[81alum]

I thought the perimeter defense was appalling -- a lot of Washington's shots, especially in the first half, were great looks by wide-open players.

In the press conference Tara remarked that "We couldn't leave anyone." That little comment is revealing.  Leaving an opposing player open is often necessary in a "scouting report defense."  Tara's teams shut down Maya Moore and Brittany Griner by pulling defenders away from other players to shut down the opposing stars.  Clearly the defense we employed against Washington was trying to identify which of the opposing players to concentrate on stopping and which to leave open.  Ideally, you leave open the worst shooting player and dare them to take the shot.

This strategy does not work when "unfeatured" players on the other team are capable of scoring effectively when the defense on them sags off.  That is exactly what happened at the three point line with Mercedes Wetmore.  We were focused on their star Jazmine Davis and did slow her down a little--she was 0/3 from three--but Wetmore we left wide open and she went 3/5 from three.  It looked incredibly embarrassing when she took her treys and was completely alone.

But Wetmore had taken only 34 three point shots all year, and while she was a respectable 38%, she certainly did not seem to be the threat that Davis and Plum presented--each of whom is making treys at about the same % but each of whom has taken 150+ shots.  So I can see why the scouting report said to put more focus on covering Plum and Davis even if it meant sagging off of Wetmore. 

But Wetmore obviously went into the game with the idea that she was going to take three point shots--she set up for catch-and-shoot treys every chance she could get.  She looked like Bonnie out there.  The Stanford gameplan seems to have played right into the Washington gameplan.  Wetmore probably had quite some time to psychological prepare herself to be a featured three point shooter in the Stanford game, and she came in and shot just as if it were practice.  In fact, given that her defender almost never was in her vicinity, it might as well have been practice.

Balanced scoring is the death of scouting report defenses, and every Washington starter scored at least 13 points.

[81alum]

I thought the perimeter defense was appalling -- a lot of Washington's shots, especially in the first half, were great looks by wide-open players.

In the press conference Tara remarked that "We couldn't leave anyone." That little comment is revealing.  Leaving an opposing player open is often necessary in a "scouting report defense."  Tara's teams shut down Maya Moore and Brittany Griner by pulling defenders away from other players to shut down the opposing stars.  Clearly the defense we employed against Washington was trying to identify which of the opposing players to concentrate on stopping and which to leave open.  Ideally, you leave open the worst shooting player and dare them to take the shot.

This strategy does not work when "unfeatured" players on the other team are capable of scoring effectively when the defense on them sags off.  That is exactly what happened at the three point line with Mercedes Wetmore.  We were focused on their star Jazmine Davis and did slow her down a little--she was 0/3 from three--but Wetmore we left wide open and she went 3/5 from three.  It looked incredibly embarrassing when she took her treys and was completely alone.

But Wetmore had taken only 34 three point shots all year, and while she was a respectable 38%, she certainly did not seem to be the threat that Davis and Plum presented--each of whom is making treys at about the same % but each of whom has taken 150+ shots.  So I can see why the scouting report said to put more focus on covering Plum and Davis even if it meant sagging off of Wetmore. 

But Wetmore obviously went into the game with the idea that she was going to take three point shots--she set up for catch-and-shoot treys every chance she could get.  She looked like Bonnie out there.  The Stanford gameplan seems to have played right into the Washington gameplan.  Wetmore probably had quite some time to psychological prepare herself to be a featured three point shooter in the Stanford game, and she came in and shot just as if it were practice.  In fact, given that her defender almost never was in her vicinity, it might as well have been practice.

Balanced scoring is the death of scouting report defenses, and every Washington starter scored at least 13 points.