WBB in Arizona | Page 5 | The Boneyard
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WBB in Arizona

They seem to be getting worse as the season progresses. Something definitely seems amiss.
Brackens.....now at ASU

Kimpson......now at Miami

Roland ....MIA on D

Rebs up by 1 with 1:16 remaining
 
Brackens.....now at ASU

Kimpson......now at Miami

Roland ....MIA on D

Rebs up by 1 with 1:16 remaining
They've lost players before. Kept on rolling. This is La Rocque's 6th season there. On pace for either worst season since Year 1, or worst of her whole tenure.
 
They've lost players before. Kept on rolling. This is La Rocque's 6th season there. On pace for either worst season since Year 1, or worst of her whole tenure.
Rebs hold on to hand GCU their 10th loss of the year by 1 point.

Meadow Roland was on fire down the stretch. Jazzy Lott scored 20 and is an extraordinarily athletic guard who can jump out of the gym.

Shelbee Brown, sporting a great doo, came within one board of the double double. Sun Devil fans remember and appreciate her for missing two free throws with 35 seconds left and the ASU miracle win over the Rebs in Tempe last month.

UNLV overcame an 18 deficit on the boards for the victory.

UNLV has played a brutal schedule (Massey ranks it 23, 2 above the Huskies next opponent Iowa's ) with losses to Baylor, Montana State on the road who has a very good team this year, ASU on the road, Rice on the road. Their worse loss was at Cincinnati.

Saturday they host the wandering Lobos which will go a long way to showing us where Lindy and her team are. Massey shows the Rebs as a 9-point favorite and in fact has the Rebs favored in all of their remaining games.

We'll see if the antithesis of Mulkey OCC scheduling benefits UNLV. The Mountain West appears stronger at the top this year with the wandering Lobos looking really good. Boise State performing well and of course the Rams.

Pondering a drive over to Grift City to watch Saturday's game. Have to go the night before :( in order to watch the Huskies v Hawkeyes on the tube.
 
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Meet Molly Miller - in her 14th year as a head coach

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39 year old first year coach for the ASU Sun Devils.

Head coach at age 27 starting at Drury College (where she started 4 years as a guard) in Missouri.

310-55 with a .849 winning percentage

5 - 30 win seasons

In final season at Grand Canyon last year 30 game winning streak.

Opens her first season at ASU with a 13-game winning streak

TREMENDOUS leader.
 
Meet Molly Miller - in her 14th year as a head coach

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39 year old first year coach for the ASU Sun Devils.

Head coach at age 27 starting at Drury College (where she started 4 years as a guard) in Missouri.

310-55 with a .849 winning percentage

5 - 30 win seasons

In final season at Grand Canyon last year 30 game winning streak.

Opens her first season at ASU with a 13-game winning streak

TREMENDOUS leader.
Is it just me, or does this photo suggest "the fashionista" moniker would apply just as much to as it does to Barnes?
 
Is it just me, or does this photo suggest "the fashionista" moniker would apply just as much to as it does to Barnes?
Now that you mention that those pants look like the same pants that Barnes was wearing when they played Grand Canyon..... In a short rather than a medium
 
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2-9 Lumberjacks (the 2 wins....Embry Riddle and Park) travel to SoCal and run CSUN out of their own gym to improve to 3-9. GCU transfer Naomi White, 9th in scoring, in NCAA, with 27 points and Madison Watts with 20.

CSUN turns it over 35 times

I wonder....

How good is CSUN

How improved is NAU

Jacks face another Big West team - UC San Diego on Sat.
 
Aren't you asking the wrong question? Shouldn't it be "how bad is CSUN?"
You betcha!

That's the question......minor improvement in the second half, but.....

You've got to wonder about a team that got bullied by the Jacks in the first 20 minutes. The Matadors earn that name with their defense.

I think it goes to show the deceptive nature of records. CSUN at 5-5 was pummeled by a NAU team that it showed little in any life all year.
 
You betcha!

That's the question......minor improvement in the second half, but.....

You've got to wonder about a team that got bullied by the Jacks in the first 20 minutes. The Matadors earn that name with their defense.

I think it goes to show the deceptive nature of records. CSUN at 5-5 was pummeled by a NAU team that it showed little in any life all year.
I wondered about their record, til I looked at their schedule. Two non D1 wins and one was against San Jose St., who is absolutely horrible this year. I think the other two wins were also very unimpressive.
 
In the short post game interview after the win in SoCal iNAU coach Laura Dinkins was asked about the defense. She acknowledged that during the seven game losing streak the effort and impact of defense was minimal and they had paid particular attention over the last couple of practices to the defensive end of the Court.

Got me to thinking about those programs that really emphasize defense first. Of course one of the coaches that takes this defense first approach is Molly Miller. I also think there's a coach in Storrs who takes that same philosophy.

The difference between episodic and consistent however is key. We know what we expect with a Molly Miller coach team. NAU has always been a offensive first program and that worked well under coach Loree Payne. This does tend to be a typical however. I think coach Dinkins is finding how challenging it is to successfully achieve your goals on the court without consistent defense.

