Louisville @ Notre Dame- 1/10/19

[HopJim]

Mabrey w/ a huge fore arm push off but the foul is called against Durr, #2 on her. This is so bogus. 23 FTA attempts for ND this half. 35-33 Louisville clinging to a lead but refs ain't letting this happen.

For about a 10 minute stretch at the end of 2nd Q, seemed like every call went against Louisville. Several times under that basket and on drives, the ND player pushed off but the foul went against Louisville. While I have gotten used to inconsistent refereeing, I felt bad for Louisville (and it takes a lot to get me to have any positive feelings for Louisville).

 

[HopJim]

Last year Shepard was too fat and this year Shepard's too thin. Poor girl can't win. Oh wait, she did win.

Not a vintage game by ND but Louisville is very good and they are athletic and physical. They know how to disrupt ND's game.

Good point on Louisville's athletic approach, particularly on defense. During 1st half, got in Ogunbowale's grill, and for a time, got her to play out of control. After most of the team got in foul trouble, backed off, but good lesson for UConn. Guard her close, combined with physical contact, often causes her to get off her game. Have to give her credit for the shooting exhibit she put on later in game.

 

[wallman]

Gotta give some credit to Louisville here. They aren’t ranked #2 for nothing.

What has that got to do with ND not playing to their usual standard? Standing around matador style, not boxing out, nothing to do with Louisville.

 

[wallman]

Last year Shepard was too fat and this year Shepard's too thin. Poor girl can't win. Oh wait, she did win.

Not a vintage game by ND but Louisville is very good and they are athletic and physical. They know how to disrupt ND's game.

If this was aimed at me, you may want to tag me. I never said Shepard was too fat, where is your quote on that. 5 turnovers as she receives the ball at the block and was easily moved and had difficulty balancing and turning to score, she did much better in that position as she had a wider base. Plus losing weight has not made her quicker but not having the width she had could hurt her in the W.

 

[Dillon77]

Turner Her free throw shooting yesterday wasn’t good. But Her free throw shooting has been better this season then in previous seasons. I thought Turner had a pretty good game yesterday.

I don't have the stats page in front me, but it seems like she's been better at the FT's, but she was most certainly off yesterday: motion seemed a little robotic, then she started thinking about it.

But movement was good and defense was excellent.

 

[IrishTiger]

I don't have the stats page in front me, but it seems like she's been better at the FT's, but she was most certainly off yesterday: motion seemed a little robotic, then she started thinking about it.

But movement was good and defense was excellent.

I know she was like 7 of 11 from the field also.

 

[Orangutan]

If this was aimed at me, you may want to tag me. I never said Shepard was too fat, where is your quote on that. 5 turnovers as she receives the ball at the block and was easily moved and had difficulty balancing and turning to score, she did much better in that position as she had a wider base. Plus losing weight has not made her quicker but not having the width she had could hurt her in the W.

Not aimed at you specifically or criticizing your post. It was discussed last year on this board that her conditioning was poor. Apparently it was a conversation with Cheryl Reeve that spurred her to drop the weight.

Now I have heard you and others opine that she is less effective in the post now that she is lighter.

I don't have an opinion one way or the other as to whether that is correct.

I'm just saying I feel bad because it seems like there is nothing she can do to please everyone on this.

When she had the extra weight, she was a NCAA Champion and played really well in the Final Four. Now, she's a starter on the #1 team and just scored a big win against #2. So I guess things seem to work out for her regardless.

I apologize in that I didn't mean to imply that you did call her "fat" or anything of the sort.

 

[wallman]

Agree. I thought she played really well last year and quite frankly was one of the reasons for your success. Good points.

 

[JordyG]

Last year Shepard was too fat and this year Shepard's too thin. Poor girl can't win. Oh wait, she did win.

Not a vintage game by ND but Louisville is very good and they are athletic and physical. They know how to disrupt ND's game.

Actually, as I said when she played UConn, she lost a lot of weight, which is good. Unfortunately she hasn't put on muscle mass, presumably because she lost the weight so quickly making her look thin. Hopefully that part will come, because she'll need it at the next level.

 

[JordyG]

Oh, throw in Rutgers and Villanova...those were slugfests. I followed that championship nucleus (pre, during and post) around the mid-Atlantic with my young children: Seton Hall, St. John's, Rutgers, Villanova and even Hartford. Always involved, energetic and entertaining.
Ruth and her wingman, Kelly Siemon, were formidable, for sure, but so were the Huskies.
My personal fave, besides those already mentioned was ND's silent shooter, Alicia Ratay.
(In a lot of ways, I still miss the Big East...not just for the play, but I got to see the Irish more in person.)

I miss those days too. Real, tough WCBB. The way I love it.

 

[Shades]

Apparently it was a conversation with Cheryl Reeve that spurred her to drop the weight.

Was this during Team USA training camps?

Any documentation of this?

 

[Plebe]

There's more to Jessica Shepard's game and less of Jessica Shepard

The Irish forward credits a discussion with Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve last September, when Shepard was participating in the USA Women’s National Team training camp in Columbia, S.C.

