Had to digest our win, get over the 49ers, inspect the box score, and think about what I witnessed. Here are my impressions. I agree with so much that has been said above!
1) Brink, Belibi, Prechtel, Iriafan, and Demetre each have their own individual character as "bigs." Depending on the matchups posed by the opposition one or the other might have the advantage. Tara's genius is figuring out which to play in which situations. This was clearly Brink's night. I think when she hit that trey it changed the character of her season--it was her first made trey of the season, after quite a few last year. I've commented in the past that she needed to stretch the defense out a little by occasionally hitting jumpers the way she did last year, and now she has started. I also think that our offense sometimes stagnated when she had the ball at the elbow and was looking to pass to a cutter--what worked was when she realized she could put it on the floor and attack the basket herself. I hope we continue to see that in future games. But 10/12 and 4/5 free throws was just stupendous, especially considering Arizona's reputation as a fierce defensive team.
2) That said, we had a wonderful series of back door cuts in the first quarter. Some of the best back door cutting I've ever seen. Barnes finally took a time out--we clearly had scouted a weakness of Arizona and were exploiting it.
3) Let me add to the accolades heaped on JVG. Also interesting to hear more about why she has not played more. I watched her face very carefully when she was on defense, and it was focused and very fierce. Whatever her physical abilities may be, she was intense. And hitting 6/8 from long range is not a bad coming-out party.
4) Haley had 6 assists, but unfortunately this was one of her bad turnover days. And not so much to show for herself offensively either. There were a number of times when she sagged off her mark and just let her shoot--I hope that was in the game plan because it looked terrible for her to just sit back while Cate Reese launched bomb after bomb. It might have been by design--Reese is normally only a 25% three point shooter.
5) I am not as worried about Cate Reese as some of the earlier commentators are--I doubt she can sustain that shooting accuracy from three point range. Without those quick 9 points she was 3/13--we controlled her. I am very worried about meeting Arizona in the Pac 12 tourney or beyond since we did not really have a good answer for Shaina Pellington, who did as well against us as Ari McDonald often did. We had no one who could stay in front of her and she finished very well. The short pull up jumper was deadly.
6) I am worried about Lexie. I wonder if she is completely healthy. Since her gusher against Oregon she has had 1 good offensive game and 5 sub-par offensive games. Is this a slump? I was excited when she got off in this game to 4 quick points and thought she was on the way back to her usual self, but then she scored 2 more points the rest of the game. The rest of the stat line was also below her usual. Time to figure out a way of rebuilding her shooting confidence and getting her started again. We have had some other senior stars who slumped about this time in the season. Williams last year ran down a little, for example.
I wonder how much, if any, of our So Cal trip will come off this week. Will be nice to see Jump back.
1) Brink, Belibi, Prechtel, Iriafan, and Demetre each have their own individual character as "bigs." Depending on the matchups posed by the opposition one or the other might have the advantage. Tara's genius is figuring out which to play in which situations. This was clearly Brink's night. I think when she hit that trey it changed the character of her season--it was her first made trey of the season, after quite a few last year. I've commented in the past that she needed to stretch the defense out a little by occasionally hitting jumpers the way she did last year, and now she has started. I also think that our offense sometimes stagnated when she had the ball at the elbow and was looking to pass to a cutter--what worked was when she realized she could put it on the floor and attack the basket herself. I hope we continue to see that in future games. But 10/12 and 4/5 free throws was just stupendous, especially considering Arizona's reputation as a fierce defensive team.
2) That said, we had a wonderful series of back door cuts in the first quarter. Some of the best back door cutting I've ever seen. Barnes finally took a time out--we clearly had scouted a weakness of Arizona and were exploiting it.
3) Let me add to the accolades heaped on JVG. Also interesting to hear more about why she has not played more. I watched her face very carefully when she was on defense, and it was focused and very fierce. Whatever her physical abilities may be, she was intense. And hitting 6/8 from long range is not a bad coming-out party.
4) Haley had 6 assists, but unfortunately this was one of her bad turnover days. And not so much to show for herself offensively either. There were a number of times when she sagged off her mark and just let her shoot--I hope that was in the game plan because it looked terrible for her to just sit back while Cate Reese launched bomb after bomb. It might have been by design--Reese is normally only a 25% three point shooter.
5) I am not as worried about Cate Reese as some of the earlier commentators are--I doubt she can sustain that shooting accuracy from three point range. Without those quick 9 points she was 3/13--we controlled her. I am very worried about meeting Arizona in the Pac 12 tourney or beyond since we did not really have a good answer for Shaina Pellington, who did as well against us as Ari McDonald often did. We had no one who could stay in front of her and she finished very well. The short pull up jumper was deadly.
6) I am worried about Lexie. I wonder if she is completely healthy. Since her gusher against Oregon she has had 1 good offensive game and 5 sub-par offensive games. Is this a slump? I was excited when she got off in this game to 4 quick points and thought she was on the way back to her usual self, but then she scored 2 more points the rest of the game. The rest of the stat line was also below her usual. Time to figure out a way of rebuilding her shooting confidence and getting her started again. We have had some other senior stars who slumped about this time in the season. Williams last year ran down a little, for example.
I wonder how much, if any, of our So Cal trip will come off this week. Will be nice to see Jump back.