Shockers vs Green Bay - Sun, Dec 30th, 1:00 pm

[1972Shocker]

Yes I am getting ahead of myself as the Lady Shocks travel to SMU (8-2) this Saturday (Dec 22nd) but I came across the following article on the Green Bay women's program:

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8762340/women-college-basketball-kevin-borseth-back-happy-coaching-green-bay-phoenix

Another example of how the grass is not always greener in the bigger pasture.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

Yes I am getting ahead of myself as the Lady Shocks travel to SMU (8-2) this Saturday (Dec 22nd) but I came across the following article on the Green Bay women's program:

http://espn.go.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8762340/women-college-basketball-kevin-borseth-back-happy-coaching-green-bay-phoenix

Another example of how the grass is not always greener in the bigger pasture.

Could be the biggest test of the season so far. Nice article in today's Eagle. Nice to see Kelsey is playing well, but we need her in addition to our seniors and Alex performing at a high level and some nice role play from the bench. It would be nice to see a crowd in this Women/Men double header.

[1972Shocker]

[QUOTE=oldtimewomen's hoopcoach;353959]It would be nice to see a crowd in this Women/Men double header.[/QUOTE

Unfortunately, having the Men's game today will probaly serve more to suppress the turnout for the Women's game than it will serve t helpt it.

[1972Shocker]

Green Bay 63 - Shocks 42. That will happen when the opponent is bigger, stronger, deeper, smarter, better coached and with better ball skills. After trailing 8-0 at the 1st media timeout the Shocks battled back to tie the game at 15-15. Unfortunately, they let the game get away from them a little at the end of the half and trailed 21-28 at the half. The Shocks were never really in the game in the second half after falling behined 26-40 at the 1st media timeout. Green Bay shot 14-18 from the field in the half.

Jessica Diamond lead the Shocks with 15 points on 6-10 shooting. Not sure what the rest of the team shot but it must have been around 25%. Darice Fountaine did it 3 treys. Shocks did not help themselves at the FT line hitting 16-27.

As expected not much of a crowd, which maybe was a good thing.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

Green Bay 63 - Shocks 42. That will happen when the opponent is bigger, stronger, deeper, smarter, better coached and with better ball skills. After trailing 8-0 at the 1st media timeout the Shocks battled back to tie the game at 15-15. Unfortunately, they let the game get away from the a little at the end of the half and trailed 21-28 at the half. The Shocks were never really in the game in the second half as Green Bay shot 14-18 from the field in the half.

Jessica Diamond lead the Shocks with 15 points on 6-10 shooting. Not sure what the rest of the team shot but it must have been around 25%. Darice Fountaine did it 3 treys. Shocks did not help themselves at the FT line hitting 16-27.

As expected not much of a crowd, which maybe was a good thing.

e

Agreed. I don't feel like commenting on our being outplayed, and out coached. I listened on radio and Jody stated how they were out played and out coached. Basically saying Green Bay was very prepared means out coached. GB has a nice team.

[flyingMoose]

... smarter, better coached and with better ball skills.

I can only recall one steal and breakaway and that resulted in a contested layup missed by Michelle, ergo, the better ball skills. We have beaten this dead horse beyond recognition (sorry, ASPCA), but this game was another example of the woeful inadequacy of our offensive schemes. I am definitely not knowledgeable enough to know, but I wonder if the Phoenix schemes rarely put them in bad situations, ergo the smarter, better coached part of the comment.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

I can only recall one steal and breakaway and that resulted in a contested layup missed by Michelle, ergo, the better ball skills. We have beaten this dead horse beyond recognition (sorry, ASPCA), but this game was another example of the woeful inadequacy of our offensive schemes. I am definitely not knowledgeable enough to know, but I wonder if the Phoenix schemes rarely put them in bad situations, ergo the smarter, better coached part of the comment.

Bingo!

[flyingMoose]

I should have checked in on this site for mid-majors before the game today.

http://www.collegeinsider.com/womens-mid-major-top-25.php

Green Bay is 4th. Of the Valley schools, Creighton is 7th, Missouri State is 13th and Illinois State is RV (T30).

[wusphlash]

As expected not much of a crowd, which maybe was a good thing.

If you build an offense, they will come.

[flyingMoose]

Game article by Taylor Eldridge.

"Talent is not the issue with WSU. There was no discernible talent difference between the two teams on Sunday, yet one team played as a connected unit and another like a scrambled mess."

I disagree with that (talent difference) assessment, as I think Jessie is the only player we have that could break their rotation. But perhaps playing as a connected unit (I agree there) makes the whole much greater than the parts, and there really isn't that much difference on an individual basis.

