Some observations on this year's women's basketball team (long)

[Irondawg]

Remember this isn't taking shots at Vic, this is just what I've observed from watching most of our Italy trip games and pretty much every game that's been on TV or web replay this year:

1) This team is simply not as talented as we've had the past 3 years. We should be a sweet 16 team, but our round of 32 game could be dicey depending on the matchup. Anything past sweet 16 to me is overachieving and a nice bonus.

2) Vic has a tough job figuring out this puzzle. We're talented, but we don't have TALENT like we have in the past that we can totally build around. We've got players that do some things really well, but are below average at other things. He's experimented a ton with different lineup combinations but can't seem to find anything he really likes yet.

3) Losing Esmery Martinez hurt us this year. Watching her in the WV game it was claer she would have really helped our post depth and rebounding. Tough break for Vic there.

4) We don't create many good looks out of our half-court offense. Against the better teams we've played we're struggling to get to 40% shooting. We'd don't have a lot of great passers so in our last 5 games against decent teams we have a 50:71 assist to turnover margin a large number of the turnovers have come in half-court sets just from bad decisions. Youth is some of that for sure.

3) Post play/rebounding is a bit worse than I expected. Jessica is ok and Vic has been her biggest cheerleader but she's just not very aggressive or physical. She doesn't fight well for position and impose her will on games. Don't read that as she's bad, she's just not an impact player very often. Bibby is rebounding well on defense and Jackson is improving there, but we're regressed there. Promise Taylor is just too slow for the system and Morris can provide a few solid minutes on defense but doesn't offer anything offensively. I thought she looked better than Carter overall in Italy, but has not shown as well in games thusfar.

4) Point Guard is the biggest problem on this team though. Myah's numbers look ok, but watching it live you realize she's not been good at all save for a couple of good spurts. She's a fantastic defensive point guard, but is mostly awful on offense. She doesn't shoot from outside and can't finish at the rim on decent-good teams and doesn't really do a good job of driving and kicking to set up teammates. If you don't play Danberry there then I think Matharu is our best point guard and I don't think it's close even though she's a downgrade defensively from Taylor and Mingo-Young. But she's not terrible there and is a huge offensive threat. Vic doesn't trust her though and I'm sure he has his reasons.

5) Rickea is either going to be the next Vivans or the most frustrating women's player we've ever had. She's athletic, she's long and has a score's mentality but right now she has no idea hot to manipulate floor spacing to get where she wants to go and get a particular shot. Often she's just trying to bulldoze her way into the lane and then figure it out when she gets there. Thus we're seeing her travel a lot and get called for charges. I'm not sure if it's going to be much better this year so i'll be very curious to see how that develops next year. Talent is not an issue. She's also in a weird spot b/c we're having to ask her to play the 4 some when she's really a 3.

6) Matharu might be our most talented pure scorer, even above Rickea. She's got a beautiful jump shot and know how to create space to get it off. I'm incredibly curious what she would do if she was given the PG keys for 30 minutes against an average team. I feel pretty sure she'd score 10-14 points, but I just don't know if it would come with 10 turnovers and if she could do a good job of setting up teammates.

7) Bibby is a perfect pick and pop / stretch 4 so I wish we'd incorporate some pick and pop with her and Danberry.

8) Danberry is really good and is the glue that is holding this team together. When she gets in foul trouble we have problems.

9) Andi and Bibby are above average shooters and we need to find a way to get them both more shots and quality shots to take advantage of their skills. Right now they seem to easy to guard and take out of what they do best. Andi has improved at creating her own shot so I have to give her props for that.

10) Mingo-Young hustles, plays good D, is strong and handles the ball ok, but like most freshmen she's not a good passer and while she can score I wouldn't call her a scorer. I think she's also struggling a bit with being shuffled between PG and off-guard.

11) Wiggins is crazy athletic but right now is just a turnover machine. I'd love to see her become a defensive stopper get her offensive off cuts and offensive rebounds. Right now she tries to do too much when she has the ball.

Now for a bit of opinion:

I think it's time to remove Myah from the starting lineup and make her a backup and defensive specialist. I'd like to see Matharu there but Vic clearly isn't on board with that so I'd move Danberry to PG with Andi, Rickea, Bibby, Carter rounding out the lineup. My bench would be Mingo-Young, Matharu, Wiggins and Morris with the Myah helping to close out games on defense or if the other PG is still killing us offensively. Big minutes for Danberry and Carter as nobody else can give you the things they give you.

Danberry can get into the paint on anyone so run Bibby with a high pick and pop and let Danberry drive and finish, pull up or drive and dish/kick to open players once she draws defenses. We need her to break down man to man defenses and find stress points. If anybody plays us a zone then we should have no problem getting Andi and Bibby open 3's and we should be able to shoot most teams out of a zone. Right now against man defenses we are asking Andi and Bibby to put the ball on the floor too much. I wouldn't mind seeing Bibby post up for if nothing more than to use her as a passer to go inside out b/c she's probably our best passer on the team right now.

