Shockers v Grambling State

[flyingMoose]

Shocks 62-44 Grambling State

Game story from the Eagle.

The online headline is "WSU women beat Grambling, irritate coach." - heavy emphasis in the article on the last part of that headline. Darice was told not to dress by the coaches. Alex and Molly did not play the last seventeen minutes of the game. At one point in the second half, there was a guard and four inside players on the floor. The coaches are clearly going to make their point one way or another.

Kelsey continues to play well (career highs of ten points and three blocks) and get minutes (30). Michaela Dapprich made her Shocker debut and played hard and well though the stat line may not indicate it - four point and three rebounds in seventeen minutes. She showed a good basketball IQ and certainly did not play like a freshman, never had that deer-in-the-headlights look about her. When she made a mistake, she just kept playing hard. HCJA was very complimentary in the postgame show.

The team now has a break until K-State comes to town next Tuesday.

[pinstripers]

According to Lutz, Jody made the girls do drills at halftime and also pushups. This on the court during halftime.

[1972Shocker]

It was on odd game (and pretty ugly for the most part with 53 total turnovers - 28 by GSU and 25 by the Shocks). I think Jody took advantage of this opponent and went into the game with the idea that she was going to use it to send some messages.

As @flyingMoose: stated Darice didn't suit up at all which Jody had hinted may happen in the pre-game story. During the 1st half Jody was substituting constantly and frequently. It was an absolute revolving door. Not sure if she was just replacing players everytime they made even a minor mistatke or if she was just auditioning players to see who would get to play in the 2nd half. In the 2nd half she pretty much sat Alex and Molly who maybe played a combined 3 minutes in the 2nd half and then there were very few substitutions as she pretty much went with 7 kids the 2nd half. Alex (5) and Molly (4) had combined for 9 turnovers in the 1st half.

As @flyingMoose: pointed out Michaela Dapprich made her debut and looked pretty good considering she was coming off of a 6-week injury. She will be able to contibute some minutes. I heard Alie Decker may be back in two weeks. I noticed Alie (hyperextended knee I think) was jogging on the team's victory lap which was a good sign.

I thought Chynna had one of her better games of the year. Kelsey continues to play well. Jessica had a solid game.

Shocks really struggled with GSU's zone defense in the 1st half. Once the Shocks built their lead back in the 2nd half GSU went man-to-man and the Shocks looked much more comfortable attacking that defense. You have to expect the Shocks will continue to see a lot of zone defenses this year.

Hopefully, whatever messages Jody was trying to comminicate have been received and understood.

[1972Shocker]

According to Lutz, Jody made the girls do drills at halftime and also pushups. This on the court during halftime.

I was in the Champions Room during the majority of halftime so I did not see that, although the team was running drills when I returned to my seat with a couple of minutes remaining in the halftime break.

[flyingMoose]

During the 1st half Jody was substituting constantly and frequently. It was an absolute revolving door. Not sure if she was just replacing players everytime they made even a minor mistake ...

It was certainly my sense that this was not the reason for all of the substitutions, but certainly for a very, very large part of them.

[1972Shocker]

It was certainly my sense that this was not the reason for all of the substitutions, but certainly for a very, very large part of them.

I wonder if the constant and frequent substituting actually may have contributed to the disjointed and poor play in the 1st half. IMHO, it would be a challenge for most of our players to get into the flow of the game with the constant revolving door substitution pattern.

Also, some players just don't function well on the court when they are constantly looking over their shoulder.

Hopefully, this wil be a one-off type of situation. The first half sure wasn't much fun to watch from a fan standpoint. I can't imagine this will become the norm. Hopefully, as Jody said in the Eagle article it will pay dividends down the road.

[Shox1979]

Jody was not on the court during the halftime push ups. Dana was showing the girls how to work the ball against the zone. They were throwing a skip pass, and then the back side post player was flashing to the ball side high post. On 2 occasions, Molly messed this up, and Dana had the girls do sets of 10 pushups.
I didn't understand the substitution pattern during the game either. The first half was miserable to watch. The crowd was dead. I'm sure the lack of quality play and the constant subbing helped lead to the lack of flow and atmostphere.
I thought Michaela Dapprich played well. I dont see why Nicole Wells sees the floor. I'd give all her minutes to Michaela. She works hard, boxes out and plays smart. Plus giving her minutes now and letting her grow makes more sense than giving the minutes to Nicole who seems less talented.
Grambling State was probably the worst team we will see this year. The ladies played down to their level first half but our talent took over in the 2nd, even though it wasn't a pretty win by any means. Way too many turnovers.
I have a hard time taking much from this game. This effort won't win games against the upper Valley teams. We have Jess, Alex (who seemed way out of sorts), Chyna, Michelle, Jazimen Gordan, and Kelsey jacobs who look like they can play this year. Unfortunately we dont' seem very deep, and if Jess is having an off night we may have trouble finding scoring options in the half court.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

Jody was not on the court during the halftime push ups. Dana was showing the girls how to work the ball against the zone. They were throwing a skip pass, and then the back side post player was flashing to the ball side high post. On 2 occasions, Molly messed this up, and Dana had the girls do sets of 10 pushups.
I didn't understand the substitution pattern during the game either. The first half was miserable to watch. The crowd was dead. I'm sure the lack of quality play and the constant subbing helped lead to the lack of flow and atmostphere.
I thought Michaela Dapprich played well. I dont see why Nicole Wells sees the floor. I'd give all her minutes to Michaela. She works hard, boxes out and plays smart. Plus giving her minutes now and letting her grow makes more sense than giving the minutes to Nicole who seems less talented.
Grambling State was probably the worst team we will see this year. The ladies played down to their level first half but our talent took over in the 2nd, even though it wasn't a pretty win by any means. Way too many turnovers.
I have a hard time taking much from this game. This effort won't win games against the upper Valley teams. We have Jess, Alex (who seemed way out of sorts), Chyna, Michelle, Jazimen Gordan, and Kelsey jacobs who look like they can play this year. Unfortunately we dont' seem very deep, and if Jess is having an off night we may have trouble finding scoring options in the half court.

