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We took in the Arizona State-Oregon State game, which OSU won as a visiting team. ASU was behind by 7 at the half, and OSU expanded the lead to 21 before some three-point shooting at the end made is respectable.
Neither team looks terribly well-conditioned. And if you define "well-coached" as getting your players to do what you want them to do, ASU is, IMHO, not very well-coached. They botched play after play, made lots of mistakes, missed somewhere between 5 and 10 layups and were generally out of sorts. They doi not match up well against OSU, in part because they do not have a good center. They throw two centers at opponents. The starter is an undersized kid who does not do well when up against much taller people. She fouled out of the game without making much of a positive impression at all. The backup is a legitimately tall but very skinny girl from Canada who rebounds well but does not blocks shots and is easily intimidated on offense.
ASU's best player is a guard named Katie Hempen, who scored 19 on an off day. Nice three-point shot, but if she'd made her shots in the first half, the game might have been different. ASU players consistently got beaten by their opponents. While their offense sputtered, it was their lack of defense at key moments that did them in.
Folks who were sitting near us said that several key ASU players were having off-days. They picked a fine time to do that, with a decent crowd on hand for what was a showcase of PAC-12 basketball.
OSU is tall. I think they have four players who are 6'3" and one that's 6'6". For the first part of the game, their strategy was top make high passes that only their players could catch and then bring it in to the player closest ot the basket for a chippie. There were two problems with this idea. First, they were missing lkots of chippies and second, ASU figured it out and clogged the middle. But OSU also has a talented 6-foot point guard, Sydney Wiese -- long arms and hard for the shorter ASU players to defend. She got some players open, particularly fellow guard Jamie Weisner, who was their team's leading scorer, and the game became easier for their team at that point.
What's more, OSU's players, unlike ASU's, seem to have practiced their plays and remember how to execute them. Several times, they used screens to get a player loose for a drive to the basket, and the player guarding the driving player was caught on the wrong side of the drive, and no one came to help.
If UConn were to face ASU in the tournament, UConn would have little trouble. Stewart and Tuck would have their way with ASU's centers and UConn's guards would drive the ASU guards crazy. In my opinion, ASU is not a good defensive team. I would figure on maybe a 30-point game.
If UConn were to face OSU, it would be a much better game. UConn would still win handily, but OSU's size would give them some problems. On offense, OSU wants to test the middle again and again because they have the height, and against most teams, if their three-point shooters are hot, it opens up the middle. I doubt they have come across a defensive juggernaut like MoJeff. They've never seen anyone like Stewart r KML, either. Unless UConn has a terrible night, UConn wins by 12-15.
And there's one very bright spot for this OSU team --only one senior.
Neither team looks terribly well-conditioned. And if you define "well-coached" as getting your players to do what you want them to do, ASU is, IMHO, not very well-coached. They botched play after play, made lots of mistakes, missed somewhere between 5 and 10 layups and were generally out of sorts. They doi not match up well against OSU, in part because they do not have a good center. They throw two centers at opponents. The starter is an undersized kid who does not do well when up against much taller people. She fouled out of the game without making much of a positive impression at all. The backup is a legitimately tall but very skinny girl from Canada who rebounds well but does not blocks shots and is easily intimidated on offense.
ASU's best player is a guard named Katie Hempen, who scored 19 on an off day. Nice three-point shot, but if she'd made her shots in the first half, the game might have been different. ASU players consistently got beaten by their opponents. While their offense sputtered, it was their lack of defense at key moments that did them in.
Folks who were sitting near us said that several key ASU players were having off-days. They picked a fine time to do that, with a decent crowd on hand for what was a showcase of PAC-12 basketball.
OSU is tall. I think they have four players who are 6'3" and one that's 6'6". For the first part of the game, their strategy was top make high passes that only their players could catch and then bring it in to the player closest ot the basket for a chippie. There were two problems with this idea. First, they were missing lkots of chippies and second, ASU figured it out and clogged the middle. But OSU also has a talented 6-foot point guard, Sydney Wiese -- long arms and hard for the shorter ASU players to defend. She got some players open, particularly fellow guard Jamie Weisner, who was their team's leading scorer, and the game became easier for their team at that point.
What's more, OSU's players, unlike ASU's, seem to have practiced their plays and remember how to execute them. Several times, they used screens to get a player loose for a drive to the basket, and the player guarding the driving player was caught on the wrong side of the drive, and no one came to help.
If UConn were to face ASU in the tournament, UConn would have little trouble. Stewart and Tuck would have their way with ASU's centers and UConn's guards would drive the ASU guards crazy. In my opinion, ASU is not a good defensive team. I would figure on maybe a 30-point game.
If UConn were to face OSU, it would be a much better game. UConn would still win handily, but OSU's size would give them some problems. On offense, OSU wants to test the middle again and again because they have the height, and against most teams, if their three-point shooters are hot, it opens up the middle. I doubt they have come across a defensive juggernaut like MoJeff. They've never seen anyone like Stewart r KML, either. Unless UConn has a terrible night, UConn wins by 12-15.
And there's one very bright spot for this OSU team --only one senior.
