[81alum]

Preliminary:

Well, I might be tempted to say that every game for the rest of the season is now a "trap" game, given that we really can't afford to lose to even a single additional inferior team.  And Arizona is certainly inferior.  Its RPI is 320, and has only 4 wins with a strength of schedule that is 332nd in the country.  Two years ago we went to Arizona and inexplicably lost, and we could easily be looking past them to the gigantic showdown with ASU on Sunday.  (We play the Arizona schools only once this regular season.) Still, this front-end game ought to be like an exhibition.  JaLea Bennett, a 6' senior guard,  is their leading scorer at 17ppg, and the next two scorers are freshmen, as Adia Barnes seeks to rebuild this team.  The game in on Pac 12.

Overview:

We won on the basis of our defense and Arizona incompetence.  McPhee was "off" tonight.  The most positive thing to note was that turnovers were down to 11--but Arizona was doing very little to earn any turnovers--their defense was nothing like UC LA's or SC's, so that does not seem like much of an accomplishment.  So...it's a win, but not a confidence booster.

Flow of the Game:

The first quarter was William's turn to shine.  She scored 11 on 4/5 shooting and played all 10 minutes.  We also had only 1 turnover and finished the quarter up 23-11.

The second quarter was not nearly as good as the first--chiefly because Williams did not score again, and after scoring just one circus basket in the first quarter, McPhee did not score again in the half.  On the other hand, we held Arizona to 10 points, so our defense was more or less competent, but we scored only 12 points.  Arizona played zone most of the quarter, and we passed in and out of the post at the elbow and got some open threes, but everything slowed down.  And while having only 1 turnover in the 1st, we had 5 turnovers in the 2nd, but we went into the half maintaining our lead 35-21.

The third quarter we stayed even, scoring 16 and giving up 16.  McPhee shot 0/6 from three point range and Williams still has not heated up again since the first quarter.  Sniezek made a trey--very similar to her last one--a pass straight to her so she almost had no choice but to shoot it and she made it!.  The quarter ended Stanford 51 Arizona 37.

The fourth quarter we "won" 10-9, hardly a confidence-builder for our offense.

Performances:

There are not a lot of highlights to point to in this relatively ugly, defensive game.  We shot only 37% but held them to 30%.  Their leading scorer who averages 19 was held to 8.  Rebounding was really important for us--we outrebounded them 51 to 32, with 25 O-boards to their 14.  We wound up with 11 turnovers for the game, but we also had 10 blocks of Arizona shots. 

Smith scored 12 on 5/10 shooting, with 5 rebounds and a whopping 4 assists--the product of her playing at the high post in the zone and finding people who were open.  She also had 3 blocks.

Williams had 12 points, almost all in the first quarter when she hit 3 treys in a row.  Then she disappeared offensively. 

Carrington had 10 points, mostly in the second half.  She played 22 minutes and had 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and a couple of steals.

McPhee had 8 points, and they seemed to come hard--going 0/6 from three point range did not help, and once again she did not get a single free throw.  A lot of her shots were in traffic, and at least a few of her 5 misses from in close there was more than enough contact to warrant a foul.  Why does she never get them?

Sniezek had 5 assists, 2 turnovers, and 3 steals to go with her one trey.

Fingall and Johnson each had minutes in the low teens, and they both looked mortal.  Fingall was 1/4, Johnson 2/4.

Conclusion:

We won the game.  My hope is that most of our practices were directed toward getting ready for Arizona State, and so we coasted through this one.  The game on Sunday will be the only time we play ASU during the regular season, and it will really help to define the season.  I hope we play with more intensity and skill than we showed tonight.  We need the Superwoman McPhee back for that one.

[81alum]

Preliminary:

Well, I might be tempted to say that every game for the rest of the season is now a "trap" game, given that we really can't afford to lose to even a single additional inferior team.  And Arizona is certainly inferior.  Its RPI is 320, and has only 4 wins with a strength of schedule that is 332nd in the country.  Two years ago we went to Arizona and inexplicably lost, and we could easily be looking past them to the gigantic showdown with ASU on Sunday.  (We play the Arizona schools only once this regular season.) Still, this front-end game ought to be like an exhibition.  JaLea Bennett, a 6' senior guard,  is their leading scorer at 17ppg, and the next two scorers are freshmen, as Adia Barnes seeks to rebuild this team.  The game in on Pac 12.