Which leads us back to the players v coaching discussion, and not everyone on this forum agrees on that topic.

[1972Shocker]

http://www.kansas.com/2012/12/30/2619397/wis-green-bay-routs-shocker-women.html

Taylor Eldridge and Coach Adams describe the game in even more stark terms than I did. I did not realize until reading Taylor's write up that we only had 4 players make a basket from the field. Thus only 6 assists to 18 turnovers for the Shocks. Green Bay had 17 assists to 12 turnovers.

Jessica (6-10) and Darice (3-8) combined for 9 of the Shocker FG's on 50% shooting. The rest of the team was 2-19 from the field for 10.5%. :grumpy:

The only area the Shockers won was at the FT line where they were a less than stellar 16-27 (59.3%). Luckily, Green Bay was even worse going 8-17 (47.1%) from the line.

Hopefully this game will serve as a wake up call for the team in the same way the blow out loss at K-State did last season where the Shocks followed up on their worst performance of the year with a 10-game winning streak. However, a lot of things need to change for that to happen.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

http://www.kansas.com/2012/12/30/261...ker-women.html

Taylor Eldridge and Coach Adams describe the game in even more stark terms than I did. I did not realize until reading Taylor's write up that we only had 4 players make a basket from the field. Thus only 6 assists to 18 turnovers for the Shocks. Green Bay had 17 assists to 12 turnovers.

Jessica (6-10) and Darice (3-8) combined for 9 of the Shocker FG's on 50% shooting. The rest of the team was 2-19 from the field for 10.5%. :grumpy:

The only area the Shockers won was at the FT line where they were a less than stellar 16-27 (59.3%). Luckily, Green Bay was even worse going 8-17 (47.1%) from the line.

Hopefully this game will serve as a wake up call for the team in the same way the blow out loss at K-State did last season where the Shocks followed up on their worst performance of the year with a 10-game winning streak. However, a lot of things need to change for that to happen.

Yes, we need to get it together for the Valley. I don't know what has happened to future "All American" Alex or Jaz; they are non factors. Kelsey went back to her old role of defender/shot blocker, rebounder. Only two FG attempts, I think one attempt for Chynna. We need three double digit scorers. Jody just sitting on the bench expecting her team to fire themselves up, doesn't always work. My hope is this is a bump in the road and we'll be back on track when it counts.

[1972Shocker]

Alex is a very good athlete, especially for the Valley, who is a very good defensive player, leads the team in rebounding along with Michelle, is the 2nd best free throw shooter on the team (>5 attempts), leads the team in assists and has the only positive assist to turnover ratio on the team, is 2nd in blocked shots and leads in steals. However, she simply does not have the offensive game for All-Valley status, let alone AA status, at this point in time. Whether she will develop into a scorer during her time at WSU remains to be seen and is hard to predict. If she can then we will have a very good all-around player on our hands.

Not sure what the deal is with Jaz. Maybe the beatings she has taken over her career in battling with much bigger, stronger post players is taking its toll. We also don't seem to be getting the ball to Jaz in the middle of the paint where she can shoot her 8-10 foot jumper. Part of that may be on our offense and part on teams simply falling back and clogging the lane.

Kelsey is still a young player coming off two injury-plagued seasons who is still learning what she can do and how best to get it done at the D-1 level. I think she will be a little inconsistent this year.

Chynna seems to be one of Jody's favorites and in her post-game comments after the Green Bay game was attributing a lot of Chynna's lack of productivity on other players not doing their jobs, although no specifics were given on what she meant by that.

Jessica is our only player who is capable of creating her own shot. Unfortunately, the opponents know this also and they are making it more difficult on Jessica to do so. Green Bay in particular was focused on not letting Jesscia beat them, although she had a very solid game.

Darice and Alie are capable of hitting the perimeter shot, although Alie could get nothing to fall against Green Bay. Darice, Alie and Jessica should be the only players on our team taking three-pointers on a consistent basis.

Bugg is pretty much a defensive specialist and Michelle is also primarily a defender and rebounder. Both young ladies play hard, especially Michelle, but unfortunatly neither are blessed with any significant offensive skills.

Michaela seems to have some scoring ability and mentality and looks to be a very strong player, but unfortunately is a tweener at only 5-10 who may not have a natural position where she fits well. But she should be able to compete in the Valley.

Perhaps the lack of a true, experienced point guard is hurting, but we simply have not generally been a very good offensive team under Jody. We don't have to be great on offense the way we defend to be successful but we need to be better than we have been. We can win a lot of games scoring in the mid-60's. We are averaging 55.7 (51.7 if you throw out the LSU opener before teams figured out how to play us and the 81 point game against a bad ARPB team).

