Attended today's game vs UCLA - Observations

[Sooner Cal]

Not our day for several reasons.
First, Vegas was off. She played virtually the entire game, but her shots were off. Can't believe we had her take the final shot.
Second, the refs were questionable (that's being kind). They called the slightest touch as a foul, but allowed obvious hacking underneath. UCLA was very aggressive going for rebounds, often going over our backs (especially Vegas) and they often weren't called. Sherri was right in front of us. You could tell how frustrated she was with the calls.
Third, losing Kornet to a knee injury was critical. Danica had to play most of the game. Kornet's size and experience would have been a big help.
Fourth, I think Sheeri coached to teach more than to win. I agree with that approach. But we win this game if we just kept going inside. UCLA had no answer for for Griffin, Kay Kay or Portia. Once their bigs fouled out, it was child's play that we didn't exploit.
Fifth, we played all the freshman quite a bit. My thoughts on each. Goya is the most mature physically. She can play at this level now and will be much better by conference time. Danica has a nice shot and works very hard on defense, but has a lot to learn about positioning. She needs to be more physical. Ton'ya is quick and a little out of control at times. I wish she'd played more. Kellogg looks so young. I thought she was confused several times.

I pray that Kornet's injury isn't as bad as it looked. I feel so bad for her. She's a gamer and she'll be a key part of this team if she isn't out for the year.

In all truth, we had combinations out there that probably don't get a lot of minutes as a unit in practice. Even Morgan looked perplexed at the end because the others didn't know what to do. We'd lost Kornet, Kay Kay, Goya and Sharane. Danica and Kellogg were out there with Vegas, Portia and Morgan.

Portia made som key shots. Danica hit three 3's. I think Morgan had 6 points and Vegas wasn't much better with most coming from free throws. Sharane can be a real force.

DRob was there. Too bad we couldn't suit her up. I kept thinking we should put Ton'ya in and have her drive on their bigs. Danielle would have fouled them out in 10 minutes.

 

[tycat947]

Thanks for the observations! I have no doubt that Sherri will use this game as a teaching tool. Just as she did last year. She's always preparing for the conference and tourney season in November/December.

I agree about Nicole Kornet. I'm really shocked that radio crew said it was her ankle as it sounded like ACL scream and she had ice on her knee when she returned to the bench.

This was another learning experience. Playing on the road against a quality opponent. I just don't understand the poor, well pathetic actually, rebounding. UCLA didn't look nearly as strong under the basket as they did last year.

 

[Soonerbay]

Watch any Pac12 women's game and the officiating will look exactly the same as it did for this game. You have to prepare for the officiating as well when you're coming to play from outside the conference. It's been the same for years.

 

[badger]

I think we're all being too hard on the Pac 12 officiating. It has never, ever been unfair to us in the past.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I think we're all being too hard on the Pac 12 officiating. It has never, ever been unfair to us in the past.

It would have been a great move by Sherri if she would have called timeout and asked the ref who called a foul on one of our players, when it was clearly a tie-up, if he was one of the referees who called the OU-Oregon game.

Yep, she would probably have gotten a technical called but who cares!

 

[badger]

Yep, she would probably have gotten a technical called but who cares!

Back in the mid-aughts I got to witness one of Sherri's few technicals at the Big 12 tourney. It was at KC's Municipal Auditorium, which has some of the most evil old lady attendants out there. Post-technical, I held up my sign that had "We love you Coach Coale" on one side, and "We do NOT like the refs" on the other side.

Sadly, old lady attendant caught the mere seconds I flashed the other side and so I set the sign "Coach Coale" side in a seat the rest of the game. And yes, we did end up winning that game

 

[SoonerNorm]

Back in the mid-aughts I got to witness one of Sherri's few technicals at the Big 12 tourney. It was at KC's Municipal Auditorium, which has some of the most evil old lady attendants out there. Post-technical, I held up my sign that had "We love you Coach Coale" on one side, and "We do NOT like the refs" on the other side.

Sadly, old lady attendant caught the mere seconds I flashed the other side and so I set the sign "Coach Coale" side in a seat the rest of the game. And yes, we did end up winning that game

Good for you!:clap

 

[KCRuf/Nek]

Got to see the highlights of the game(We still haven't had one on TV yet up here ). Was it just this game where Nicole looked like a completely different player in the post or is this something she's worked on? I couldn't believe the spins and turns and reverse layups she was doing. Is this something to be excited about?

 

[SoonerNorm]

Got to see the highlights of the game(We still haven't had one on TV yet up here ). Was it just this game where Nicole looked like a completely different player in the post or is this something she's worked on? I couldn't believe the spins and turns and reverse layups she was doing. Is this something to be excited about?

Offensively, Nicole is doing well and the game against UCLA was outstanding. We just need to see that kind of effort every game.

 

[KCRuf/Nek]

So is this something that she seems to have worked on? I see people here saying KK should be getting the minutes.

 

[Sooner Suzie]

KK's minutes are limited by her propensity to foul. Despite limited playing time, she has either 4 or 5 fouls in every official game but the first one. If she were starting, how long would she last before fouling twice? And then who would relieve Nicole?

I can see her getting more playing time as the season progresses, but she first must master the new rules on fouling and her own self-control. It would also help greatly if Kellogg progresses quickly.

Carter also has the same fouling problem, but then there are many more subbing options at her position(s).