Overview:

We won on the basis of our defense and Arizona incompetence.  McPhee was "off" tonight.  The most positive thing to note was that turnovers were down to 11--but Arizona was doing very little to earn any turnovers--their defense was nothing like UC LA's or SC's, so that does not seem like much of an accomplishment.  So...it's a win, but not a confidence booster.

Flow of the Game:

The first quarter was William's turn to shine.  She scored 11 on 4/5 shooting and played all 10 minutes.  We also had only 1 turnover and finished the quarter up 23-11.

The second quarter was not nearly as good as the first--chiefly because Williams did not score again, and after scoring just one circus basket in the first quarter, McPhee did not score again in the half.  On the other hand, we held Arizona to 10 points, so our defense was more or less competent, but we scored only 12 points.  Arizona played zone most of the quarter, and we passed in and out of the post at the elbow and got some open threes, but everything slowed down.  And while having only 1 turnover in the 1st, we had 5 turnovers in the 2nd, but we went into the half maintaining our lead 35-21.

The third quarter we stayed even, scoring 16 and giving up 16.  McPhee shot 0/6 from three point range and Williams still has not heated up again since the first quarter.  Sniezek made a trey--very similar to her last one--a pass straight to her so she almost had no choice but to shoot it and she made it!.  The quarter ended Stanford 51 Arizona 37.

The fourth quarter we "won" 10-9, hardly a confidence-builder for our offense.

Performances:

There are not a lot of highlights to point to in this relatively ugly, defensive game.  We shot only 37% but held them to 30%.  Their leading scorer who averages 19 was held to 8.  Rebounding was really important for us--we outrebounded them 51 to 32, with 25 O-boards to their 14.  We wound up with 11 turnovers for the game, but we also had 10 blocks of Arizona shots. 

Smith scored 12 on 5/10 shooting, with 5 rebounds and a whopping 4 assists--the product of her playing at the high post in the zone and finding people who were open.  She also had 3 blocks.

Williams had 12 points, almost all in the first quarter when she hit 3 treys in a row.  Then she disappeared offensively. 

Carrington had 10 points, mostly in the second half.  She played 22 minutes and had 9 rebounds, 3 assists, and a couple of steals.

McPhee had 8 points, and they seemed to come hard--going 0/6 from three point range did not help, and once again she did not get a single free throw.  A lot of her shots were in traffic, and at least a few of her 5 misses from in close there was more than enough contact to warrant a foul.  Why does she never get them?

Sniezek had 5 assists, 2 turnovers, and 3 steals to go with her one trey.

Fingall and Johnson each had minutes in the low teens, and they both looked mortal.  Fingall was 1/4, Johnson 2/4.

Conclusion:

We won the game.  My hope is that most of our practices were directed toward getting ready for Arizona State, and so we coasted through this one.  The game on Sunday will be the only time we play ASU during the regular season, and it will really help to define the season.  I hope we play with more intensity and skill than we showed tonight.  We need the Superwoman McPhee back for that one.

[mbdude]

Dang - I get gymnastics instead of the women's game

[mbdude]

Dang - I get gymnastics instead of the women's game

[81alum]

Dang - I get gymnastics instead of the women's game

I should have said that the Stanford Arizona WBB game is on Pac12 Bay Area and Pac12 Arizona but not on Pac 12 Network.  I ultimately broke down and subscribed to the Pac 12 Bay Area channel earlier this year.  I think it was about $5 and I had some channels I never used that had become optional charges since I first subscribed, so I deleted them and came out ahead.  It all can be done online.

It looks like the Pac 12 network will broadcast the game at midnight if you don't mind not getting it live.  That is, if I can read their schedule.

[81alum]

Dang - I get gymnastics instead of the women's game

I should have said that the Stanford Arizona WBB game is on Pac12 Bay Area and Pac12 Arizona but not on Pac 12 Network.  I ultimately broke down and subscribed to the Pac 12 Bay Area channel earlier this year.  I think it was about $5 and I had some channels I never used that had become optional charges since I first subscribed, so I deleted them and came out ahead.  It all can be done online.

It looks like the Pac 12 network will broadcast the game at midnight if you don't mind not getting it live.  That is, if I can read their schedule.

