JoePgh
Cranky pants and wise acre
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2011
- Messages
- 3,739
- Reaction Score
- 21,871
France, who beat USA just about a week ago, only beat Canada by 2 points in today's game. I watched the replay on ESPN3 both because of the close score and to watch Kia Nurse in a difficult competitive situation.
My personal assessment after watching the game is that Kia is a good-but-not-great all-around athlete. Her speed, her shooting, her penetration, her passing, and her ability to keep her player in front of her on defense all seemed to fall into the good-but-not-great category. On one play, she tried to drive one-on-one against Celine Dumerc and didn't come close to succeeding. I didn't see any physical ability in which she seemed to have a surpassing talent. But there wasn't anything she was noticeably lacking in, either.
I would say, as a one-sentence summary, that her major athletic asset is above the shoulders. Her basketball brain seemed to work at high speed and with accuracy even in pressure situations. This was noticeable in her positioning, which seemed to be nearly flawless, especially on defense. She got several steals, tips, and one foul drawn on Sandrine Gruda (a much more experienced player) through smart positioning.
On offense, after bringing the ball up the court and passing it to a teammate, she would always go to the weak side and mostly stay there, looking for rebounds or back-door opportunities. It didn't seem like Canada planned to rely on her at all as an main offensive threat. But when the opportunities came, she was there to take advantage of them.
Another one-sentence summary would be: much closer to Kelly Faris than to Tiffany Hayes. And Geno got a lot of productivity out of Ms. Faris.
Based on reputation and press releases, the Tiffany of the new freshman class may well be Gabby Williams. It is possible that she and Kia Nurse will split the time at the 2 slot for the next two years (assuming that Saniya doesn't come back with an amazingly reliable jump shot, which she might do). That won't be a bad situation at all -- Gabby and Kia will have totally different games, and opponents may not find it comfortable to switch from one to the other.
My personal assessment after watching the game is that Kia is a good-but-not-great all-around athlete. Her speed, her shooting, her penetration, her passing, and her ability to keep her player in front of her on defense all seemed to fall into the good-but-not-great category. On one play, she tried to drive one-on-one against Celine Dumerc and didn't come close to succeeding. I didn't see any physical ability in which she seemed to have a surpassing talent. But there wasn't anything she was noticeably lacking in, either.
I would say, as a one-sentence summary, that her major athletic asset is above the shoulders. Her basketball brain seemed to work at high speed and with accuracy even in pressure situations. This was noticeable in her positioning, which seemed to be nearly flawless, especially on defense. She got several steals, tips, and one foul drawn on Sandrine Gruda (a much more experienced player) through smart positioning.
On offense, after bringing the ball up the court and passing it to a teammate, she would always go to the weak side and mostly stay there, looking for rebounds or back-door opportunities. It didn't seem like Canada planned to rely on her at all as an main offensive threat. But when the opportunities came, she was there to take advantage of them.
Another one-sentence summary would be: much closer to Kelly Faris than to Tiffany Hayes. And Geno got a lot of productivity out of Ms. Faris.
Based on reputation and press releases, the Tiffany of the new freshman class may well be Gabby Williams. It is possible that she and Kia Nurse will split the time at the 2 slot for the next two years (assuming that Saniya doesn't come back with an amazingly reliable jump shot, which she might do). That won't be a bad situation at all -- Gabby and Kia will have totally different games, and opponents may not find it comfortable to switch from one to the other.