*****Southern vs Iowa Game Thread*****
- Thread starter QChawks
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Really? After 2 games?
Jan will keep playing a lot of players, and she should. The team was sluggish last night - ball handling and shooting was awful. IMO it would be a mistake to make PT decisions after a game like that.
Overall description, sloppy.
Ava, Stuelke and Chit playing well for the most part, we would be in a world of crap without Chit to bring the ball up.
Kylie is a defensive stopper but we need a little better shooting than we have so far this year.
McCabe with a couple later 3s but need more consistency from her.
Stremlow hustling as usual but bad on offense and ball security as usual.
Emily not as effective as the exhibition game but got it going later, dribbling ball security issues at times
Deal seems a bit out of sorts, a lot of ball security issues. Not sure if trying too hard or what.
Houston seems comfortable, has a nice nose for rebounding.
Hayes fine in limited minutes.
Refs must have come over from the WNBA because they were awful at times. A number of really bad calls.
Ava, Stuelke and Chit playing well for the most part, we would be in a world of crap without Chit to bring the ball up.
Kylie is a defensive stopper but we need a little better shooting than we have so far this year.
McCabe with a couple later 3s but need more consistency from her.
Stremlow hustling as usual but bad on offense and ball security as usual.
Emily not as effective as the exhibition game but got it going later, dribbling ball security issues at times
Deal seems a bit out of sorts, a lot of ball security issues. Not sure if trying too hard or what.
Houston seems comfortable, has a nice nose for rebounding.
Hayes fine in limited minutes.
Refs must have come over from the WNBA because they were awful at times. A number of really bad calls.
I know I recently have come off like I am Rodriguez’s dad, but I thought she had no greater ball security issues than anyone other than chit chat, who we would indeed be in trouble if we did not have. I would love to see her start and given more minutes.
Ava 21 and 14 in 24 minutes......I really like that line. Love her play.
pass was very good in the open court. her post entries were not good but that was also a team problem last year.
Chit chat did thro to the post well.
I would like to go back and review our comments last year at this same point after we beat Northern Illinois by 18.
It makes me smile when I recall how many times people were down on Lucy last year early in the season. I’m pretty sure that changed for the positive as the Hawks moved on. I’m also pretty sure there will be lots of progress from all players as we move on. I’m still a huge Deal fan and believe we will have a different feeling in February. Let’s not try to run her off the team please.
Forgot to add that Deal isn't much of a player.
Needs to adjust to the speed of the game at this next level. She will be ok. Patience, folks.
Bingo !! Addison Deal getting the early season Olsen treatment ….. sloppy, over-rated, etc.
Save this thread!
I actually think both Kylie and McCabe will be very solid players for us - but really need 1 at a time except for short stints. Both are playing excellent defense this year. Kylie has a little more dribble drive to her game but still is 50/50 on finishing - McCabe is the better passer and spot up shooter.
I agree. I freely acknowledge there are keener basketball minds here than mine, but I think of McCabe the same way as I used to think of Kent McCausland. Hell of a shooter but that's about it, who needs a good pass from a teammate to get an open look. Kylie is a really good defender but is just an okay jump shooter and struggles to finish after contact or in traffic. I agree that having one in the game generally works, but having both in the game presents offensive challenges. I think both would benefit from having another creator on the floor like Rodriguez so they are more open with they get looks.
I think a lot of people on here seem to think Caitlin Clark is going to step back on the court. We are going to be a work in progress again this year. We've got 2 really talented frontcourt players obviously in Heiden and Stuelke. We've got a new pt guard that I really like. I think at the moment Jan is trying to figure out the best way to blend Rodriguez, McCabe, Feurbach, and all the other guards and wings. Rodriguez is clearly the most talented of the rest of that group right now. She's got to get more minutes. Playing McCabe and Feurbach a lot of minutes together I am not a fan of. McCabe is the exact same player she's always been. Cannot put the ball on the floor and can only shoot 3's. LImited athletically. Feurbach a great disrupter and defender but very limited offensively. I'm hoping over time Rodriguez gets more and more minutes over one of them, especially against better and more athletic teams. Deal will come along as well.
Jan seems to be giving Hannah another chance at handling the ball in traffic and shooting 3's - She did the same thing at the beginning of last year. Hannah is much better in the lane. I don't see a lot from Layla Hays yet that says she and Heiden will hold down the 5 spot. I think we need Hannah near the basket and I think we'll eventually get back to what has worked for her entire career.
Whether Hannah plays the 4 or 5, she needs to hit the mid-range jumper consistently. A decent 3-point shot would be a huge bonus. I think she can do it.
Hannah proved herself even more playing for the US team. She did very well there. Nobody on this team has her athleticism. She's not going to take a ton of 3's during the season. That's what these games are for. See how much she can expand her game and open it up even more for Heiden. They will be a great duo this year. We'll go as far as the rest of the team can take us.
Rodriguez ended up with 19 minutes - more than Kylie.
