Tip off is set for Wednesday, November 30th at 11am inside the Murphy Center. It's the annual Education Day for Murfreesboro City Schools. The Raiders lead the nation in Education Day attendance, averaging 10713 per game. Ohio is 4-0 and most recently defeated Murray State 79-70 (their best opponent to date). See everyone at the game, and be sure to bring ear plugs!

Ohio leads 32-29 at halftime. Johnson leads MT with 13 points. Ohio #22 is the dirtiest player I have ever seen ... tried to stomp on Gabby Lyon then kicked Alex Johnson in the head. Bobcats should be ashamed of that ugliness. Unacceptable.

Here's my analysis of today...

1) Too many turnovers and missed chip shots. This is one of our most glaring issues - we miss easy layups and throw horrible passes. It's very difficult to win when your point guard is making slow or errant passes, and it doesn't help when the rest of your team does the same thing (to a lesser extent). I counted at least twice we missed an open layup on one end and then GAVE UP a wide open layup on the other end because we weren't getting back in time on defense. The good news is we shot the ball from free throw pretty well but AJ was something like 2-13 from the floor. Though a lot of it was because of allowed contact, there were many instances where an up-fake and drive up into the arms of the defender would have given her more opportunities to score from the stripe. Petty threw slow passes to Sissom three or four times and it was picked off each time. Part of it is Petty being a bit off on the pass and part of it is the recipient just standing there expecting the ball to be there no problem when it's not like that since you have a defender wanting to pick that pass off. Way too much settling and kind of "gliding along" on offense.

2) Shooting the ball and getting back on defense. We took four three point shots in total in that game... two were by Jess Louro, one was by Ty Petty - the only make, and the other was a force by Alex Johnson (though I think we rebounded that one). CRI said in post game their point of emphasis this past week was throwing up more shots from outside and being aggressive at the guard spot... which we weren't. He was explicit in stating that the scout for Ohio called for them to do exactly that and no one executed the scout the way they had discussed. Unacceptable and you could tell he was angry about that along with our "effort and toughness" ... though we out-rebounded Ohio, we didn't seem to be going after the ball. I recall one play in particular where someone (Louro? Majors? Savage? a newer player) went in for a shot that was actually a pretty good look... she was the only one rebounding. Ty Petty and Abbey Sissom were on the other side of the court (Ohio's end) and an OU player ran past them and had an open layup. They are supposed to be our most experienced players and have their heads in the game but they looked out of it ESPECIALLY on three point defense (posts too - their post player hit 5 three point shots). I expect the younger players to get more time as this has seemed to be a theme.

3) Athleticism. I know it's nice to have experienced players like Sissom and Reuter in the game who know what to do (most of the time) but it was obvious we were getting out-hustled. I think CRI recognizes this because in post game he called out some of our consistently "in the game" players and said he would be re-assessing each and every position and making changes before our game on Saturday. Notably, he named Jordan Majors as one player he was particularly happy with (one of the few) and said she will probably be more utilized. She had a great game and came ready to play along with Gabby Lyon. We played well when we had faster, taller players in like Majors, Charity Savage, and Kyla Allison (to an extent). The biggest problem with the younger players is obviously their inexperience in the offense but they need game experience if they're going to grow into the system. Practice can only do so much. I was, however, impressed by the communication on the floor with Majors and Allison in particular. Savage is still learning, you can tell, but her athleticism is just remarkable. I really hope CRI uses the younger players more because to be honest the older group isn't really holding up their end of the bargain.

This was a winnable game, but too much went wrong all at once. 26 turnovers is just unacceptable, especially with 9 from your point guard who is supposed to have the least on the team. Can't shoot 2-13 with your star post player and expect to win. Can't take 4 three point shots all game and allow 13.

Another thing to remember - we lost even worse to Ohio last year, 72-49. Honestly that game was a heck of a lot worse than this one. I watched it and boy was I upset. We looked terrible back then against them, but we looked better - believe it or not - today. The collapse happened at 5min in the 3rd QTR. Up till then, we played okay. But that's when things all started going wrong.