Huskerfanzzz

I would agree with a lot of this, and I definitely don’t feel as negative about Amy Williams as a lot of people on here do, but you actually touched upon one of my biggest pet peeves with this program in your comment. We have two players on our team that have the speed, agility and athleticism to compete with the athletes we see consistently on other teams, and I feel like our coaches and this system have basically handcuffed those players to try and force them to play within a system that is very methodical. Darian White has the ability to break down any guard we have seen this season, and there are very few that can stay in front of her when she attacks, but our offense forces her to play a type of basketball that absolutely does not utilize her skills. Kendall Moriarity is fast, moves laterally much better than most players her size, can jump and can get to the hole, but again, this pass the ball around so Jazz can come off double screens and jack up a three offense is the priority. Obviously, we want to get the ball into Markowski, but she is doubled quite often, so we just work around the perimeter until somebody shoots a three. Early in the season, whenever White or Moriarty would shake things up a little bit, attack and Kiikk, or attack and shoot, they would come out of the game. To me, that says the message is stay within the confines of our offense if you want to stay on the floor. When jazz or Logan or Hake are hot, this works for us, but there have been several games where it didn’t work for us and we seemed to have no answer. It drives me crazy. She is obviously a good coach, and I don’t propose to know more than she does, but in all my years playing, coaching and watching basketball, I’ve never quite seen a high-level coach make these types of substitutions, especially in close. For example, neither Moriarty or White or in the game at the end Last night, and they are our two best defenders. White is the best ball handler, and she is really the only player who can break down her defender and get past them. Now that she seems to be healthy and strong again, I would think we would want the ball in her hands to drive and kick or lay it up. I see comments about “why weren’t the starters in Moore“, but Shelly and Natalie were struggling offensively last night, and sometimes you have to adjust. It just doesn’t seem like Amy Williams adjusts. She has it in her head what she wants to do, and often times she does not make necessary changes in my opinion.

I heard from a pretty reliable source that Potts is considering entering the portal. Nothing official at this point, and my guess would be that Williams would go above and beyond to keep her if she gets word of the rumor. That would definitely sting though.

I had to work yesterday, so I wasn’t able to watch the game until late last night. After reading this board, I expected to see Darian White have a horrible game. Comments on here saying she should stop shooting, her game has gone to hell, she shouldn’t be in the game, etc. I was prepared for Something ugly, but instead I was pleasantly surprised to see a Darian White with damn near full speed and agility after her knee injury. Yes, she did miss a couple gimmes, and she continues to struggle a bit from the line, but there is nobody on this team who can handle the ball like her, and defensively she gets stops. She went 2-6 and people on here were acting like she was out of control or something lol I guarantee you will be thankful to have White agains MSU today, and against that Ohio State press if we have to play them. We have two all Big 10 players, and a plethora of very confident 3 pt shooters, so White isn’t expected to carry this team offensively. She is the fastest guard, best ball handler and a strong defender, and as far as I could tell she did those jobs very well yesterday. We looked the best with her and Hake in the backcourt.

This seems pretty accurate to me. One could argue that some of the 2nd team and Honorable mention choices could be flipped, but overall I agree. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't see Jaz as a 2nd team player, simply because she doesn't play defense. At least not the type of defense that I value. I have always lived by the mindset that defensive stops are as important as offensive possessions, and I just don't see a lot of that from her. That is why I like Moriarity and White on the floor so much, because they play hard nosed, move your feet, body someone up defense. If you watch them against some of the better guards in the league, you will see that they do not get bullied the way Jaz and Hake do. Both White and Moriarity have the ability and the athleticism to apply pressure for 94 ft, and when they were doing that at the beginning of the season, we looked better. I don't understand why Amy Williams shifted her focus from defense back to the three point game, because clearly that didn't work last year, and we are having some of the same issues this year. WHY in the world do we need 4 outside shooters on the floor at the same time, none of which are very strong defensively? That just blows my mind. Almost as much as taking three point shots at the end of a 1 or 2 pt game.

I would have had Moriarity or White in to drive. They should always have one of them in, in my opinion, to hound the pg for 94 ft. there just isn’t anyone else on the team who can do it, and what other big 10 team thinks they need 5 Outside shooters in at once, while their attackers are both on the bench together?

I guess I just don’t understand the concept of a 3 when we need 2. Second time we’ve done that and it didn’t pan out. And our two players who can drive weren’t in. Doesn’t make sense.

Agreed. It’s been pretty bad.

Hake wasn’t fouled at the end either. Probably a make up call.

Unfortunately she does not have a strong drop step, and it has been a factor in multiple games.

I have no idea why Moriarity isn’t in the game right now. She has played good defense. She hit a big three in transition, and then she got pulled. Why? Hake dos not play good defense, and she never has, yet she is in at a crucial time. I will never understand the sub patterns on this team.

Their guards are so much quicker than ours. Moriarity and White were staying in front of them, but they haven’t played many minutes. Shelly is back to launching up threes early in the offensive possession, which is something we don’t need right now. Do what is working, which is feed Markowski.

I wish there wasn't such a long break in between games too. Hard to stay hungry and focused while just practicing all week. I guess the silver lining is that the "banged up" players have time to heal, and the lawsuit chatter and distractions have died down a bit, so that could play in our favor. I also think the recruiting focus should be on 4s and 5s. It seems like we have 1-3 pretty well covered for a while.

I couldn't agree more. We clearly play the best when we are playing together as a team. Last night we had great chemistry. I hope it continues.

I don’t think so because they have been open about her being injured and trying to work her way back in. And she’s wearing a knee brace. Probably not a secret.

I know one of the team trainers, and I found out that White is playing with a dislocated knee and partially torn meniscus. The injury happened in the last 20 seconds of the Rutgers game. What a shame, especially at this point in the season.