Can someone please explain...

[SoonerNorm]

Why Kim did not have her players throw lobs to Griner under the basket? She could have caught the pass and made an easy 6-12" shot (if not a dunk) while still in the air at a fairly high percentage, I would think. She is 6'8" for pete's sake and can dunk a basketball. How many defenders are there in college women's basketball who could have stopped that play? I would have run that play several times a game until a team figured out a way to stop it.

 

[BlackwellSooner]

Why Kim did not have her players throw lobs to Griner under the basket? She could have caught the pass and made an easy 6-12" shot (if not a dunk) while still in the air at a fairly high percentage, I would think. She is 6'8" for pete's sake and can dunk a basketball. How many defenders are there in college women's basketball who could have stopped that play? I would have run that play several times a game until a team figured out a way to stop it.

Good question. While there are certainly opposing defenders who are capable of getting high enough to touch the rim, very few have the leaping ability to dunk. That tells me that Griner, let's say on a pre-determined or signaled play, could go up for a lob 5 or 6" above the basket and lay it in or kiss it off the board.

Darned good question, why didn't she exploit her strength?

 

[Keller Sooner]

Norm, Louisville had her arms pinned and were standing on her feet. Now, how in the heck is she going to be able to dunk? :ez-laugh:
Seriously, Griner looked like she was intimidated the entire game. She had an all-world coach over there that you would think would try the lob, but she was too busy screaming at the refs.

 

[SoonerNorm]

Norm, Louisville had her arms pinned and were standing on her feet. Now, how in the heck is she going to be able to dunk? :ez-laugh:
Seriously, Griner looked like she was intimidated the entire game. She had an all-world coach over there that you would think would try the lob, but she was too busy screaming at the refs.

:ez-roll: Well, that's sure one way to prevent the lob!

 

[35TangoTango]

Well, they didn't have her arms pinned, but they were standing close enough to her to impede her footwork. With three player surrounding Griner on one side of the ball, the Baylor tactic should have been to reverse the ball and penetrate from the weak side. During the season, this has accounted for the majority of Pope's and William's points, but here they just didn't play very smart basketball for a long period of time.

 

[SoonerNorm]

Well, they didn't have her arms pinned, but they were standing close enough to her to impede her footwork. With three player surrounding Griner on one side of the ball, the Baylor tactic should have been to reverse the ball and penetrate from the weak side. During the season, this has accounted for the majority of Pope's and William's points, but here they just didn't play very smart basketball for a long period of time.

Tango, you could very well be correct but, I'll throw out what I mentioned to Syb, it does not appear offense was the problem as they scored 81 points. That's a bunch of points against a good opponent. It's just hard for me to imagine them giving up 82 points when the most they had given up all year was 71, in their only loss to Stanford. The most OU scored against them was 65. It looks to me like defense was more of a problem than offense.

Edit to say- I really wasn't just talking about the Louisville game when I started this thread, I was talking about Griner's entire career. I have thought for a long time Griner could have added 10 or more points per game by using the lob.

 

[O-State2009]

Maybe they didn't want to spend the time with the guards to learn to throw the pass. It isn't an easy pass to complete. It also is not an easy shot to complete. The timing of the play would have to be perfect.

From Baylor's website, Griner has a standing one-arm reach is 9'2". I honestly don't know how high she can jump. But you must have the ability to "float" in order to catch the ball and lay it in with any sort of consistency.

I thought a similar play should be implemented for Toni Young, but I am not sure OSU ever tried it either. But just this past year, a lob play was put in for Brittney Martin against TCU and she successfully completed it more times than not. But she still missed some.

I believe it is all in body control. Maybe Mulkey had practiced this and it wasn't successful enough in practice, so they decided there was no point in wasting possessions in a game.

 

[KCRuf/Nek]

I was wondering why they kept her down low. Surely they have a part of their offense where she comes out to the FT line. IMO this would not only open up the middle but wouldn't allow the defense to pack it in like that. This would give Griner the chance to pass, drive, and maybe even shoot a jumper. I felt it was a mistake on the coach to not make some sort of adjustment.

 

[OKUman]

I was wondering why they kept her down low. Surely they have a part of their offense where she comes out to the FT line. IMO this would not only open up the middle but wouldn't allow the defense to pack it in like that. This would give Griner the chance to pass, drive, and maybe even shoot a jumper. I felt it was a mistake on the coach to not make some sort of adjustment.

This was my question, I said during the game, just take Grinner out to the top of the key and it's then one on one or 4 on 3 for the Baylor players. Of course the answer is probably that Kim is just so stubborn that she wanted to do it her way or no way.