Markowski Earns Third Freshman Award

https://huskers.com/news/2022/1/10/womens-basketball-markowski-earns-third-freshman-award.aspx

Quote

Nebraska's Alexis Markowski was named the Big Ten Women's Basketball Freshman of the Week for the third time this season when the conference announced its weekly award winners on Monday, Jan. 10.

Markowski, a 6-3 forward/center out of Lincoln Pius X High School, averaged 17.0 points and 7.5 rebounds last week in home games against No. 8 Michigan (Jan. 4) and No. 22 Iowa (Jan. 9).

no real surprise.........after the game against michigan, i thought she would be at least a freshman "co" player of the week. need to keep her improving. 

want to see her be aggressive, but, watch the "dumb" fouls...she needs to be on the floor.

it's going to be interesting to see how the refs call the markowski/holmes matchup. 

I'm sure I'm not the first person to note how young in addition to talented this roster is.

18 hours ago, whoopdeedoo said:

no real surprise.........after the game against michigan, i thought she would be at least a freshman "co" player of the week. need to keep her improving. 

want to see her be aggressive, but, watch the "dumb" fouls...she needs to be on the floor.

it's going to be interesting to see how the refs call the markowski/holmes matchup. 

We should remember she operates in the war zone.  It's literally a physical battle in the paint every time the balls in play.  Sure she will learn to be more careful.

Alexis plays not only just to rebound, but to score on offense.  She draws fouls to...she's shot pretty close to more free-throws than anyone else. 

Others like Scoggins just don't enter that arena.  Just the nature of positions on the floor. 

All I can say is she's way more effective, so soon, than I anticipated she could be. Her personal inner drive and fortitude has a heck of a lot to do with her success.

And she was a late addition.  I think she was committed to one of the South Dakota schools for quite awhile.  Not sure why we were late to offer.  Sure glad we did, and she said YES.

She needs to continue to start and then it's up to coach to decide between Issy  and Bella (once healthy) as to who is the other starter.  As far as dumb fouls a lot of that depends on the refs.  It must be really disheartening the variation of what refs call game to game.  She will learn to get an early read on refs in a game and hopefully adjust accordingly.  That being said dumb fouls are not just committed by freshman.  Take Haiby's end of quarter foul on Clark against Iowa. Clark will most often get the call due to who she is.  That cost us 3 points and some momentum.  

4 hours ago, 12dozen said:

And she was a late addition.  I think she was committed to one of the South Dakota schools for quite awhile.  Not sure why we were late to offer.  Sure glad we did, and she said YES.

On an interview with Dave Revsine on BTN Amy Williams was asked about recruiting Alexis.  She said that after Alexis had a season ending injury as a Freshman at Lincoln Pius our staff was monitoring her rehab during her sophomore year and following her progress when South Dakota State swept in hard and offered and she committed as a sophomore.  Then she had an outstanding junior year and during that time many schools became interested. Covid was strong at that time and Alexis decided to open up her commitment.  Nebraska then offered her and she committed to us and ultimately signed having a great senior season as well.  I have never seen such determination when on the court as all one has to do is look at her eyes after a big play to witness it.

26 minutes ago, HUD said:

She needs to continue to start and then it's up to coach to decide between Issy  and Bella (once healthy) as to who is the other starter.  As far as dumb fouls a lot of that depends on the refs.  It must be really disheartening the variation of what refs call game to game.  She will learn to get an early read on refs in a game and hopefully adjust accordingly.  That being said dumb fouls are not just committed by freshman.  Take Haiby's end of quarter foul on Clark against Iowa. Clark will most often get the call due to who she is.  That cost us 3 points and some momentum.  

yep.....i agree you can't control what the refs are gonna call. however, there will always be some fouls a player has to learn to pull away from. i know, it's not easy in heated battle. 

just curious, what type of injury did she have?

We have some nice freshmen.  I would keep starting Bourne as she is due to breakout with a good game. 

1 hour ago, whoopdeedoo said:

yep.....i agree you can't control what the refs are gonna call. however, there will always be some fouls a player has to learn to pull away from. i know, it's not easy in heated battle. 

just curious, what type of injury did she have?

 

The following is from the "Connect and Compete" article 0n Alexis written by Jeff Griesh last July:

Growth and improvement were cornerstones of Markowski's high school career. As a freshman, Markowski missed the entire basketball season with a foot injury. Being forced to sit out the entire 2017-18 season had a major impact on Markowski's approach to the game.

"I learned a lot during my injury. I realized that every day on the court is a gift and can be taken at any time," Markowski said. "I also realized how much love I have for the game of basketball. Before my injury I took the game for granted."

Alexis was just named National Freshman of the week.