[2006alum]

I live on the East Coast and don't have cable (or a TV), and Sling has been such a boon for getting WBB (and also MBB). It's $20 a month, and for another $5/month you get a sports pack that includes all of the Pac-12 Network channels plus ESPNs 1-3. It also has a digital DVR function, so I can "record" games and stream them later online (especially helpful because some of our games start at like 11 p.m. EST). It's also month to month, so I only subscribe November-April during bball season. For anyone who struggles to get the Pac-12 network, this is a cheap, super handy workaround.

[2006alum]

I live on the East Coast and don't have cable (or a TV), and Sling has been such a boon for getting WBB (and also MBB). It's $20 a month, and for another $5/month you get a sports pack that includes all of the Pac-12 Network channels plus ESPNs 1-3. It also has a digital DVR function, so I can "record" games and stream them later online (especially helpful because some of our games start at like 11 p.m. EST). It's also month to month, so I only subscribe November-April during bball season. For anyone who struggles to get the Pac-12 network, this is a cheap, super handy workaround.

[CompSci87]

The DVR part especially sounds great. Comcast gives me Pac-12 Bay Area on cable in fuzzy so-called standard def only. I can get it on their web site in high def, but I can't DVR that feed.

[CompSci87]

The DVR part especially sounds great. Comcast gives me Pac-12 Bay Area on cable in fuzzy so-called standard def only. I can get it on their web site in high def, but I can't DVR that feed.

[crackpot]

:) Thanks for the idea! Just signed up for two months pre-pad (+ 7 days free) to get the Amazon Fire Stick free (normally $39.99 plus tax). The stick will be delivered today, and I can cancel in 2 months.

[crackpot]

:) Thanks for the idea! Just signed up for two months pre-pad (+ 7 days free) to get the Amazon Fire Stick free (normally $39.99 plus tax). The stick will be delivered today, and I can cancel in 2 months.

[M T]

The DVR part especially sounds great. Comcast gives me Pac-12 Bay Area on cable in fuzzy so-called standard def only. I can get it on their web site in high def, but I can't DVR that feed.

I've long felt that TiVo would get more business if they could offer to record video off the web that you could then watch on your TV.  I guess TV is burdened by fair use laws since it was seen as a public benefit, but network broadcasts aren't.    Although 15 or so years ago, I had a way to schedule recording of audio programs over the net, I've not run into a good way to record the video.  But I see no technical reason why it couldn't be done. 

I'm not always able to watch the games live and only sometimes are repeat broadcasts available.  (On top of that, PAC-12 chooses to show some events on the local versions and never show them on the "national" network, such as the USC game, so I never get them recorded.)

[M T]

The DVR part especially sounds great. Comcast gives me Pac-12 Bay Area on cable in fuzzy so-called standard def only. I can get it on their web site in high def, but I can't DVR that feed.

I've long felt that TiVo would get more business if they could offer to record video off the web that you could then watch on your TV.  I guess TV is burdened by fair use laws since it was seen as a public benefit, but network broadcasts aren't.    Although 15 or so years ago, I had a way to schedule recording of audio programs over the net, I've not run into a good way to record the video.  But I see no technical reason why it couldn't be done. 

I'm not always able to watch the games live and only sometimes are repeat broadcasts available.  (On top of that, PAC-12 chooses to show some events on the local versions and never show them on the "national" network, such as the USC game, so I never get them recorded.)

[81alum]

The starting lineups are out now, and Tara is starting the same five:  Dodson, Smith, McPhee, Williams, Sniezek.  It seems that Dodson is always in to win the tip but we will see if she stays in longer.  Fingall works so well with McPhee that I expect to see a lot of her.

[81alum]

The starting lineups are out now, and Tara is starting the same five:  Dodson, Smith, McPhee, Williams, Sniezek.  It seems that Dodson is always in to win the tip but we will see if she stays in longer.  Fingall works so well with McPhee that I expect to see a lot of her.

[CompSci87]

Williams with 3 pointers already, but an AZ player goes out with a knee or ankle injury.

[CompSci87]

Williams with 3 pointers already, but an AZ player goes out with a knee or ankle injury.

[81alum]

The first quarter was William's turn to shine.  She scored 11 on 4/5 shooting and played all 10 minutes.  We also had only 1 turnover and finished the quarter up 23-11.

