What Happened To Morgan William in 4th Quarter ????

[Longtime fan]

She was bench for lack of effort. Seems like Vic has learned more than one thing from Geno.

watching the game ( from UCONN fan perspective, I did not see " lack of effort." I saw stifling defense to deny her the ball. And I could see a short-benching if coach Vic needed to re-energize her; but sitting the entire quarter had to be humiliating and harmful to the team....she was the spirit of the team. She got them there.

I doubt that the true story will emerge until someone writes a book, years from now. Everyone at Miss. St. , including Morgan, is going to play this close to the vest, in " coach speak" terms, and we are going to learn nothing more.

But I would not be shocked if Morgan fully recovers and is a star next season. Nor would I be shocked if she decided to not play her senior year.

 

[CocoHusky]

watching the game ( from UCONN fan perspective, I did not see " lack of effort." I saw stifling defense to deny her the ball. And I could see a short-benching if coach Vic needed to re-energize her; but sitting the entire quarter had to be humiliating and harmful to the team....she was the spirit of the team. She got them there.

I doubt that the true story will emerge until someone writes a book, years from now. Everyone at Miss. St. , including Morgan, is going to play this close to the vest, in " coach speak" terms, and we are going to learn nothing more.

But I would not be shocked if Morgan fully recovers and is a star next season. Nor would I be shocked if she decided to not play her senior year.

Morgan seems to be fine.
"Coach wanted more energy, and I guess I wasn't bringing enough," William said. "I'm not mad; Jazz did a good job. She had good energy on defense and offense, and she scored and made good passes. I'm proud of her."
MSU's William 'not mad' after sitting late in loss

 

[Shenandoah]

Notre Dame vs. Connecticut - Box Score - April 8, 2014 - ESPN

22 offensive rebounds and 54 total!

I miss those days.

...and now, the most famous saying in sports:
"Just wait 'til next year!"

 

[shinobimono]

Benching Morgan William in the fourth quarter is indefensible in my opinion. I have yet to hear a plausible explanation. Something is rotten in Denmark, as the saying goes.

Lots of explanations in this thread on why it is defensible. Care to elaborate on why it is indefensible?

 

[shinobimono]

If you follow UCONN bb and Geno, he has only done something like this when he has a big lead in a game when it would not effect the game result. Geno talks a big game about right body language and effort, but when it comes right down to it the best players are in at crucial times.

They didn't have a big lead in that 2014 NC game against Notre Dame when he benched Bria.

 

[shinobimono]

Morgan seems to be fine.
"Coach wanted more energy, and I guess I wasn't bringing enough," William said. "I'm not mad; Jazz did a good job. She had good energy on defense and offense, and she scored and made good passes. I'm proud of her."
MSU's William 'not mad' after sitting late in loss

Yes, like a true team player, she took being replaced as being for the good of the team.

 

[tomcat]

I don't see it as indefensible at all. The team was as off as many of us though UConn was against them two nights earlier. They could not get shots to fall. They missed layups. Their passes went bad. Sound familiar? The coach thought he had to try something else, and in the third quarter, it seemed to be working (sound familiar?). Wheels came off in the fourth quarter when Staley remembered she had a massive player who may be the best in the coiuntry at her position and started feeding her the ball. Little Morgan was not going to stop that strategy, even at her best.

MSU also has a center, MCowan, who refuses to put her hands up on defense. I can only imagine how much that must frustrate their coach.

 

[shinobimono]

Not true

Care to enlighten us? What information do you have that others don't have access to?

 

[Geew1992]

I'm watchin the Mets and one of the announcers just asked why she wasn't in the 4th quarter

 

[shinobimono]

I'm watchin the Mets and one of the announcers just asked why she wasn't in the 4th quarter

Amazing! I'll bet the announcer isn't even a women's BB fan, but got his information from TV and all the hype surrounding Morgan's 2-game scoring spree, especially her buzzer-beating shot against UConn. The power of TV to amplify a person or event and turn them into a bigger-than-life super character is simply amazing. Coach Vic didn't have a chance against this super media character that Morgan was turned into, how dare he bench her?

 

[GoDawgs4]

State alum here. I think her tank was empty. Our team was tired. We were short on a lot of shots which is tell tale sign of a weary team.
Right from the beginning she did not have the same edge.
Holmes actually ran the team well but we missed shots. Hard to win games when you do that.
Also, I love Victoria Vivians but she needs to improve her shot selections. Her % is too low to take as many shots as she does. For instance, when it was 54-50, she took an ill advised long 3 pointer early in the shot clock,
Finally, give SC credit. They played well and earned the victory.
Great run by our ladies but Friday night's historical victory took too much out of us.

Thank you all for letting me join the group.

 

[mntncougar]

They are ripping the MSU coach to shreds on twitter.

She wasn't playing well but neither was anyone else on that team. And I can't for the life of me see how you can take the person that almost single-handedly got you there out of the game and keep her out. Maybe a few minutes, not the quarter. I can easily imagine the rest of the team just gave up when they saw that. And I think the 4th quarter results speak for themselves.

 

[DaddyChoc]

Geno wouldn't even take Nurse out for Dangerfield... who was maybe a better fit against MSU

 

[FanHam]

Lots of explanations in this thread on why it is defensible. Care to elaborate on why it is indefensible?

