious defensive lapses over and over with no correction?  It just doesn't make sense to me.”

Haley is caught in switches all the time with good perimeter shooters and doesn’t guard them. If she is sagging, she is certainly not close enough to help anybody in the post out. She and Fran are the only players that are coached on a “neither here nor there” defensive strategy. They are neither close enough to contest the player they are responsible for, nor are they close enough to double effectively and frankly Brink doesn’t need their help. Fran’s lapses led to 3 straight 3-pointers by Westbrook in the UConn game. 9 easy pts on open shots in a game where points were hard to come by.

You are either coaching it or allowing it.