I was not as disappointed in the bench play as some on this board are. What I did see is a team that is mentally and physically beat up. Frankly, I am most concerned about the mental aspect. The substitute plan last night was designed for " the coach " to get a point across, not to help players who rarely have played to develop confidence. There are 2 players in the starting 5 who are capable of creating their own shots, KLS and Danger. Everyone else relies on ball movement , screens and transition to score. I really liked the few glimpses of MW earlier in the season. She is athletic and create her own shot. Z can score at will in the lane, but do we really need her taking 3's 10 seconds into the shot clock? Gabby , as fun as she is to watch, just has not put in the gym time to improve her shooting nor confidence in shooting beyond 8 ft. of the basket except for the occasional shot. KLS is getting beat up, Phees is being pushed farther away from the rim. At this point what I see is a glaring problem is the husky defense. Certain players keep hunting for steals instead of playing lock down man defense. So far this season I give Coach Geno a C- . He recruits the players, runs the practice. How about coaching during the game , instead of just turning around and showing dissatisfaction to the rest of the staff. Last night , it was mentioned that because of the schedule certain drills have not been employed because of time constraints. And who exactly makes out the schedule ?
Wow, a lot of points to address in one paragraph!
I disagree that the substitution plan was designed to get a point across. There were many different variations tried, not one. If you watch you'll see that Molly got a lot of time because she was getting more done than most of the others. He mixed in different starters to try and find something that would work - there was just not a lot of good execution. They were out hustled a lot - look at rebounding - almost even, watch which team were down on the floor for loose balls first. These are effort types of plays that you don't coach.
Geno's offense relies on ball movement, screens etc. to score. They do not want to rely on individuals having to create their own shot. That's what teams like OSU do with predictable results. The problem was the poor execution on both ends.
I think of all the players, Gabby once again stood out as bringing the most energy. You can put down her shooting (although I think the stats will prove you wrong - she's hitting a lot more from the foul line range this year) but she is devastating on drives to the basket where she is almost unguardable. In Geno's system you always look for the high percentage shots and Gabby going to the basket is the high percentage shot.
Regarding players hunting for steals - Geno wants an aggressive defense, so yes they do want to hunt for steals. This is nothing new, the big difference between now and previous years is that there is no big shot blocker waiting if the guard gets beat going for the steal.
Blaming the coach who has proved year over year that he can find ways to motivate players and turn out one great team after another, year after year seems a little biased. They are one of only three unbeaten teams and have played almost all the top teams in the country.
Schedules are dictated primarily by TV, other teams schedules etc. If you want to work in marquee games, then you need to find ways to fit them into the schedule. Thinking that Geno sits back and decides he wants to play this game on this day is a little unrealistic.
