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WBB: Scouting the University of South Dakota Coyotes - Printable Version

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WBB: Scouting the University of South Dakota Coyotes - 81alum - 03-17-2014

We are playing the South Dakota Coyotes, who are in the tournament for their very first time.

In contrast, the story is very sad for their cross-state rivals the  South Dakota State Jackrabbits, who we beat in Mexico last Fall.

The Jackrabbits beat our future opponent two times quite handily in the regular season.  In fact, the Jackrabbits were 13-1 in conference and 22-9 overall, including an impressive win over Penn State.  Our future opponent the Coyotes, in contrast, were a mediocre 7-7 in league and 19/13 overall, with no impressive wins.  But they got hot in their league tournament and won it.  So although they were a mediocre 4th place team in their own league, they get the automatic bid and the Jackrabbits are out. 

South Dakota won its tournament by beating Western Illinois 96-94, then it beat its cross state nemesis 72-58 in their third game of the year, and finally it beat Denver 82-71.  You might say that it is the U. SC of the Summit league for knocking off the favorite in the second tournament round after losing to them twice earlier in the season.

So who are these Coyotes?  Here are their starters:

Polly Harrington, a 5'11" senior forward.  You can see Ros interview her here:
http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/team/_/id/233/south-dakota-coyotes
Polly is one of their leading scorers at 12 ppg, but averages only 21 minutes.  She leads the team in fouls and has fouled out 5 times this season.  If she stays out of foul trouble she may be their most dangerous player.  She shoots 55% of her field goals.

Tia Hemiller, a 5'6" sophomore guard.  She leads the team in assists, but Seecamp is close.  I would guess that Hemiller is their point guard.  She hits 42% of her threes, but has attempted just 78 of them.  It seems that she is more selective about shooting the three but more effective when she does.  She should not be left wide open.

Lisa Loeffleur, a 6'1" junior forward.  She has started every single game, makes 45% of her field goals and is one of their better free throw shooters at 78%.  The fact that she plays nearly all the time, despite the fact that her scoring is modest, suggests that she is valued for her defense.

Nicole Seecamp, a 5'10" junior guard.  Seecamp is their leading scorer at 15 points per game.  She is an Aussie.  She shoots 88% of her free throws.  While I have not seen a game, her free throw shooting and her stats point to a mid range shooter.  She hits 36% and has takes a lot of shots.  As for three point shots, she hits 31% on 91 attempts, the second most attempts on her team.

Raeshel Contreras, a 5'7" junior guard.  Contreras seems to be their designated three point shooter, while she is hitting a fairly ho-hum 34% and has taken twice as many as anyone else.

Thoughts?

This looks to me like a team ripe for the lob to Chiney.  Last fall we destroyed smaller teams just by lobbing the ball over their heads, letting Chiney go up for it.  To take Chiney away you need more than just to double or triple her.  You need to double or triple her with players of similar height and leaping ability.  South Dakota can’t do that.  This game should play out like C.al Poly, or Fresno State, or New Mexico.  We beat those three teams by 30 points each, with Chiney scoring 36, 20, and 32.  (Fresno held Chiney to 20 only because Tara sat her for much of the second half.) 

Re: WBB: Scouting the University of South Dakota Coyotes - BobK - 03-17-2014

Very nice 81.  Thanks.  Never heard of any of their players but that's not surprising 

Re: WBB: Scouting the University of South Dakota Coyotes - Griffins78 - 03-17-2014

Yes - thanks for the report. Very good.

Re: WBB: Scouting the University of South Dakota Coyotes - 81alum - 03-20-2014

You can watch the South Dakota team win their championship against Denver on ESPN replay, with color by Ros,  here:

http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player/_/id/1656817/

Contreras is a transfer from San Francisco.  She swooshed one trey from five feet outside the arc, and acted like it was normal.
Hemiller likes to penetrate and dish.  She is a shifty little point guard.  Ros seemed to really like her.  Very active, at 5'6" she led in rebounds.
Harrington has a nice spin move down low.  She also took a trey when she was left open and swooshed it.  She is a big body in the paint on defense.
Loueffler likes jumpers from the foul line.
Seecamp specializes in pull up jumpers, but in this game she was held scoreless in the first half and only got it going after she started driving all the way to the basket.

After watching them, I have serious doubts whether they can defend Chiney without selling out absolutely everything else.  We will have to guard the perimeter to avoid letting them get hot. 

Re: WBB: Scouting the University of South Dakota Coyotes - 81alum - 03-21-2014

According to Tara, we are all healthy:
Quote:"We just want to win there and come back here," Cardinal coach Tara VanDerveer said. "I'm happy to see we are all healthy and that's the No. 1 goal. I feel we can beat anyone when we are healthy and playing well.
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2014/03/20/stanford-women-hit-the-road-so-they-can-play-at-home
I hope this means that we have the full use of Karlie.

Re: WBB: Scouting the University of South Dakota Coyotes - 81alum - 03-21-2014

I just finished watching both the Stanford and the South Dakota press conferences.  Not a lot of information, but here is what I gleaned:

Polly Harrington--their star center--played her freshman year at Louisville, then transferred to a community college and then to South Dakota for her Junior and Senior years.

When South Dakota played in this arena earlier in the year they had one of their best three point shooting performances of the year.

Players and their coach talked about "containing Chiney" and "hitting perimeter shots."  I suppose both those things are obvious parts of anyone's strategy against us. 

Tara was almost taciturn.  Our players seemed fairly tight to me at the press conference.Â