A far from flawless performance to start the season, but Vandy’s 74-65 win over Cal in the Oui Play event in Paris, France did have its high points. First and foremost, it’s a win over a decent P4 team away from home. Most teams are opening their seasons against various versions of The Little Sisters of the Poor, which is what Vandy usually does, so it’s good to pass the test against a better level of opponent.
A few highlights:
* The shocker of the day was a double-double (12 pts, 10 reb) from 6'4 reserve post Aiyana Mitchell. Add to that 3 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks. She’s starting her junior season and has never had a performance like that. She runs like a deer, can jump and has shown at least some skill in the paint. But, she never seemed to assert herself or even seem interested in doing so. Hopefully, this a a sign of things to come. I suspect voodoo.
* Freshman point guard Aubrey Galvan arrived with a bang, even though she, normally a very good shooter, shot it poorly Monday (3 of 14, 1 of 4). To go along with 7 points, she had 9 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals and controlled the pace of the game. She’s fun to watch.
* Sacha Washington looked good in her first game back after missing all of last season. She had 10 points and 8 rebounds to go along with 4 steals and 2 assists.
* A 17-0 run covering roughly 4:30 of the third quarter pretty much settled matters. When the run ended, it was 54-37.
I’m hoping to turn over a new leaf this year. Instead of sweating the details, I’d like to adopt a “just win baby” attitude. We’ll see how that goes. Even if I manage to rehab my attitude, it’s still fair to point to some negatives to help understamnd the game. A couple from the season opener:
1) An all-round poor shooting performance (39%--27% beyond the arc). It’s possible Mikayla Blakes has had games where she shot as badly as she did Monday, but I don’t remember them. She was 9 of 27 and 2 of 9. Her shot never looked comfortable. Still, 27 points on a bad-shooting day is not bad.
2) A sluggish start that included giving up eight offensive rebounds in the first quarter. Even so, it was a tie game after one quarter, and Vandy was only down two at the half. The explosive third quarter smoothed over a lot of rough edges.
