(11-11-2017 08:47 AM)Wear Purple Wrote:  Thanks goodness we should never read too much into an opening game - whether it went bad or good - because if I did, based on what I saw last night in the Convo, we will struggle to break even this season. I think we are better than that and will be a 20+ win team come mid-March, but certainly this team has a lot of work to do to say the least.

Last night reminded me of how valuable it is to have a great PG ala Angela Mickens.

(11-11-2017 08:54 AM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  

(11-11-2017 08:47 AM)Wear Purple Wrote:  Thanks goodness we should never read too much into an opening game - whether it went bad or good - because if I did, based on what I saw last night in the Convo, we will struggle to break even this season. I think we are better than that and will be a 20+ win team come mid-March, but certainly this team has a lot of work to do to say the least.

Last night reminded me of how valuable it is to have a great PG ala Angela Mickens.

I was at the game since my wife & I used our football tickets to get in - we showed up at the beginning of the 2nd quarter, but I caught enough of the game to see some potential problems for the rest of the season.

I quoted these posts because I think jmuroadwarrior picked out what I think is going to be the biggest flaw of this team. They don't seem to have a true PG or really, ball-handlers who could consistently break a press. Awareness in the open court was lacking, as some ladies were making passes teammates were unprepared to receive, and poor passes happened often enough that they would derail promising stretches. Hopefully they can clean up the sloppiness as the season goes on. Maybe some of it is a result of wanting to play fast, but if you're going to play that way you always have to keep an eye out for the ball.

The other big issue I saw was undisciplined closeouts on defense. How many times did we see a perimeter defender charge at an open shooter and leave their feet, only to be pump-faked and give up an open shot or expose the rest of the defense to a dribble-drive? That needs to be fixed ASAP.

The run they made in the second half after being down more than 20 was an encouraging sign, but they shot themselves in the foot too many times with poor passing and chasing blocks in half-court sets instead of playing sound defense.

I was only able to follow the game on Twitter as I was out of town so I don't have the benefit of having seen the things some of you are criticizing. However, I will comment on a couple of things I've been watching. One is that I think Logan is a better PG than Hailee and would be better as a starter, but that's just my opinion. It's a little hard for me to gauge (yet) exactly what Tori Harris can do but I was impressed by her ball handling skills and her speed. I hope to see a little more of that as the season goes on. Kelly may not be a speed demon but she gets where she needs to be, and Kayla's quickness makes up for it a lot of times. You will see a similar thing with Tennessee, where Mercedes Russell isn't fast but gets where she's going and others compensate.

Fortunately a lot of things settle out by March!