WBB: Game #14 @ Maryland

a year or two ago, i remember one of the wbb announcers making a comment about coach frese---it may have been stephanie white. anyway, she said she was just talking to coach frese one day and asked her what was the first thing she looked for in a recruit. might be paraphrasing here, but, coach frese stated, "scorers. they got to be able to score". she probably should have said something more along the lines of "athletic scorers". i've always thought of maryland being one of the more "athletic" teams---at least since frese has been there. not a great defensive team, but, still pretty darn good. 

 

some winnable games ahead. will be interesting to see how the team responds. 

I've posted lots of times about our shooting percentages, and it has been one on my pet peeves for a couple of years.  We just don't shoot well consistently.  When we shoot in the 30% range, it's tough to compete. We were 26% in the first half yesterday...don't know where we ended up overall.  Too many forced shots inside, that had no chance.

Lot's of other issues, but win a few coming up, and got to believe we'll start to get our act together. Has been a tough road for a while with the injuries, and freshman woes...tough competition....etc etc. Connie has her work cut out for her.....need some good vibes and a couple of wins.

 

The future is not bright for NU Women's BB. Maryland is bringing in a top rated class and we were clearly outclassed at every position tonight. Some observations: (1) Maryland's quickness overwhelmed our weak defense (2) Jess S. has a lot of work to do to compete with elite competition (3) That is not the Rachel Theriot of old playing (4) I liked Maddie Simon, showed some ability and her size is nice to have (5) Blackburn needs to get back in the starting lineup (6) Washington might have some potential.

Connie may have to evaluate recruiting if we are to compete at a high level in the B1G...we have to get more athletic and more quickness.

Tonight's game should make fans appreciate how tough Cady, Sample and company were the past few years.

Connie's teams have nearly always been tough minded in the past. She's refused to put players in games until they proved they could defend. I realize we don't have many good defenders now, but she needs to keep the standards high. As for recruiting, we need to get more pure shooters.

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They have one of the best shooters in the nation in the next class, and found her in part because she played for some mediocre team outside of Wichita. She's better than people appreciate. Again - it's a good recruiting class.  

a year or two ago, i remember one of the wbb announcers making a comment about coach frese---it may have been stephanie white. anyway, she said she was just talking to coach frese one day and asked her what was the first thing she looked for in a recruit. might be paraphrasing here, but, coach frese stated, "scorers. they got to be able to score". she probably should have said something more along the lines of "athletic scorers". i've always thought of maryland being one of the more "athletic" teams---at least since frese has been there. not a great defensive team, but, still pretty darn good.

some winnable games ahead. will be interesting to see how the team responds.

I've posted lots of times about our shooting percentages, and it has been one on my pet peeves for a couple of years. We just don't shoot well consistently. When we shoot in the 30% range, it's tough to compete. We were 26% in the first half yesterday...don't know where we ended up overall. Too many forced shots inside, that had no chance.

Lot's of other issues, but win a few coming up, and got to believe we'll start to get our act together. Has been a tough road for a while with the injuries, and freshman woes...tough competition....etc etc. Connie has her work cut out for her.....need some good vibes and a couple of wins.

That may be great but our lack of offensive rebounds and high amount of turn overs against good opponents really limit our number of shots. Couple that with less then a stellar amount of free throw attempts and percentage made you better be playing great defense to be in the game.

a year or two ago, i remember one of the wbb announcers making a comment about coach frese---it may have been stephanie white. anyway, she said she was just talking to coach frese one day and asked her what was the first thing she looked for in a recruit. might be paraphrasing here, but, coach frese stated, "scorers. they got to be able to score". she probably should have said something more along the lines of "athletic scorers". i've always thought of maryland being one of the more "athletic" teams---at least since frese has been there. not a great defensive team, but, still pretty darn good. 

 

some winnable games ahead. will be interesting to see how the team responds. 

Coaches philosophy:

Depends on their Bball concept...defense wins games...or out score your opponent.  The team with the most points wins. 

I like the Frese (sp) concept. You can coach defense to a good shooter....but it's way more difficult to teach a good defender to score.  

