Oh-uh, Rockets in double bonus

Bruan's head was an weird angle when shooting a free throw.

Lack of a perimeter game is huge

DU wins 65-52.

Disappointing loss. Was a winnable game, despite the bad shooting. 8-23 from the line is just unacceptable. Let >15 points on the court.

Hope there's one or two three point shooters on IR

Bright spot was the play of Monakana. What a get she is for UT. Showed she can shoot, rebound, run the court, play inside, hit the boards. She is just gonna get better.

Braun showed some real good signs too. Played much better D than during the exhibition.

Need Krunch back though, desperately. Also, if de Alfredo can come in and give us some perimeter shooting, that will help tremendously. If we can't find an outside shooting game, we are gonna see zones all year long.

(11-09-2013 04:24 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Bright spot was the play of Monakana. What a get she is for UT. Showed she can shoot, rebound, run the court, play inside, hit the boards. She is just gonna get better.

Braun showed some real good signs too. Played much better D than during the exhibition.

Need Krunch back though, desperately. Also, if de Alfredo can come in and give us some perimeter shooting, that will help tremendously. If we can't find an outside shooting game, we are gonna see zones all year long.

Seemed like Dortch was consciously avoiding looking for shots in first half. I get wanting to involve people but she can hit threes at times. Could have used some today. Drexel looked good but certainly beatable. Nova will be a good test for them I think we beat MVSU handily.

IMO the three factors that cost the Rockets the game were:

1) Free throw shooting----the box score show UT as 8/23 and Drexel as 14/16 but during the game it seemed even more one-sided than that. I am surprised to learn that UT made 8 FT.

2) The Rockets were not at full strength---I think that Crunch would have helped under the basket----While Reecher has potential, the post position often requires more develop time for young players than other positions and the post is not a natural position for other team members. I don't know what role Baker will play but I feel that de Alfredo could have added some badly need scoring ability today, especially from 3-point land.

3) This is an incredibly young and inexperienced team and it going to take a certain amount of time for them to gain experience within the system and with their team mates under game conditions. Last winter I lamented the lack of playing time given to 1st & 2nd year players because the only alternative is to gain experience thru "on-the-job-training" which is what we are going to see a steady dose of this season (Although, in hindsight, there may have a been a very good reason those players didn't see more court time last year).

In general I thought that the defense played with intensity for the most part, however, it did seem as if the D was often a split second late in covering an open Drexel 3-point shooter which often proved costly. The team did play hard and I was impressed how quickly they cut a 12 Drexel lead down to 2 points around the 4:00 minute mark, however, the team needs more players who can step up and score when it is needed. Among the new players Monakana showed promise as a scorer and Braun also made the most of the few shots from the field she took.

No surprise that this was the first loss of the season at Savage but there are going to be others in the early season as the team develops and improves, but as long as they continue to play hard they will get better and may well be a force in the conference come March which, after all, is the time when winning counts the most.

The lack of an inside presence was the reason there was a lack perimeter play. It's a team with new faces that will take some time getting it together. Despite all of the mistakes, if they would have hit free throws, they could have upset Drexel (yes i consider Drexel a better team. All in all, this team will improve, but I would not expect a repeat of the last couple of years.