I dont even know where to begin with this team lol. Ill start off with the positives— Engstler had a big turn around from last game. Stayed out of foul trouble, attacked the basket, was good on the boards and had probably the best game of her career. Granted, it was against Maryland-Eastern Shore but solid performance all around from her. Judging from the past two games, the game moves better with Noo Noo in. Really have been impressed with what ive seen from the freshman in the little minutes Q gives her. She needs to be playing more, much more.
Now off to the negatives— Q seemed stunned in the preseason that this team was ranked so low in the ACC/NCAA preseason polls and mentioned that they were going to be really good, really fast, and prove everyone otherwise. One problem, im not seeing that whatsoever. I’ve seen every ACC women’s team play so far this year and judging from these first two games we are without a doubt one of the worst, if not THE worst team in the ACC.
We have a center (Finklea-Guity) and forward (Djaldi Tabdi) that are a both walking turnovers. Finklea-Guity cant make a basket in the low post to save her life and when Djaldi Tabdi gets the ball in the low post — either travels or bricks it. Not to mention they aren’t very good at getting rebounds either. The defense overall is just bad; probably even worse than the offense. But even thats a stretch because if it weren’t for us making as many 3’s as we did today, the game would have been much closer. We beat this M-ES team last year by 71 pts…just goes to show you the major set back offensively this team has taken.
I don't know where to start about the grad transfers… Brooke had a good first game with limited minutes and not a very good game today with little minutes. Elemy Colome posted some clips on her instagram stories of highlights of her at Rhode Island before the season started and she looked amazing, however, haven’t seen that here so far at Syracuse because Q only plays her for a few minutes. Whisper Fisher has some nice highlights from her time at St. Joseph’s on youtube where she also looks very solid and dominant in the paint— however, she only seen the floor against Ohio, turned the ball over and haven’t seen her since.
I am genuinely perplexed with this team. This is the first year in awhile that I can genuinely say I am worried if Q doesn’t figure this out. We’re going to have a loooong road ahead of us during ACC play and especially next couple games against Oregon and either Miss St./Standford. I wouldn’t be surprised if Oregon rocks our world next week, and I also wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t make the NCAA tournament. Now, its early goings but im only judging on what I have seen thus far.
