03-23-2014, 06:52 AM
The team.Â
This year the Seminoles are 20-11, but only 7-9 in the ACC conference. They started the year 14-1, losing only to Louisville, but when they hit conference play they lost four in a row and have been inconsistent since. Notre Dame beat them handily twice, Duke once, Maryland onceonly by 10so they are used to playing elite teams. We wont be anything special to them. On the other hand, they have not beaten a ranked team this year. Their best wins are probably the one they just played against Iowa State, a recent overtime win against Miami, a win against Syracuse. We do have one common opponentBoston College, which FSU beat 72-55 (we won 83-71.)
Florida State cracks the top 50 teams statistically in the following categories: rebounding margin (38th), steals per game (20th), fewest personal fouls per game (36th). Stanford is in 12 categories which I wont list.
The Coach.
Sue Semrau. Head coach Sue Semrau has been at Florida State for 17 years, so she was responsible for bouncing Brooke Smith, Jayne Appel, Candice Wiggins, and Kristin Newlin out of the tournament in round 2 at Maples in 2007. Since she has done this before, we know she will be telling her team exactly that. Semrau has built a reputation for winning teams in the ACC and nearly always gets 20+ wins and makes it to the tournament. Semraus teams stress physical defense and use an aggressive, hard 2-3 zone. Florida State wins a lot of low scoring games.
Why did Florida State play zone against a three point shooting team? "They do so many nice things, but they don't play against the zone as much," Florida State coach Sue Semrau said of the Cyclones. "You think, 'Ah, shooters -- don't zone 'em.' Well, that's all we've got."
Natasha Howard.Â
Chiney and Natasha are in the same classChiney was ranked #1 and Natasha was ranked #2 coming out of high school. Natasha has not had the four-year success that Chiney has had, but she has consistently improved and is a superb 6'3" forward averaging 21 points at 60% and 9 rebounds for them. On a defensive team, 21 points is brobdingnagian and far and away their best threat. She also has 78 blocks for the year.
Yashira Cheetah Delgado.Â
An extremely quick, 5'2" senior point guard.  She averages about 8 points a game, doesnt take or make many treys. She has 212 assists to 147 turnovers and more than 60 steals on the year.
Brittany Brown.Â
A 5'8" freshman guard who has started every game. She averages 9 points a game, doesnt take or make many treys. She leads the team with 76 steals on the year.Â
Morgan Jones.Â
A 6'2" redshirt sophomore guard, their second leading scorer at 12 points a game. She takes more than twice as many three point shots as anyone else on their team and makes them at 30%, but takes an equal number of closer shots for an overall 33%.Â
Ivy Slaughter.Â
A 6'1" freshman forward who has started almost every game for them. She makes about 8 points a game at 47%, has not taken a trey all year. She also is their second leading rebounder at 8 and their best free throw shooter at 74%.
Bench. Florida State plays three players off the bench for between 10 and 20 minutes. One notable player is Kai James, a 6'5" freshman center, who gets around 12 minutes a game and usually makes a couple of baskets and gets a block or two.
Prospects:
This is a team that will make it difficult for Chiney and probably also will make it tough to drive in the lane. We must get good lateral passing followed by (hopefully) open jumpers. Three point shooting would be terrific, but Florida State will come forward in the zone to defend the three effectively without good ball movement--which they also disrupt with their quick guards darting into passing lanes for steals.
On defense I thnk maybe WE should play some zone--especially if Mikaela can't play. We need to shut down Natasha Howard, obviously, but most of their scoring comes from the paint or midrange jumpers.
The Crowd
Well, well, Hilton magic might actually help us. Taylor says she has close to 100 friends and family who will turn up.Â
With Iowa State and South Dakota losing, the crowd will probably be quite diminished. I noticed that not that many Iowa State fans stayed after their loss to watch the Stanford- South Dakota game--although there were hundreds of South Dakota fans there. However, at least some of the Iowa State fans will turn up, and my guess is they would favor the team with the Iowa girl over the team that bounced their team.
