Surprises so far this season

[huskerchode]

Just thought I'd get everyone's opinions.  These could be pleasant surprises, or maybe surprises that we aren't a little better at something.

 

I would say I'm pleasantly surprised with Blackburn and the emergence of Havers.  Also that Anya has gotten some decent minutes and has done well.  I think our defense needs work, and hopefully Clark finds her shot when we get into conference play.  I would like to see Jess finishing better around the basket (this is probably due to the fact my expectations were a bit higher for her as a freshman than they are for most freshman). 

[Bugeaters1]

Clark (scoring) Havers not so surprised with her except Maybe at how she has become a match up problem inside. Do you sag off of jess to take Havers away or do you let jess be jess or let Havers do her bit. And as others have mentioned Anya is having her a season so far to bad we couldn't have her another year.

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[HUD]

Connie Yori is an excellent coach as many of her peers allude to each year.  If you read her comments it's clear that the developing of players is crucial and one of her strong points.  Yes we lost 4 starters from last year and have a younger team this year but if you look at those 4 as freshmen we can see some of the inconsistency that you have with our freshmen this year.  They just all stayed with the program and improved each year.  Patience is the key but some highly recruited players don't always have it.  Hence the two we lost last season.  As a prime example of this just look at Havers year to year improvement.  As previously noted too bad she couldn't have redshirted as a freshman.

 

To me she is the biggest positive surprise this year.

[redsteve]

Just opinion and observations:

 

Already mentioned Havers in another post.  But, she may have improved the most of all the returning starters. Has many more different shots in her game. Looks to be working on going to the basket from about 10' out. Needs to figure out the steps involved, when her back is too the basket....and not get called for traveling, and at other times.

Old move..fake one direction, put the ball down, and spin the other, ..drive to basket.

 

And she has become much better at rebounding. Stronger. She moves well, without the ball. She seems to be much more inclined towards finesse play moving around the key. Not an under the basket "banger" so to speak....maybe next year?

 

I had a son that was a post player, and we had some coaching on the side by an experienced college player. That was early in my son's basketball career...about 8th grade as I recall.

 

Anyway it kind of looks like we (NU women posts) need some of the same type of post play education. Just don't see much of an ordinary drop step, for back to the basket play, for example. None of the NU coaches have played the position, have they?

 

Jess has a much more versatile game than to stand 3' from the basket. She just gets surrounded by defense...and most every team will do the same until her game is changed somewhat. I would like, some of the time, to see her 7-10 out... by the key, and passed to as she breaks to the basket. She can do that easily, and dump the ball off to another big if need be. She can also dribble break to the basket from the 3 pt line...saw her do it many times on club play, and the USA team.

 

Seems like we're so enamored with her size, we have her sit and wait by the basket. It's not gong to work against bigger bigs, and teams that can play better defense. You got to move the defense out from the basket and clear the area.

 

We also need a down low pick (screen)play between two of our posts, to get one open for a pass. Bigs need to work together more around the basket....that takes time to get comfortable with each other, and the teams offensive scheme.

 

As mentioned Kalenta definitely adds good minutes. She also knows the game much better. And she can shoot for very good percentages. Glad she's here as the newbies learn the interior play this year. 

 

Clark is a demon to other teams with her defense...steals the ball. Make assists, covers and see's the floor well...comes from experience. Like her, and everyone else....wish she can make more 3s.

 

Nat....is a great player, with tremendous drive to excellence. Glad she'll be here when RT graduates. 

 

Maddie and RB 43 just need to play more...get experience. Can't wait until next year when all 3 freshmen have a year of experience.  Great nucleus of future teams.

 

We're getting good minutes from all the bench in general. Glad to see that after last year when we were nearly a 5 man team.

Next year we'll have a bunch of new guards to get into the flow. Hope a couple can get playing time quickly, and help fill in for the loss of RT.

[huskerchode]

I've been thinking that if Jess could knock down a 10 footer or two in a game, that may help out her double/triple team situation a bit. 

[Red Don]

Like your comments about Jess being surrounded by the defense.  That's what happened at Cal.  I haven't seen the statistics but she certainly seemed to have a lot of her shots blocked under the basket.  Good ideas for clearing the paint for offense.

[Row6Seat10]

I guess it really isn't a surprise but I wish we would start mixing up the defenses. You hear Yori practically after every game in the post game press conferences say that our man defense "isn't very good" "we aren't where we need to be on help defense" "our defense needs a lot of work", etc. It's the main reason why all our big girls defending underneath at Cal last Saturday either fouled out or were on the verge of fouling out.

