Just watched the archived game on Hoop Streams since I missed all but the last 7 mins in real time:
Our man-to-man defense against these first two teams is "OK" with our starting 4-guard lineup, but it will probably not be good enough to go toe to toe against the better teams. If/when teams run a high post offense or otherwise put their center out high, drawing Stef to the FT line (happened often with Holy Cross), we just don't have enough horsepower on the help side. Holy Cross was able to exploit this a number of times, and most of our competition is going to better than HC, although their ball-handling is pretty good. To my eye, rebounding was also "OK" but not strong with the 4-guard lineup (shocker) although Bria has a way of greasing herself to slip inside with regularity when she is in the game.
We were in zone only briefly, with Stef in the middle, Buck and KML at either side on the baseline, and Bria/Tiff out top. This was a pretty imposing defense that actually looked like it had some good things going for it. I would not be at all surprised to see this zone against Stanford for significant minutes--the three baseline players looked solid, and you could easily have different guard combos at the top of the zone. Rebounding was also better with a second 'big' in the game, even with the zone. This assumes that we can make our shots at the other end so we have time to set it up.....
I thought for much of the 1st half, our offensive ball movement showed very good flashes. As other posters noted, Geno was subbing a lot throughout the game, and this was a big part of why the flow wasn't always there. It was better than I thought it might be after reading the post-game threads. Now if we can just get a couple of KML's threes to fall.....
--Tiff doesn't fall, but she still commits silly fouls.
--Tiff is more judicious about when to drive and how far to take it.
--Bria didn't travel on the right wing but it was called; Stef traveled on the feed from BBanks but it wasn't called.
--Buck looked good in the 1st half, just as she did toward the end of the game when I saw her the other day.
--Stokes wasn't bad either; both she and Buck improved, I thought. Buck is still my first 'big' off the bench right now.
--Banks' handle was pretty wobbly in this game. Still needs some time to get her confidence and aggressive mindset, as most freshmen do.
--I agreed with both of the moving pick calls on Stef. She cannot afford even one of those in big games.
--It was great seeing Doty out there grabbing teammates' jerseys, commanding the huddle, and making 3's!