I know there are times I critisize the offense or coaching tactics, but in this case, if Alex, who is touted to be the next All American isn't performing, I'm glad Jody puts her in her dog house like the rest of the team. I still, however don't like Alex being so pumped up in the press. I do believe Kelsey is that "X" factor someone has stated. She's playing with confidence and a contributor, but all players need to be playing like it is their last game of their career. I think proper focus and planning in practice could lead to a nice effort against K-State next week. Again, I have different thoughts on how to attack an extended 3-2 zone or match up, but I'm not the coach or the player who must execute. An offense merely gives players an opportunity to score and create, the player must execute and play to their strengths out of the offensive set. I'm only mildly disappointed and believe we'll be a factor in the MVC. Last year, I thought we should have won the MVC, but got tired at the end. The good news this year is the team has been given some rest. No practice yesterday, just optional weights in the morning. Go Shox!

[1972Shocker]

Moved to K-State game thread.

[1972Shocker]

Jody and her staff reprimanded by Eric Sexton:

http://www.kansas.com/2012/11/30/2586446/wichita-state-reprimands-womens.html

I support Eric on this one.

In Jody's defense she may not have even been aware of what happened. Shox1989 reported the following:

Jody was not on the court during the halftime push ups. Dana was showing the girls how to work the ball against the zone. They were throwing a skip pass, and then the back side post player was flashing to the ball side high post. On 2 occasions, Molly messed this up, and Dana had the girls do sets of 10 pushups.

I would think Coach Eikenberg would be on a very short leash with her history.

[Shox1979]

As I stated before, Jody was not present as this happened. Dana was the enforcer. Coach Crawford was present but he was trying to be positive the entire time. I really like what I've seen from him thus far this season. I'm glad to see Eric stepped up and said something. I have no problem with the girls doing pushups at practice when mistakes are made. But during halftime of a game I didn't like it. Plus I felt like it really singled Molly out for messing up, and you could tell the others weren't happy with her. Doesn't lend itself to team unity when everyone is doing pushups because of one girls error. I guess the rest of the team was united in their anger at Molly. What happens if after doing 20 pushups at halftime our girls come out short on their jumpers to begin the half and we lose a tight ball game? Granted I never coached at the same level as Jody or Dana but I can't imagine I'd have ever made any of my junior high teams do push ups at half. Seems like there is a time and a place for things, and this was not the time and place. I'm not trying to stir the pot, bash Jody, our team, our program or discourage recruits by posting this. I'm just expressing my opinion and felt the whole thing was really uncomfortable. And in this instance Eric agrees with me.

[1972Shocker]

I'm not trying to stir the pot, bash Jody, our team, our program or discourage recruits by posting this.

To quote former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: "Sunlight is the best disinfectant".

Besides this is no big secret. It is been pretty well covered in the Wichita Eagle.

[RoyalShock]

What Eikenberg did is the type of thing that can tip the scales out of WSU's favor with a recruit. Dana has a history and Adams would be foolish to ever allow her to be in a position to do something like that again. I was concerned when I heard Jody brought her in because sometimes people who used to be in charge can't conduct themselves appropriately when they aren't.

I get the feeling the program is close to getting over the hump, with the experienced team this year and what appears to be a very good recruiting class coming in. The three losses in Cancun coupled with this incident is putting the program in a precarious position. Coach Adams needs to be very, very careful the rest of the season.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

What Eikenberg did is the type of thing that can tip the scales out of WSU's favor with a recruit. Dana has a history and Adams would be foolish to ever allow her to be in a position to do something like that again. I was concerned when I heard Jody brought her in because sometimes people who used to be in charge can't conduct themselves appropriately when they aren't.

I get the feeling the program is close to getting over the hump, with the experienced team this year and what appears to be a very good recruiting class coming in. The three losses in Cancun coupled with this incident is putting the program in a precarious position. Coach Adams needs to be very, very careful the rest of the season.

Dana also too Alex to the baseline during halftime and ripped her to shreds as her teammates patted Alex on the back. I pretty overt display of anger that the first few rows could hear. More a ripping that would happen in practice or team room during half, not for public consumption.

[1972Shocker]

It wasn't like Jody didn't know what she was getting when she hired Dana. She apparently believed she needed a bad-ass enforcer on her staff. Jody could then maybe play more of the good cop to Dana's bad cop. Sounds a little bit similar to the roles played at SIU except the coaching positions were reversed at SIU.

There is no doubt Alex and Molly played very poorly in the 1st half of the GSU game. However, some players simply don't respond well to a mega-confrontational, in-your-face motivational and coaching style. Maybe that's in play here and maybe it isn't but the quality of play for both Alex and Molly seems to be on the decline. Of course, some may say if they can't take the heat than they should get out of the kitchen. However, there is really no reason these "motivational" sessions need to take place in a public setting.

I don't know how many saw this Anonymous NCAA Player Survey that @RoyalShock posted on another thread but check out the question "Which Other Coach Would You Never Play For?".

Notice any commonality of style with those responses.