I was there. It was a good sized and enthusiastic crowd. Nice to be back, it has been too long.
Hard to know what to make of it. I give them a B minus. Lots of room for improvement. It looked like a blowout early but it ended up being a game where we couldn`t shake them. I never felt the outcome was in doubt, but I was disappointed we didn`t stomp on them. It looked like we were headed that way at the beginning of the third quarter, but it didn`t happen.
The scoreboard over midcourt doesn`t regularly give the stat lines for the players on the floor like it used to. Advertising more important, I guess. When I looked up with a couple of minutes left, I saw that Paige had 34 and I was shocked. All in the flow. Magnificient, although I am sure Geno lit a fire under her after the first quarter.
Maybe it was just the style that Arkansas plays, but the middle seemed open at both ends and perhaps moving the three point line back is responsible in part. If so, I like it.
Arkansas is a good offensive team. Goforth is a player. Spencer is very quick and Ramirez is savvy. Wolfenbarger didn`t show much.
They seemed to have Goforth, who seems taller than 6'1", and Wolfenbarger on Azzi most of the time to limit her ability to launch threes.
The referees were abysmal. They were calling touch fouls even when there was no touch and missing some obvious calls. I hope that this is not a prelude of what we are going to see on a regular basis. The players were getting frustrated.
The old vets, Williams and Westbrook, came through although Christyn obviously needs to shoot better from the line. I thought Westbrook in particular played very well.
Dorka seemed to be in a hurry.
Lots to clean up, especially free throws, limiting dribble penetration, avoiding fouls, and rebounding. I wish we had a game on Tuesday or Wednesday.