Pac 12 1/21

[willtalk]

Oregon St. has not been blessed w/ much team speed going back for years, and yet they've played stifling defense. Some how, some way they've negated the overall lack of quickness.




I think her performances against Notre Dame (before most of the ACL injuries struck the team) and Duke run contrary to this. I'm sticking w/ my opinion that she's in a slump currently. She does over commit to the drive sometimes, but I've seen plenty of good drives that put her in good scoring position, she just didn't finish. Plays that I've seen her make before.

You may very well be right. I just haven't paid that much attention until recently so I may just be observing her slump. No player or team is ever as good as their best nor as bad as their worst game. That might also apply to individual players in respect to their hot streaks and slumps as well.

As to them playing good D with out fast and quick players they have been blessed with really good defensive posts and they play good help defense. Only when they play man to man against certain types of players are individuals exposed. My perceptions of her D might also be limited to her slump as well. Playing against a good or lesser team is less an issue as favorable or unfavorable match ups in respect to individual competition is concerned. Time should clarify a lot..

She did seem to have a very good game statistically.against ND. 19 pts 8rb's 6 As and only 2 turnovers. It sort of raises the question of what happened between then and now. Not so much about Pivecs individual performance, that sort of thing happens through out a season, but about her PG play. It sort of plays into the possibility that the attention and hype influenced her negatively. Often a player tries to hard to maintain a standard and it has the opposite effect. What I see as her focus on her own scoring might just be her attempt to force her way out of a slump.

 

[LoTrader]

You may very well be right. I just haven't paid that much attention until recently so I may just be observing her slump. No player or team is ever as good as their best nor as bad as their worst game. That might also apply to individual players in respect to their hot streaks and slumps as well.

As to them playing good D with out fast and quick players they have been blessed with really good defensive posts and they play good help defense. Only when they play man to man against certain types of players are individuals exposed. My perceptions of her D might also be limited to her slump as well. Playing against a good or lesser team is less an issue as favorable or unfavorable match ups in respect to individual competition is concerned. Time should clarify a lot..

She did seem to have a very good game statistically.against ND. 19 pts 8rb's 6 As and only 2 turnovers. It sort of raises the question of what happened between then and now. Not so much about Pivecs individual performance, that sort of thing happens through out a season, but about her PG play. It sort of plays into the possibility that the attention and hype influenced her negatively. Often a player tries to hard to maintain a standard and it has the opposite effect. What I see as her focus on her own scoring might just be her attempt to force her way out of a slump.

willtalk, what happened to Pivec, is just what you pointed out, when OSU played against much quicker teams, Pivec's performance at the point guard position, was exposed. Pivec is not a point guard. Situations dictate which 5 players to put on the floor. Examining the Beavers players, Pivec will always be one of those 5 players. And I cannot disagree more re: Pivec's defensive ability. Pivec does move her feet and is both a solid "on ball defender", and plays solid "team" defense. Beavers just don't know how to defend the pick and roll. That is OSU's team defensive weakness. willtalk, we are going to have to agree to disagree re: Pivec. Rueck depends on Pivec so much that he has unfortunately put her in situations where her weaknesses have been exposed this year. As I said in a previous post, this may help Pivec in the long run, but it has impacted her play (slump) this year. Pivec will continue to improve, and mock my words, she will be an All PAC12 1st team player before she graduates.