Wilson does a lot of good things, but the two things she has to work on in the off season are (a) court vision and (b) being an offensive threat.
2024-25 ISU WBB Season Thread
- Thread starter mred
- Start date
We all know about the star trio in Audi, Addy, and Em but I think the difference maker down the stretch has been Kelsey Joens. She brings tons of energy, always hustles for rebounds, and she's shooting 40%+ from three
Can't argue with that at all. I'm already starting to write my look at next year and she figures prominently in it.
I think she was that missing 5th starter that creates havoc on the other team. I feel it also gets Sid the chance to see the flow of the game so she is ready when she comes in.
The main trio and now Kelsey are getting their deserved flowers, but sometimes AJ gets lost in the mix a bit. She took like 3 or 4 really key offensive fouls on K-State yesterday and has started to shoot more consistently lately. I'm really enjoying that we've seemingly found our core rotation. If we can keep our four sophomores, Sydney, and Kenzie, I think we'll be in a decent spot to pick up from where we left off next year. But still a lot of unfinished work to do! Looking forward to seeing what we can do in KC!
Below is a breakdown of each player's minutes over the course of the season. I'm using a 5-game rolling average to smooth things out.
I've ordered players by position somewhat, with posts at the bottom and point guards at the top. Here's what stands out to me:
I've ordered players by position somewhat, with posts at the bottom and point guards at the top. Here's what stands out to me:
- The combined total of Ryan + Wilson minutes are pretty stable over the season. The observation that Wilson's minutes have gone down as Ryan's have increased seems to be accurate.
- The combined total of Crooks + Williams + Taulelei minutes are pretty stable as well. Crooks' minutes have steadily increased mainly at the expense of Williams.
- During the conference portion of the season, Jackson and Brown have seen fairly steady minutes (although Jackson is down a little bit recently).
- That leaves the middle section (Harris/Hansford/Joens/Tanke). Joens has clearly seen more minutes recently, and while Harris' minutes had dipped, they have come back up a bit. Those extra Joens/Harris minutes have largely come from Jackson and Tanke and maybe a little from Hansford.
I love this basketball team. The Cyclones have won 6 out of the last 7 and all 6 wins have been by comfortable margins. They were handled by Baylor, but that was a road game against a very good team. I think we will be a dangerous team in the postseason based on our talent and how we are playing right now. For a lot of the season, I have been baffled by the substitution pattern, but we are finally giving more minutes to the best players on the team. If the coaches had shortened the rotation in December to just 7 players and whoever is backing up Audi, I think we would have had a couple more wins and the perception of this team would be a lot different.
As far as I know, we have no problem with Angel Reese. Maybe they are confusing us with the CC cult.
She's been given a lot of opportunities to learn this year, some against competition (well) above her level as a freshman. She will improve, but right now, we're in do or die games. We need Emily for those. Probably just boils down to that.
Looks like we either play Cinci or ASU on Thursday. We've beat both, so I'm expecting a win either way.
Fine print in the graphic says "vs Big 12 opponents only". So it might be conference games, or conference games plus tournament.
How does best offense finish middle of the pack? Guessing we are near bottom in defense.
Ah I missed that, thanks! Kinda weird how meh the season turned out despite being the best offence, I see our defense is ranked 10th on conference only stats.