Good shooters are usually harder to find than good defenders. Top teams have good shooters. UConn, Notre Dame, Maryland, etc etc

Not as simple as all that ...but which road do you want to take as a coach?

 

a year or two ago, i remember one of the wbb announcers making a comment about coach frese---it may have been stephanie white. anyway, she said she was just talking to coach frese one day and asked her what was the first thing she looked for in a recruit. might be paraphrasing here, but, coach frese stated, "scorers. they got to be able to score". she probably should have said something more along the lines of "athletic scorers". i've always thought of maryland being one of the more "athletic" teams---at least since frese has been there. not a great defensive team, but, still pretty darn good. 

 

some winnable games ahead. will be interesting to see how the team responds. 

 

Coaches philosophy:

 

Depends on their Bball concept...defense wins games...or out score your opponent.  The team with the most points wins. 

 

I like the Frese (sp) concept. You can coach defense to a good shooter....but it's way more difficult to teach a good defender to score.  

 

Good shooters are usually harder to find than good defenders. Top teams have good shooters. UConn, Notre Dame, Maryland, etc etc

 

Not as simple as all that ...but which road do you want to take as a coach?

 

BINGO!

the biggest thing that sets those teams apart from most, is, they have shooters up and down the bench. usually loaded with them. give me some scorers and i will teach them defense.

I just don't like our body language as a team right now. If we can hit shots that will make a big difference but I thought there was a lot of selfish play last night. No one wanted to make an extra pass and we didn't rebound anything.

Is it time to shake up the lineup?

I just don't like our body language as a team right now. If we can hit shots that will make a big difference but I thought there was a lot of selfish play last night. No one wanted to make an extra pass and we didn't rebound anything.

Is it time to shake up the lineup?

I have also felt like there has been some selfish play. Several times in the past few games we have had someone open on the arc and instead of passing to them, we try to drive or toss up a somewhat wild shot. I've seen Maddie, Kyndal, Emily, and Natalie open. Jazz was open once or twice last night, too. Thought Jazz and Maddie played well. It was good to see. Just seemed like they were getting after it a bit better last night.

I was at that game Thursday night.  It was difficult to watch.  I thought Maddie played well.  

If Nebraska's answer to its problems is great shooters...  43 isn't a part of your team.  Unfortunately, she's not a "great shooter." Maybe she will become one.  She is not a horrible shooter, but certainly not great.  

Her knee is giving her problems.  It hurts, but she's gutting it out as much as she can.  Dad speaking here...  You won't find a tougher kid on that squad.  You'll find more skilled kids.  

Which is more important... being able to play offense or defense???  It has parallels to the chicken or the egg argument.  It seems you need both.  Maryland's Malina Howard was 7-7 from the field.  At least twice she was wide open around the foul line and hit the shot.  I'm sitting there saying to myself... How is she that open?  How can the defense allow her to be that open?  Maryland looked like they were channeling Steph Curry.  

Shooting is a function of skill.  Playing good defense takes heart, hustle, a willingness to mix it up.  It's hard to teach "heart." I'm betting Gino does it by telling his great shooters... I have 3 others who can shoot as well as you... You either play tough defense or you'll watch the game from a chair on the side.  Bill Self does that.  When you have UConn/KU Men's depth you have that option.  

Whatever it is the Huskers need to figure it out quickly.  

I was at that game Thursday night.  It was difficult to watch.  I thought Maddie played well.  

 

If Nebraska's answer to its problems is great shooters...  43 isn't a part of your team.  Unfortunately, she's not a "great shooter." Maybe she will become one.  She is not a horrible shooter, but certainly not great.  

 

Her knee is giving her problems.  It hurts, but she's gutting it out as much as she can.  Dad speaking here...  You won't find a tougher kid on that squad.  You'll find more skilled kids.  

 

Which is more important... being able to play offense or defense???  It has parallels to the chicken or the egg argument.  It seems you need both.  Maryland's Malina Howard was 7-7 from the field.  At least twice she was wide open around the foul line and hit the shot.  I'm sitting there saying to myself... How is she that open?  How can the defense allow her to be that open?  Maryland looked like they were channeling Steph Curry.  

