Oklahoma Flyers Exhibition

[1972Shocker]

Coach Albright on Sports Daily this morning (I did not hear the entire spot) gave her starting lineup for the Exhibition game.

Jacie Hoyt will be the point guard. May have to grow up with her a little bit, but this is her natural position.

Kyrie Kinder will start at the 2. Said Kyrie has had a great pre-season and could be the X-Factor this year.

Daria Frazier will start at the 3.

Kiki Stephens at the 4. Kiki is back is much improved from last year and she should be more mobile and more athletic than last year.

March Sudbeck will start at the 5 spot.

Jane, said she has given Mike Gillespie more responsibility than she has ever given an assistant and said that he brings a wealth of knowledge to the program and is a very hard worker. Sounds like Mike may be responsible for trying to shore up the defensive side of the game.

:goshocks:

[RoyalShock]

This may be way too premature, but could Gillespie be a HC candidate if/when Jane is let go?

[Snapshot9]

I don't know. With his background, I was a little surprised he took the job, and admittedly I was curious as to the amount of impact he would have on the program and team.

Turning up the defensive effort would go a long way at this point in time.

[1972Shocker]

I don't know. With his background, I was a little surprised he took the job, and admittedly I was curious as to the amount of impact he would have on the program and team.

Turning up the defensive effort would go a long way at this point in time.

Jane said he has brought a lot of good things to the team this year and is stronger is some areas and is more knowledgable about some things than Jane is. But he doesn't go around trying to prove that he is better than Jane or is our to get her job. He doesn't try to show any of the Coaches up and is a good team player.

[SubGod22]

My guess is if things don't go well this season that he's a top candidate for the job.

That's not a bad starting lineup. A little surprising since Taylor played fairly well last year......I think anyway. But I'm a homer and love Kyrie and think she could be an x-factor if given the opportunity. In years past she'd play really well and then the next few games only play a handful of minutes.

I like what I've seen from Hoyt for the most part. There's a lot of potential there. That's not a bad 1, 2 combo outside.

Marcy has some game. How effective can she be over the long haul? Time will tell. But she's a talented player with a nice shot.

I look forward to making it out to some games this year. I feel I haven't been to enough the past few years and plan on making up for that.

[1972Shocker]

One thing Marcy can do, and probably should do, is draw the opponents inside defenders (when they are playing man-to-man) away from the basket because she is a pretty good outside shooter. Something Annie Wells could not do. Hopefully, this will open up the inside a little for Kiki and Daria to operate a little more freely.

Of course, for this to work Marcy and the guards need to shoot it well from the outside, or the defenses will simply collapse on us like they did on occassion last year.

[SubGod22]

I remember working the womens team camp a couple of years ago and during some down time Marcy was raining 3's. Now, I don't expect to see her shoot a lot of those, but she does have range and a nice shot.

Also, Kyrie is the type of player that likes to put the ball on the floor and penetrate. Drawing the center out could help here and others attack the basket some as well.

[1972Shocker]

Kyrie is a pretty good pentrator and she has a nice pull up jumper if she can get a little space to work.

[1972Shocker]

When I was at the ticket office this afternoon buying VB tix I noticed a couple of tally sheets on the back of the door on the North side of the office.

They were tracking several things including Women's Basketball season ticket renewals and new sales of Women's BB season tickets.

Under renewals I eyeballed somewhere in the neighborhood of 100.

Under new sales there was nary a mark. Zero, zip, nada, none, el blanko.

Obviously Jane's sales pitches so far have not been terribly effective.

Let's hope the play of the team gives Shocker fans cause to loosen the purse strings and show up for a few games.

I guess that means I personally account for 2% of the season ticket base for Women's Basketball. That is not good, although I can't say it is a big surprise either.

No doubt about it. This is a make or break year for Coach Albright.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[SubGod22]

I know some people that won't go to another game until Jane is gone. They haven't renewed their tix in a couple of years and have let to athletic department know their feelings.

[1972Shocker]

I know some people that won't go to another game until Jane is gone. They haven't renewed their tix in a couple of years and have let to athletic department know their feelings.

Looks like your friends have plenty of company. For WSU, this probably hurts the Men's BB program as much or more then the Women's program since the Men's program is the primary funding source for WSU athletics. We all know where any financial shortfall really hits. Just more reason to get the Women's program on track.

[SubGod22]

I completely agree.

[Wushock41]

Shockervision working good tonight......not....


:(

[The Mad Hatter]

Shocks win 93-54, and led 53-18 at the half.

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=1293207

Very nice performance by the Shocks. Several nice things I saw.

1. As I expected, the offense runs so much better under Jaycie, and Kyrie showed why she earned the starting spot.

2. Jane said that this was a team that worked hard over the off-season and it shows. This looks like a group of girls that spent a lot of time in the gym shooting jump shots, because we looked like we had a whole lot of people that could nail the mid-range jumper as well as the 3.

3. Gillespie's defense looks much better than what we have had. I really liked that he was calling out defensive signals to the girls and was active in coaching them and making adjustments.

4. I liked the new offense. It opened lanes for drives to the basket, but what I liked most where the baseline screens to get our shooters open. It reminded me a of what Detroit does with Rip Hamilton.

5. I thought the freshmen acquitted themselves quite nicely. I was especially happy about the play of Samantha Smith. She is rough on offense, but she can in against tall girls who are post college age and got several blocks and looked like a defensive stopper. She showed really nice hands and is further along in her development than I was expecting.

6. I thought that Kiki and Daria did a good job rebounding against a tall Flyers team, which is good since we need people to step up in that regard in Annie's absence.

Of course all this was against a team playing their first game, while our girls had the Canada trip, so this doesn't prove everything, but it was the kind of performance a good team ought to have in that situation. I have said that we were a better team last year than many gave us credit for, but that turnovers and poor defense overshadowed what we did well. I think this performance proves my point. If we can continue to play good defense and protect the ball against better competition (which the jury is still out on, but I like our chances with Jaycie at the point), then we have the scorers to be a good team.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks cruise to a 93-54 win after leading 53-18 at the half.

All-in-all I think I have to give the Shocks and B+ or perhaps even an A-.

It would be higher but I'm not really sure how to evaluate the level of competition they received tonight from the Flyers. Quite frankly, I was not too impressed with them. Not sure how they have or will fare against other teams.

Nevertheless, I thought the Shocks looked quite a bit better than last year and certainly did not look like a 9th place team tonight.

Kyrie Kinder was outstanding tonight and if she plays that way all year may very well be the X-Factor.

Kiki Stephens does appear to be move much better than last year.

However, maybe the most impactful change from a year ago was the performance of Jacie Hoyt at point guard. Jacie had 5 assists to 2 turnovers. Again I'm not sure the defensive pressure is up to what the will see during the regular season but Jacie looked good. By comparison, Whitney Rice had 3 assists and 4 turnoves. Whitney still tends to force things at times.

The Shocks shot the ball very well including 10 - 20 on their treys.

A good first step I thought.

:good: