11-02-2023, 04:28 PM
Perhaps there were comments about last night's exhibition game against Dominican, but maybe they were on another thread.
In any event, I came away with several positives and a couple of negatives.
First, the positives in no particular order. Obviously, the opponent was inferior, talent wise, and lacked the size to compete with the Cardinal on the inside, but our team played with a cohesiveness- with excellent spacing, tempo and passing that I did not see in the scrimmage. I was particularly impressed with Kiki's positioning for both her offensive and defensive rebounding. That kind of positioning did not seem to be there last season.
Especially impressed with Chloe- Quicker and more athletic than Talana- 3 steals and only 1 turnover in almost 23 minutes. Handles the ball very well. Multiple times she got into the opponent's face on defense, strong on those fast breaks, and poised! Although she missed a little 10' jumper in the key, I loved how she stopped on a dime, pulled up and shot that ball. Certainly has things to learn, but Chloe may be the best of our 3 freshmen right now and she can definitely help us.
Nunu, undersized @ 6'2, but strong and physical. Yes, she played against smaller players, but I loved her aggressiveness around the basket. She'll need to learn through experience how to be effective against taller players, but she showed us (on one play) her ability to drive the ball and finish.
Tara is making the right choice to start Bosgana. She plays with much more confidence than when she did coming off the bench. What I liked about her last night was (her) choosing to drive to the hoop and scoring. She has a big, physical body and uses it better than her first two seasons. On defense, she's long and disruptive. Got 3 steals, 4 assists (she was actually looking for other teammates!!), and only 1 TO.
As typical of last season and the season before that, Tara pulled Brink early in the 3rd. quarter (14:14 min. playing time) and she never came back. I'm sure part of the reason was to protect her from an unnecessary injury. The other part was giving others more playing time. There was a brief moment when Tara had Brink playing with all 3 freshmen and a reserve. I wish we could have seen more of that.
Two disappointments- 1) For 3 quarters, we played excellent team basketball and actually looking for opportunities to free up people on the interior to get the pass and score with the 3-pointer as the 2nd. or sometimes a 3rd. option. In the 4th. quarter, Dominican outscored us 21-15. Yes, we had our subs in there, but what irked me was we stopped playing as a team and kept hoisting up 3-pointers that missed and Dominican would come down, run really good plays and score on us, again and again. They were the aggressors and put our players on our heels, much to the delight of Dominican's large fan base that was at Maples. For the life of me, why Tara allowed that to continue is beyond me. I'm wondering was that deliberate, choosing not to run up the score but give the visitors something to cheer about?
My 2nd. disappointment was Demetre. In the scrimmage against the men (who were tall and certainly more athletic than Dominican), Brooke displayed that beautiful turn around jumper that went in more often than not. Last night against players 3-5" shorter than her, every turnaround was forced or taken off-balance. In 21:25 minutes, she went an embarrassing 2-10 and 1-5 beyond the arc. Tara loves Demetre, playing her over 21 minutes- and leaving her in despite her poor offensive performance against small defenders. I was hoping for more because she is one of the first off the bench and we need Brooke to be more than a set 3-point shooter this season.
Certainly more positives than negatives last night. Hawaii will be several steps up in terms of competition, and then comes Indiana.
In any event, I came away with several positives and a couple of negatives.
First, the positives in no particular order. Obviously, the opponent was inferior, talent wise, and lacked the size to compete with the Cardinal on the inside, but our team played with a cohesiveness- with excellent spacing, tempo and passing that I did not see in the scrimmage. I was particularly impressed with Kiki's positioning for both her offensive and defensive rebounding. That kind of positioning did not seem to be there last season.
Especially impressed with Chloe- Quicker and more athletic than Talana- 3 steals and only 1 turnover in almost 23 minutes. Handles the ball very well. Multiple times she got into the opponent's face on defense, strong on those fast breaks, and poised! Although she missed a little 10' jumper in the key, I loved how she stopped on a dime, pulled up and shot that ball. Certainly has things to learn, but Chloe may be the best of our 3 freshmen right now and she can definitely help us.
Nunu, undersized @ 6'2, but strong and physical. Yes, she played against smaller players, but I loved her aggressiveness around the basket. She'll need to learn through experience how to be effective against taller players, but she showed us (on one play) her ability to drive the ball and finish.
Tara is making the right choice to start Bosgana. She plays with much more confidence than when she did coming off the bench. What I liked about her last night was (her) choosing to drive to the hoop and scoring. She has a big, physical body and uses it better than her first two seasons. On defense, she's long and disruptive. Got 3 steals, 4 assists (she was actually looking for other teammates!!), and only 1 TO.
As typical of last season and the season before that, Tara pulled Brink early in the 3rd. quarter (14:14 min. playing time) and she never came back. I'm sure part of the reason was to protect her from an unnecessary injury. The other part was giving others more playing time. There was a brief moment when Tara had Brink playing with all 3 freshmen and a reserve. I wish we could have seen more of that.
Two disappointments- 1) For 3 quarters, we played excellent team basketball and actually looking for opportunities to free up people on the interior to get the pass and score with the 3-pointer as the 2nd. or sometimes a 3rd. option. In the 4th. quarter, Dominican outscored us 21-15. Yes, we had our subs in there, but what irked me was we stopped playing as a team and kept hoisting up 3-pointers that missed and Dominican would come down, run really good plays and score on us, again and again. They were the aggressors and put our players on our heels, much to the delight of Dominican's large fan base that was at Maples. For the life of me, why Tara allowed that to continue is beyond me. I'm wondering was that deliberate, choosing not to run up the score but give the visitors something to cheer about?
My 2nd. disappointment was Demetre. In the scrimmage against the men (who were tall and certainly more athletic than Dominican), Brooke displayed that beautiful turn around jumper that went in more often than not. Last night against players 3-5" shorter than her, every turnaround was forced or taken off-balance. In 21:25 minutes, she went an embarrassing 2-10 and 1-5 beyond the arc. Tara loves Demetre, playing her over 21 minutes- and leaving her in despite her poor offensive performance against small defenders. I was hoping for more because she is one of the first off the bench and we need Brooke to be more than a set 3-point shooter this season.
Certainly more positives than negatives last night. Hawaii will be several steps up in terms of competition, and then comes Indiana.