Guards are the problem

[sybarite]

The reason we don't shoot well is that we don't get that many good open shots where the shot is taken from a good spot, open and in rhythm. Many shots are from well behind the arc and more often than not rushed and under pressure.

We seem to either go to the posts who get a lot of shots blocked, drive all the way to the hoop and get shots blocked or dribble around out front and have to launch a trey under pressure. We had three pretty good shot blockers this year and blocked 112 shots but we had 135 blocked in 33 games.

Other than Carter we don't look very often for a mid range shot. Payton has a nick mid range shot but I don't know how many times she drove across the land this year never looking to shoot.

I thought Maddie closed the season strong, Little was hit and miss and I think Carter was more consistent than in the past. A lost season for Ortiz. Can't understand that. Maybe she thought it would be easy after making the national team. KayKay had and improved year but still missed a ton of layups and had too many shots blocked for someone with as many good moves that she has. ViVi also had too many shots blocked but she is tough on the boards and on defense She blocked 51 of the 112 shots we blocked this year in just over 15 minutes a game played. She was still the third highest scorer on the team. She needs to develop a hook shot to go with the quick moves she has to the hoop.

We seem to have energy one game and lots of movement on offense resulting in good shots and not the next time. That has to be on the coaching staff. They are responsible to put players on the court that will play hard all the time.

The skills development is on the players. The day is long gone where you developed your skills in practice. Now to keep up with the competition a player has to work hard outside of practice to have adequate skills.

I am really impressed with Llanusa and liked what I have seen from Rich, Mulkey and Dungee but am not sure how they will fit into our system. Actually I am not sure what our system is.

Good thoughts.

I thought that we made a mistake going to Kay Kay so much. I don't know that she progressed much through the years. When she had a bad game, we tended to have problems. Even though she was having a bad game, we tended to continue to go through her. It was like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. At the end of the year, I was relieved when Vivi was on the floor. Neither could be counted on to handle the ball. Both were likely to have a pass back out intercepted. But, Vivi is still learning. Kay Kay should have known.

At the end of the year, I really wanted Vivi or Maddie to have the ball. I would rather create shots for Maddie, which we didn't do. Late, she began to go to the rim more, and she was good---until Kentucky---at hitting layups. I had more confidence in Derica than Gioya or Peyton by the end of the year. I found myself hoping that TT, LaNesia, or Gabbi would not drive into the middle yet again. We seemed to spend a lot of time making things happen rather than taking advantage of what was there.

 

[j2d2]

Until defense and rebounding are stressed and restressed then stressed again and again I expect absolutely no change in our win/loss record.

 

[Stringmusic]

I do hope Sherri evaluates the whole season - and I think she does that. This year was characterized, in my view, by giving a lot of games to the opponent instead of getting beat by a better club. - missed open layups, lazy passes, ridiculous shots, etc. I saw some sizzling quarters, several sizzling halfs but only one sizzling game. That is inconsistency - and that was our major downfall. I wish I knew the cure. We have the talent or we would not sizzle at various times.

 

[zacj33]

I agree that our guard play is what is limiting us. We either have skilled players that are not athletic enough to create their own shot or for others, or we have athletes that are not skilled enough do much with the ball once they get past their defender or can't hit the open shot. This also applies to the defensive end. Think about how athletic we were when we had Danielle, Nyesha, and Amanda defending the 1,2,and 4 positions. You can "hide" one average defender.

The only player that somewhat fits both molds is Gioya. I really think that she was never really able to get in shape this year and it affecting her game.

 

[SOONERGRAD]

I agree that our guard play is what is limiting us. We either have skilled players that are not athletic enough to create their own shot or for others, or we have athletes that are not skilled enough do much with the ball once they get past their defender or can't hit the open shot. This also applies to the defensive end. Think about how athletic we were when we had Danielle, Nyesha, and Amanda defending the 1,2,and 4 positions. You can "hide" one average defender.

Bingo! Shooters are good to have but can they guard out on the perimeter? That's what kills us Everytime against athletic teams.

 

[SoonerinNC]

Some shooters can create their own shots and others have to be in an offensive scheme that gets them open shots.

Carter appears to be the only one who can consistently create a shot, but I think both Manning and Little could do it more often. ViVi is pretty good at it as well. Our offensive scheme doesn't consistently get players open for shots like UConn, Baylor and Notre Dame.

Sherri has to be careful or the game will pass her by. One example of that I can really remember is Bobby Knight and also Billy Tubbs. I grew up defending the base line but Knight changed defensive concepts by forcing guys to drive to the base line and getting them in trouble with rotating defenses. He just paralyzed opponents offenses. He also did some innovative things on offense. I don't think the game passed him by but it sure caught up with him and his later teams were pretty ordinary.

Tubbs got an edge on opponents by being a pioneer in recruiting JUCO's. When other teams started doing the same his teams became pretty ordinary.

In Sherri's early years we got away with some of the risky passes that now turn into turnovers. With more athletic opponents they don't work as well. Also we used to run other teams off the court but I think other teams work hard to stop our running game with a lot of success.

I don't really buy that they need to work harder on certain aspects of the game. Almost any coach will work hard on everything they try to do and try to teach good fundamental defense and rebounding. But if our players are not capable of consistently executing our schemes we need to get better players. I don't think it is Sherri's intent for the point guard to start penetration and stop halfway and kick off to a wing who does the same way and kicks off to another player and so on, but we do it a lot. And if we don't do that we seem to go on headlong into a gang of two or three who are just waiting for us to do that. Thus a lot of the 135 blocked shots.

 

[sybarite]

Good post. I think Carter can fairly consistently get about a fifteen to twenty foot jumper. But, she also makes a lot of mistakes, something she has done since she was a freshman. Peyton has more difficulty creating a shot. She is actually pretty good if we set her up.

I think Maddie is the only one who can create a shot routinely, but she also seems to have an uncertainty about her shot at times. She either feels it or lacks confidence. When she is comfortable, she can hit shots that Gioya and Peyton get blocked.