Good thoughts. Some of mine:
1. Starkey likes to work the refs. I don't know if it does any good. The Ball State game wasn't very well officiated. I don't think the team thinks the refs an excuse. They knew they're not playing well.
2. Stephens is a consistent 10 points a game and Carter 10 to 15. But neither are go-to players the way Lurken was last season. They sure could use a consistent three-point threat.
3. In the first half, Ball State pushed the ball as fast and as well as I have seen a team do in years. It's hard to figure how they lost two in a row before the KSU game.
4. Starkey had only two scholarship freshmen available against Ball State. Erin Thames played 12 minutes, her second highest this season. I know he wants to play Monique Smith more, and she got in for six minutes. I don't know what's with Tyra James. My guess is that he doesn't like her defense; that's usually why people don't play with him. Freshman Kasey Toles has an ankle injury. Freshman center Amanda Sape almost certainly is being redshirted. I just noticed the Kennedy Roberts-Rosser, the other post recruit, isn't on the roster any more. She was an April recruit and a project at best.
5. My guess is that at least three of the incoming freshmen will start next fall, and we'll take our lumps for a while. I just saw a story that the point guard from Massachusetts had eight steals in a game last weekend.
6. I think the way Lurken clicked in Starkey's system was one of those magic things. I know it surprised Starkey.
At this point, I'll thinking a .500 season. They could click and run off a streak against the East, but 9-9 in the conference, I think.
(01-21-2018 08:16 PM)burden Wrote: Overall things aren’t going to well this year. Just some thoughts after yesterday.
1. Starkey needs to quit complaining about every call by the ref. He needs to defend his team but I think he is overdoing it and giving his team an excuse.
2. After Korinek they really have no offense. Occasionally one of the guards have a good game but no one is a consistent shooter from outside. They also have a hard time even getting open.
3. Ball St was so much quicker than us. There is no way we beat them if they are even playing at 80% of their capability. The west is dominant this year and you could see why yesterday.
4. It’s time to play some of the freshman and Tyra James to at least find out if we have anything. We need to see if some can at least be rotation players next year. In the second half at least one of our guards was noticeably gassed. I’m sure the others are close if not already there. We will win some games when we start playing the east in a week or so but we not going to be winning the championship this year so we might as well learn a bit about our bench.
5. Even though the freshman class coming in is highly rated with three starters graduating (including Korinek) I’m afraid we need more from who we have now just to stay at our current level.
6. Seeing how much we lost when Lurken left I’m left wondering how good she could have been if our previous coach would have known how to use her right from the start. Oh well.