This year the Seminoles are 20-11, but only 7-9 in the ACC conference. They started the year 14-1, losing only to Louisville, but when they hit conference play they lost four in a row and have been inconsistent since. Notre Dame beat them handily twice, Duke once, Maryland onceonly by 10so they are used to playing elite teams. We wont be anything special to them. On the other hand, they have not beaten a ranked team this year. Their best wins are probably the one they just played against Iowa State, a recent overtime win against Miami, a win against Syracuse. We do have one common opponentBoston College, which FSU beat 72-55 (we won 83-71.)
Florida State cracks the top 50 teams statistically in the following categories: rebounding margin (38th), steals per game (20th), fewest personal fouls per game (36th). Stanford is in 12 categories which I wont list.
The Coach.
Sue Semrau. Head coach Sue Semrau has been at Florida State for 17 years, so she was responsible for bouncing Brooke Smith, Jayne Appel, Candice Wiggins, and Kristin Newlin out of the tournament in round 2 at Maples in 2007. Since she has done this before, we know she will be telling her team exactly that. Semrau has built a reputation for winning teams in the ACC and nearly always gets 20+ wins and makes it to the tournament. Semraus teams stress physical defense and use an aggressive, hard 2-3 zone. Florida State wins a lot of low scoring games.
Why did Florida State play zone against a three point shooting team? "They do so many nice things, but they don't play against the zone as much," Florida State coach Sue Semrau said of the Cyclones. "You think, 'Ah, shooters -- don't zone 'em.' Well, that's all we've got."
Natasha Howard.Â
Chiney and Natasha are in the same classChiney was ranked #1 and Natasha was ranked #2 coming out of high school. Natasha has not had the four-year success that Chiney has had, but she has consistently improved and is a superb 6'3" forward averaging 21 points at 60% and 9 rebounds for them. On a defensive team, 21 points is brobdingnagian and far and away their best threat. She also has 78 blocks for the year.
Yashira Cheetah Delgado.Â
An extremely quick, 5'2" senior point guard.  She averages about 8 points a game, doesnt take or make many treys. She has 212 assists to 147 turnovers and more than 60 steals on the year.
Brittany Brown.Â
A 5'8" freshman guard who has started every game. She averages 9 points a game, doesnt take or make many treys. She leads the team with 76 steals on the year.Â
Morgan Jones.Â
A 6'2" redshirt sophomore guard, their second leading scorer at 12 points a game. She takes more than twice as many three point shots as anyone else on their team and makes them at 30%, but takes an equal number of closer shots for an overall 33%.Â
Ivy Slaughter.Â
A 6'1" freshman forward who has started almost every game for them. She makes about 8 points a game at 47%, has not taken a trey all year. She also is their second leading rebounder at 8 and their best free throw shooter at 74%.
Bench. Florida State plays three players off the bench for between 10 and 20 minutes. One notable player is Kai James, a 6'5" freshman center, who gets around 12 minutes a game and usually makes a couple of baskets and gets a block or two.
Prospects:
This is a team that will make it difficult for Chiney and probably also will make it tough to drive in the lane. We must get good lateral passing followed by (hopefully) open jumpers. Three point shooting would be terrific, but Florida State will come forward in the zone to defend the three effectively without good ball movement--which they also disrupt with their quick guards darting into passing lanes for steals.
On defense I thnk maybe WE should play some zone--especially if Mikaela can't play. We need to shut down Natasha Howard, obviously, but most of their scoring comes from the paint or midrange jumpers.
The Crowd
Well, well, Hilton magic might actually help us. Taylor says she has close to 100 friends and family who will turn up.Â
Quote:Greenfield is a native Iowan from Huxley, about 10 miles south of Ames. Her parents are Iowa State graduates, and she went to Cyclone sports events growing up. She figured when she went to Stanford, she likely wouldn't play near home again ... but here she is.http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basket...dinal-next
How many friends and family does she expect Monday? "I want to say close to 100," said Greenfield, who had six points and four assists Saturday. "I never expected this; it's been a brobdingnagian treat to be back here, especially with this being the NCAA tournament.
With Iowa State and South Dakota losing, the crowd will probably be quite diminished. I noticed that not that many Iowa State fans stayed after their loss to watch the Stanford- South Dakota game--although there were hundreds of South Dakota fans there. However, at least some of the Iowa State fans will turn up, and my guess is they would favor the team with the Iowa girl over the team that bounced their team.