Rich Elliot: Dolson struggles again

[Cafe Poliziano]

Last year Tiff averaged 13.7 pts, 4.6 rebs and 4.2 assists. This year she is averaging 14.2 pts, 5.6 rebs and 3.6 assists. Her A/TO ratio this year is 2.4 which is improved over last year's 1.5.

Cool, thanks for the numbers. I hope to see her ppg average climb as the season goes on. So why do you think her scoring dropped so much when we played those top five teams ? its not like she is the only scoring threat opponents need to try to contain on our team, this "seems" to be a carry over from last season (happy to be wrong on this by the way), do the actual numbers bare this out when we played top five teams from last season to this season thus far ?

 

[Sonny44]

E

This team is a work in progress, particularly on offense. Why is this so difficult to understand?

Stef has gone from last year sharing the lane with the player of the year, 3-time Wade trophy winner and WNBA ROY to having the lane to herself surrounded by 4 guards. The 4-guard offense involves having Stef set a lot of high ball screens to get shooters open and having the guards drive and kick out to open shooters on the wing. As a result, Stef either spends a lot of time at the high post setting screens or drawing post defenders so the guards can penetrate and kick. On the occasions when Stef has posted down low, the guards have not done a great job of getting her the ball. Overall, it's been a frustrating year for Stef so far which has likely caused her to lose some confidence and not work as hard as she can to establish position down low (if you're going to get banged around, it's easier to take if you get the ball).

So, I see a team that is still working on establishing the right balance that will allow it to score in a variety of different ways and make it difficult for opponents to defend. It has a long way to go and there are going to be ups and downs and losses along the way.

Geno said that Stef was the 2nd post player in the country because I think he believes she has the potential to be just that. But Stef is discovering that playing without Maya next to her and with 4 guards is making life in the lane a lot more difficult. She is literally the center of attention. She knows she needs to score more and play better and so do the coaches. All we can hope for is that she continues to work at it and plays better by March.

Exactly, lost some confidence, too much pressure. We need to be patient with her. Everyone has her own rate of development.

 

[John Fryer]

You know, they're going to figure this out, its not rocket science and our coaches know what they're doing. WV had a good game plan tonight for how to deal w Stef and she didn't adjust particularly well.
Hopefully, in the near future she'll be better. BTW: I still fret about the Notre Dame game for the reason I've stated several times: They are more in tune with what they can do as a team at this stage of the season.

Wasn't it the responsibility of the coaching staff to make Stef (and Kiah) aware of the fact that she (they) needed to adjust to the way she (they) was being defended, and how to counter that defense?

Peace,

John Fryer

 

[Icebear]

Wasn't it the responsibility of the coaching staff to make Stef (and Kiah) aware of the fact that she (they) needed to adjust to the way she (they) was being defended, and how to counter that defense?

Peace,

John Fryer

There is a difference between hearing something and doing it in the flow of the game.

 

[easttexastrash]

There's more to playing well than scoring or shooting a great %. Against A&M, Stanford and Baylor, Tiff is averaging 11 pts, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 1 turnover. That's pretty good.

Surely you are not trying to put TAMU in the same category of Stanford and Baylor.

I realize that there is more to a game than scoring, but taking 27 shots if you can't shoot more than 25% is wasting possessions. I feel the same way about Pope for Baylor. Most of her offensive possessions against top talent are wasted possessions for Baylor. Know your limitations and play to your strengths, not your weakness.

And I am not saying that she is not a good player, but the question was who is the best player, not if Tiff had descent numbers. Those are respectable numbers but do not put her in the category of best player on the team.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Last year Tiff averaged 13.7 pts, 4.6 rebs and 4.2 assists. This year she is averaging 14.2 pts, 5.6 rebs and 3.6 assists. Her A/TO ratio this year is 2.4 which is improved over last year's 1.5.

Nice A/TO ratio! Assists could be down because the great finisher with 3,000 points is in Spain instead of Storrs.

 

[speedoo]

Surely you are not trying to put TAMU in the same category of Stanford and Baylor.

I realize that there is more to a game than scoring, but taking 27 shots if you can't shoot more than 25% is wasting possessions. I feel the same way about Pope for Baylor. Most of her offensive possessions against top talent are wasted possessions for Baylor. Know your limitations and play to your strengths, not your weakness.

And I am not saying that she is not a good player, but the question was who is the best player, not if Tiff had descent numbers. Those are respectable numbers but do not put her in the category of best player on the team.

OK so she's not the "best" player on the team. But IMO she is the most versatile, because she can play positions 1-4, and with her gut it out attitude, strong ability to rebound and defend, etc. she is very, very valuable to the team.

 

[HuskyNan]

Surely you are not trying to put TAMU in the same category of Stanford and Baylor.

I realize that there is more to a game than scoring, but taking 27 shots if you can't shoot more than 25% is wasting possessions. I feel the same way about Pope for Baylor. Most of her offensive possessions against top talent are wasted possessions for Baylor. Know your limitations and play to your strengths, not your weakness.

And I am not saying that she is not a good player, but the question was who is the best player, not if Tiff had descent numbers. Those are respectable numbers but do not put her in the category of best player on the team.

Part of what you don't see is that if the team is struggling on offense, the young players will often toss the ball to Tiff as the shot clock is running down and hope she can do something with it. Against the stiffer competition, Tiff is put in a very difficult situation but, being a senior, will attempt to take the shot and hope for a foul.

 

[easttexastrash]

OK so she's not the "best" player on the team. But IMO she is the most versatile, because she can play positions 1-4, and with her gut it out attitude, strong ability to rebound and defend, etc. she is very, very valuable to the team.

I agree 100%. She is a very good player and absolutely has the ability to hurt the opponent. I wouldn't be surprised to see her light up a team at any point. She is incredibly athletic and when I watched her warming up before the Baylor game, I was worried because she was really stroking it from three point range. I do think that she has not developed enough of a mid-range game. She seems to either shoot the three or drive all the way to the basket, but I can't say that I have seen her utilize the pull-up jumper very often, which would allow her to kill an opponent.