Louisville @ Notre Dame- 1/10/19

[CL82]

That is not even close to as bad as some of you made it out to be

Maybe. Still a jerk move though.

 

[HuskyNan]

Morning Gang.

Thought I'd pass along a link to and some points I gathered from MM's post-game presser last night.

Want to start with one that mentions the UConn Huskies:

- While I don't recall the exact question, someone asked about whether there is a way to make "1 vs. 2" any easier, MM cracked, "Not playing Connecticut." Got a good laugh.
(my input: As UConnCat pointed out, that doesn't happen very often...)

- MM hought it was a good (maybe even great) game from a hoops perspective. Still, just a game in January.
(My thought: That's coach talk. But it was a good win for seeding purposes, both in ACC and NCAA tourneys)

- Gave credit to Louisville for playing tough man-to-man defense and thought that a solid man-to-man often leads to cutting down on making passes. "Got to put the ball on the floor" when that happens. That helped lead to lower assists and, in part, to higher turnovers.

Still, MM was upset at turnovers, particularly the offensive fouls and travels.
(The ball pressure is probably one reason why Jackie Young, rather than Mabrey, was bringing the ball up so much in the second half.)

- She mentioned Durr by name twice in the presser, so there's a development . Actually, she gave Durr big kudos for her first half offensive breakout.

- MM hadn't known that former Irish center Ruth Riley was named a finalist for the Women's Collegiate Hall of Fame. She was genuinely happy and touched for Ruth. Lot of respect and affection between those two.
(Riley is the original gold standard for this Irish fan. Class act.)

- Was really happy with back-up center Mik Vaughn's performance and impressed with her rebounding (8 in what, 4 minutes?). Said she needs to get her more minutes.
(Totally agree and I thought Dani Patterson. also played very good defense during ND's third quarter run. Vaughn and Patterson's current issue is they play behind Shepard and Turner. Next year is another story...still, it would be good to get them floor time. )

- For you fashionistas, that Green Scarf is her lucky scarf.

- MM brought up that they were trying to get the ball to Turner a lot. (I noticed in this BY thread a lot of folks wondering why Shepard does not get the ball more. Turner implied that she was cutting on a lot of "off-screens" and making hard-cuts to the basket, presumably against Shook or Fuehring. Maybe MM thought there was a speed differential there?
However, if that's the case, Turner has to improve her foul shooting to justify getting the passes. She was horrible last night.

| Post-Game Press Conference vs. Louisville (2019)

Congrats to Ruth on her nomination. She and Niele Ivey are my two favorite “old timers” from ND. There’s someone here on the ‘yard that has some kind of grudge against Ruth, not sure why. Yes, she was physical but the Big East was
a very physical league and UConn always gave as good as it got.

 

[wallman]

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.

 

[HuskyNan]

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.

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

 

[Orangutan]

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.

 

[IrishTiger]

Say what you want about Arike being a dirty player which she is but she is very clutch and dangerous. She can be bad for 3 Q and just turn it up when the game is on the line, Her consecutive 3 pt an 2 pt contested shots in the 4th Q when Louisville was within 2 iced the game. Put the lead at 7 and allowed me to watch KY flush Tenn

By the way, what is the deal with Mabrey, she looks awful, I know she is coming back from injury but she seems a shell of her former self.

Marina was off yesterday. But The game before she played pretty well. She’s just gotta get consistent again. Yesterday was just a bad night for Her.

 

[Dillon77]

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

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.

In regards to Louisville, all kudos to them for having their athletic, rangy guards press ND's guards early and often. This disrupted the half-court, motion offense for sure and knocked Mabrey off her game.

What surprised me was how well their forwards also swarmed down low, throwing off Shepard and Young when they were down low. I knew Fuehring was solid in the blocks, but Bionca Durham was tough and Shook was more resilient and active than I remember. Turner was getting open on hard cuts, but she missed way too many foul shots (6).

As for Shepard, she had 15 rebounds, most of them in the first half and would've gone over 20, if not for foul trouble. She would ignite the Irish transition with Kevin Lovish-type outlet passes that hit the Irish guards in stride (people have referred to her as a tight end...why not a QB?).

Tough game...kind of reminded me of an old Big East slugfest.

 

[Dillon77]

Congrats to Ruth on her nomination. She and Niele Ivey are my two favorite “old timers” from ND. There’s someone here on the ‘yard that has some kind of grudge against Ruth, not sure why. Yes, she was physical but the Big East was always, always a physical league and UConn always gave as good as it got.

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.)

 

[HuskyNan]

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.)

Any combination of Rutgers, UConn, Louisville, and ND was figurativerock fight. Villanova never bothered UConn much. St Johns got really physical after Kim B-A arrived too

 

[IrishTiger]

In regards to Louisville, all kudos to them for having their athletic, rangy guards press ND's guards early and often. This disrupted the half-court, motion offense for sure and knocked Mabrey off her game.

What surprised me was how well their forwards also swarmed down low, throwing off Shepard and Young when they were down low. I knew Fuehring was solid in the blocks, but Bionca Durham was tough and Shook was more resilient and active than I remember. Turner was getting open on hard cuts, but she missed way too many foul shots (6).

As for Shepard, she had 15 rebounds, most of them in the first half and would've gone over 20, if not for foul trouble. She would ignite the Irish transition with Kevin Lovish-type outlet passes that hit the Irish guards in stride (people have referred to her as a tight end...why not a QB?).

Tough game...kind of reminded me of an old Big East slugfest.

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.

 

[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.