RE: WBB @ Dayton Game Thread
Just got done watching the replay. Ugly game, on both sides. Neither team played that well I thought. Dayton is really big - they can put multiple 6'3-6'5 players in the front court, and their 2 big 5th year guards are both 6'1. That makes a really tough match-up for UT. Yet, I though UT hung pretty well defensively, aside from the career day from Giacone who went off for 28. Still, after going down 10-0 and then by as much as 17 early, they cut the lead to 6 to make it a game. So there are positives to take from this, along side the big negatives.
Negatives:
- Rebounding was horribly, awfully, completely and unambiguously atrocious. No one, and I mean no one at all blocked out even a little bit. Not at all. Just stood around watching the ball bounce off the rim to a Flyer, or turned to run up court before the ball was even off the rim. If that doesn't get fixed, the season will be a bust. Coaching rebounding was supposed to be Ivey's specialty. She is not making progress on that so far.
- Rockets will not win many games if Wiard and Mikonowicz combine for 2 points, both from the line. They BOTH have to score at least a little. If Sammi doesn't score, she needs to be a defensive stopper and/or bring in 10 boards a game, but she isn't doing either of those right now.
- Too many fouls again. Most of them were justified calls. Refs made a couple poor ones, but I thought they went both ways. Rockets have to have better footwork to avoid putting other teams on the line so much.
- Cook got schooled. Not really that much of a negative as it was bound to happen, and she was outsized for the 1st time. Hopefully this was a learning experience. She won't face a rotation of good players that big in the MAC, with the possible exception of Kent.
- Someone has to hit the wide open threes. Even the Dayton announcers seemed impressed with how UT's offense regularly got a wide open look from three, but no one could hit one until the last minute of the game. Really bad shooting in the 1st half. They really, really miss Barnes in that regard, so some combination of Wiard, Jansen, Garcia and maybe Mikonowicz have to start hitting the treys, which will open up the inside for Cook and Noveroske and Garcia. Perdue was supposed to be a big time shooter too, but I am not sure she was even there. I assume she in injured - anyone know?
Positives.
- Held the Dayton PG to 3 points. She was averaging close to 20, and it very good. Great D on her.
- Garcia started to show what she is going to be capable of, especially in the 2nd half. Hit some big shots, played some good D, got a few big rebounds, banged with the bigger players. Continue to be excited about her future.
- Noveroske is clearly limited in the things she can do, but she did some nice things at times. She moves much better than I expected - at least on offense. In the 1st half when no one was scoring, she stepped up with 6 big points. Yes, she got her shot blocked several times and made some bad fouls, but I am hopeful that between Page, Cullop and Yolanda tutoring her, she will continue to grow and be able to give 10-15 productive minutes a game - depending on the opponent.
- Goss stepped up again, and provided the only other real scoring threat after Q from the backcourt.
- Q didn't play her best game - forced things quite a bit - but still ended up with 22. I am waiting for the game that she really catches fire.
|
WBB @ Dayton Game Thread 
