Agree, got off to a great start and I have to think that was likely due to the new starting 5.  I want to know why this wasn't our starting 5 all year. 

Glad to see we abandoned the hockey rotation gimmick.

Coaching was better today.  Offense flowed much better.  We attacked the hoop - Jerni and Meg were outstanding driving the ball in the first quarter and it set the tone as we moved the ball much better, creating open looks at 3 which was not the case in last game at Fordham.

In that game, we stood around on the perimter, passing the ball without player movement which made it easier to defend.  Today, we passed the ball and had good player movement which created openings for drives to the hoop.  

Finally played Hutcherson and Brown together and will need to do so as often as we can to counter Richmond's size.

Need to clean up how we handle the press.  Too often, we got trapped against the baseline and made bad passes that were intercepted for easy layups.  The best way to beat the press is to attack and we have two outstanding guards in Jeni and Meg who can easily break the press...but instead we allowed ourselves to be trapped and Fordham's length at the top of the press was why we struggled.

Don't like the high number of 3's taken, but for the most part, they were the result of open looks.  I still would like to see us rely less on the 3 because if we are off, we need to find a way to score.  Want to see more pump fake to get the defender in the air and then take a dribble in and hit the mid-range shot.  Faith Walker did this on one posession and it was executed to perfection as it was late in the shot clock, she was open beyod the arc, instead of taking the contested 3, she pump faked and did a jab step dribble past the defender and hit the open 15 footer.

All credit to our coaching staff in this game as we clearly made adjustments from the last time we played Fordham and it showed with an explosive offensive output.  The defense was also very strong today as Fordham is bigger and more physical and we did not let them dictate tempo or own the boards.  

We need to STOP playing with 5 guards and no bigs on the floor.  Case in point, we came out in the 2nd quarter with 5 guards and immediately Fordham posted us up and dominated the boards, they had 2 posesssions in a row where they get multiple offensive rebounds by crashing the boards.  If we do this tomorrow against Richmond, they will run us out of the gym.

 

Last edited by DU90 (3/06/2025 2:43 pm)