dperry
Postdoc
Posts: 2214
Loc: Houston, TX
Reg: 11-24-04
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 01-06-18 04:36 PM - Post#242293
In response to dperry
Well, unfortunately it got ugly there at the end; final was Princeton 70-55. First off, give credit to Princeton's seniors, particularly Leslie Robinson, who looks like a completely different player from last year; drove to the hole beautifully on several occasions. Second, we now know how the rest of the league has felt the last 4 years going up against Sydney; Alarie just terrorized us in the paint today, although we made it a bit easier on her than it should have been (more on that in a sec.}. In particular, this is the first time that Nwokedi's run into someone in the league who's taller and just as quick, and she didn't do well. In the second half, they also started sagging very aggressively every time Nwokedi or Parker got the ball down low, double and triple teaming, and neither one of them has figured out either how to fight through it or pass out of it. Penn also didn't make enough 3's to pull the defense out any. Princeton's ball movement is much improved; lots of backdoor cuts and easy layups underneath. I think the next time we may have to bite the bullet and try a man, because the zone just leaves too many spaces for them to work.
This is where the poor recruiting three years ago is starting to bite us. Agahyere didn't play too bad; she had some good boards and tough buckets down low, but not enough to make a difference, and she didn't do anything on defense. Russell unfortunately chose a very bad game to have an attack of Foreman Disease; there were at least two and maybe three times when she tried to go one-on-one to the hole against Alarie, to whom Russell is giving up six inches; I don't need to tell you how that went. Ross did the same a couple of times, and even Nwokedi had an ill-advised drive get stuffed. I am pleased that McLaughlin stayed with the depth, givng ten people meaningful minutes. Again, though, I don't think Parker and Kinum are playing enough; they are the future anyway, let's keep them out there and let them learn.
Well, we looked worse in the first game in '14 and managed to work that out in the end; however, Princeton didn't have anyone like Alarie that year. If McLaughlin can figure this out, it will be impressive even by his standards
David Perry
Penn '92
"Hail, Alma Mater/Thy sons cheer thee now
To thee, Pennsylvania/All rivals must bow!!!" |
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