Geno, let's not basketball anymore!

[BBallF]

Completely agree. As soon as folks discovered she is the real deal for us after Azzi went down, it is every team's strategy. For me this treatment is in conflict with freedom of movement. A few early fouls by the refs followed by feedback such as I saw the shirt tug or mind your shoulder so cut it out or I'll keep calling them will see it go away.

Could not agree more. That's what refs used to do.

 

[MSGRET]

I think "posting a body" is quite generous.

She did it against a possible NPOY canidate Caitlin Clark for 40 minutes and got only two fouls called. Clark was heard on a hot mike that someone needs to get #11 off of her. The fouls against Nika in the SC game were less aggressive than the ones NOT CALLED on Zia. Nika was not grabbing the jersey, hip checking or physically impeding freedom of movement.

 

[oldude]

Not sure you can mention Zia,and not mention Nika in the same breath. I think she gets away with a lot of contact.

I do mention that both Dawn & Geno emphasize “bodying up” on defense, and yes Nika plays defense similarly to Cooke. But there is a difference. Nika is much better at moving her feet than Cooke, allowing her to stay in front of her opponent. In Cooke’s case, a lot of what she was doing to Lou on Sunday entailed bumping and grabbing from behind once Lou had beaten her.

There was one play in the 2nd qtr when Lou made a hard cut on the baseline that should have lead to a backdoor layup. Nika threaded what would have been a perfect bounce pass leading Lou towards the basket.

Cooke, who was beaten dipped her shoulder and threw out her left arm slightly knocking Lou off stride. As a result, Lou wasn’t able to catch Nika’s pass in stride and the ball went off her hands out of bounds.

To my amazement, the ref signaled SC basketball, completely missing the foul committed by Cooke on the play.