[81alum]

The first quarter was William's turn to shine.  She scored 11 on 4/5 shooting and played all 10 minutes.  We also had only 1 turnover and finished the quarter up 23-11.

[CompSci87]

Williams with 3 pointers already, but an AZ player goes out with a knee or ankle injury.

I suppose everyone who's interested and reading this in real time is watching too. But I'll update: We're up 23-11 after one. The injured AZ player was able to come back in, so it wasn't as bad as I feared.

[CompSci87]

Williams with 3 pointers already, but an AZ player goes out with a knee or ankle injury.

I suppose everyone who's interested and reading this in real time is watching too. But I'll update: We're up 23-11 after one. The injured AZ player was able to come back in, so it wasn't as bad as I feared.

[BostonCard]

35-21 at the half

BC

[BostonCard]

35-21 at the half

BC

[81alum]

The second quarter was not nearly as good as the first.  We held Arizona to 10 points, so our defense was more or less competent, although Arizona is pretty bad.  More troubling, we scored only 12 points.  Arizona played zone most of the quarter, and we passed in and out of the post at the elbow and got some open threes, but everything slowed down.  And while having only 1 turnover in the 1st, we had 5 turnovers in the 2nd, but we maintain our lead 35-21.

[81alum]

The second quarter was not nearly as good as the first.  We held Arizona to 10 points, so our defense was more or less competent, although Arizona is pretty bad.  More troubling, we scored only 12 points.  Arizona played zone most of the quarter, and we passed in and out of the post at the elbow and got some open threes, but everything slowed down.  And while having only 1 turnover in the 1st, we had 5 turnovers in the 2nd, but we maintain our lead 35-21.

[81alum]

Write up now done at the top.

[81alum]

Write up now done at the top.

[BostonCard]

Conclusion:

We won the game.

Yup, that about sums it up.

BC

[BostonCard]

Conclusion:

We won the game.

Yup, that about sums it up.

BC

[2006alum]

Thanks for the writeup, 81! I had to head out to dinner at the end of the first quarter - given how we played in the first, I would never have guessed that we'd basically keep the same margin for the rest of the game!

It's odd - having now watched the full game, I didn't come away thinking we played as poorly as the score shows... McPhee's shots just didn't seem to go in when they should have, and we were rotating so heavily, it seemed like our bench players didn't have the chance to play their way into the game. There were a number of open treys that were strange misses, and a few that seemed to go into the basket and then back out. I also think Arizona's zone defense was pretty effective, all things considered - I was impressed by their movement and instinct to double-team any of our players that looked like they might try to get inside. And they covered the trey pretty well as far as zones go. I know we tend to play the Friday game better than the Sunday because Tara and the coaches have less time to scout/prep the Sunday team, but I wonder if this week the team focused more on Arizona State, figuring they could muscle their way past Arizona? I felt like Tara wasn't playing our starters as much as she would normally and was content to rest them for Sunday's much-more-challenging matchup?

It's also funny because despite the score, apart from McPhee, I was pretty happy watching the individual performances. Marta's ball-handling was solid as always, with 5 assists, 3 steals, and only 2 turnovers (one of which I think was Romano's fault when she misread the play and moved in just as Sniezek passed to her). Fingall was solid under the basket, with some big o-boards. She also seems to be good at drawing fouls under the basket much more than Johnson is. Carrington was really hustling on defense, always looking for the steal, with a few fast break points coming off of the turnovers she generated. She and McPhee also had a few great assists back and forth. Smith looked much closer to her old self, with some great moves in the paint and some stifling defense. And Williams came out like a rocket and forced their zone to stretch out. There weren't too many times that we just passed endlessly around the perimeter until the clock ran out, either, at least compared to past efforts against the zone.

Indeed, if McPhee had shot closer to her average, we'd have won by about 25 points. So I guess in the grand scheme of things, this was a great night for McPhee's shot to be off. It definitely wasn't our best performance, but it just seemed like Tara was content to coast with a moderate lead and rest her players - Williams and Smith were the only ones to even clock 30 minutes.

PS: UCLA just destroyed Oregon State at home 84-49. At the end of the third quarter it was 69-31! They're going to want revenge, and that is going to be a daunting away game!
PPS: 81, we do get ASU at home in a few weeks - it's the Oregon schools we only play away. Which sucks, of course, as they're the only pair of schools ranked, and so the worst set to get away and not at home. One thing I really miss about the old Pac-10 was how ideal it was from a scheduling perspective - everyone got a home and away against everyone. Now, the imbalance in scheduling really throws things off in terms of how many tough matches each team has in a given year.