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Hays will be fine as the back up center. I thought she more than held her own. If you need someone to fill the spot Hannah can man the 5 as a small lineup. I would be curious what a small lineup would look like. Hays will get the same buildup as Heiden. Learning how to use her size, positioning and footwork. Heiden was more skilled coming in than Hays, but Hays looks like she is coming along fine after her concussion. Her free throws looked smooth. I know that was a major concern this year from many with her struggles from high school.
My comments last night were pretty tough on Deal's play. But you can see glimpses of game, so I am certainly not giving up on her. I guess my expectations were little too high coming in and she does need time to mature. But last night was a rough game for her and was disappointed she was apparently not more physically prepared for the season. Hope she gets it all together and soon. JMO.
You think Hannah goes to the 5 and Ava to the bench, like last year? I hope I'm misunderstanding you.
you can see it there. This was just her first college game and let's face it, Southern was athletic and aggressive which was a bad combo for your first game.
I don't think we're going anywhere with Kylie and McCabe as starters IMO, but I respect the coach's decision. I also thought Deal should be the starter, but time has shown that Jan was right. First, Deal needs to feel comfortable on the court. Now is the time to be patient and support her. Supporting a freshman with 25 PPG is easy, but each freshman has their own time and development process.
Jan has consistently deferred to seniors, until it becomes apparent it isn't working. In reality they are not playing together more than 10 minutes during the game. It is nice bringing in Rodriguez off the bench as the primary scoring threat when we start to rest Hannah and Ava. We may have this starting lineup a bit longer. I wouldn't be opposed to Rodriguez taking the starting spot at the 3.
My concern is with lack of scoring besides Hannah, Ava, and Chit. Scoring from the 2 & 3 position is critical to this team's success. Rodriguez needs to be in the starting lineup.
All true, BUT I'd say now is the time to throw Deal into the deep end of the pool, when she can struggle some and it won't cost us a game. She just needs to get in the flow, and I think she's in and out too much in short spurts. Again I'm not down on Kylie and Taylor. They each have a role, but playing them much together isn't going to work against good teams. Someone actually said last night that Deal was "over rated". Really? You don't star at the level she did in Cali high school, and one of the top AAU programs much less be one of the elite 16U, 17U, 18U national team players, or a McDonalds AA being "over rated".
All true, and I think its part of Jans dilemma right now. She strives to maintain that "culture" where everyone matters so I think she wants to reward the three seniors. I get that. She'll be walking that tightrope again this year for awhile anyway..
I would say last year Jan consistently did not play Ava enough. It was obvious early she should have been playing more minutes.
Deal getting about 15 minutes is the right amount in my opinion. They have ample video to work with and feed in larger chunks, without her getting beat to pulp and losing confidence. They are playing the long game. No different than what they did with Ava last year. She looked better than the exhibition. Baby steps.
You know what - I am 50/50 on that. As I said she rewards seniors and say what you will O'Grady played pretty dang well last year all things considered. Ava did get some minutes early in the season after getting sick and looked rough. At some point you pick your best 8 and roll with it. If a player gradually improves to the point where they start getting more minutes like Ava did last year you adjust the lineup. You go look at her game log though and she got over 10 minutes in 15 games last year. It wasn't until the end of the season when she started to flash more in the minutes she was given. Fouls were also a major bugaboo for her last year, and still appears to be a bit of an issue.
So just for comparison sakes- Brynn Speiser scored 7 points in 21 minutes yesterday on 3/11 shooting and she was 1/8 from 3. She did very little beyond that against an Omaha team that was not very good. Emilee Skinner played 0 minutes in Duke's loss to Baylor.
At least with southern - they were competitive and gave significant defensive effort.
At least with southern - they were competitive and gave significant defensive effort.
Ava looked good in Iowa's road games against Oregon and Washington when Hannah was injured. However, the next seven games Jan basically sat her:
Northwestern Jan 28 - 0 minutes
USC, Feb 3 - 0 minutes
Minnesota, Feb. 6 - 0 minutes
Nebraska Feb 10 - 13 minutes
Rutgers, Feb. 13 - 2 minutes
tOSU,, Feb. 17 - 0 minutes
UCLA, Feb. 23 - 0 minutes
The next game, on the road at Michigan, Ava came in an saved our *** when Michigan went on a 13-0 and every player on the court looked hopeless.
I think Jan, for whatever reason, made a mistake not playing Ava more.
Boom, that's it ^^ in a nutshell, at least IMO. I think some are over analyzing this, FWIW, I was at the game last night and it seemed to me that Coach J was "letting them play" through some mistakes and rookie jitters. That seems to me to be a good approach, particularly with freshmen...no matter how many stars they have.
Hand it to Southern...they kept playing active, sticky defense all game long. I see that as a good thing on them and also beneficial to the Hawks.
That said, I REALLY like watching Heiden work out there, I see her having a very good year. Several times, it looked like Stuelke and Heiden were working a high/low post game and I see that as good going forward for the rest of the year. Having both of them on the floor at the same time is vital IMO. Chit Chat looked legit too. Overall, I was mostly encouraged by what I saw.