More reason to try that when the game is well under control. Considering who was in the game at the time, that made sense. How is it that her teammates can get Sarah the ball so easily but can't get the ball to Jana in a position for her to score?
Midway through the 4th, Sarah passed Jana the ball up high and close in, literally about three feet from the rim. Jana caught it cleanly and -- brought it down to her waist and a Jacks guard stripped her.
My opinion, Sarah knows how to effectively use her body to fend off the defender, Jana still needs to learn how to use that frame, spread out to make it more difficult for the defender.
ND has 3 players who will be drafted and play in the W this summer..Westbeld,Miles and Citron..you add in Koval and Karlin to back up Westbeld in the post and King who is a rebounding machine and top off all that with Hildago who Uconn hasn't come close to stopping the last 2 years and I'd say they are pretty formidable
Yes and no. UConn won by 34 pts and were up over 40+. There were 12 players suited up and only Caroline did not play. I doubt it was about being “at the bottom of the priority list.”
nice observation and I agree. But at this point we are who we are. Geno and staff know that there will need to be multiple substitutions where the small line up will give way on the defensive side, but will make up for it on the offensive end. The chess match will be when during these games Geno decides to go big or small. The big lineup will need to at least not be detriment to the team when in the game so we aren't forced into a small line too often. Geno seems to be using Aubrey in several minute situations during the game. so I'm not sure if she's able to carry the load that Geno wishes she could because she would certainly be real mitigating factor. The more realistic hope is for Ice and Jana collectively to improve their play incrementally for the rest of the tournament. I think Ice has shown more confidence, but Jana is struggling and we really need her to provide more (similar to what she did at SC).
Many passes to Jana are bounce through traffic, somewhat forced it seems. Jana may also not offer the most mobile target to receive many passes. This is an area of future development.
With all of the injuries last year, Paige was often forced to defend post players. She rose to that challenge with a career high in blocked shots. Perhaps that is something she'll be working on this week in practice.
The "small lineup" has the the downside of being smaller, you say?
It just seems to me that it is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole with her. She is willing to play the five spot because it gets her on the floor but playing wing is where she prefers and probably has the best chance to play at the next level.
Should I be concerned that Caroline remained on the bench at the end?
You nailed it -'the big lineup will need at least not to be a detriment', as most all teams we will now be playing will have bigs superior to ours but we still want to be b able to match up with them at times
Outstanding program year in year out.
When she (Ice) turned her back on a player driving to the rim I asked myself...WTH was that
Just watched the game again on a replay. It is not a good thing.
Ice playing the wing, you say. Wouldn’t she need a more reliable perimeter shot for that, as well as quicker feet and better handles for driving to the rim? I get that she’s not a great fit at the 5. But the 4 looks like a pretty good fit for her current skills. The only downside is that Sarah appears to have the 4 pretty much nailed down.
With Geno's motion offense, "sometimes" the 3 and 4 are interchangeable. I am glad you agree that she needs out of the 5. I don't think we have a complete sample size to indicate what kind of outside shooter she can be. She has made some perimeter shots in recent games that exhibited good shooting mechanics.
Brady has always had good mechanics and was a very good shooter in HS. She's very capable of making the 15-20 footers but the problem is that she somehow managed to lose her confidence in herself and has only recently started to even look for those shots again. Now that Strong has become their best weapon at the high post, Brady will have to put in a lot of work to improve and quicken her inside moves and shots.