I was not able to watch the game. Did we really shoot 39% and have 31 turnovers and still win? How is that possible?
Post game interview: Aston thought it was a horrible effort and said so in so many words. 31 turnovers and a 12 point win over Kansas??? Baylor crushed them like an empty can. The complacency of the radio announcers amazed me. A lot of the mess tonight was due to lackadaisical play and inexperienced combinations, no doubt, and that shouldn't be a continuing problem. But the truth is we do not have a championship caliber offense. We haven't had one all year. That's why we are 0-4 against top ten teams. Lots of us expect our offense to improve and evolve. Well it better evolve fast. I'm not on a Jihad and I'm not trying to blame anybody or point to a specific cause. The potential seems to be there, but if we don't learn how to put more points on the board, we are going to have to wait until next year to try to fulfill our big expectations.
I decided to just listen to the game because the video quality on my laptop was poor and behind the game by a full possession. I think I am glad. I was frustrated enough just listening. How we won - (1) Kansas is really not a good team. They do not have the talent and athletes to keep up in the Big 12 yet. Kansas seemed to have only one player who could really score against the Horns. (2) Thank goodness for the reliable Brooke McCarty and for Ariel who played really well in the second half. Some of the other players provided just enough good plays between "what was that" plays to help pull out the win. I really hoped the Longhorns would play a clean game. If they had, the game would have been well over by half time. Then the bench and the younger bench players could have come in to get valuable playing time under better conditions.
A couple of things worth noting. 1. We were up 20 with 4 minutes left in the game. So our win was far more convincing than the final score indicates. Especially given that we were on the road. Unlike some other B12 programs, our coach chooses to give bench players minutes rather than running up the score. So our final margins are not nearly what they COULD be. A win is what matters. 2. I am not sure why everyone compares every game we play to BU? BU is a completely different team. They play inside out and they tend to run a lot of the scores up. They played KU at home and only hit 5 threes. They had 62 points in the paint. Comparing the two games are apples and oranges.
Glad to hear we were up by 20 when starters began to take a seat. Please tell me at least 20 of our 31 turnovers came in the final 4 minutes too!
It was not as good of a performance against ISU, especially in the second quarter. Regardless of the score, KU was still in the game early in the third quarter. So, the overall first half on offense and defense was not good. Bottom line is that we are a completely different team when Ariel Atkins is not on the floor. The early foul trouble she gets herself into has to stop.
Many good points. Ariel must become more aware of her importance, and make good judgments about when to go for the steal or rebound and when not to. We can't lose her for such a long stretch without paying a heavy price. Dr. D is right. Where do we get more offense? I hope Joyner is spending time in the gym working on her short jumper hour after hour. That's a big hole in her game at this point. The turnovers were the most inexplicable problem last night, though. So many crazy or sloppy passes. It was like we just weren't thinking, or were maybe rushing too much. Maybe we got this bad game out of our system and learned something from it.
I agree with most of your assessment but I thought the game was much closer than the final scored indicated. Additionally, I thought we had to go to the bench out of necessity due to players getting into foul trouble rather than it being a method to get bench players experience. Granted, in the final minutes, Aston did play the bench but during the 1Q-3Qs, we had key players sitting on the bench due to fouls. This was an ugly/sloppy win but it's much better than an ugly loss.
My granddaughter's 10 and 11 year old league have less turnovers per minute than that. Underwood had 7 TOs to in 15 minutes, that almost 1 to every 2 minutes. How did she get 15 minutes with that many TOs? Atkins only had 1 TO to 0 assists.
Even the "homer" announcers commented that the refs caused many of the TOs due to calling offensive fouls. With that in mind though I thought there were way too many sloppy, poor choice throws downcourt that were easily intercepted by KU or swatted away.
My memory fails at the moment, but was watching another WCBB game a few weeks ago where the coach decided to put one of the star players in the sixth man position instead of starting due to the pattern of early foul trouble. It was a successful strategy that game.
We should NEVER not start Ariel if she is 100%. We are a completely different and more dynamic team with her on the floor. Also I feel like we're not looking at the fact that we were on the ROAD. Most road games in the B12 will be like this. While the game was not perfect, we should all be happy that we were able to get out of any B12 teams gym with a win. And a comfortable enough win that we were able to get our frosh and bench players a lot of minutes that could serve them well in the future.
I get that Ariel is important but some players actually do play better when they come off the bench. They get a feel for the game and then jump in. Brooke is like that. She almost always gets the start now but last year whenever she didn't get the start and instead came off the bench, she seemed to have a better game. It'a almost as if she got her head around who is doing what an then jumped in knowing what she needed to do. That said, I wouldn't want either on the bench more than a minute or two. One other note. It is great to see us not getting frustrated and pushing through our occasional droughts on the court. We did that against ISU in the second and fourth Q and did it against KU in the 3rd.
as poorly as we think we shot, KU was worse. 26.4% from the field to our 39.1. And 11.1% from BTA (2-18) to our 45.5% (5-11). Plus we outrebounded them 61-35. The refs called it very tight, including a lot of offensive fouls on both sides. When Ariel went out with about four and a half left in the first quarter, we just seemed to lose our rhythm/composure, whatever you want to call it. We were up 8-1 and pushed it to 10-1 before KU started scoring. Although Washington seemed unstoppable (also my impression during the game), she was only 7-26 from the field. She did get to the FT line, making 9-11 as KU went 14-20 for the game. No doubt no one was happy with anything except for the win. I would bet practices are going to be a bit intense leading up to Saturday's game.
