12-14-2014, 10:45 PM
Overview:
It was Amber's turn to shine tonight, with 20 points, Kaylee had a monster 22 rebound game, and frosh Brittany McPhee showed her stuff nicely with 11 points and 4 rebounds.
Before the Game:
Tempe Tempie had a number of interesting observations before the game. She noted that Kaylee is in there for one reason--to collect rebounds. Chiney also focused on rebounds her freshman year. Tempie said that you can't teach rebounding instincts, but you can teach everything else, and so there is every reason to believe that Kaylee will progress nicely in coming years. All the frosh were adjusting to the pace of the college game and she hoped we would see more of Brittany if we got a lead--and we did and we did.
Reflecting on North Carolina she noted that we were never in sync. Our offense just wasn't working properly. Meanwhile, they had posts making three point shots. She said Lili had been held out of the New Mexico game as a precaution with concussive symptoms. She was fine for North Carolina but was pressing. She had a lot of family and friends there from Hawaii and Tempie thought she was just trying too hard.Â
Flow of the Game
Tara started McCall, Kaylee, Karlie, Lili and Amber. Pretty much for the whole night we played a three guard lineup--mainly with Karlie in the 3 position. Greenfield was held out of the game and when Bonnie came in, she was usually in the 4 position, so the wing spot was occupied by a guard the whole night. Quite a change from years ago when we would have three bigs playing--I remember half a season when Ruef played the wing even.
Santa Clara played us tight for the first ten minutes of the game. They have a terrific guard--Gilday--who was very hard to stop. Lili guarded her but Gilday got herself open from screens mostly for mid range jumpers. Meanwhile, they played tenacious man defense and held our shooting down in the first half. Then we went on a 17-2 run to polish off the half and they never threatened again. In the second half the lead built to 30 points and everyone got a chance to play, and our bench increased the lead.Â
Performances
Amber of course, as our top scorer tonight, needs mentioning. She was 7-12 for 20 points, and was our only reliable three point shooter tonight, going 2/3. Three assists and three steals and 0 turnovers rounded out her excellent performance.
Kaylee is a rebounding vacuum. In 27 minutes she collected 22 rebounds. She also followed up a couple of O boards with baskets, but it is clear she has a way to go with her footwork before she can create offense like Chiney. She did wind up with 9 points so she just missed a double-double. Oh, and 2 nice blocks.
McPhee got 15 minutes, although it mostly came when the game was not in doubt. On defense she looked lost once or twice, got burned by a speedy guard once, but seemed to recover and was more confident as the game wore on. She took it to the hoop and got fouled a couple of times, made a couple of baskets and a trey, and wound up with 11 points. This was the first game where she seemed to get into the flow of the game and it is promising to see.
I am worried about Bird and Kailee. Bird had 3 points and 2 rebounds in 16 minutes, Kailee had 1 point and 3 rebounds in 12 minutes. When they got the ball under the basket they did not look good, McCall going 1-6 and Kailee 0-3. Tempe had mentioned that after North Carolina a concerted effort was made to get the ball inside to McCall more. Well, something was not working when she did get the ball. The inside game is not where it should be heading off to Tennessee.
Bonnie played very well, scoring 11 points in 15 minutes. Interestingly, only 3 of those were on a trey. She went to the basket a few times and had a nice finger roll, and went 4/4 from the free throw line. She is now 18/18 on free throws this season.
There were quite a few highlights from less common sources. Bri Roberson is looking like the real deal. She had 6 points on 3/4 shooting in 16 minutes of play. While taller players can shoot over her, she is a tenacious defender and does not let anyone get by her unless she runs into a pick. Alex Green played well and had a very pretty assist to go with a couple of baskets.
Looking Ahead:
Tara has seen what we can see--our bigs do not have much scoring prowess this year. They are going to be needed for rebounding and defense and putbacks, but the hope that McCall would rapidly develop offensively was overly optimistic. On the other hand, the guards keep looking better and better, which is why Tara is playing three of them at a time. I am still left wondering if this new offense will work against teams that are bigger and taller inside--like Texas and North Carolina. We shall see, I guess, when we go to Tennessee. First we have to get by Chattanooga, which beat Tennessee earlier this year. Not exactly a "warm up", it seems.