 

I would love to see us periodically throw in a 2-3, or a 1-3-1 zone. If you remember the Huskers were picked to finish 2nd in the 2013 Big Ten regular season but started out with a 2-3 record so the coaches mainly Sunny Smallwood got together and decided to start playing a match up 2-3 zone along with the man defense against Minnesota at their place. It worked, the Huskers blew them out and we stuck with it and went on a ten game winning streak, ending up that year in the Sweet 16. Rachel T was a freshman that year and she thrived playing in a zone defense.  I think playing a zone would especially help Jess, Allie and Anya.

 

I say let's do it again if it don't work scrap it. 

[huskerchode]

Going outside of the scope of my original post - a surprise to me with other teams would be those SDSU Jackrabbits!  Wouldn't want to run into them in the NCAA tournament.  Downed #16 DePaul last night by 9 points.  Same DePaul team that lost to ND by 5 and hung with UConn and Baylor for a while.

[redsteve]

I guess it really isn't a surprise but I wish we would start mixing up the defenses. You hear Yori practically after every game in the post game press conferences say that our man defense "isn't very good" "we aren't where we need to be on help defense" "our defense needs a lot of work", etc. It's the main reason why all our big girls defending underneath at Cal last Saturday either fouled out or were on the verge of fouling out.

 

I would love to see us periodically throw in a 2-3, or a 1-3-1 zone. If you remember the Huskers were picked to finish 2nd in the 2013 Big Ten regular season but started out with a 2-3 record so the coaches mainly Sunny Smallwood got together and decided to start playing a match up 2-3 zone along with the man defense against Minnesota at their place. It worked, the Huskers blew them out and we stuck with it and went on a ten game winning streak, ending up that year in the Sweet 16. Rachel T was a freshman that year and she thrived playing in a zone defense.  I think playing a zone would especially help Jess, Allie and Anya.

 

I say let's do it again if it don't work scrap it. 

 

Agree.

 

Some coaches are pretty much strictly a man defense coach. That's fine if you have people with quick feet to work with. If not, they can get beat sometimes. That seems to happen when we get some of our big's get away from the basket.

And in some cases zones are less tiresome on defenders, than man on man chasing a player all over the floor.

 

Zone defense in general, is somewhat easier to learn and execute, for newer players especially.  So might be good in our current situation. Could well have helped in the Cal game? They were quick.

 

We have good height so a 1-3-1, or 2-3 could be worth trying. Or a somewhat spread out 2-1-2. ...kind of depends on what your scouting report says.

Maybe it would mean a man defense on one certain player, and zone 2-2 for the balance. (example: box and 1)

 

I used to always mix man/zone defenses during a game. Because you can sometimes find the other teams offensive weakness with changing defenses....and if the defense your using isn't working well...try something else.

[Bugeaters1]

But doesn't the zone hurt you in rebounding

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[Bugeaters1]

And also a team that has good ball movement can shoot a Team out of the zone Minnesota tried that against Nebraska last year in Nebraska shot them out of the zone.

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[whoopdeedoo]

Going outside of the scope of my original post - a surprise to me with other teams would be those SDSU Jackrabbits!  Wouldn't want to run into them in the NCAA tournament.  Downed #16 DePaul last night by 9 points.  Same DePaul team that lost to ND by 5 and hung with UConn and Baylor for a while.

 

yep, they can be very dangerous. the one thing they haven't been able to recruit is a tall, athletic post. the two gals they have at the post hold their own pretty well, but, it is obvious they struggle with top teams that have tall, athletic posts/wings. in the DePaul game, jacks led by 16 at one point in the 1st quarter, i believe. DePaul whittled it down to 3, i think, in the second half (not used to talking quarters, yet) but, jacks had an answer and then put it away with an easy layup and free throws at the end.

[huskerchode]

I looked back at SDSUs schedule and they lost to ND by 11 (or thereabouts) and Maryland by 7.  DePaul shot over 50% from the field and still lost.

[whoopdeedoo]

yes, i watched all three of those games. at times, sdsu did a pretty good job of giving ND and Maryland's post fits, but, it was clear that's where the big advantage was (no pun intended). i was really surprised Maryland didn't take more advantage of the situation than they did. don't like to take anything away from the jacks, but, Maryland really did not look like the Maryland i have previously seen. DePaul didn't quite have the height advantage. it was DePaul's full court pressure that got them back into the game (plus jacks had one scoring drought in 3rd quarter). 

 

imo, it's just that real athletic post that would really help them get over the hump.