Sure. She wasn't ill, tired or injured. Need more? She scored 41 points against Baylor and she hit the winning shot against UConn. That was sufficient evidence she might have spearheaded a comeback. The game was slowly, agonizingly being lost, so why on God's green Earth wouldn't he give her a chance? It defies explanation.

I don't just think it was abhorrent coaching, I think a fix was in.

 

[tomcat]

Sure. She wasn't ill, tired or injured. Need more? She scored 41 points against Baylor and she hit the winning shot against UConn. That was sufficient evidence she might have spearheaded a comeback. The game was slowly, agonizingly being lost, so why on God's green Earth wouldn't he give her a chance? It defies explanation.

I don't just think it was abhorrent coaching, I think a fix was in.

Oh,please.

 

[LadyVols9]

does anyone here think that geno wouldn't have benched a starter if they weren't playing hard or motivated? of course he would have and I totally agree with that approach. I wish holly would do the same.

however, I do think he should have at least put her back in after she sat for a few minutes to see whether it motivated her to pick up the intensity. leaving her out the entire quarter was a bit much.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Geno wouldn't even do that

You are true---you have to ride the horse that got you that fat --to the end. UNLESS--she was being face guarded and she was effectively taken out of the game--in effect she was lost to Miss St. Blame a good USC defense--they did what I thought Danger was brought into the game to do--face guard and keep the ball out of the hands of William. Somehow you have to cut off the head of the beast that is ruining your day. Vivian became one of the scorers of choice and her percentage is much worse than Willam--whose is bad.

 

[BroadwayVa]

does anyone here think that geno wouldn't have benched a starter if they weren't playing hard or motivated? of course he would have and I totally agree with that approach. I wish holly would do the same.

however, I do think he should have at least put her back in after she sat for a few minutes to see whether it motivated her to pick up the intensity. leaving her out the entire quarter was a bit much.

I don't think Geno would have benched Stewie or Katie Lou or Gabby ---he would have kicked their behinds to moscow and back --as frozen as it may have been--They both had/have the talent to bring home the NC--why make them sit--it does no good. Not for the player --not for the team--and in Miss St's --she is the TEAM LEADER--UNLESS she was taken out by defense.

 

[Ozzie Nelson]

Looks to me like no one knows the answer.

 

[GoDawgs4]

When the score was 54-50, had we scored in the two trips down to tie or take the lead, then yes you would have seen her in the game in the last few minutes. However, we did not, SC scored a couple of buckets and then they are up by 8. Boom game is essentially over then. Putting her back in then would not have helped.

SC's PG outplayed Morgan William in this game. It hurts to say that but that is the truth. Our back up PG, Holmes actually played very well.
We got killed in the paint all night and they just out hustled and played us.
For the most part, State had 10 starters on this team and that is how we won so many games this year.
Don't see why Coach Schaefer is getting skewered over this. If you watched the game, it was just not her night. As I said before, I think her tank was empty and she did not have any energy left.

 

[shinobimono]

Sure. She wasn't ill, tired or injured. Need more? She scored 41 points against Baylor and she hit the winning shot against UConn. That was sufficient evidence she might have spearheaded a comeback. The game was slowly, agonizingly being lost, so why on God's green Earth wouldn't he give her a chance? It defies explanation.

I don't just think it was abhorrent coaching, I think a fix was in.

She played 23 minutes, I'd say that was plenty of a chance to show her stuff and help the team. Since she was having an off game, he tried someone else. As they say "Past performance doesn't guarantee future performance." A common phenomenon in sports, and coaches and players know this.

 

[MilfordHusky]

When the score was 54-50, had we scored in the two trips down to tie or take the lead, then yes you would have seen her in the game in the last few minutes. However, we did not, SC scored a couple of buckets and then they are up by 8. Boom game is essentially over then. Putting her back in then would not have helped.

SC's PG outplayed Morgan William in this game. It hurts to say that but that is the truth. Our back up PG, Holmes actually played very well.
We got killed in the paint all night and they just out hustled and played us.
For the most part, State had 10 starters on this team and that is how we won so many games this year.
Don't see why Coach Schaefer is getting skewered over this. If you watched the game, it was just not her night. As I said before, I think her tank was empty and she did not have any energy left.

"We got killed in the paint all night and they just out hustled and played us."

We're familiar with that. Altogether too much.

 

[willtalk]

What people need to remember that scoring 40 + points against Baylor was very unusual for her. She averaged 10.9 points a season. In the 3 tournament games before Baylor she had eleven points in three games. Now if she were a consistent high volume scorer through out her career it might make sense for the coach to give her a shot even if she was tired. The fact is that she was hotter than a pistol for Baylor and part of Uconn but she had cooled off to normal against SC. She was not going to save them Too many people evaluated her on the game they saw her play against Baylor and Uconn and do not recognize that was not typical for her. Basketball is a game where things tend to even out over time. A hot player will have a cold streak and things will even out that way. Miss State while definitely a good team rode Williams hot wave past Baylor and Uconn. But it appeared to have cooled off against SC. Same thing happened to Schimmel against Baylor years ago and she cooled off against Cal but they stupidly focused their defense against a player whose hot steak had ended and left a red hot wing wide open all game.