Despite a disappointing lose yesterday to Cal (58-75) UVA women's basketball had won 4 straight, including a 1st round win against Pitt. Yesterday's loss had all kinds of problems including losing Latimore early to being knocked to the floor and landed on by a Cal player across her head and upper body.
Without Latimore we had no inside presences at all. Noyan is completely ineffective for as tall (6'3") as she is, she offers little to no resistance from other teams scoring in the paint. Lauterbach also came in and at 6'7", she too was a little better on defense around the rim than Noyan is.
In contrast to the first meeting against Cal at Cville, (70-76), we actually should have won that game but similar down the stretch this year we fell apart with really unnecessary turnovers, cold on shooting open shots and lack of hustle on defense.
Yesterday was a train wreck on both defense or complete lack of, and really bad shots taken and turnovers AGAIN.
So, hoping we get into the NIT; we will see. But going forward toward next season where we get back just about everyone and hopefully several like Vaughn and Brown that should help also, listen up coach Mox cause there are several areas that need big time improvement.
1. Bring in a specialist to help Noyan, McGhee, Clark on their defensive footwork. NONE of them have lateral movement skills what so ever. Noyan and Lauterbach would drift out to the top of the Key to simply look like they were welded to the floor as their person they were guarding just blew passed them flat footed for easy layups all day. WHY?????? Why, when you know you are extremely slow with foot work are you not staying down in the paint? Noyan really has to working on boxing out techniques, both offense and defense. Half the time on Offense she allowed smaller guards to step in front and box her out under the rim all day. Several times Noyan drove me mad with standing on offense on fast break up between the 3 pt line and ft line waiting to guard a ball handler coming down to just get blown by for a wide open layup. Noyan has no business as slow as she is footwork and speed wise standing flat foot away from the rim. McGhee is running around or jogging around like she doesn't know who she is picking up and also gets burned badly on the first step to jog behind the ball handler and avoid running into people. She too is 6'2" and plays like she is 5'7" on defense. She walks away from the person she is guarding to Triple; did you hear me, Triple team a player to give her assignment wide open 3pt shots. Clark also looks spastic when it comes to defense with over running a player, falling down and has no patience Like McGhee to just stay with the person they are guarding to drift off and leave that person wide open to drive the lane for an easy layup or wide open 3pt shot. Clark with unnecessary turnovers with trying to dribble in crowds behind the back to bounce the ball off her own leg or foot for a turnover. You can see Mox is not happy but it continues every game, especially down the stretch that have cost us games.
2. Conditioning for Noyan and Hawa Doumbouya (6'7") in the off season and work on defense and offensive footwork. Sorry, and I do like Noyan, but honesty is the best medicine and the girl also has slow, slow, slow reflexes when it comes to holding on to the ball in traffic to have it taken away especially on offense. They have to get her to work on drills to improve her reflexes, footwork, and shooting drills around the basket to improve and use her height (6'3") to her advantage. Yesterday's shooting by her looked like in traffic she would panic and shoot shots fading away when she towered over several guards in the paint. Most of them were thrown up too hard and didn't even touch the rim coming off the backboard.
3. Hurd, is a freshman, but she too needs to work on defensive footwork and not throwing so many long across the court passes that either get picked off or throw over a teammates head out of bounds.
4. Hope Latimore does come back. They said she has another year of eligibility yesterday during the game.
5. Team needs to cut down on last QTR collapses with not scoring and just giving up on fast break defenses for easy layups down the stretch. Couldn't believe how many players were on offense up around the 3pt line to be beaten badly down court even by the opponents F, center for uncontested layups. There is no excuse to jog down and let half their team beat you back. Whether it is not being focused, lazy or due to conditioning, that needs to change next season.
I think if Mox can get these ladies in the right mental condition especially on defense and conditioned to not jog down, or do like Clark when she falls down to not sit so long pondering, but to get up quickly and get down court then we could possibly get an additional 4 game win better than this year at least. If everyone comes back including the two (brown, Vaughn) we could have a good squad. It henges on if Noyan, McGhee, Clark and Doumbouya improve on their footwork. Don't want to see the Brunelle affect where they get heavier and slower than the year before.
