Soth Dakota State

[j2d2]

Re: South Dakota State

I just hope that the light has begun to come on for Maddie. I think she is All Big XII at least but has been reluctant to be as aggressive as she could be. You could see the difference in her last night. When she sis confident, agressive and "convicted" she is formidable.
I dont worry a bit when EJ comes in for ViVi. 'A little more experience and she will be really good.

 

[HandyMan]

Re: South Dakota State

I think Maddie is eligible to play again next year with a medical hardship. I'm guessing she will apply for one if it is available. That would be sweet if so because she is playing extremely well this year. One more year would be huge for OU if she qualifies.

 

[SoonerinNC]

Just looked at the first half of this game where I could stop action. I had previously seen the entire game at normal speed.

I think it was the best game I have seen Maddie play. We are solid inside with ViVi and now EJ who is really coming on. Edwards did a much better job of running the offense, kicking off for open shots off her drive and moving the ball and the offense more. She still is making too many turnovers. Ortiz is doing everything well but shooting. She seems to be shooting not to miss rather than with confidence. She and Edwards are doing a great job of rebounding out of position.

Little looking good. Hopefully she will be able to keep it going against more athletic, quicker defensive players. I think the improvement of her midrange game is helping. Carter still up and down but too many turnovers. Some of her passes are brilliant but some are bullets from short range that the recipient has no hope of catching.

We once again had a lull after getting off to a good lead but worked our way out of it pretty well. Biggest problem is decision making. Too many shots that have little or no hope of connecting. Mostly those are as damaging as turnovers. Not as many bad passes as usual but still too many like the hard pass to Mulkey between waist and knee high.

Still too many people not blocking out on rebounds. ViVi, Maddie and EJ exceptions. Carter and Little better than previous games. On the offensive end we often have only our center on the boards with everyone else on the perimeter watching or going the other way. We seldom and almost never follow our shots.

I have yet to be convinced that we are a good 3 point shooting team. Even though we looked better last night we still only hit 33.3 percent. That is an improvement over 26.9% on the season.

 

[Mac]

It's good to see little shooting way better now... maybe her shot is back and she's going to kill it this season, witch will go a long way towards helping Vivi who's looking like a All big 12 1st team performer, possible Big 12 POY.

 

[sybarite]

How much of the change in Maddie is the confidence that she has in other players? Last year, our post could disappear on us. If she felt intimidated, she might have a horrible game. It might affect how she handles a feed to the post, puts up a shot, or attacks the boards. Yet, if you get the ball to Vivi or EJ, there seems to be a pretty good chance that they will do something with it, particularly, catch it. Maddie probably lost three assists per game last year by posts who couldn't catch a simple pass.

Although there have been times that Maddie would dominate a game in the past year or so, it was usually only for four or five minutes. She destroyed BYU last year with about 11 points in the first three minutes, 13 in the first quarter, and only two more thereafter as Peyton got hot. What I have seen in the past two games is someone who plays with more abandon and confidence than at any time since their freshman year in Hawaii. Someone took her handcuffs away. Usually, if Maddie misses a shot, her scoring stops. Last night, she shot with the right form even after having missed three or four shots.

If you put that together with a post position that acts like they belonged and a point guard who is fighting for every ball, even though with acrid shooting, and you have the core of a solid team. You know where you can go to settle things down.

Maddie went to the bench while OU held a 12-point lead. With her on the bench, it shrunk to three in about two minutes. When she was on the floor, OU scored and played defense.

South Dakota State is a good team. They aren't Final Four good (neither was Washington last year.), but they can beat a good team that doesn't have good leadership. They really never made it a game last night. It was all about how we played. When we played well, SDS had no way to stop us. Having that core of players on whom you can count can win you games. Right now, we are looking more for help for the core.

It would be nice if T'Ona would settle down, or Gioya. Their turnovers hurt. They do some good stuff. I'm only disappointed that Gileysa hasn't played more. I think she reflects the core more than LaNesia or Derica.

 

[womenssports]

Re: South Dakota State

When your shoots aren't dropping,then help the team with asst,defense and boards.Let the shots come to you and quit forcing it.

If this is in regard to Gioya, she has the talent and she cares, but I have never her seen her mental game be consistent. Even when she is playing well, I do not think her mental game has gotten there. I wish she had red-shirted last year because she wasn't 100 percent and I feel it set back her mental game. She is smart, she cares, she is talented. I wish a sports psychologist could help her. AND, I will add though it should be obvious, this is just my opinion.

I realize others may feel differently and that's cool. Express that but please do it with class and not condescension or hate. I AM SO SICK of the negativity
in sports, on sports boards, with fans, on sports talk shows both radio (where the quality is worse) but also on tv where you would expect better based on the money involved. ALL this has done is added to the negative environment we live in and MOST IMPORTANTLY, this is what our children are being taught. WHY I seldom post here or anywhere. WHY bother?

 

[sybarite]

If you didn't notice, Chelsea and T'Ona were the first off the bench in this game.