Darn...you would remember something I've said a few times lol. I suspect when I referred to bunnies it probably was related to Prins. And yes, there have been too many games over the past several years where the team goes into a scoring funk for 7-8 minutes. Yet, usually defense is holding us in the game and in many cases we've gone on to win. Sunday, it reminded me of the football team. The defense was expected to do too much and it failed when the offense was completely missing. That's a rarity.
Yes, I think depth this year is a MAJOR issue. Coming into this season our strength was in the post between Pop and Hal with hopes Anna would improve being healthy for once. Huge question marks in the 1 and 2 positions. Well, we know who our point guard is. We have one that can play Big 12 ball at a decent level. Sunday def showed the diff between an all conference point and Moody. She's good, no doubt, but still lots of room for improvement. I firmly believe she will get there though. The two and three spots are pretty much hit and miss for this team. Sometimes good, sometimes absent without leave. I think of Hal as a hybrid 3-4 and sometimes she is impossible to match up with and other times she struggles. We haven't had a single player that has been consistent all year. Even Pop, as hard as she works and hustles has disappeared a few times. Bottom line? This is a team with little or no margin for error. A single injury would be devastating. I'm hoping the training coach is helping to prevent that. Now, look at other teams in the conference and their depth. Oklahoma has several injuries and their depth came from the volleyball team. Texas is struggling at the bottom of the conference after injuries. West Virginia lost their top player and you can see they have become a 50/50 team. I don't think there is much depth at a BIG 12 level anywhere in the conference. Some teams go 7 deep, but that's about it. This isn't just an Iowa State issue.
If we eliminate the two bad losses though, what I see is a good team that State puts on the floor. We have a point guard that leads the nation in assists. We are the top free throw shooting team in the conference and one of the best defensive teams. It is a team capable of finishing as high as 2nd in the conference. I still think that is very possible. That position will probably be a team with 3-4 conference losses minimum (assume 2 from Baylor for everyone).