My completely honest opinions.
PIt’s felt like the last couple of years we have struggled to win big games. It’s felt like the injuries pile up, we lose a big game. We seek confidence from conference games, but fall flat in the big ones. It’s something nobody wants to hear, but the big east isn’t that good this year. I felt the conference had its best season last year, but most of the high profile players transferred out.
This was our first big game since Aubrey went out, and you could feel her absense for the first time. The current level for this team is mainly unknown. We just got solidly beat at home against the 6th best team in the ACC according to rankings. We simply don’t have a measuring stick for where we are at. The big east isn’t going to provide that level.
Unfortunate night for Paige to be ice cold, but credit to the ND defense. They made her life miserable. I’m not an huge Clark fan, but tonight made me appreciate the work she does every single night. And Nika, no words on that performance.
The biggest bright spot was Edwards. She was dynamite for 30 minutes. The team we away from her down the stretch which was puzzling. Also kudos to Shade and Arnold for their steady contributions.
The low of the game for me was the poor defense. Hidalgo torched us, yet another speedy guard we couldn’t contain. And Westbeld punished us for lack of rotational and switching defense.
Just feels like a bummer, the atmosphere and reunions brought quite the buzz to campus.