Doesn't Look Any Better The Morning After & Other Thoughts
by dillon77 (2020-02-14 09:03:35)
Edited on 2020-02-14 12:33:01
Post Reply Return to McGraw's Bench

I've got a link to the last play. Due to my Sling connection faltering, I missed the play last night, so I immediately looked at the vitual scoreboad to see we lost (by one) and then read the initial comments. Glad I didn't see it live...my television might be in many pieces.

Play does not look better upon next-day viewings. I feel like the kid they show in the linked video after the play worked: eyes wide open, but my mouth is not smiling. A few thoughts:

- Definite Isolation Play. Guy sets a faux screen for Makayla Dickens, then spins out of it. Destinee Walker follows Dickens (#10), then realizes -- oops, too late -- what's happening and starts to backpedal into the lane. Possible double team negated right there. Sam would've never had a chance to get down from the arc.

- Therefore, agree with everyone The inbounder had an unencumbered view of the pass she wanted to make and how to make it. Having a tall person bounding in front of her would've -- at the very least -- made the concentration (and perhaps delivery) -- a bit tougher.

Irony is that Ms. Baer was just featured in a pre-game article and said she could bring jumping and blocking to the picture. Uggh. And Danielle is 6'4".

- Possible Nit. Although I can't find definite support for this, I'm pretty sure Emma Goy is a lefty. Now Mik gets fooled by the Guy spin move and she spins outward, allowing Guy to catch with her inner (and strong) hand. (Nice strong bank shot, btw.)

That said, heck of a play and bravura execution for BC. Guy is tough. For a kid who wasn't rated in ESPN's top players coming out of high school, she's had a good career.

Hard to harp on one play, but the way both teams were playing it came down to one play. Look at the stat sheet (ok, don't ruin your day...I'll do it for you).

- Both teams shot under 33%: ND was 21-64 and BC 20-64. ND actually shot a respectable 4-9 from 3-pt range. BC was 2-22!!

- ND had a horrible 22 turnovers (Sniezek had 7, Gilbert 6) but get this, BC had 27. Points from turnovers were pretty equal (ND 17, BC 18)

- Both teams had 11 steals and second chance points were pretty equal (15 for ND, 16 for BC).

One big differentiator was that BC got 16 points off the bendch, 13 from Georgia Pineau, who used to be a starter.

- I thought the lack of a bench was apparent today. A number of players were just having tough games. It happens. In past years, MM would just take them out and put in a sub. If the sub got hot, great. While Danielle and Katie gave valiant efforts on defense (and they did), Katie only scored once and Dainielle didn't. It's hard to win playing 3 on 5 on offense.

- I used to think that Kaitlyn just internalized everything but I'm wondering is she gets frustrated, particularly when her drives aren't falling and/or not getting any calls. She looked very frustrated after missing some drives and a number of BC's weak-side rebounds were off her side. (it wasn't just Danielle getting beat). This isn't to beat up on her, but MM has to keep her top-line players in even if they're off.

Thinking ahead to off season:

- Got to work with Kaitlyn, in particular, as well as Anaya in finishing those layups. And on drawing contact. Ironically, Marta gets more calls of layup attempts. Maybe the shoulder injury makes her pull back from contact?

- I get why the coaching staff thought having Mik at the top of the key was a good idea: surround her with four shooters. In particular, let Sam face the basket.

But it takes Mik out of her primary sweet spot for scoring, which is down low. And it also lessens her ability to get offensive rebounds or at least disrupt the opposition. (Kinda like Bri.)

I thought this would've been a place for Sam, but apparently not. If not SB, maybe Maddy can slip into the spot her sister played oh so well (and importantly).

Lastly, get the da#m ball! Even the commentators mentioned that they thought BC wanted the ball more in the first half. We did right the ship in the 2nd, but this group of players has to get a nose for the ball. If they're not naturally aggressive, rely on technique: boxing out, hip checks, etc. Credit where credit is due -- Marta flies all over the court and Sam looks exhausted by the end of every game. The team misses Anaya's ability to muck it up inside and really misses Abby's take no prisoners approach on, well, everything.

Maybe ballhawk Alasia and Maddy Westbeld will help on that front.

Well, filling my juice cup up to half full again, let's hope everyone can learn from this one....stay tuned.











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