Opponents know if they can reduce us to playing half-court offense against a packed-in zone or sagging man-to-man that they have a very good shot at a win. The Shocks need to find another 10 to 13 points of offense per game if they can. Obviously, more transition baskets would be very helpful. Unfortunately, our oppoonents understand that and are focused on preventing that as well.

I'm not surprised at all with the 6-6 finish in the non-conference games although I didn't think we would have to comeback from 16 down with 14 to go against SMU to get there. On the other hand if we had only a moderate amount of additional scoring we could easily have gone 10-2, maybe even 11-1 to this point. It is really hard to get a read on where exactly this team is heading into MVC play other than we have to find more scoring. I find it very difficult to predict how they might do this year in the Valley.

We will find out soon enough with Missouri State up on Thursday at Koch Arena. I think the Ladies are capable and have the potential to compete for a Valley title. However, whether they can translate that potential into results is still very much up in the air.

[oldtimewomen's hoopcoach]

Alex is a very good athlete, especially for the Valley, who is a very good defensive player, leads the team in rebounding along with Michelle, is the 2nd best free throw shooter on the team (>5 attempts), leads the team in assists and has the only positive assist to turnover ratio on the team, is 2nd in blocked shots and leads in steals. However, she simply does not have the offensive game for All-Valley status, let alone AA status, at this point in time. Whether she will develop into a scorer during her time at WSU remains to be seen and is hard to predict. If she can he we will have a very good all-around player on our hands.

Not sure what the deal is with Jaz. Maybe the beatings she has taken over her career in battling with much bigger, stronger post players is taking its toll. We also don't seem to be getting the ball to Jaz in the middle of the paint where she can shoot her 8-10 foot jumper. Part of that may be on our offense and part on teams simply falling back and clogging the lane.

Kelsey is still a young player coming off two injury-plagued seasons who is still learning what she can do and how best to get it done at the D-1 level. I think she will be a little inconsistent this year.

Chynna seems to be one of Jody's favorites and in her post-game comments after the Green Bay game was attributing a lot of Chynna's lack of productivity on other players not doing their jobs, although no specifics were given on what she meant by that.

Jessica is our only player who is capable of creating her own shot. Unfortunately, the opponents know this also and they are making it more difficult on Jessica to do so. Green Bay in particular was focused on not letting Jesscia beat them, although she had a very solid game.

Darice and Alie are capable of hitting the perimeter shot, although Alie could get nothing to fall against Green Bay. Darice, Alie and Jessica should be the only players on our team taking three-pointers on a consistent basis.

Bugg is pretty much a defensive specialist and Michelle is also primarily a defender and rebounder. Both young ladies play hard, especially Michelle, but unfortunatly neither are blessed with any significant offensive skills.

Michaela seems to have some scoring ability and mentality and looks to be a very strong player, but unfortunately is a tweener at only 5-10 who may not have a natural position where she fits well. But she should be able to compete in the Valley.

Perhaps the lack of a true, experienced point guard is hurting, but we simply have not generally been a very good offensive team under Jody. We don't have to be great on offense the way we defend to be successful but we need to be better than we have been. We can win a lot of games scoring in the mid-60's. We are averaging 55.7 (51.7 if you throw out the LSU opener before teams figured out how to play us and the 81 point game against a bad ARPB team).

Opponents know if they can reduce us to playing half-court offense against a packed-in zone or sagging man-to-man that they have a very good shot at a win. The Shocks need to find another 10 to 13 points of offense per game if they can. Obviously, more transition baskets would be very helpful. Unfortunately, our oppoonents understand that and are focused on preventing that as well.

I'm not surprised at all with the 6-6 finish in the non-conference games although I didn't think we would have to comeback from 16 down with 14 to go against SMU to get there. On the other hand if we had only a moderate amount of additional scoring we could easily have gone 10-2, maybe even 11-1 to this point. It is really hard to get a read on where exactly this team is heading into MVC play other than we have to find more scoring. I find it very difficult to predict how they might do this year in the Valley.

We will find out soon enough with Missouri State up on Thursday at Koch Arena. I think the Ladies are capable and have the potential to compete for a Valley title. However, whether they can translate that potential into results is still very much up in the air.

Great summary. I agree with your thoughts on Alex; she just seems to be in a slump and gets benched easily while in her freshman year she could make many mistakes and not come out of the game. I hope we play with fire in the Valley.

[vancedave56]

If I remember correctly, the offense was a little more fluid last year. I sense a lack of direction or multiple directions this season. Last season the games were fun to watch, this season it seems be more painful than anything else. IMO.