[2006alum]

Thanks for the writeup, 81! I had to head out to dinner at the end of the first quarter - given how we played in the first, I would never have guessed that we'd basically keep the same margin for the rest of the game!

It's odd - having now watched the full game, I didn't come away thinking we played as poorly as the score shows... McPhee's shots just didn't seem to go in when they should have, and we were rotating so heavily, it seemed like our bench players didn't have the chance to play their way into the game. There were a number of open treys that were strange misses, and a few that seemed to go into the basket and then back out. I also think Arizona's zone defense was pretty effective, all things considered - I was impressed by their movement and instinct to double-team any of our players that looked like they might try to get inside. And they covered the trey pretty well as far as zones go. I know we tend to play the Friday game better than the Sunday because Tara and the coaches have less time to scout/prep the Sunday team, but I wonder if this week the team focused more on Arizona State, figuring they could muscle their way past Arizona? I felt like Tara wasn't playing our starters as much as she would normally and was content to rest them for Sunday's much-more-challenging matchup?

It's also funny because despite the score, apart from McPhee, I was pretty happy watching the individual performances. Marta's ball-handling was solid as always, with 5 assists, 3 steals, and only 2 turnovers (one of which I think was Romano's fault when she misread the play and moved in just as Sniezek passed to her). Fingall was solid under the basket, with some big o-boards. She also seems to be good at drawing fouls under the basket much more than Johnson is. Carrington was really hustling on defense, always looking for the steal, with a few fast break points coming off of the turnovers she generated. She and McPhee also had a few great assists back and forth. Smith looked much closer to her old self, with some great moves in the paint and some stifling defense. And Williams came out like a rocket and forced their zone to stretch out. There weren't too many times that we just passed endlessly around the perimeter until the clock ran out, either, at least compared to past efforts against the zone.

Indeed, if McPhee had shot closer to her average, we'd have won by about 25 points. So I guess in the grand scheme of things, this was a great night for McPhee's shot to be off. It definitely wasn't our best performance, but it just seemed like Tara was content to coast with a moderate lead and rest her players - Williams and Smith were the only ones to even clock 30 minutes.

PS: UCLA just destroyed Oregon State at home 84-49. At the end of the third quarter it was 69-31! They're going to want revenge, and that is going to be a daunting away game!
PPS: 81, we do get ASU at home in a few weeks - it's the Oregon schools we only play away. Which sucks, of course, as they're the only pair of schools ranked, and so the worst set to get away and not at home. One thing I really miss about the old Pac-10 was how ideal it was from a scheduling perspective - everyone got a home and away against everyone. Now, the imbalance in scheduling really throws things off in terms of how many tough matches each team has in a given year.

[81alum]

I tuned in to watch C.al lose to ASU tonight.  Impressions:  ASU's defense is not a suffocating as it has been in the past, but its offense is quite good.  Kiana Ibis and Ruden seem to be able to accurately hit mid range fade away jumpers fairly regularly--almost impossible to defend--helping the team to shoot 52%.  And they have good guard play.  Perhaps we saw UC LA on a bad night--given how they dismantled OSU tonight 84-49--but ASU looks like the better team to me.

[81alum]

I tuned in to watch C.al lose to ASU tonight.  Impressions:  ASU's defense is not a suffocating as it has been in the past, but its offense is quite good.  Kiana Ibis and Ruden seem to be able to accurately hit mid range fade away jumpers fairly regularly--almost impossible to defend--helping the team to shoot 52%.  And they have good guard play.  Perhaps we saw UC LA on a bad night--given how they dismantled OSU tonight 84-49--but ASU looks like the better team to me.

[JJJ]

[quote author=CompSci87 link=topic=18490.msg220387#msg220387 date=1515201335]
Williams with 3 pointers already, but an AZ player goes out with a knee or ankle injury.