It was Amber's turn to shine tonight, with 20 points, Kaylee had a monster 22 rebound game, and frosh Brittany McPhee showed her stuff nicely with 11 points and 4 rebounds.
Before the Game:
Tempe Tempie had a number of interesting observations before the game. She noted that Kaylee is in there for one reason--to collect rebounds. Chiney also focused on rebounds her freshman year. Tempie said that you can't teach rebounding instincts, but you can teach everything else, and so there is every reason to believe that Kaylee will progress nicely in coming years. All the frosh were adjusting to the pace of the college game and she hoped we would see more of Brittany if we got a lead--and we did and we did.
Reflecting on North Carolina she noted that we were never in sync. Our offense just wasn't working properly. Meanwhile, they had posts making three point shots. She said Lili had been held out of the New Mexico game as a precaution with concussive symptoms. She was fine for North Carolina but was pressing. She had a lot of family and friends there from Hawaii and Tempie thought she was just trying too hard.Â
Flow of the Game
Tara started McCall, Kaylee, Karlie, Lili and Amber. Pretty much for the whole night we played a three guard lineup--mainly with Karlie in the 3 position. Greenfield was held out of the game and when Bonnie came in, she was usually in the 4 position, so the wing spot was occupied by a guard the whole night. Quite a change from years ago when we would have three bigs playing--I remember half a season when Ruef played the wing even.
Santa Clara played us tight for the first ten minutes of the game. They have a terrific guard--Gilday--who was very hard to stop. Lili guarded her but Gilday got herself open from screens mostly for mid range jumpers. Meanwhile, they played tenacious man defense and held our shooting down in the first half. Then we went on a 17-2 run to polish off the half and they never threatened again. In the second half the lead built to 30 points and everyone got a chance to play, and our bench increased the lead.Â
Performances
Amber of course, as our top scorer tonight, needs mentioning. She was 7-12 for 20 points, and was our only reliable three point shooter tonight, going 2/3. Three assists and three steals and 0 turnovers rounded out her excellent performance.
Kaylee is a rebounding vacuum. In 27 minutes she collected 22 rebounds. She also followed up a couple of O boards with baskets, but it is clear she has a way to go with her footwork before she can create offense like Chiney. She did wind up with 9 points so she just missed a double-double. Oh, and 2 nice blocks.
McPhee got 15 minutes, although it mostly came when the game was not in doubt. On defense she looked lost once or twice, got burned by a speedy guard once, but seemed to recover and was more confident as the game wore on. She took it to the hoop and got fouled a couple of times, made a couple of baskets and a trey, and wound up with 11 points. This was the first game where she seemed to get into the flow of the game and it is promising to see.
I am worried about Bird and Kailee. Bird had 3 points and 2 rebounds in 16 minutes, Kailee had 1 point and 3 rebounds in 12 minutes. When they got the ball under the basket they did not look good, McCall going 1-6 and Kailee 0-3. Tempe had mentioned that after North Carolina a concerted effort was made to get the ball inside to McCall more. Well, something was not working when she did get the ball. The inside game is not where it should be heading off to Tennessee.
Bonnie played very well, scoring 11 points in 15 minutes. Interestingly, only 3 of those were on a trey. She went to the basket a few times and had a nice finger roll, and went 4/4 from the free throw line. She is now 18/18 on free throws this season.
There were quite a few highlights from less common sources. Bri Roberson is looking like the real deal. She had 6 points on 3/4 shooting in 16 minutes of play. While taller players can shoot over her, she is a tenacious defender and does not let anyone get by her unless she runs into a pick. Alex Green played well and had a very pretty assist to go with a couple of baskets.
Looking Ahead:
Tara has seen what we can see--our bigs do not have much scoring prowess this year. They are going to be needed for rebounding and defense and putbacks, but the hope that McCall would rapidly develop offensively was overly optimistic. On the other hand, the guards keep looking better and better, which is why Tara is playing three of them at a time. I am still left wondering if this new offense will work against teams that are bigger and taller inside--like Texas and North Carolina. We shall see, I guess, when we go to Tennessee. First we have to get by Chattanooga, which beat Tennessee earlier this year. Not exactly a "warm up", it seems.