[CompSci87]

What did change between most of our games and the Quinnipiac game was who was guarding Stevenson, so, to me, the most likely explanation here is that there was a mismatch against a weaker defender and Stevenson was able to repeatedly exploit it.  But, with a different player guarding Stevenson against BYU she wasn’t and reverted to mostly passing.

Nice point. You beat me to posting something similar. What I saw for most of the season was MAS being guarded by a taller defender, who gapped her a bit; i.e., stayed between her and the basket, fairly close but not too close. The gapping strategy discourages driving to the basket because it's hard to get around the defender. At the same time it discourages shooting when the defender is taller and can still contest your shot. This leaves passing and dribbling away from the basket as the most open options.

It can help to fake a shooting motion or make a jab step to fake a drive attempt. This may get the defender to move or lean off balance, or freeze momentarily. I don't remember seeing that work for MAS much.

In the Quinnipiac game, I noticed right away that MAS's defender was guarding her closely, plus I think she was smaller than MAS. MAS took full advantage, mostly by driving around and past her to the basket... where Q didn't have a big player waiting to block her shot either.

[CompSci87]

What did change between most of our games and the Quinnipiac game was who was guarding Stevenson, so, to me, the most likely explanation here is that there was a mismatch against a weaker defender and Stevenson was able to repeatedly exploit it.  But, with a different player guarding Stevenson against BYU she wasn’t and reverted to mostly passing.

Nice point. You beat me to posting something similar. What I saw for most of the season was MAS being guarded by a taller defender, who gapped her a bit; i.e., stayed between her and the basket, fairly close but not too close. The gapping strategy discourages driving to the basket because it's hard to get around the defender. At the same time it discourages shooting when the defender is taller and can still contest your shot. This leaves passing and dribbling away from the basket as the most open options.

It can help to fake a shooting motion or make a jab step to fake a drive attempt. This may get the defender to move or lean off balance, or freeze momentarily. I don't remember seeing that work for MAS much.

In the Quinnipiac game, I noticed right away that MAS's defender was guarding her closely, plus I think she was smaller than MAS. MAS took full advantage, mostly by driving around and past her to the basket... where Q didn't have a big player waiting to block her shot either.