I suppose everyone who's interested and reading this in real time is watching too. But I'll update: We're up 23-11 after one. The injured AZ player was able to come back in, so it wasn't as bad as I feared.
[/quote]

Just when you think something is foolproof, they invent a better fool.  :P
I was reading in realtime but not watching. Just got done with the DVR.
Not as bad as feared after reading, having seen what transpired with my own eyes.
I am for sure going to tune into the ASU game live and send positive mojo so all of Britt's attempted treys (and Kiana's, and Alanna's, and Marta's, and Alexa's... you catch my drift) find the bottom of the net!

[JJJ]

[quote author=CompSci87 link=topic=18490.msg220387#msg220387 date=1515201335]
Williams with 3 pointers already, but an AZ player goes out with a knee or ankle injury.

I suppose everyone who's interested and reading this in real time is watching too. But I'll update: We're up 23-11 after one. The injured AZ player was able to come back in, so it wasn't as bad as I feared.
[/quote]

Just when you think something is foolproof, they invent a better fool.  :P
I was reading in realtime but not watching. Just got done with the DVR.
Not as bad as feared after reading, having seen what transpired with my own eyes.
I am for sure going to tune into the ASU game live and send positive mojo so all of Britt's attempted treys (and Kiana's, and Alanna's, and Marta's, and Alexa's... you catch my drift) find the bottom of the net!

[2006alum]

Not as bad as feared after reading, having seen what transpired with my own eyes.
I am for sure going to tune into the ASU game live and send positive mojo so all of Britt's attempted treys (and Kiana's, and Alanna's, and Marta's, and Alexa's... you catch my drift) find the bottom of the net!

Yeah, in retrospect, it was really our 3-point shooting that was so off. I didn't notice during the game, because of Kiana's trio in the opening minutes that made me think we were hot from behind the arc, but after that we went 3 for 24 the rest of the way, and I literally remember the three that went in - one from Jerome, one from Sniezek, and one from Smith off a fast break. Our bench was 1-12 from three point land, and McPhee was 0-6. And many weren't really contested, so they just weren't going in. Definitely need to improve on that on Sunday, and it may explain why Tara was making so many bench substitutions, to see if she could find a hot hand at the trey. Even Moschkau got a few minutes at the end.

Also, someone brought this up after the USC game, but if the net effect of the Princeton is that we're seeing more zone defenses, and we have trouble breaking down the zone/shooting treys over it, I'm not sure if I totally understand the benefit of it. I feel like we've faced a zone defense for at least part of each of the last five games, right? In theory, it's supposed to be a rarer defense, so clearly the scouting on us is that we're much weaker at the zone than man. If so, why aren't we orienting our offense around one that is great at breaking down the zone? I feel like that's why Fingall has started getting more time, because she's really effective at the high post in breaking down the zone, but otherwise it seems like I haven't seen much obvious adjustment.

[2006alum]

Not as bad as feared after reading, having seen what transpired with my own eyes.
I am for sure going to tune into the ASU game live and send positive mojo so all of Britt's attempted treys (and Kiana's, and Alanna's, and Marta's, and Alexa's... you catch my drift) find the bottom of the net!

Yeah, in retrospect, it was really our 3-point shooting that was so off. I didn't notice during the game, because of Kiana's trio in the opening minutes that made me think we were hot from behind the arc, but after that we went 3 for 24 the rest of the way, and I literally remember the three that went in - one from Jerome, one from Sniezek, and one from Smith off a fast break. Our bench was 1-12 from three point land, and McPhee was 0-6. And many weren't really contested, so they just weren't going in. Definitely need to improve on that on Sunday, and it may explain why Tara was making so many bench substitutions, to see if she could find a hot hand at the trey. Even Moschkau got a few minutes at the end.

Also, someone brought this up after the USC game, but if the net effect of the Princeton is that we're seeing more zone defenses, and we have trouble breaking down the zone/shooting treys over it, I'm not sure if I totally understand the benefit of it. I feel like we've faced a zone defense for at least part of each of the last five games, right? In theory, it's supposed to be a rarer defense, so clearly the scouting on us is that we're much weaker at the zone than man. If so, why aren't we orienting our offense around one that is great at breaking down the zone? I feel like that's why Fingall has started getting more time, because she's really effective at the high post in breaking down the zone, but otherwise it seems like I haven't seen much obvious adjustment.

[TheFarm07]

[quote author=JJJ link=topic=18490.msg220420#msg220420 date=1515234005]
Not as bad as feared after reading, having seen what transpired with my own eyes.
I am for sure going to tune into the ASU game live and send positive mojo so all of Britt's attempted treys (and Kiana's, and Alanna's, and Marta's, and Alexa's... you catch my drift) find the bottom of the net!