“We were just talking about my goals for the next level and what I need to do to accomplish them,” Shepard said of Reeve, who has steered the Lynx to four WNBA titles in the last eight years and owns the best winning percentage in league history. “I think one of the biggest things we agreed on was just getting my body right.
“She said the biggest difference between me being good and great was that.”

 

[Dillon77]

Jess Shepard has still got the ability to go up and grab it, as witnessed by her 15 rebounds yesterday. No one on Louisville had more than 7 rebounds and Mik Vaughn had 8 in 9 minutes (although many of those were Mik cleaning up her own initial missed shots).

As a current 4 in Sunday league, I know rebounding entails a combination of positioning, boxing out, (sometimes) jumping ability and/or doggedness. Strength does factor into it as well and a number of times during the game Jess emerged from a scrum of the opposition bigs with the ball. And then fired a two-handed outlet pass halfway down the court to a streaking Ogunbowale or Young to launch a fast break.

I have not seen her posting/sealing her low-post set-ups as much as last year, but that could be a result of sharing the position with Turner, as much as anything else.

 

[Plebe]

Pretty interesting to compare Jessica to how she looked when she faced UConn her freshman year:

Jessica Shepard plans to transfer from Nebraska

 

[Jmsdawg]

I refrained from commenting on this game until I played recorded game. I wanted to be sure what I thought I saw real time was verified by my rewatching the game. Louisville got hosed by the refs. Refs appeared to let ND play rough but had some real questionable calls against UL. Hope that crew is not a tournament crew.

 

[PAHuskeyFan]

Lets all remember, Coach Walz said he "needed to do a better job teaching his players not to foul." When asked if there was some sarcasm there, he replied, " no..not at all."

It was really weird how the fouls were so evenly spread, 3 each on 6 players at one point (maybe half time?). Can't say it was conscious effort or anything like that, but in all my years watching basketball I dont think I ever saw something like that.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Lets all remember, Coach Walz said he "needed to do a better job teaching his players not to foul." What asked if there was some sarcasm there, he replied, " no..not at all."

That was rather clever. He was clearly expressing that the refs were terrible, but did it in such a manner that the ACC won't fine or otherwise reprimand him. He was correct.

 

[uconnell]

Q2 has been kinda sloppy and lots of missed shots, not as well played as Q1.

Weak no call

It will be interesting to watch this game laster tonight. I might make it he for the 4th but I doubt it

Beat #2 by 14. Easy game.

The best part is there was not rancor or bad sportsmanship and certainly nothing for Walz to grumble about postgame.

I guess you were’t wAtching the same game as I was.

 

[uconnell]

Lets all remember, Coach Walz said he "needed to do a better job teaching his players not to foul." When asked if there was some sarcasm there, he replied, " no..not at all."

It was really weird how the fouls were so evenly spread, 3 each on 6 players at one point (maybe half time?). Can't say it was conscious effort or anything like that, but in all my years watching basketball I dont think I ever saw something like that.

Haven’t watched much ND womens games much I take it.

 

[PAHuskeyFan]

Haven’t watched much ND womens games much I take it.

I think you misunderstood... I didn't say it was odd that Lou had lots of fouls and ND didnt... I was commenting on 6 Lou players with 3 fouls each... none with 4, none with 2... 6 with 3.

 

[UConnCat]

IMHO this was a horrible game by ND by their standards with their defense being non existent. I am not sure why MM plays Mabrey as she is a total liability on defense, but maybe they all were last night, AO doesn't play any defense but with Lousiville in foul trouble she was able to get some buckets. Shepards weight loss seems to be hampering her as she used to be able to create more space when she was bigger. Second half Louisville were hampered by the 28 to 15 foul count disparity and were unable to have players on the floor when they needed them.

Interesting on Shepard. I had the same thought after the UConn game, I.e., she wasn’t as tough to stop in the lane as she was last year when she over-powered the thinner UConn defenders. Collier did a decent job defending her back in December. I didn’t say anything because I wanted to watch her play more. I saw the same thing last night. She isn’t displacing defenders near the basket like she did last year. Overall, getting more fit is the right move but she may need to add muscle mass.

I thought Louisville did a pretty good job defending ND for much of the game but they were pretty bad on the boards and did commit a lot of fouls.

 

[BackBay]

Officiating was very 1-sided. There's home-cooking & then there's home-cooking. If the game was called the same way at Louisville, they would be throwing things on the court...

 

[mbr33ct]

I refrained from commenting on this game until I played recorded game. I wanted to be sure what I thought I saw real time was verified by my rewatching the game. Louisville got hosed by the refs. Refs appeared to let ND play rough but had some real questionable calls against UL. Hope that crew is not a tournament crew.

Next time go with your first instinct, could have saved you couple hours or rewatching game.

 

[npignatjr]

Just rewatched the the UK/UT game the other big game from 1/10, a few thoughts about those games after watching
1 terrible inconsistent officiating, bad look for NCAA, review of last year's F4
2 Arike made 2 great shots in last year's F4, but without 1 above shots wouldn't have mattered, so since I have a good memory and probably others do as well, so when I see those replayed I go back instantly to the bad officiating, MS especially got screwed seconds before
3 When did ND colors change from Kelly green to 80s parachute pants fluorescent green
4 thrilled Clemson embarrassed in the football F4