dperry
Postdoc
Posts: 2214
Loc: Houston, TX
Reg: 11-24-04
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 01-10-19 11:13 PM - Post#272043
First, many thanks to rbg for providing stats and continuing the updates during games when I get too stressed to do so. 😊
Nice win for our heroines in the belly of the beast on Saturday. Looking at the points of emphasis I made in my preview:
--Grasela did indeed have a good game, with four assists and only two turnovers, and in general stayed calm under the Tiger assault (although she still needs to learn to check the shot clock more often.)
--Parker and Agahyere dominated inside on offense, contributing 26 of Penn’s 32 inside points, as opposed to 18 for all of the Tigers. This is a very good sign, as their frontcourt has tended to outscore us in the past.
--Russell got into foul trouble early and was ineffective.
--Regarding the three-point shooting, of course Sterba just went off, particularly taking control in the fourth quarter, where Penn scored nearly 40% of their points. Agahyere made nice use of the three-ball to keep the defense honest, as well.
--On the surface, the quest to defend Alarie did not seem to go well, as she had her biggest totals against us yet, with 21 points and 17 rebounds. However, it seemed like she had to work a lot harder for it than last year, as she shot only 6-18, and one of the keys to the game was that she had unusually bad form from the line, shooting 9-16. How much that had to do with us remains to be seen.
--McLaughlin pretty much stuck to an iron 7, so the underclassmen didn’t contribute much, except for Michae Jones, who got two big buckets in crunch time: a tough runner in the lane, and then a nice cut to the hole to receive the sweet dish from Grasela. Interestingly, only 7 players got major time for Princeton as well; most surprisingly, Grace Stone, who had started 15 games up to this point, remained parked on the pine the entire time.
--The FT shooting actually got worse, and made the ending much more interesting than it should have been; fortunately, Princeton had an unusually bad night as well, making only 65%.
Not to say that this is a perfect team, and that Princeton’s can’t come up with a better effort later and beat us, but I’m more optimistic than this guy. Princeton had a somewhat bad day shooting overall, but not anything that can’t be accounted for by our defense, and their three point shooting was pretty close to average. It’s also true that Sterba probably won’t get 21 points again, but by the same token, Russell had an unusually bad game, and Parker didn’t particularly light it up. There’s no reason to believe that either team played a game that was at the far end of their variance. Also, checking the analytics sites, their offensive efficiency is second in the league only to Harvard, and even by their own standards, they are playing very good defense; in absolute terms they are arguably the best defensive team in the country (which again, is inflated somewhat by the schedule, but still impressive.)
The ladies now have a nice week-and-a-half off, and then finish their Big 5 business, starting with Nova on Wednesday (which, as usual, will probably decide things) and then Temple a week after that. The ‘Cats are sitting just outside the top 50 according to the computers, are on the bubble per ESPN's bracketology, and they’re a team that always present a tough challenge to our normal defense, so it should be a good one.
At the risk of becoming unpopular on here, if only one team could win on Saturday, I’m happy that it was the women, because they really needed the confidence boost after the disasters we had against the Tigers last year, whereas I think the men will bounce back more easily. On the other hand, I do wish the scheduling was reversed; I’d like the women to be playing now while Princeton is still reeling a bit, whereas it would be nice if the men had some more time to recuperate. We’ll see how it goes.
David Perry
Penn '92
"Hail, Alma Mater/Thy sons cheer thee now
To thee, Pennsylvania/All rivals must bow!!!" |
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rbg
Postdoc
Posts: 3052
Reg: 10-20-14
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01-11-19 06:53 PM - Post#272140
In response to dperry
Always glad to help out.
Great stuff as usual.
After seeing how Princeton had been playing on offense and defense since Alarie returned, I figured Princeton would try to make it a track meet and get Penn out of synch on offense. Thankfully, the Quakers set the more defensive half-court tone.
Penn will get back to league play on the 1st and 2nd of February at Cornell and Columbia (both doubleheaders with the men), two teams that may be better then last year, but definitely beatable.
It is not going to be an easy season. Not only do they have to deal with Princeton, but Harvard may be more dangerous this year, since they have a deeper front court. Yale has to be taken seriously, since they have are a scrappy team and have beaten the champs at home each of the last two years.
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