 

Shooting is a function of skill.  Playing good defense takes heart, hustle, a willingness to mix it up.  It's hard to teach "heart." I'm betting Gino does it by telling his great shooters... I have 3 others who can shoot as well as you... You either play tough defense or you'll watch the game from a chair on the side.  Bill Self does that.  When you have UConn/KU Men's depth you have that option.  

 

Whatever it is the Huskers need to figure it out quickly.  

Defense in my book.

RB43 makes the baskets she is supposed to make. I don't think I've seen her miss a bunny yet (maybe she has, but I can't think of one off the top of my head). She doesn't hesitate to shoot. I remember Sample would sometimes aggravate me by not taking a wide open shot in the lane, or completely missing a bunny, but her defense was stellar. I think RB43 is solid on offense and doesn't need to be a 15 point per game player. Her defense may not be as good as Sample, not yet anyway, but as she continues to develop her defense will be even stronger. Her motor is unmatched on the court right now.

I still think it would help if Jess would take a few 10 foot shots. She's perfectly capable of knocking down some 3s as well. Due to the conditioning she missed out on this year, I suspect she will take a big leap between freshman and sophomore years for the Huskers.

RB43 makes the baskets she is supposed to make. I don't think I've seen her miss a bunny yet (maybe she has, but I can't think of one off the top of my head). She doesn't hesitate to shoot. I remember Sample would sometimes aggravate me by not taking a wide open shot in the lane, or completely missing a bunny, but her defense was stellar. I think RB43 is solid on offense and doesn't need to be a 15 point per game player. Her defense may not be as good as Sample, not yet anyway, but as she continues to develop her defense will be even stronger. Her motor is unmatched on the court right now.

RB43 and Sample have similar numbers pts per game avg wise. And agree about Sample not taking the open shot.

RB43 makes the baskets she is supposed to make. I don't think I've seen her miss a bunny yet (maybe she has, but I can't think of one off the top of my head). She doesn't hesitate to shoot. I remember Sample would sometimes aggravate me by not taking a wide open shot in the lane, or completely missing a bunny, but her defense was stellar. I think RB43 is solid on offense and doesn't need to be a 15 point per game player. Her defense may not be as good as Sample, not yet anyway, but as she continues to develop her defense will be even stronger. Her motor is unmatched on the court right now.

RB43 shoots for good percentage, but as mentioned doesn't shoot a lot. But she doesn't draw quite the attention, and get hammered like Jess, does when Jess shoots. RB43 should shoot more...she will as time goes on.

Yea, Sample used to make me a little nuts when she wouldn't shoot wide open shoots.

Like everyone here, I fully expect all the freshman to be substantially improved next year....largely because most are playing a lot this year. Obviously sitting the bench doesn't make you much better later.

According to NU stats RB43 is shooting 55% which is good, Jess is at 53%, Anya about 51%. We don't have anyone in the 60+ range.

Many of these are shooting long shots, not just around the boards.

Blackburn, Rachel... 29 52   .558 

Shepard, Jessica.... 102 191 .534

Kalenta, Anya....... 30 59   .508 

Washington, Darrien. 5 10    .500 

Havers, Allie....... 46 96   .479

Theriot, Rachel..... 67 149  .450 

Romeo, Natalie...... 73 168  .435 

Simon, Maddie....... 17 42   .405 

Wood, Emily......... 5 13 .   385 

Clark, Kyndal....... 24 76   .316 

Cincore, Jasmine.... 13 50   .260 

There is no way we want Rachel off this team whether she can shoot or not. She is by far my favorite player on the team. She does all the little things for us that we need. We are just hitting a rough spot right now. They are very hard to watch right now but I think it's because we don't have enough depth.

I think by the time they are seniors we are going to look at RB43, Shepard, and Simon and say they are the best recruiting class so far.

+1!

Plus being followed by the prospective 2017 class of: Kathleen Doyle; Mi'Cole Cayton;  Nicea Eliely; Hannah Whitish; and Grace Mitchell! 

I think by the time they are seniors we are going to look at RB43, Shepard, and Simon and say they are the best recruiting class so far.

Yes.