Tomorrow's game in San Diego (6-4) will be one worth looking at ESPN plus with a 3pm tip.

When former Grand Canyon guard Naomi White is cooking the Jacks have pretty reliable go to on the offensive end.

We'll see what kind of defense The Lumberjacks are able to generate and sustain tomorrow.
 
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Getting ready to tip (ESPN+) in San Diego as the NAU Lumberjacks attempt to build on their CSUN win.

The Titans return home after defeating Cal Baptists by eight points in Riverside.

This will be an outstanding opportunity for NAU coach Dinkins further develop a defensive identity.
 
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The Titans
Tritons. Cal St. Fullerton are the Titans, who are currently playing the U. of San Diego Toreros. Too many schools in California.
 
So in their best half of the season the Lumberjacks show out in the 2nd of their two game SoCal road trip to score 45 as they lead the Tritons of San Diego by 17. The Tritons are coached by Heidi Vanderveer the younger sister of the former Stanford coach. While @TheFarmFan may have been aware of this connection I was not. Her younger sis is a long time coach here and was part of history as both the women and men's team danced in their first year of eligibility last season

In any event the second half starts with UC San Diego score in the first three hoops to close the margin to 12.
 
After scoring 45 in the first half the Jacks are held to 26 in the second half but withstand a furious UC San Diego rally to win.

The game started with an Audrey Taylor bucket and ended with two Audrey Taylor free throws as the veteran senior leads her team to victory.

While the Jack's dominated the boards 46-31 they missed 9 free throws and turn the ball over 19 times.

But, they overcame and winning on the road is hard. The two wins in SoCal on this road trip are really a great way to prepare to start league play next year.

Really an important victory for the Jacks as they demonstrate tremendous grit and character on the road. The Jacks have now won three in a row.

They open conference play against Montana on January 1 which is a very winnable game and then will face a tall task in their next home game against Montana State on the 3rd
 
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Defense is a focus for a lot of coaches. Of course, we were following Rutgers from 1995 to 2011, and Vivian Stringer was all about defense, some would say to the suffering of the offensive size.

Butts at Arizona was a defense first coach, although I'm not convinced she could coach anything. Adia also emphasized the defensive side, if you didn't want to play defense you sat.

As @azfan may know, Arizona fans stand until the opposing team scores. It was a Lute Olsen thing on the men's side, originally. Not sure what Burke thinks of it, she is a tradition changer, which I don't like. Gone is the drum for wins (so football took it over) and its no longer "Bear Down" its "Bear Down - Sleeves Up". Which I just won't say.
 
Defense is a focus for a lot of coaches.

As @azfan may know, Arizona fans stand until the opposing team scores. It was a Lute Olsen thing on the men's side, originally. Not sure what Burke thinks of it, she is a tradition changer, which I don't like. Gone is the drum for wins (so football took it over) and its no longer "Bear Down" its "Bear Down - Sleeves Up". Which I just won't say.
It's interesting to watch leadership and a coaching change.

The announcers for the University of California San Diego we're pretty well prepped up for their call of the NAU game.

As the Jacks dominated the first half the announcers were talking about the change at NAU.

Loree Payne was hugely successful as an offensive first second and third coach. The team conserved their energy on the defensive end and was wildly entertaining and over the last 3 years wildly successful. This idea of conserving energy and the defensive end was mentioned in the post game interview with Molly Miller after their last victory. She said many teams do this but that she coaches her teams to increase the energy level on the defensive end.

When Payne departed to Santa Clara the NAU athletic department and administration moved with glacial speed, they finally decided upon NAU alumni Laura Dinkins who had been a assistant to Molly Miller at Grand Canyon. Lincoln said in a user dream position and it's a dream come true to return to Flagstaff. She sounds remarkably like Kenny Dillingham down at ASU.

During her four years playing at NAU Dinkins was known as a defensive specialist on the court so there was a tradition change at NAU. No longer would the Jacks be offensive first second and third but they would base their offense on a strong defense.

How did that beginning work? With a seven-game losing streak. Part of this was that with the exception of Aubrey Taylor everyone on the court was new due to graduation and transfer

It took the team a great deal of time to react and understand what was going on. But Dinkins who who brought offensive gunner Naomi White with her from Grand Canyon persevered. That is she had a vision and a plan.

So back to tradition. I think over a long period of time successful programs have a traditions as their foundation but there is evolution.

I'd love to hear from long time husky fans on any changes in tradition over the Long haul in Storrs

I really miss Loree Payne her style of coaching. But Laura Dinkins and the recent performance is giving me hope.
 
New Year's Eve has three of the four Arizona teams playing with The Lumberjacks facing Montana tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m..

