More questions this year

SoonerNorm

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I do not remember a recent year in which we have more questions about an upcoming season.

1. Will the team be in better condition?

2. Will Peyton be a consistent scorer all year?

3. Will Gioya be a consistent scorer all year?

4. Will Maddie become a consistent scorer?

5. Will rebounding improve?

6. Will defense improve?

7. Will Nancy show signs of being a quality center?

8. Will Dungee provide quality minutes?

I think we pretty much know what to expect from ViVi and Gabbi. I don't have a clue what to expect from the others. I would say that conditioning, rebounding, and defense are the first 3 priorities.
 
Gabby is going to be a pretty good ball handler. She will play hard. She will run the offense as instructed by Sherri. She will knock down a couple of shots most games behind the arc. She still will not penetrate. She will not lead fast breaks. She will get beat by quick point guards. She will not dazzle anyone with her passing. As far as point guards in the league I expect her to be somewhere in the middle.
 
Don't know why, but Gabbi regressed last season after showing signs that she might be an elite point guard at some point. I, for one, am still hopeful that she will get back on track. I can recall that Gabbi, as a freshman, showed flashes of being a good passer. She also showed the ability to penetrate effectively at times.
 
I would 1,5 and 6 are must improve if we want to have a chance at winning the big 12; if not we be playing third place again.
 
I think the questions might take a different note. We have players who never really have improved. They performed last year as they did as freshmen. Who will take the time in the gym to improve?

I don't buy into the common laments: defense, rebounding, and conditioning. Usually, we held our own on the board, except when faced with a 6-6 type player. We rotated two players who may not have been in the best condition. But, we always complain about post conditioning, and I see that announcers often give the ability to run the court as a strength of OU posts.

I like the makeup of this team better than I have any team recently. But, we must learn quickly whether Peyton and Gioya are role players or difference-makers. I think they may be at the limit of their potential, and they must play within themselves.

If we are to improve, I think it will come from Vivi, Maddie, and Gabbi. But, we haven't mentioned a key player, Morgan Rich. She could be what we hoped Gioya and Peyton would be. I think Maddie just needs to take the summer off and shoot, shoot, shoot. She does everything else we need.

We have three players that we must see what develops this year: Nancy, Chelsea, and Gileysa (still very young). They have an upside, but they must confine themselves to playing within a specific role this year. I have the feeling that Nancy, Morgan, Maddie, T'Ona, and Gileysa could be a nightmare of defense---long arms, quick hands.
 
If Vivi improves as much over the off-season as she did last off-season, she will be huge for us. I do believe she will have to improve her conditioning and believe she will, if asked, or she realizes it or whatever. I also thought last year, though no one on here agreed, that she had a problem
with her leg. Whether she did or didn't, hopefully she is 100% for the season.

Gioya being hurt from before the season started and not knowing how healthy she was when she came back, leaves a question for me as to whether she had started to make improvements before being injured. If so and she had been able to continue to practice and then play, she might have
been a much improved player. I have always thought a big part of her problem the first two years was her mental game. And it continued last year. That couldn't have been helped by her injury. I believe with the right one-on-one coaching and a big commitment from her, she could play in the WNBA. (not knocking coaches here, saying that what she would need to improve to WNBA level) Now, she may not want to make that commitment, but I imagine she hasn't thought of getting a one-on-one coach and trainer, to work on her game, so she could get to the next level. Don't even know if she has the money. Don't even know what her desire is. It would take a lot of her time to do that and train with the team and I don't know if she is required to go to summer school or not and if she is required to take 6 hours for summer school.
Guess I got a little carried away: just love to watch Gioya play and truly believe she has the skills and ability to make vast improvements in her game.

Gabbi had a drop-off from her first year. I am not sure if playing with the U.S. team was part of that or not. Maybe the fact that Peyton was off and on affected her play. I believe she can play better than last season. However, I also believe that Tona can play better than last season (which was a good season for her) and could start at PG. She has the ability to learn not to make mistakes and to learn to shoot and limit her turnovers.
She is great on defense and also gets a lot of rebounds.

Peyton could get it together, Maddie could improve.. unknown possibilities.

Ijeoma Odimgbe, I still believe she could be an important contributor. She seems smart and to care, those things go a long way in helping someone be good at anything. Gileysa, I have no clue. I love her spirt.

Morgan Rich, Dungee, Mulkey, until I see them at this level, I have no clue.
Believe Dungee and Mulkey will contribute. Morgan, I just have no idea.

We do need some people to step-up for this not to be a repeat of the last three years. Just want these players to play well for themselves and enjoy it. I will appreciate being the unintended, unknown beneficiary if this happens.
 
I don't think Penzo will ever get meaningful minutes due to her lack of athleticism. It's very hard to be a effective guard in this league unless you have at least a decent amount of speed and quickness.
 
I expect about the same as last year and the year before and so on..
 
These are the 3 pt. shooting stats in conference play:

Derica- 38%
Gabbi- 30%
Peyton- 29%
T'ona- 27%
Gioya- 26%
Maddie- 24%
McKenna- 19%

For a team that relies heavily on 3 pt shooting, that is pathetic.

I'm not going to post all of the fg% stats for the guards/forwards but it is pretty bad when our two best shooters were:

LaNesia at 44% and T'ona at 42%.
 
These are the 3 pt. shooting stats in conference play:

Derica- 38%
Gabbi- 30%
Peyton- 29%
T'ona- 27%
Gioya- 26%
Maddie- 24%
McKenna- 19%

For a team that relies heavily on 3 pt shooting, that is pathetic.

I'm not going to post all of the fg% stats for the guards/forwards but it is pretty bad when our two best shooters were:

LaNesia at 44% and T'ona at 42%.

Big-12 Conference Stats - Check out page 14 of the following pdf file:

http://www.big12sports.com/fls/10410/pdfs/wbasketball/wbb-stats.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=10410

In 18 conference games, OU ranked 3rd in overall FG% (.427). However, in 3-point FG percentage, OU ranked 9th in the conference (.286). Baylor was 2nd with a .352 3-Point FG percentage.

Poor outside shooting was a glaring weakness. Sherri needs some "gym rats" this summer, working their tails off to improve their shot.
 
Big-12 Conference Stats - Check out page 14 of the following pdf file:

http://www.big12sports.com/fls/10410/pdfs/wbasketball/wbb-stats.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=10410

In 18 conference games, OU ranked 3rd in overall FG% (.427). However, in 3-point FG percentage, OU ranked 9th in the conference (.286). Baylor was 2nd with a .352 3-Point FG percentage.

Poor outside shooting was a glaring weakness. Sherri needs some "gym rats" this summer, working their tails off to improve their shot.

Yes, our overall FG shooting percentage looks better because both Kaylon and ViVi had good percentages.

I also agree for the need for gym rats.
 
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