Ana Llanusa

[Sweetest OU Girl]

I will admit I was pretty disappointed that Ana was once again passed over for any mention as Player of the Week. In the past it has been an occasional practice to at least have a tie between a couple of players for the honor. they have not even been willing to do that.

Now, I'm a bit biased since everyone knows she is my favorite player on our team. She should have been Freshman of the Year last year, although if was close between her and Shaina. That has become clear as this year has progressed.

If a player has scored over 30 points in 25% of her conference games and has not even been considered as POW, it clearly shows it reflects a problem - one that has plagued the league for a long time - politics.

It appears she will be very fortunate to even make honorable mention at the end of the year. A quick look at the conference POW lists makes it obvious that the league voters do not consider her even worth mention among over 15 players around the league. Amazing! From time to time another player has an excellent week - about equal to one of hers, but she is playing in a team without any other player performing well by any measure, and those others are surrounded by excellent teammates - who also appear on weekly lists. Could any of them (or all of them) do as well with the team situation Ana is caught in?

But who knows, perhaps one or two of them will wake up and realize she is not one of the worst players who has ever played in the Big-12. Plus on one of the end of year teams every player nominated by their coach is apparently listed - and it is not totally certain SC will decide to not nominate any OU players.

 

[sybarite]

If the Ana that has now emerged had been there all year, I suspect that we would have had about five or six more wins. She is the leader that we have needed, the go-to player who would have freed up Taylor and Madi. We still would have size problems. But, we could have competed with everyone not named Baylor, Texas, or Iowa State while our height developed.

What she did against Baylor was astounding. They just had one player that they didn't have a comparable way to guard, and they couldn't do it. If Madi hadn't rushed her shots and had hit some, they might have made it competitive, with just the two of them. We have our building blocks.

 

[Sweetest OU Girl]

If the Ana that has now emerged had been there all year, I suspect that we would have had about five or six more wins. She is the leader that we have needed, the go-to player who would have freed up Taylor and Madi. We still would have size problems. But, we could have competed with everyone not named Baylor, Texas, or Iowa State while our height developed.

What she did against Baylor was astounding. They just had one player that they didn't have a comparable way to guard, and they couldn't do it. If Madi hadn't rushed her shots and had hit some, they might have made it competitive, with just the two of them. We have our building blocks.

Excellent points, Syb.

By the way, Ana is the third leading scorer in the league right now, and has played as much as 10 minutes per game less than those above and around her in the points per game stats. If she had played a full extra quarter in every game - like they have - she would be even higher in the stats. Are any of the other top 10 scorers in the league absent from any mention in the POW lists? Obviously it is impossible to be third in the conference without ever having a really good week.

And her lack of minutes is not about fouling. She has kept that well under control the entire semester. It is because of SC's strange substituting patterns.

 

[sybarite]

A part of the sub pattern is that Ana is still injured.. She had been out for more than just a couple of weeks. Apparently, she had missed about four months of practice prior to the surgery. It wasn't just a first game injury. She was having difficulty health and stamina wise at first. She was missing shots because she wasn't setting her feet well, which was injury-related.

I think that we have some people capable of emerging: Ana, Madi, Taylor, Jessi. Sherri still thinks Tatum will be good by the end of this year---not much time left. We may be seeing something out of Nydia. They just haven't had a limb to hang on to. Penzo's role against KU was vital---a stabilizer.

 

[Soonerguy06]

I am watching NC State play Notre Dame right now and Ana is the only one of those above reference players that would even get considered for backup playing time. Madi has the potential, but has not shown consistency. Maybe if she were on a better team that had better players across the board that challenged her to be consistent she would be a better player this year as well. I fear that we may lose players like Madi throughout the years if this team does not get better simply in frustration transfers due to wanting to be on a winning team.
I think if we had a better team this season unquestionably Ana would be at least 2nd team all-conference. let's see how she finishes the season though before statements like this are made. in typical SC pattern Shaina has deteriorated as a player and I will be completely bamboozled if she stays on for her junior season here. Who knows, for a different coach she could very well be a more disciplined, consistent, potential All-American player..

 

[Mac]

Ana scoring big has contributed to one win... not sure why getting over 30 a game on a team that doesn't win should gain her POW... also not buying the her teammates sucks thing. The big 12 is not a strong league, hasn't been in years, and our Win/ loss record is a reflection of The staff more so then the team...

 

[Oliver Hardy]

Ana and Madi are the keys to dramatic improvement next year. I think Pellington could be, if she would just learn from her mistakes, but I think it is too late for her. She’s never getting out of Sherri’s dog house — and that’s as much Sherri’s fault (if not more) than Shaina’s.

We desperately need a tall, strong scoring big to take the heat off our shooters. We don’t have that now and I don’t think we’re going to have it with Bloom. Just a gut hunch.

Until we get that center, it’s going to be difficult to make significant progress.

I also don’t think we are really set at point either. TV and Jess are serviceable, but neither one is going to be the ultimate answer.

Taylor doesn’t look to score and Jess is just like Ortiz — she dribbles too much.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sweetest OU Girl]

Ana scoring big has contributed to one win... not sure why getting over 30 a game on a team that doesn't win should gain her POW... also not buying the her teammates sucks thing. The big 12 is not a strong league, hasn't been in years, and our Win/ loss record is a reflection of The staff more so then the team...

Interesting evaluation, Mac. I can agree with some of you thoughts.

Here are some things to think about:

1. The team of the player who was POW this week was 1-1 (same as us) against far weaker opposition than we played. So outcome is meaningless - at least this week.

2. Virtually every player ranked in the top 10 scorers in the conference has been POW. So play on the court obviously plays some role normally. Just apparently not in Ana's case.

3. Even Tech and Kansas have a POW - though neither scored over 30 points (which Ana has done 3 times). So team record is not a determining factor.

Now, which 3 teams have won over half the POW awards this year?

And which 3 teams have not scratched?

Does team quality/record/conference standing explain that?

 

[Soonerguy06]

Watching Oregon play Oregon State right now and we've got two glaring weaknesses..
1) A point guard we are DEFINITELY lacking.
I don't care how big of fan Sherry is of TV and Jesse, Jessie is more of a shooting guard in my opinion and TV just is...a backup guard in my opinion, from what she's shown me this year which is not a whole lot.
2) also, just like everyone else saying, a serviceable post. Bloom looks like she's too small to handle the physicality of division one down low and she would be a good compliment to a Vivi type of post, which we obviously do not have.
I think next year we potentially win anywhere from 10 to 15 games depending on how these three incoming freshmen play and if any of this year's freshmen are better as sophomores.
Also a lot of it depends on if anyone transfers out.. which may be a real threat, these girls are from winning programs and if they don't see a dramatic change happening next season they may not want to waste their time in a losing program for very much longer. The only salvation to the transfer threat we have is they would have to sit out a year. That could be a great deterrent and savior for us. as much as I like Shaina, I think she would be a prime candidate to transfer and sit out a year and really reflect on her game and learn under a different coach and thrive her last two years of ball. I would cheer for her team in fact.

watching these two Oregon teams makes me realize how long of a basketball season this has really been not being able to watch your team win and wondering if ever my team will get to that level again. Over nine thousand three hundred in attendance for this game!!

 

[Sweetest OU Girl]

I've been watching that game too. One huge difference between these teams and us is the quickness of the players. They are slim for the most part and so much quicker than we are.

Of course they re quite a bit taller also.