GCU

Tip off at 11:00 against Colorado State. This will be the test. After 1:10 start there's been progress with the Lopes. It will be indeed interesting to see how Winston Gandy schemes up the defense against a powerful Rams team. In their last game in California against the San Jose Aztecs or Spartans the Lopes had their strongest defensive and offensive effort of the year although that may have been in part due to the Aztecs/Spartans. Since Kevin up 91 points to Lori Payne's Broncos up in Santa Clara Gandy has focused on the defense to Great advantage in the last two games as the Lopes led UNLV for 38 minutes before losing 61 to 60 at home and then breaking through by holding the Aztec Spartans to 59 in their last victory.

The Rams have been excellent particularly defensively. Their only two losses have been by two points to Stanford on the road and by 12 points to Utah the opponent for the Sun Devils later today. The Rams have beaten Gonzaga and as I've said have a great scoring defense. Massey has the Sun Devils as a 12-point dog I would definitely take the points as the ASU defense should be able to keep Molly Miller squad close.

ASU

At 2:00 p.m. is the feature game of the day as the Sun Devils travel up to Utah to take on the Utes. If the Sun Devils are able to duplicate their offensive performance from the last game against the Buffs they have a great chance again to Utah. In that game last week ASU came out hitting shots scoring 20 points in the first quarter and really LED from start to finish. Utah's an entirely different team however and I expect this to be a dog fight. Fingers crossed that the undefeated streak continues and Miller leads the team to a 15 -0 start.

Down in the dirty t....

Then finally as always the kitties in the evening game. Massey has them as a 7-point dog in Boulder which I think is generous. The kitties had a great second half against Utah with a furious rally at home. Interesting to see how good they're going to be on the road against a Buff team the impressed me defensively.

NAU

The Jacks play tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. against Montana. Laura Dinkins really seems to have righted the ship as the Jacks have been playing very well as the year ends. Naomi Wyatt has gotten some help offensively and the defense has definitely improved. Watching Loeei Payne and Santa Clara yesterday emphasized how much the Jacks had to replace as both Sophie Glancy and Ava Schmidt we're both outstanding with that former set of NAU stars connecting twice on Sophie initiated post to post passing and layups.

This is a great time of year. Forks up Devils
 
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15- 0


A huge win for ASU! Going on the road to Utah McKinna Bracken shows up and leads Molly Miller's squad with 31 points. Gabby Elliott had to head to the bench early in the third quarter with her fourth foul so Brackens took over put the team on her back and led ASU to a fantastic victory.

This was a tremendous game back and forth the entire 40 minutes and a delight to watch and what a way to end 2025!

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45 minutes to tip in Flagstaff as NAU hosts Montana in the Dome with the game to be televised on ESPN Plus. I'm really wondering who's going to be calling the game.... A freshman or sophomore broadcast major?

The lady girls are coming off a 90 point.win in overtime over Tarleton State well the Jacks are going to try to extend their winning streak to four games.

Hope the team isn't looking ahead to Saturday's game against Montana State I know I am.
 
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Hope the team isn't looking ahead to Saturday's game against Montana State I know I am.
Montana St. is cruising against Northern Colorado, they should be fairly well rested for their next game. Looks like Montana is giving them all they can handle right now.
 
Montana St. is cruising against Northern Colorado, they should be fairly well rested for their next game. Looks like Montana is giving them all they can handle right now.
Montana State is loaded and the heavy favorite to win both the regular season and tournament titles - they're really great.

Midway through the third quarter of the Jacks are up by 7 over Montana as Audrey Taylor one of only two returning players for the Jacks has gone off with four threes. Her back court mate Naomi White former Grand Canyon Lope, the leading scorer in the Big Sky at slightly over 23 points per game got a buzzer beater as the half ended from just over midcourt

Interestingly former Lumberjack sharpshooter Leah Beatty is now an assistant coach for Montana.
 
81-72

The Jacks extend the winning streak to four games and move to 1-0 in Big Sky play with a big win at home over Montana. Red shirt freshman Naomi White leading scorer in the Big Sky leading freshman score in the nation and number 9 score in the country and her senior teammate Audrey Taylor lead the Jacks to an important victory as the program growth continues.
 
Montana State is loaded and the heavy favorite to win both the regular season and tournament titles - they're really great.

Midway through the third quarter of the Jacks are up by 7 over Montana as Audrey Taylor one of only two returning players for the Jacks has gone off with four threes. Her back court mate Naomi White former Grand Canyon Lope, the leading scorer in the Big Sky at slightly over 23 points per game got a buzzer beater as the half ended from just over midcourt

Interestingly former Lumberjack sharpshooter Leah Beatty is now an assistant coach for Montana.
Looks like Northern Colorado came back to make a game of it. Scored 50 in the 2nd half on MSU.
 
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Looks like Northern Colorado came back to make a game of it. Scored 50 in the 2nd half on MSU.
Winning on the road is hard. You don't win a whole lot of games when you give up 79 points you usually win a game in when you score 86.

Saturday I would expect the Bobcats to get their second road win in Flagstaff by at least 15 points.

Montana State's Konig who was instrumental in upsetting the number two Lumberjacks in the conference tournament semi last year with 29 points scored 27 tonight so she really does have the Jack's number.
 

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