1 hour ago, HUD said:

Alexis was just named National Freshman of the week.

https://www.cornnation.com/2022/1/11/22878793/alexis-markowski-named-national-freshman-of-the-week-nebraska-womens-basketball

https://journalstar.com/sports/huskers/womens-basketball/fresh-off-conference-honors-alexis-markowski-earns-national-attention-for-productive-week/article_0cdd464c-3350-5cfa-8d76-f2f4d483bb1b.html

Anyone remember the last freshman from Nebraska that won multiple player of the week awards.  I refuse to mention her name.

i 100% agree that AM should get as many minutes as her endurance and foul status permit.  But since that number of minutes is going to be limited, I don't see that it makes any difference whether or not she is a starter. She can play as many minutes off the bench as she can as a starter. I trust that coach knows best which game situations best suit her considerable talents. 

i 100% agree that AM should get as many minutes as her endurance and foul status permit.  But since that number of minutes is going to be limited, I don't see that it makes any difference whether or not she is a starter. She can play as many minutes off the bench as she can as a starter. I trust that coach knows best which game situations best suit her considerable talents. 

yes, I had the same opinion about LB in the 19-20 season.  That season's stats show that LB, despite not starting, had the 4th most total minutes played of all players - trailing only Whitish (playing the point), Eilely (often defending opponent's best scorer), and Cain (can't sit a six foot five shot blocker).  I think that LB played as many minutes off the bench as she would have as a starter.  I know that there is always an element of "prestige" in being a starter, but I think what really matters is not whether a player starts but how many minutes she plays.  

An important factor that is unknown to those of us looking in from the outside is how not being a starter affects the morale/attitude/self confidence of the player. We can only watch for player reactions to try to get clues.  From having done that, I "sense"(or guess) that AM is more content coming off the bench than was LB. But again, I am going to go to a "coach knows best" approach. 

What has plagued Williams' teams quite a bit is a slow start. I don't anyone here on this forum, or her or the players like coming out of the gate down 8-10 points early on. It takes so much more energy to get back into games when down like that. I would like Markowski to start as she gives us a better chance to have a good start. 

I can't remember which games got off to good or poor starts in earlier years, but since this topic is about Markowski this year, i just checked 21-22  game histories.  Looks to me as tho the only time an early deficit of 8-10 points happened this year was in the Iowa game in which AM WAS in the starting lineup.  

4 hours ago, Tom Jones said:

I can't remember which games got off to good or poor starts in earlier years, but since this topic is about Markowski this year, i just checked 21-22  game histories.  Looks to me as tho the only time an early deficit of 8-10 points happened this year was in the Iowa game in which AM WAS in the starting lineup.  

Can't let that one go. Really has no bearing on anything.

Iowa's early lead has nothing to do with AM starting the game. Iowa shot about 60%+ in the first half from the field. It certainly wasn't all in the paint.  Iowa had 6 or 7 threes in the first half. AK (a 5 position) isn't a perimeter defender. 

And ....she started the Mich. game where we lead the whole game I believe, and as we all know beat the no. 8 nationally rated team when she started the game. And was...of course, named .... freshman all world.  :)  

Regardless of who starts or doesn't it will be all hands on deck as we visit Indiana. 

10 hours ago, redsteve said:

 

Can't let that one go. Really has no bearing on anything.

 

Iowa's early lead has nothing to do with AM starting the game. Iowa shot about 60%+ in the first half from the field. It certainly wasn't all in the paint.  Iowa had 6 or 7 threes in the first half. AK (a 5 position) isn't a perimeter defender. 

 

And ....she started the Mich. game where we lead the whole game I believe, and as we all know beat the no. 8 nationally rated team when she started the game. And was...of course, named .... freshman all world.  :)  

 

 

Right.  My point was that minutes played and the circumstances under which they are played outweighs whether or not the player was a starter. Another commenter seemed to imply that if our best players (in this case AM) started, we would not pay the price of getting behind by 8 to 10 points  early in the game.  Of which this team has very little history. My pointing out that the only game in which this happened was one in which AM started ... I intended that only as irony and CERTAINLY not as being critical of AM. As Red points out she had nothing to do with UI's red hot shooting - especially all those threes. In a case like that, unless a team is sitting a world class defender, it doesn't make much difference which of its best 7 or 8 players were starters. I want to see AM get all the minutes that her endurance and the beating she is going to take permit. 

LB is team oriented at Michigan where she knows she will get 35+ minutes. She was pretty much out for hers here when she was getting 25 minutes.  Regarding AM, same point I have made previously,......they are crazy to try and rotate 5 players for the 2 front court spots (4 with Bella hurt). It hurts them all......Coley should be a wing. 

2 hours ago, huskerfrank said:

Coley should be a wing.

I have believed that for a long time.  She get's knocked around quite a bit inside and besides we have two more posts for next year without losing any.

2 new 6'5''+ posts coming in next year.