Before I write about the game let me put out a couple of disclaimers.
1. I have no idea what is happening behind the scenes with this team. Has Zimm been sick? Are other players ill? What else is happening? I don’t know.
2. I do remember these are college women playing a game. Now that it is out there, know as usual that I won’t pull any punches.
3. I rarely if ever criticize Coach F.’s coaching.
From the get-go this game was designed around Anna Prins. Every offensive possession was designed to get the ball inside to her. One big problem. She couldn’t find the inside of the basket if she had a seeing eye dog. That may seem harsh, but in the past couple of games she has had some real downers. Against Nebraska she was 1-10 from the field. Today wasn’t much better as she connected on 2-10. More later. Game plan scrapped.
This was a back and forth affair for these teams. It was pretty much even throughout the first half, but to watch the sisters play you would have felt the pain we felt. The offense was completely out of sync. The name of the game was turnovers and many of those were at the most inopportune times. Ten in the first half and fifteen on the game. Nothing would ever get in sync for the team. It didn’t matter who Coach rotated in nothing happened. We kept getting opportunities to either tie or take the lead and every time we would either miss, turn the ball over, or have a defensive breakdown to allow KSU numerous chances to hold the lead. Halftime 30-25 for KU. Bolte had 4 points at the break if that tells you anything.
We hoped at half time that it was just one of those bad halves we’ve gotten used to this year. But alas, it wasn’t. It continued to carry over and KSU pulled away slowly as the offense continued to misfire. Point One – what has happened that we have so many players that are afraid of shooting the darn ball? We have to play offense with 3 arms tied behind our back. Either our posts can’t hit a shot, our forwards just stand around, or we have guards that look to pass and won’t shoot. Cole won’t shoot. Jess won’t shoot. Loz won’t shoot much (and when she did she got blocked). Where does this fear come from? Jess has shown in the past few games that she can hit the three. Cole can too. Why aren’t they putting up a couple hundred every day in practice? (maybe they are and I obviously don’t know it). In any case watching this display was sad.
Point Two – What is up with this offensive design from our coaching staff. I realize we don’t score a lot of points so we run the clock down. But to see four players literally stand in place while the point guard dribbles the clock away…and then continue to stand when we need to get a shot off? I’m puzzled. I saw regression tonight in Bolt. She spent a great deal of time standing out at the 3 point line like she used to. No movement. The few times she did get aggressive in the second half she made things happen.
In any case, this one was ugly. With eight minutes left in the GAME we had 36 points. Fortunately, Big C came to life in the last few minutes to spark a furious comeback. She scored 8 straight for the ladies (2 from downtown and one layup). We even had a great steal in the last 8 seconds to get the ball back down by three, but Bolt was blanketed and couldn’t get the 3 to go.
Point Three – How is it that a conference like the Big 12 has such crappy officials? There were horrible calls and missed calls tonight. The worst late in the game when Bolt drove and a KSU player literally reached out and grabbed her arm and pulled her back causing a turnover. All right in front of an official. No call.
So now we wait. What will the NCAA committee do? We obviously are going to the dance but where will we fall? I’m guessing an 8 or 9 seed right now. Its going to be tough and I hope the coaches can get a good game plan together and the players can get some rest.
1. I have no idea what is happening behind the scenes with this team. Has Zimm been sick? Are other players ill? What else is happening? I don’t know.
2. I do remember these are college women playing a game. Now that it is out there, know as usual that I won’t pull any punches.
3. I rarely if ever criticize Coach F.’s coaching.
From the get-go this game was designed around Anna Prins. Every offensive possession was designed to get the ball inside to her. One big problem. She couldn’t find the inside of the basket if she had a seeing eye dog. That may seem harsh, but in the past couple of games she has had some real downers. Against Nebraska she was 1-10 from the field. Today wasn’t much better as she connected on 2-10. More later. Game plan scrapped.
This was a back and forth affair for these teams. It was pretty much even throughout the first half, but to watch the sisters play you would have felt the pain we felt. The offense was completely out of sync. The name of the game was turnovers and many of those were at the most inopportune times. Ten in the first half and fifteen on the game. Nothing would ever get in sync for the team. It didn’t matter who Coach rotated in nothing happened. We kept getting opportunities to either tie or take the lead and every time we would either miss, turn the ball over, or have a defensive breakdown to allow KSU numerous chances to hold the lead. Halftime 30-25 for KU. Bolte had 4 points at the break if that tells you anything.
We hoped at half time that it was just one of those bad halves we’ve gotten used to this year. But alas, it wasn’t. It continued to carry over and KSU pulled away slowly as the offense continued to misfire. Point One – what has happened that we have so many players that are afraid of shooting the darn ball? We have to play offense with 3 arms tied behind our back. Either our posts can’t hit a shot, our forwards just stand around, or we have guards that look to pass and won’t shoot. Cole won’t shoot. Jess won’t shoot. Loz won’t shoot much (and when she did she got blocked). Where does this fear come from? Jess has shown in the past few games that she can hit the three. Cole can too. Why aren’t they putting up a couple hundred every day in practice? (maybe they are and I obviously don’t know it). In any case watching this display was sad.
Point Two – What is up with this offensive design from our coaching staff. I realize we don’t score a lot of points so we run the clock down. But to see four players literally stand in place while the point guard dribbles the clock away…and then continue to stand when we need to get a shot off? I’m puzzled. I saw regression tonight in Bolt. She spent a great deal of time standing out at the 3 point line like she used to. No movement. The few times she did get aggressive in the second half she made things happen.
In any case, this one was ugly. With eight minutes left in the GAME we had 36 points. Fortunately, Big C came to life in the last few minutes to spark a furious comeback. She scored 8 straight for the ladies (2 from downtown and one layup). We even had a great steal in the last 8 seconds to get the ball back down by three, but Bolt was blanketed and couldn’t get the 3 to go.
Point Three – How is it that a conference like the Big 12 has such crappy officials? There were horrible calls and missed calls tonight. The worst late in the game when Bolt drove and a KSU player literally reached out and grabbed her arm and pulled her back causing a turnover. All right in front of an official. No call.
So now we wait. What will the NCAA committee do? We obviously are going to the dance but where will we fall? I’m guessing an 8 or 9 seed right now. Its going to be tough and I hope the coaches can get a good game plan together and the players can get some rest.