Without Latimore we had no inside presences at all. Noyan is completely ineffective for as tall (6'3") as she is, she offers little to no resistance from other teams scoring in the paint. Lauterbach also came in and at 6'7", she too was a little better on defense around the rim than Noyan is.
In contrast to the first meeting against Cal at Cville, (70-76), we actually should have won that game but similar down the stretch this year we fell apart with really unnecessary turnovers, cold on shooting open shots and lack of hustle on defense.
Yesterday was a train wreck on both defense or complete lack of, and really bad shots taken and turnovers AGAIN.
So, hoping we get into the NIT; we will see. But going forward toward next season where we get back just about everyone and hopefully several like Vaughn and Brown that should help also, listen up coach Mox cause there are several areas that need big time improvement.
1. Bring in a specialist to help Noyan, McGhee, Clark on their defensive footwork. NONE of them have lateral movement skills what so ever. Noyan and Lauterbach would drift out to the top of the Key to simply look like they were welded to the floor as their person they were guarding just blew passed them flat footed for easy layups all day. WHY?????? Why, when you know you are extremely slow with foot work are you not staying down in the paint? Noyan really has to working on boxing out techniques, both offense and defense. Half the time on Offense she allowed smaller guards to step in front and box her out under the rim all day. Several times Noyan drove me mad with standing on offense on fast break up between the 3 pt line and ft line waiting to guard a ball handler coming down to just get blown by for a wide open layup. Noyan has no business as slow as she is footwork and speed wise standing flat foot away from the rim. McGhee is running around or jogging around like she doesn't know who she is picking up and also gets burned badly on the first step to jog behind the ball handler and avoid running into people. She too is 6'2" and plays like she is 5'7" on defense. She walks away from the person she is guarding to Triple; did you hear me, Triple team a player to give her assignment wide open 3pt shots. Clark also looks spastic when it comes to defense with over running a player, falling down and has no patience Like McGhee to just stay with the person they are guarding to drift off and leave that person wide open to drive the lane for an easy layup or wide open 3pt shot. Clark with unnecessary turnovers with trying to dribble in crowds behind the back to bounce the ball off her own leg or foot for a turnover. You can see Mox is not happy but it continues every game, especially down the stretch that have cost us games.
2. Conditioning for Noyan and Hawa Doumbouya (6'7") in the off season and work on defense and offensive footwork. Sorry, and I do like Noyan, but honesty is the best medicine and the girl also has slow, slow, slow reflexes when it comes to holding on to the ball in traffic to have it taken away especially on offense. They have to get her to work on drills to improve her reflexes, footwork, and shooting drills around the basket to improve and use her height (6'3") to her advantage. Yesterday's shooting by her looked like in traffic she would panic and shoot shots fading away when she towered over several guards in the paint. Most of them were thrown up too hard and didn't even touch the rim coming off the backboard.
3. Hurd, is a freshman, but she too needs to work on defensive footwork and not throwing so many long across the court passes that either get picked off or throw over a teammates head out of bounds.
4. Hope Latimore does come back. They said she has another year of eligibility yesterday during the game.
5. Team needs to cut down on last QTR collapses with not scoring and just giving up on fast break defenses for easy layups down the stretch. Couldn't believe how many players were on offense up around the 3pt line to be beaten badly down court even by the opponents F, center for uncontested layups. There is no excuse to jog down and let half their team beat you back. Whether it is not being focused, lazy or due to conditioning, that needs to change next season.
I think if Mox can get these ladies in the right mental condition especially on defense and conditioned to not jog down, or do like Clark when she falls down to not sit so long pondering, but to get up quickly and get down court then we could possibly get an additional 4 game win better than this year at least. If everyone comes back including the two (brown, Vaughn) we could have a good squad. It henges on if Noyan, McGhee, Clark and Doumbouya improve on their footwork. Don't want to see the Brunelle affect where they get heavier and slower than the year before.
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