The women lost a heartbreaker on a made shot by Bowling Green as the clock expired. There was plenty to discuss from this game as there was good, bad and ugly.

The good:
*Amaya Hamilton - Took by the game over as the Dukes roared back from a 9 point halftime deficit. Dukes opened up the middle for her and she carried them in the second half.
*Megan McConnell - Just does it all with a Double/Double. Great defender and leader. Simply an all league player.
*Coaching adjustment - In the third quarter, the team went small (4 guards and Hamilton). As mentioned, they let Hamilton use both the high and low posts and she delivered. BG had no answer for Hamilton and Dukes outscored their opponent by 16.
*Nae Bernard - She contributed points, so I will place her here. A little better shot selection and her contributions would go up.

The bad:
*The two Senior Bigs are really struggling on both offense and defense. One continually misses short shots and the other looks totally lost in an offense that is pretty much free flow rather than more structured sets. Neither plays good defense or rebounds well. Both foul a lot.
*The defense lacks continuity. There is no on-ball pressure except for McConnell and Hamilton. They continually go “under” screens allowing for easy perimeter shots and easy cuts to the basket. The effort is there, but the defense simply is not physical enough.
*This team shoots a lot of threes. That’s OK, but a good team is in the 35% to 38% range. Not the case with our Dukes. The team’s best shooter is in a season long slump. Without her scoring, the team struggles.
*After 5 games, a line-up change is needed. McConnell, Hamilton and Bernard are givens. Brown needs to be inserted into the starting five. She simply did not play enough against BG. Ammons was on the floor yesterday for about two minutes and she affected three plays defensively. Play her over the two senior bigs, who should have reduced playing time. Myers will find her shot, but take some pressure off her by letting her come off the bench for a bit. Since our guards are very small, play the one who is more physical, which means more time for the freshman from Maryland. To be better, use the more physical players and give more playing time to Brown, Grantham, Ammons and Kiaku.

The Ugly
*With 3.6 seconds to go, a DU timeout was called and the ball moved to the front court in a tied ball game. We lost the ball on a five second count even though we had a time-out. BG goes three quarters court with the turnover and scores as the clock runs out. Inexcusable execution on both the offense and defense.
*This is tough to say, but the offensive and defensive coordinators are not up to par to what we had with Matt S. and Rachel W. The defense is particularly soft and has no variety to it. The announcer implored both teams to run a set play as the game came down the stretch. We need some structured sets. For example, run a play to free up your struggling shooter. Talent alone does not win games. It cannot be ideal to have three voices to listen to as the game is in progress. The Head Coach needs to be the voice, especially during TOs. Get input from the coordinators, but the Head Coach needs to be the voice.

The season is still young, but as the Steelers just learned, making tough changes can make for a better team. Hopefully, our Dukes don’t wait to make those changes because the makings of a good team is definitely there. Go Dukes!

Last edited by HookShot (11/28/2023 10:17 am)