---------- he lost his two best 3 point shooters and he did not have many of those. For the first time this year, he broke down the opponent’s zone with quick interior passing and attacking it from its backside. Too soon to tell if that will work against the upper crust of the SEC coming in the back half of our schedule. After Mizzou attacked our ball handlers creating steals and dunks, I worried that would be the trend ongoing but they seem to have worked on getting the ball up the court passing rather than dribbling and that problem has not re-emerged.
Does it seem like our defensive rebounders stand flat footed waiting on the ball to land in their lap while A&M & SC (usually just one) rebounder leaps to take the rebound at the top of his jump? Over and Over and Over? Many times there are three of our guys under the goal and only one of theirs with none of ours blocking out on their guy. Yet the majority of the time, they got it and went back up to be fouled or score. If he can just get more aggressive rebounding and get them to dial down the over passing and over penetrating, it all might come together this year yet.
Before the season started if we didn’t have Smith or TB, I still would have expected better than 5-5 in the SEC right now from this group, coming off the heels of a consecutive Elite Eight coaching staff experience.
I get it though, the season was built last summer off of Nick and Trevon’s athleticism; and we had to reboot. I just figured we wouldn’t have struggled so much.
In hindsight, I sure wish KK were still on the team.
My sense, which was reinforced watching yesterday in person, is that our defensive scheme hampers our ability to hit the glass. One, we try to block a lot of shots, and if you’re up in the air trying for a block, you can’t box out. Two, our defensive rotations take rebounders away from the glass at times. But there have been games we rebounded well anyway.
Speaking of which, after the Hog women got outrebounded 74-17 by South Carolina, I watched the Hens’ game against Kentucky last week with interest in that particular area. Kentucky is not very good (we beat them 71-50 at Lexington), but they got their share of rebounds against SoCar just by pure luck; the ball bounced straight to one of their girls and the Hens’ huge size advantage didn’t matter. That obviously wasn’t the case when we played SoCar.
I have SoCar-UConn women on as I type this. The Hens just played volleyball on the offensive glass against UConn, getting four shots on one possession before getting fouled. So they do it to better teams than us. They’re also very good at tapping the ball out for guards to get the rebound.
I’m okay with Staley. Gotta give her credit for what she’s built in freaking Columbia, S.C. She knows how to go get girls that can do what she wants to do, and they do it so well that they don’t even need good shooters. Also impressive that they get 12000+ per game for women’s hoops.
Geno and Mulkey… I’d be rooting for the selective meteor strike if they ever played each other.