I’m impressed by a few remarks here, like
@tomcat ’s observation that Sarah seems to have finally hit a ‘sophomore wall.’ This seems right to me. And the flu may play a role too. The interesting part is that it doesn’t last a whole game. It takes the form of tired play in the first half and torrid play in the second. Looking only at a basic boxscore after the game, you’d hardly notice anything amiss. This kinda reminds me of some of Maya’s games, like one against Stanford that really sticks out. Ordinarily she’d be on fire from start to finish. But not always.
It’s no disrespect to either Sarah or Maya to recognize that this happened occasionally. The key is what they did about it, which tended to be magnificent. They did what indomitable personalities do.
I also agree with
@tomcat that passing has been… I’ll say
less than crisp at times. Often it’s Azzi, and the fact is passing is not the shiniest part of her brilliance. But sometimes it’s Sarah, and this seems to happen from fatigue and also from being overly ambitious. I’m not panicked about it. This stuff happens. I’d like it to happen less, of course. But I’m not gonna let it overshadow the amazing things these two do every night. It’s their broad shoulders that will carry this team as far as it can go this season.
One last thing on my mind is the high expectations we all took away from last season’s run. It was amazing, and it started right after the Tennessee game. We haven’t seen the same pattern this season, not exactly. But then I have to pinch myself and remember that there were close games even in that barnburner of a tournament run. South Dakota played us really well in the first half until completely folding. It was a competitive game against an overmatched team. Oklahoma took a lead into the second half!!! Until, of course, Paige took over and it was game over by the end of the third quarter. And against USC, Azzi was cold as ice and this allowed them to make a fierce comeback in the 4th quarter to give us a scare. In true Geno fashion, he put the ball in Azzi’s hands with that infamous “elevator screen” and it sparked the rest of the team to shut USC down.
Mainly what my mind prefers to focus on is those totally dominant blowouts of UCLA and SC. Those were truly amazing. But the road that led to them had a few bumps that are too easy to overlook in memory.
Am I frustrated by a few lackluster first halves this season? Yes, of course. But I take comfort in the second half response that has almost always come — the only exceptions were in the Michigan game and, to a lesser extent in the Louisville game. In those games, the swoon came late not early. We haven’t seen that since then. I don’t expect 40 minutes of pure dominance every game. That’s unrealistic. What I hope for is clutch play when it counts, when it can decide the outcome. Sometimes it comes early, sometimes it comes late.
This season’s game against Tennessee was an interesting case in point. They took our first punch and hit back with the sort of aggressive defense we usually play and took the lead here and there. This continued even into the third quarter. Part of it was the chances Tennessee took on defense, and a few hot streaks from three, and part of it was cold streaks on our part that allowed them to shut down KK Kayleigh Ash and Allie. But they couldn’t sustain it for 40 minutes and midway through the 3rd Azzi and Sarah asserted themselves in the way the truly great tend to do. Once they did, their teammates were able to wreak their usual havoc. Ash and Allie found open shots, and Kayleigh drove the length of the court twice in a row for scores and broke Tennessee’s back… and their will. We went from being down by a point or two to a 30 point blowout. I’ve watched replays of that game a few times now just to remind myself of how greatness sometimes unfolds.
In that context, I’m frustrated to watch games like the last two, but not overly concerned. The second halves seem to follow the pattern of a championship team and as long as that continues, I remain confident.
