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Thoughts on ASU-OSU

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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.
 
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I also went to ASU-Oregon State game, will add my 2 cents to TC's report.

Oregon State had a big size advantage. Ruth Hamblin, their 6-6 junior center, was able to dominate in the paint. She's big and pretty athletic and looks in great shape.

ASU mostly played 3 small guards. Amukamara and Davis are very athletic. The other guard, Hempen, is a sharpshooter and made six 3's. ASU jumped out to an early lead by pestering on D with the quick guards, but Oregon State figured it out by the end of the first half, and used their size effectively from there on out. ASU didn't run much in the way of recognizable offense. They really didn't look like and 18-1 team.

Just based on today's game, ASU's #13 ranking is probably a little high. Oregon State may be more deserving of their #9, they appear to be for real. Can see them getting to final 16, or maybe even 8 with the right matchups. They have a sophomore guard Gabby Hanson who came off the bench and played a lot of minutes. Reminds me of our Gabby: 5-11, same body, good hops and brings great energy. She should start next year, and with only 1 senior this year they should be really good next year.

But the main takeaway I had is that we are really spoiled. The level of athleticism, skill and execution we're used to just wasn't there for either team. That next level up probably includes UCONN, ND, TN and SC, maybe Baylor. UCONN would murder ASU, and I think Tomcat's 12-15 over Oregon State might be a little light.
 

Wbbfan1

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Thanks for posting your comments on an important PAC12 game. Wish my cable system carried the PAC12 network. Between Stanfird, ASU and Oregon St who will win the PAC12 regular season title?
 
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Thanks for posting your comments on an important PAC12 game. Wish my cable system carried the PAC12 network. Between Stanfird, ASU and Oregon St who will win the PAC12 regular season title?
Oregon State should. ASU beat Stanford once already and plays them again. Oregon State hasn't played Stanford yet, only plays them once, and should beat them handily (but so shouldv'e UCONN, so -???)
 
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I agree with j66kicker. OSU has the horses to beat Stanford -- height in the middle, especially, and I don't think ASU beats them even if ASU's good players play good games, which they definitely did not do today.

On an only slightly related note, my wife and I wore our UConn tee shirts to the ASU game today and boy, did we get some strange looks.
 
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I agree with j66kicker. OSU has the horses to beat Stanford -- height in the middle, especially, and I don't think ASU beats them even if ASU's good players play good games, which they definitely did not do today.

On an only slightly related note, my wife and I wore our UConn tee shirts to the ASU game today and boy, did we get some strange looks.
We were standing in line to buy tickets and I was checking my phone for the UCONN score. I told Mrs. j66 UCONN was up 44-9 and about 10 people in line started laughing (???).

BTW, since the ticket line was kinda long we figured there would be a good crowd. But attendance was only 2,900 (ASU got 5,000 for a 1:00 PM game on Friday vs Oregon. ??) (Arena holds 14,000). There were a couple sections of very vocal Oregon State fans behind the OSU bench. Not unusual in the Phoenix area - most were older, probably retired and live here (when the Cubs come here to play, there are more Cubs fans than Diamondback fans at the game).
 
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There were a couple sections of very vocal Oregon State fans behind the OSU bench. Not unusual in the Phoenix area - most were older, probably retired and live here (when the Cubs come here to play, there are more Cubs fans than Diamondback fans at the game).

I'd guess that was the Wiese cheering section. She's from Phoenix. She had 3 straight championship game losses to Courtney Ekmark's team.
 

CamrnCrz1974

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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.

Not sure if this was your first game, but it is a bit of a misnomer to pick Hempen as the team's best player. Going into the game, Sophie Brunner is the team's best interior player (in terms of scoring and rebounding), while Promise Amukamara (not her twin, Peace) is the leading scorer among the guards/perimeter players. Hempen was third on the team in scoring, but as a result of the game, is now (barely) the team leader in scoring, as it is a very balanced roster.

Hempen is the team's leading three-point shooter, however.
 
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Camrn, I have not seen this year's version of the team before, but based on my viewing of this one game --admittedly just one game, Sophie Brunner was far from a polished player. She immediately got into foul trouble, which kept her from being as effective as she ordinarily would have been. Twice she got caught for flagrant leaning-in fouls that another, more polished player, might have finessed. She had no clue how to play interior players who were much taller than she. Brunner is not a bad player, just a young and perhaps underdeveloped one, and I don't think I am being too harsh to say that she had a bad day against OSU.

Promise showed some athleticism but her scoring touch had deserted her in this game. She was far from the worst ASU guard out there, but it was not her night. Peace made some nice drives to the basket and may turn out to be a younger version of Promise, which would not be a bad thing for ASU.

I thought Hempen was the best player out there based solely on her three-point scoring, particularly at the end. Otherwise, she seems a bit slow and not a great defender. With spotty offense and an at-times porous defense against higher-ranked teams, I figure ASU is Top 20, but not Top 10. Again, all this based on just one game, and I am far from an expert.
 
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