 

[Keller Sooner]

KK's minutes are limited by her propensity to foul. Despite limited playing time, she has either 4 or 5 fouls in every official game but the first one. If she were starting, how long would she last before fouling twice? And then who would relieve Nicole?

I can see her getting more playing time as the season progresses, but she first must master the new rules on fouling and her own self-control. It would also help greatly if Kellogg progresses quickly.

Carter also has the same fouling problem, but then there are many more subbing options at her position(s).

Good post. :OU-logo:

 

[tycat947]

KK's minutes are limited by her propensity to foul. Despite limited playing time, she has either 4 or 5 fouls in every official game but the first one. If she were starting, how long would she last before fouling twice? And then who would relieve Nicole?

I can see her getting more playing time as the season progresses, but she first must master the new rules on fouling and her own self-control. It would also help greatly if Kellogg progresses quickly.

Carter also has the same fouling problem, but then there are many more subbing options at her position(s).

If I remember correctly, KayKay had the same problem as a freshman too before they started calling fouls as it was stated in rules this year. We need BOTH Nicole and KayKay in order to be as successful as we'd like to be. She does the team no good by having to sit on the bench when she could be relieving Nicole or be playing in place of Portia.

You are correct about Gioya too. I think she will get better as season goes on and getting more D1 experience. We need EVERYONE on this team in order to reach the goals they have set. There's not one player that can do it themselves!

 

[sybarite]

If I remember correctly, KayKay had the same problem as a freshman too before they started calling fouls as it was stated in rules this year. We need BOTH Nicole and KayKay in order to be as successful as we'd like to be. She does the team no good by having to sit on the bench when she could be relieving Nicole or be playing in place of Portia.

You are correct about Gioya too. I think she will get better as season goes on and getting more D1 experience. We need EVERYONE on this team in order to reach the goals they have set. There's not one player that can do it themselves!

Gioya plays like a freshman. She does some good things. Then, she makes some really bad decisions and mistakes. She needs a little more thought on the court. It isn't always up to her.

I think we need to bring Kellogg, Gibbs, and Wyatt along as quickly as possible. Gibbs has talent, but no idea what to do with it. I see fewer mistakes from Derica and Shaya than from some of our upperclassmen. They are pretty steady for freshmen. Shaya is averaging 2.8 rebounds in only 8 minutes. She blocks out. Can't seem to hit a shot right now, but that makes her a part of the team. Derica seems to have no fear of threes. She made a mistake against UCLA, and Sherri took her out. She was the only person that we had that could hit from more than three feet against UCLA. I thought we needed her to be taking the shots at the end of the game, not Vegas. Go with the hot hand.

 

[Sooner Cal]

My assessment of our rebounding, we wait for the ball to come to us stead of going after it. Bruin players were aggressive going to the ball. I thought they fouled us several times that weren't called going after rebounds. We seemed to be watching.

We were called for many more fouls than the Bruins. Surprising since UCLA was more aggressive reaching over our back to reach for rebounds.

Griffin has developed a very good move under the basket and she has developed a very nice shot. She could have scored 40 points if we'd focused on getting the ball inside.

 

[SoonerNorm]

My assessment of our rebounding, we wait for the ball to come to us stead of going after it. Bruin players were aggressive going to the ball. I thought they fouled us several times that weren't called going after rebounds. We seemed to be watching.

We were called for many more fouls than the Bruins. Surprising since UCLA was more aggressive reaching over our back to reach for rebounds.

Griffin has developed a very good move under the basket and she has developed a very nice shot. She could have scored 40 points if we'd focused on getting the ball inside.

I think just about everyone would agree with you, including Sherri.

 

[sybarite]

It seems that it usually takes until mid-December before we panic. I guess that the NIT advanced the schedule this year, and we see the wheels coming off in November. We see the negatives, and wonder how we will overcome them. Strange how those wheels seem to get us at least to the Sweet Sixteen almost every year. We have more pieces that can be good than we've had in a while.

 

[SoonerNorm]

It seems that it usually takes until mid-December before we panic. I guess that the NIT advanced the schedule this year, and we see the wheels coming off in November. We see the negatives, and wonder how we will overcome them. Strange how those wheels seem to get us at least to the Sweet Sixteen almost every year. We have more pieces that can be good than we've had in a while.

I don't think anyone is in a panic. Everyone knows this team can and will play better, but it is frustrating to see us play poorly particularly when some of the main problems are directly related to poor fundamentals.

 

[euphguy]

I feel that there's generally a lot of love for Sherri on this forum, so it's interesting when there's a dissenting perspective. With regard to the final shot taken, I wouldn't want a freshman taking the shot, regardless of how well she performed in the game. At the end of the day, she's still a freshman, and her mentality would likely be altered when time to shoot. If Aaryn had made the shot, this wouldn't likely have been discussed. In short, go with the person who's been the consistent scorer over the past several seasons, and if she doesn't make the shot, oh well.

I feel like other players need to step up in general in order to achieve a better scoring balance, especially Morgan. She rarely gets discussed on this board about offense, but it's possible to be a consistent, high-level scorer and be a PG. There are several examples across the country. IMO, that's the missing link from this team currently. Aaryn cannot do it all, and if she's having a bad night, we will likely lose. There has to be many other options. Just my .02.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I would also like to see Morgan scoring more. She hasn't shot well BTA, possibly partly due to the thumb injury.

I still think our first option should be Griffin then pass outside if she's covered.