If that lineup can't hold up on defense bring in Mingo-Young or Wiggins and sit Andi or Bibby.

Promise Taylor and Hemmingway just don't have a spot in the rotation unless we commit a slower style to help Taylor out then we could use her instead of Morris.

Those that have watched what do you think?

[timotheus]

Irondawg, this is excellent.

[pilldawg]

Right now I believe Vic is really working to find the team he can trust defensively. The last game looked rugged to thw casual observer, but we played great defense. The team looks almost tired at times, which points to Vic really working them hard in practice to see how they respond when the chips are down. Once the team gets out of preseason and get their legs under them, their offense will improve. I believe Vic will continue to work them tirelessly until he gets the level of defensive effort on a night in, night out basis.

[Dawg2003]

I agree with your starting lineup and have thought that for awhile. Danberry, Bibby, AEH, Jackson, Carter- that forces teams to guard everyone. Bibby and AEH are being misused offensively. They are not dribble drive players. They just don't have a the handles to create those kinds of shots. Agree we should utilize a pick and pop with them.

Post play is a huge issue. Carter is a finesse player that is not going to bang around down there. She will get mauled against bigger SEC posts. It's also really unfortunate that we lost Daphne White along the way.

Theory: Vic has several finesse players that do not fit his style. Ex: Carter, Jackson, AEH, Bibby.

Of course all of this is exacerbated by youth and lack of team chemistry.

[Dawg2003]

Right now I believe Vic is really working to find the team he can trust defensively. The last game looked rugged to thw casual observer, but we played great defense. The team looks almost tired at times, which points to Vic really working them hard in practice to see how they respond when the chips are down. Once the team gets out of preseason and get their legs under them, their offense will improve. I believe Vic will continue to work them tirelessly until he gets the level of defensive effort on a night in, night out basis.

Another theory is that the team plays defense so hard that they can't do well on offense.

[revdrdawg]

What we are paying for this year is the total washout of the recruiting class that would have been this year's seniors. This was covered a bit by the power of the previous two classes and the transfers. It is really showing this year. This was always going to be a down year. Imagine if Jordan had not returned.

Another thing that seems to get lost is that fact that Big T was not that skilled when she first arrived. There was good improvement fresh-soph and dramatic improvement soph-junior. Given that Carter has taken a step forward this year and that Jackson is already showing some signs, I have hope.

[Captain Falcon]

I don’t think this season is anything to freak out about at all. We are what we are. I don’t agree that we are overall less talented. We do not have the star power that the last three teams have, but we still have plenty of talent. Players like Wiggins, AEH, Matharu, Mingo-Young, etc are more talented role players than the likes of Schaefer, Dillingham, Richardson, Chapel, etc were, they just clearly are not as far along in their development.

Players in our program typically get a lot better over time, and we have a bunch that are just starting out. We will take some lumps this year and then be back to our typical standard next season, I have no doubts about that.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Vic is allowed a rebuild yesr every once in a while.

[Irondawg]

Rebuild year is fine, but we still have enough talent to make a little noise. However, from a rebuild standpoint we haven't been able to land an impact post player. We lost Esmery last cycle and then couldn't land Cardossa in this cycle and I think we were really banking on landing a girl from TN vs. losing her to Syracuse (no idea if she had some kind of ties there). Vic will come up with something but we need to find an all-sec type down there soon.

[tcdog70]

I saw Vic running a zone defense the other night and it was a good one. Put the 6'6" Juco at Center and Carter at the 4 then Danberry-Bibby and Jackson. Yep let Jo run the point.

[Coursesuper]

This team is two years away, and then they are going to be very hard to handle.

[Cooterpoot]

We’re young and talented. This year is a transition year. Stop worrying about it.

[somebodyshotmypaw]

My disagreement is with point #1 (we aren't as talented as we've been). I actually think we might be more talented. We are just so young. We went to the final 4 twice with experienced veterans. Now we have one senior (Danberry) and two juniors (Andi and Chloe). We start a freshman and two sophomores. We are young.

Leading scorers: sophomore, senior, freshman
Leading rebounders: sophomore, junior, senior, freshman, freshman
Leading minutes played: sophomore, freshman, senior, junior, sophomore
Leading assists: sophomore, senior, freshman
Leading steals: senior, sophomore, freshman
Leading turnovers: freshman, senior, sophomore
Leading blocks: sophomore, junior, sophomore
Leading 3-pointers made: junior, junior, freshman, freshman

I see talent. But so much inexperience.

[maroonmania]

I've never been very that impressed with Taylor given her recruiting profile. I just don't see her as more than a role player.

[Irondawg]

I've never been very that impressed with Taylor given her recruiting profile. I just don't see her as more than a role player.

Vic's giving her every chance. She is good defensively and doesn't make a ton of turnovers but she's just not very good at all running the offense.