Watching the SC/LSU game last night I came to the conclusion of why we just can't beat those teams no matter how much talent we have. Athleticism. The rebounding, speed, pressure on the ball at all times is what SC brings to the table. Their bench is just as athletic, and even though we do have as much talent as far as shooting and ball handling, we are always beaten by rebounding and 50-50 balls. Aubrey is the only player that can match their athleticism, so the progress with her rehab on the floor is critical to having a chance to compete with SC. We can still beat them, but we have to slow them down and not let them run us out of the arena. We need a quick start, as that is how they are beating us if you look at our previous games, so having the right mindset at the beginning will go a long way in determining if we can pull out the upset.
I’m not sure how much I agree with this, at least the opening couple sentences. I’m thinking about team speed and athleticism. There have been seasons when our team speed wasn’t the greatest. But I’m not sure this is one of them. When I look at the teams that have super-speedy guards, like ND or SC or Texas, I have to check myself and consider the team as a whole.
For example, Hannah Hidalgo is super quick. But the rest of ND is not quicker than UConn. Olivia is not quicker than Paige or Azzi or Kaitlyn. Neither is Sonia. Koval is positively lumbering. King and Karlen have good quickness for bigs, but they are not any quicker than Sarah or Morgan or Aubrey. The challenge witi ND is somehow containing Hannah without leaving the other, more guard-able players open. And I think KK and Kaitlyn and the others mainly did that, only allowing Hannah to score twice inside the arc. Of course, she was 6-11 on 3s and most of those were contested. In fact, ND shot 56% from 3 and we could barely buy one — 0-7 in the first half, and 3-9 in the second for 19%. This does not seem to me to be a reproducible circumstance. If both teams revert to the mean on 3s, as they’re already doing, a rematch would be very much closer, and winnable if we add in Azzi and Aubrey.
USC is not particularly quick. But their bigs have quick feet, and I include Juju in this list. She’s not quicker than Paige or Azzi or KK or Kaitlyn. But she has a height advantage and great body control, which allows her to get defenders on her hip and leverage them into a foul or a layup or both. She also tends to get a friendly whistle. In the first half of our game, she had a great first half, scoring 15 on 6-10 and 3-4 from 3. But in the second half, she got no 3s and and only 3 FGs and we made a comeback.
And as for Texas, after Rori, who is as speedy as Hannah, they are on the whole rather slower than our roster.
As for SC, they are tough and quick. But the super quick players are Milaysia and Raven, and one is only a so-so scorer and the other is a middling defender. KK is quick enough to keep up with either of them. As for the rest of their guards, Bree, PaoPao and Tessa, they are no quicker than Paige Azzi Ash and Kaitlyn. The question is can we keep up with the two speedsters by switching and playing the scout. I think we have a shot at it. The other thing they are is relentless, and this comes in part from conditioning and in part from depth. I think we can match their relentlessness at the top of our rotation, but we may not be able or willing to match it with the rest of the rotation. As you say, “their bench is just as athletic,” and ours may not be. For example, Ash has the stamina to run for more than 40 mins, but she doesn’t necessarily have the quickness to stay with Raven and Milaysia. If Geno subs in Ash and KK for Paige and Azzi, we may be quick but our scoring punch is not nearly as good, and this matters since it allows defenders to cheat off them. The issue with speedy guards is that they disrupt other parts of your defense and offense, and Raven is really good at this, and so are Tessa and Bree. But just as a general observation, a platoon of Raven and Milaysia does not seem as daunting as Hannah all by herself.
And in the frontcourt, SC has a big 3 with good speed running the court. Joyce Sania and Chloe can run the floor as well as any other frontcourt. But I don’t think they’re any faster than Ice and Sarah and certainly not as quick as Aubrey is likely to become in a few weeks. And while Jana may not be as quick as Joyce or Sania, she is at least as strong as they are. Our small-ball frontcourt may not matchup well against SC and we’re not likely to see it unless Dawn goes small, too. I suspect we’re going to see more of Ice in that game so that Sarah doesn’t have to defend Joyce by herself. As long as Sarah matches up against Chloe or Sania, I think we win that battle. But if she has to play against both Sania and Joyce with only Morgan or Aubrey next to her, I think that is too much. This is a formula for foul trouble for her, and Dawn is undoubtedly going to try to create exactly this situation. This means a lot depends on Ice — not on her scoring much, but defending and boxing out, and this she can do.
