Best in the Big 12

[Sooner Cal]

A player tears an ACL early in her freshman year, then tears the other ACL in an intra-squad scrimmage before her second year, that player's confidence in her knees has to be low. The coach understands this and uses the third year as a development year, bringing the player along slowly, not demanding starter level performance. The player grows as the season progresses, you can see it in her aggressiveness, the player is coming back, but the rust shows. 2 years off is a long time away from competition.

This may not be Maddie's peak, but I think it will be much better than a year ago. I think she'll be the 4 most of the time, replacing Sharane.

Goya played great early last season, then slipped. I expect her to bounce back. Peyton came on as Goya slipped, then she cooled down. Peyton can be a star, let's hope she matures (is more consistent) next year.

Kay Kay can be a real force if she can stay on the court for nearly 40 minutes instead of 20. If she continues to make silly fouls, time to start another player. I have no tolerance for people who repeat mistakes, which she does. I love to watch her play, but seniors should know when to foul and when not to.

Gabbi will be a great player. She began to expand her role as the season progressed. She has the whole package. She can shoot, she can drive and she can distribute the ball. She will be the team leader soon, she's that kind of player.

That's my view. I think we can win the Big 12 with the 2nd best players at every position and that is possible.

 

[sybarite]

A player tears an ACL early in her freshman year, then tears the other ACL in an intra-squad scrimmage before her second year, that player's confidence in her knees has to be low. The coach understands this and uses the third year as a development year, bringing the player along slowly, not demanding starter level performance. The player grows as the season progresses, you can see it in her aggressiveness, the player is coming back, but the rust shows. 2 years off is a long time away from competition.

This may not be Maddie's peak, but I think it will be much better than a year ago. I think she'll be the 4 most of the time, replacing Sharane.

Goya played great early last season, then slipped. I expect her to bounce back. Peyton came on as Goya slipped, then she cooled down. Peyton can be a star, let's hope she matures (is more consistent) next year.

Kay Kay can be a real force if she can stay on the court for nearly 40 minutes instead of 20. If she continues to make silly fouls, time to start another player. I have no tolerance for people who repeat mistakes, which she does. I love to watch her play, but seniors should know when to foul and when not to.

Gabbi will be a great player. She began to expand her role as the season progressed. She has the whole package. She can shoot, she can drive and she can distribute the ball. She will be the team leader soon, she's that kind of player.

That's my view. I think we can win the Big 12 with the 2nd best players at every position and that is possible.

Excellent post!

I think Maddie may be the most exciting recruit that we have had since the twins, and it is unfortunate that she was injured just as she began to show what she could do. I did not anticipate that she would be as recovered as she was last year. She was much better physically than I had expected. As you said, the rust showed. Another problem was that she has to learn how to deal with each of our players on the floor. She is something different. If her confidence grows over the summer, Maddie may be one of the two or three best players in the conference. She has an upside that we haven't seen much of yet. I am hopeful, but I don't know when it will emerge.

 

[SoonerNorm]

A player tears an ACL early in her freshman year, then tears the other ACL in an intra-squad scrimmage before her second year, that player's confidence in her knees has to be low. The coach understands this and uses the third year as a development year, bringing the player along slowly, not demanding starter level performance. The player grows as the season progresses, you can see it in her aggressiveness, the player is coming back, but the rust shows. 2 years off is a long time away from competition.

This may not be Maddie's peak, but I think it will be much better than a year ago. I think she'll be the 4 most of the time, replacing Sharane.

Goya played great early last season, then slipped. I expect her to bounce back. Peyton came on as Goya slipped, then she cooled down. Peyton can be a star, let's hope she matures (is more consistent) next year.

Kay Kay can be a real force if she can stay on the court for nearly 40 minutes instead of 20. If she continues to make silly fouls, time to start another player. I have no tolerance for people who repeat mistakes, which she does. I love to watch her play, but seniors should know when to foul and when not to.

Gabbi will be a great player. She began to expand her role as the season progressed. She has the whole package. She can shoot, she can drive and she can distribute the ball. She will be the team leader soon, she's that kind of player.

That's my view. I think we can win the Big 12 with the 2nd best players at every position and that is possible.

Kaylon certainly fouls too much and it is aggravating that she often goes to the bench when we need her the most. But, she isn't the only one. Following are the number of fouls per minute to show which others need to cut down on fouling:

ViVi- 1 foul every 6.5 minutes played
Kaylon- 1 foul every 7.1 minutes played
Gioya- 1 foul every 7.6 minutes played
Maddie- 1 foul every 8.7 minutes played

Compare those stats to:

Peyton- 1 foul every 24.2 minutes played
Gabbi- 1 foul every 18.4 minutes played

The following are turnovers per minute:

ViVi- 1 turnover every 7.3 minutes played
Maddie- 1 turnover every 8.2 minutes played
Gioya- 1 turnover every 11.3 minutes played
Gabbi- 1 turnover every 14.3 minutes played
T'ona- 1 turnover every 14.5 minutes played
Kaylon- 1 turnover every 15.2 minutes played
Peyton- 1 turnover every 19.0 minutes played

Last year, Maddie fouled too much and turned the ball over too much. To me, it is obvious those mistakes were the reason Sherri didn't play her more. We need for Maddie to play really well but to do so, she will have to cut down on mistakes and increase scoring and rebounding dramatically.

ViVi had the worst stats on the team in those categories and no question she has to improve significantly to be the kind of back up we need her to be. Gioya has to play tough defense but must stop the silly fouls as well.

Mistakes can and should be corrected in practice. When players commit silly fouls or turnovers, there is nothing better than laps and suicides to get a players attention. It doesn't take much of that to get a player to focus and perform the way Gabbi and Peyton do.