Yeah, in retrospect, it was really our 3-point shooting that was so off. I didn't notice during the game, because of Kiana's trio in the opening minutes that made me think we were hot from behind the arc, but after that we went 3 for 24 the rest of the way, and I literally remember the three that went in - one from Jerome, one from Sniezek, and one from Smith off a fast break. Our bench was 1-12 from three point land, and McPhee was 0-6. And many weren't really contested, so they just weren't going in. Definitely need to improve on that on Sunday, and it may explain why Tara was making so many bench substitutions, to see if she could find a hot hand at the trey. Even Moschkau got a few minutes at the end.

Also, someone brought this up after the U$C game, but if the net effect of the Princeton is that we're seeing more zone defenses, and we have trouble breaking down the zone/shooting treys over it, I'm not sure if I totally understand the benefit of it. I feel like we've faced a zone defense for at least part of each of the last five games, right? In theory, it's supposed to be a rarer defense, so clearly the scouting on us is that we're much weaker at the zone than man. If so, why aren't we orienting our offense around one that is great at breaking down the zone? I feel like that's why Fingall has started getting more time, because she's really effective at the high post in breaking down the zone, but otherwise it seems like I haven't seen much obvious adjustment.
[/quote]

I feel like we play against a zone defense every game. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but in all seriousness, it seems like unless we are facing a top-5/top-10 team like UConn or Baylor, we inevitably come up against a zone defense and as discussed in a previous thread, it's a wonder why we implement a system (Princeton) with a main foil (zone defense) that we historically struggle against.

When we do play against the zone, we are so dependent on shooting over it, rather than try to break it down either through a player at the high post or through another tactic, that our offensive success is reliant on well we are landing our threes that game, which is so risky. It's great when we have players on fire, but if we have an off shooting night (like we did against Arizona), it looks pretty sad that we barely mustered 60+ points against a subpar opponent.

[TheFarm07]

[quote author=JJJ link=topic=18490.msg220420#msg220420 date=1515234005]
Not as bad as feared after reading, having seen what transpired with my own eyes.
I am for sure going to tune into the ASU game live and send positive mojo so all of Britt's attempted treys (and Kiana's, and Alanna's, and Marta's, and Alexa's... you catch my drift) find the bottom of the net!

Yeah, in retrospect, it was really our 3-point shooting that was so off. I didn't notice during the game, because of Kiana's trio in the opening minutes that made me think we were hot from behind the arc, but after that we went 3 for 24 the rest of the way, and I literally remember the three that went in - one from Jerome, one from Sniezek, and one from Smith off a fast break. Our bench was 1-12 from three point land, and McPhee was 0-6. And many weren't really contested, so they just weren't going in. Definitely need to improve on that on Sunday, and it may explain why Tara was making so many bench substitutions, to see if she could find a hot hand at the trey. Even Moschkau got a few minutes at the end.

Also, someone brought this up after the U$C game, but if the net effect of the Princeton is that we're seeing more zone defenses, and we have trouble breaking down the zone/shooting treys over it, I'm not sure if I totally understand the benefit of it. I feel like we've faced a zone defense for at least part of each of the last five games, right? In theory, it's supposed to be a rarer defense, so clearly the scouting on us is that we're much weaker at the zone than man. If so, why aren't we orienting our offense around one that is great at breaking down the zone? I feel like that's why Fingall has started getting more time, because she's really effective at the high post in breaking down the zone, but otherwise it seems like I haven't seen much obvious adjustment.
[/quote]

I feel like we play against a zone defense every game. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but in all seriousness, it seems like unless we are facing a top-5/top-10 team like UConn or Baylor, we inevitably come up against a zone defense and as discussed in a previous thread, it's a wonder why we implement a system (Princeton) with a main foil (zone defense) that we historically struggle against.

When we do play against the zone, we are so dependent on shooting over it, rather than try to break it down either through a player at the high post or through another tactic, that our offensive success is reliant on well we are landing our threes that game, which is so risky. It's great when we have players on fire, but if we have an off shooting night (like we did against Arizona), it looks pretty sad that we barely mustered 60+ points against a subpar opponent.