Gonna give a shout out to Saniya

[geneticrex]

Seems to me that her 3-point shot is doin… just fine at the moment

That it is, but I never really thought her greatest barrier to playing time would be her offense.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Yeah, I do see now on the replay that though the Play-by-Play didn't show it, Chong came in when the score was tied 15-15 but was not assigned to Mitchell at that point, and Mitchell got her blow-by against KML though Stewie almost blocked it. In fact, Chong was not on Mitchell up to the the next timeout at 11:54. But during the sideline discussion in the timeout, Geno clearly assigned Chong at that point to take on Mitchell with a tight face guard. The one time Mitchell did get the ball and tried anything, Chong herded Mitchell going to the right into a pack of Huskies, and Stewie stuffed her. Mitchell did nothing with Chong on her after that.

That it is, but I never really thought her greatest barrier to playing time would be her offense.

Not sure that Chong's offense is the barrier to playing time, because as others have noted, the starters rarely feed her the ball when she's hugely open, opting for some ridiculous passes to Stewie on some occasions versus USCar. Chong had the 17 versus Memphis and has been shooting at a 53% in the last 16 games, and 52% on 3's in that period. In the last 6 games she's shooting 69% overall and 80% on 3s. So why are those types of offensive figures a barrier to her playing time? If she keeps knocking down the 3's at 80%, KML may be passing Chong the ball on the perimeter instead of the reverse.

Again, the opportunities that can only come when your teammates pass you the ball to shoot, and unless you're like the poster who asked why she isn't shooting like she did in high school, Chong's offense is really good now, and better than when she scored 20 against Stanford. In fact, especially in the last 6 games, she' shooting better than she did in high school. Possibly that's bizarro, or as j66k says, it's the fact that she is now given the defensive shutdown assignments when previously she was described as defenseless. But bizarro can be beautiful.

 

[geneticrex]

Not sure that Chong's offense is the barrier to playing time, because as others have noted, the starters rarely feed her the ball when she's hugely open, opting for some ridiculous passes to Stewie on some occasions versus USCar. Chong had the 17 versus Memphis and has been shooting at a 53% in the last 16 games, and 52% on 3's in that period. In the last 6 games she's shooting 69% overall and 80% on 3s. So why are those types of offensive figures a barrier to her playing time? If she keeps knocking down the 3's at 80%, KML may be passing Chong the ball on the perimeter instead of the reverse.

Again, the opportunities that can only come when your teammates pass you the ball to shoot, and unless you're like the poster who asked why she isn't shooting like she did in high school, Chong's offense is really good now, and better than when she scored 20 against Stanford. In fact, especially in the last 6 games, she' shooting better than she did in high school. Possibly that's bizarro, or as j66k says, it's the fact that she is now given the defensive shutdown assignments when previously she was described as defenseless. But bizarro can be beautiful.

I think I wasn't clear in my post.

I always thought that Chong could get it done on the offensive end, even when she was struggling a little with her shot. I figured eventually, like most scorers, it would come around. I always felt that her ability to keep players in front of her on the defensive end would be the determining factor of court time for her.

She lit it up against Stanford, but had real problems on defense. After that, Nurse took her spot in the starting line-up, so it seems Geno was more worried about her checking opposing guards than her scoring ability. She seems to have gotten the message and is playing more reliable defense. This in turn leads to increased time, which leads to being more comfortable, which usually leads to more confidence.

She is certainly playing with more confidence and when a scorer is confident, their shots fall and when their shots fall, they get more confident.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Ah, well I think much of the time following the Stanford game when she was in with the starters in the first half it was to work on the defense and toss some nice assists. She had a few highlight defensive plays back in December that may have given her the confidence to start going Tiger Woman on D. But yeah, the scoring has come more in the second half with the reserves where she runs the action and can get herself a few shots, or of course in the odd benching situation in the Memphis game where she got 12 points in the first half to lead the charge. Part of the surprise on the defense is that since she has spent the majority of time with the reserves, she's had to provide a lot of help defense in a less strong group that however is dominated by a showcase defensive center. Playing with Kiah a lot has helped her to perfect that herd-and-destroy funnel job on defense.

Looks like the package of O and D is coming together pretty well and she should provide a lot of energy off the bench in the Tournament.