SU 68 at Minnesota 72: Thurs Nov 29, 8:30 PM

[OrangeXtreme]

Cuse seemed to be without one of their Star freshman tonight. I wonder what’s up.

Sissoko hurt her knee in Cancun.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[sutomcat]

Bell was the best player on the court for them. She played like Sykes. Great athlete who got to the hoop whenever she wanted. Bello dominated inside, got almost every important rebound.

Minnesota has a great young coach who has them playing terrific man defense. Our press isn’t the same without Sissoko. They beat it for layups or foul shots until the fourth quarter, when their thin team got gassed.

The 2-3 zone isn’t good. Minny got into the paint at will. A lot of ole type defense and we appear to have no shot blockers or charge takers.

Lots of offensive talent and depth though.

 

[jr4750]

Bell was the best player on the court for them. She played like Sykes. Great athlete who got to the hoop whenever she wanted. Bello dominated inside, got almost every important rebound.

Minnesota has a great young coach who has them playing terrific man defense. Our press isn’t the same without Sissoko. They beat it for layups or foul shots until the fourth quarter, when their thin team got gassed.

The 2-3 zone isn’t good. Minny got into the paint at will. A lot of ole type defense and we appear to have no shot blockers or charge takers.

Lots of offensive talent and depth though.

I agree Tom. I watch a lot of their games, and their zone is not good. They play it like JB's guys, but don't have the length to really make it work. They give up far too many open looks on the outside and suffer from the same rebounding woes the men tend to have. Given their depth, I think they should definitely play man defense, and also press. Kind of like a UL system when Pitino was there. They should have won last night as they were the more talented teams. These are the games they have to win so they don't get stuck with a 7-9 seed and have to play a top 10 team in Round 2 of the tourney.

 

[earlfromclay]

Sissoko hurt her knee in Cancun.

Does anyone have any info as to the severity of the injury / How long will she be out? is she practicing? has she been evaluated?

I'm really high on Sissoko, I think her upside is Huge. Has W size and speed. hope injury isn't serious. Wish there was better/any coverage of this awesome women's squad.

 

[earlfromclay]

I agree Tom. I watch a lot of their games, and their zone is not good. They play it like JB's guys, but don't have the length to really make it work. They give up far too many open looks on the outside and suffer from the same rebounding woes the men tend to have. Given their depth, I think they should definitely play man defense, and also press. Kind of like a UL system when Pitino was there. They should have won last night as they were the more talented teams. These are the games they have to win so they don't get stuck with a 7-9 seed and have to play a top 10 team in Round 2 of the tourney.

I've got to disagree with this. I thought the Zone was mostly good. Minnesota shot 35% from the field and 23% from three. I would look to some other reasons for this loss:
1. got destroyed on the boards. Usually one of SU's strengths.
2. Tianna and Digna 7/27=26%
3. No Sissoko
4. Foul discrepancy was pathetic
5. terrible three point shooting again. 23%

 

[upperdeck]

you play as out of control as this team does and sometimes you have issues.. had they made just a couple of those 3s down the stretch they would have been fine.

they lost that 6 pt lead so fast that it made it hard to finish the game well.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Their press is so disruptive with their depth that it should be a major part of their basic defense but playing frenetically on defense seemed to result in them sometimes playing frenetically and too quick to launch on offense, especially when they got the small lead. I also thought that SU's willingness to settle and launch 3's rather than attack inside or go inside out, hurt them this game. SU's best rebounder is Engstler off the bench, we need more boards from our other big players like Finklea-Guity , Djaldi-Tabdi, Foppossi and Strautman. Getting beat by 17 on the boards was a killer.

The difficult thing to deal with is injuries, women's knees anatomically are so susceptible to ACL tears (up to 8 times more susceptible to ACL injuries than males) so depth is even more crucial for women's teams. Notre Dame last year's champs, had 4 players go down to ACL injuries. I sure hope Sissoko's injury isn't a season ender.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Another thing - it's great seeing that so many people are commenting -interested and watching this team

 

[earlfromclay]

Their press is so disruptive with their depth that it should be a major part of their basic defense but playing frenetically on defense seemed to result in them sometimes playing frenetically and too quick to launch on offense, especially when they got the small lead. I also thought that SU's willingness to settle and launch 3's rather than attack inside or go inside out, hurt them this game. SU's best rebounder is Engstler off the bench, we need more boards from our other big players like Finklea-Guity , Djaldi-Tabdi, Foppossi and Strautman. Getting beat by 17 on the boards was a killer.

The difficult thing to deal with is injuries, women's knees anatomically are so susceptible to ACL tears (up to 8 times more susceptible to ACL injuries than males) so depth is even more crucial for women's teams. Notre Dame last year's champs, had 4 players go down to ACL injuries. I sure hope Sissoko's injury isn't a season ender.

 

[earlfromclay]

A lot of good points here. their press is disruptive, especially with Sissoko on the floor. However, the press isn't turning teams over like it did during the 15-16 season. Sykes was an amazing part of that, but forgotten are Butler, Ford, Fondren and Morrison. They all knew how to run the press, create the traps, and jump the passing lanes. Since that year, the press hasn't been the same. don't get me wrong, I still like running it, it sure is disruptive to the opponents, its just not causing the number of turnovers it used to.

I'm not sure if Coach Q gives everyone the green light to launch threes, and I know he's a numbers guy and wants a lot of three attempts, but there really should be better shot selection, particularly from the people who are under 30% for their career. I'm not going to name names, but they should know who they are and what they are good at by now.

attacking inside seemed like a focus in Cancun, and Tabdi really had a great coming out. Hope they can continue to feed her. Finklea has decent moves too, but she cant run the court as well. Together they could be scoring 15-20 points a game for them.

Rebounding had been pretty good over the last few years, particularly offensive rebounding. Not sure what happened last night, but that was really bad. Together Tabdi and Finklea had 4 rebounds. The post has to do better than that. SU's guards usually do better too. Cant blame just a couple people on that.

If Sissoko can come back ( I Pray ), and this team continues to improve, clean up some of the turnovers and improves shot selection, I think they can easily reach sweet 16, possible elite 8. Englester needs to play more disciplined, but her size, passing, rebounding and scoring are important. Tianna needs to be Tianna, minus a couple turnovers a game. Lewis played really well last night and appears to be getting more comfortable. Nice driving and scoring ability, and of course the ball handling to relieve Tianna for extended minutes if need be, the way Bailey just couldn't do. Cooper needs to continue hitting three's at 35-40%, and she is a great rebounding and defensive guard too.