Post Season

[LetsGoRabbits]

#5 seed in OUR region Iowa St falls to 12 seed Toledo

number 9 all time ncaa wbb scorer Ashley Joens incredible career comes to a close. if i understand correctly the next Joens sister was the Iowa HS POY and will be a freshman in Ames next year

the 6 v 11 and 7 v 10 games in our region are playing right now. unless 12 seed Toledo can win more than one game the winner of our game with Va Tech will play 4 seed Tennessee. Tennessee did not play very well when we saw them in our thanksgiving tourney, but they seem to have things rolling a bit now

[peavy]

links to transcripts from today's media conferences Jacks ... Hokies pdf versions: Jacks ... Hokies
the more active VT WBB message board with some messages regarding tomorrow's game (easier to find the messages/threads using desktop view if on mobile)

[jakejc795]

links to transcripts from today's media conferences Jacks ... Hokies pdf versions: Jacks ... Hokies
the more active VT WBB message board with some messages regarding tomorrow's game (easier to find the messages/threads using desktop view if on mobile)

Thanks for posting those. I found the end of AJ's answer to this question interesting in that he mentions players and fans can play elite teams without having to attend a P5 school:

Q. Obviously Virginia Tech as a one seed is kind of an imposing opponent, but how much does -- you guys have played, and how you have set up your schedule kind of make them, I don't know, less gigantic?

AARON JOHNSTON: Yeah. I think that's a good question. That's why we do it. It is not just this year. Every year we have really taken that approach. You know, this year alone whether it's South Carolina, Louisville, UCLA, certainly Washington State is in that group, Kansas State, I think our nonconference schedule this year is still top five in the country. Last year I think we were top ten. And you can go back for several years and see that. That's been important to us. And I think we love those challenges.

I think I can make our players' lives a lot easier by scheduling differently. You can certainly put them in positions where they're going to win more games by just being in the gym. But I don't think that's why players come to South Dakota State quite honestly. I don't think that's why our fans come and fill up our place like we are going see home. I think people really appreciate the fact you get a good team at SDSU playing against other elite teams across the nation.

And I love the fact that we have young people in the state of South Dakota grow up thinking this is a neat place. And I don't have to go to a Power Five school to play against those type of schools in that level of competition and play in the postseason and have chances to win. All of those things helps us prepare for games like this and moments where now you have to really in the NCAA tournament against an elite team. I love those challenges. It's a lot more difficult and stressful, but it's a good stress and good challenge.

[LetsGoRabbits]

well OH will be doing his official kickoff post soon i imagine

but i wanna change the conversation from refs and tv announcers, etc..

after we win the next game i will try to do my part to focus more on how lucky we are and that this great group of kids represents our school and the things they have accomplished. That is NOT an attempt to tell anyone else what they can talk about and IT IS an admission that i did more than my part to make the postgame conversation too much about frustrating things than AWESOME things

one last thing before i discuss VTU. i do give myself and everyone else a bit of a pass. the game was kinda ugly and the refs and announcers were an interesting topic. obviously i love to talk about everything related to our teams and i did find those things curious but for me personally i am not overly pleased with my tone being more negative than it should be. on to VTU

seems very likely this game is gonna be ugly too. USC gave up under 55 a game and i think VTU gives up about 58 and about 38% FG shooting about 28.5% 3pt shooting. also similar to USC they are probably not overall much bigger than us but they have one player 6'6. not saying i have it exactly but i think they held their first round opponent to mid 30s

that said i do think our girls MORE THAN deserve a break from everyone thinking they played bad because the game was not aesthetically pleasing! usually what that means is the offense looks pretty and gets and makes the shots they want. well sometimes the other team deserves credit for making that hard. the best way to overcome those teams and still play pretty offense is to shoot the 3 well. last year we probably were less suceptible to looking ugly because in particular Paiton and Tori shot the 3 WAY WAY better. not gonna look it up this moment but i think Paiton was at least 12% better and Tori somewhere around 20% better having 2 more threats from 3 like that can make it a lot harder for teams to ugly things up

but this team still finds a way to do the things they do well and get wins no matter if they score in the 80s and 90s OR the 50s and 60s. USC got a LOT of credit for being a very good defensive team. to be hones they had to paint them as the defensive team because compared to the jacks they were obviously not the good offensive team!!! but to be honest the jacks are probably a better defensive team than usc in every way except blocking shots!! so it might not always LOOK the way we would prefer but please dont short change this team!! they are REALLLY GOOD and it is very impressive all of the different ways they can win basketball games

make your case if you want and i know some will disagree, but i think this team would have finished in the top half in any conference in the country this year

i rarely ever come out and flat out say we will win. playing a 1 seed today obviously it is gonna be a challenge!! but if we played this team 10 times i think it is likely we would win more than once.

for the season 7 players have had the most significant playing time:

6'6 senior Kitley probably an AA. over 18 pts and 10 boards a game and a bit over 2 blocks a game 35 minutes

5'6 junior Amoore over 15 pts and 5 assists a game most prolific 3pt shooter and shoots about 35% similar to Timmie % wise 36 minutes

5'9 senior Traylor about 11 pts 3 boards 3 assists 1 steal 30 minutes

6' senior King second most 3s and about 37% 8 pts and 3 boards 30 minutes

those 4 top 30 minutes a game

the other starter

5'11 grad Soule about 11 pts 5.5 boards 1.8 assists 1 steal 28 minutes


i dont know how far back, but in recent games they are basically playing 6

the 6th is
6'2 senior Gregg averages about 23 minutes only scores 5pts a game but did shoot 38% from 3 which leads them amongst those who shoot very many and she averages over 6 boards a game so kind or their Kallie but made 21 3s for the year

they do have another senior who was playing about 15 minutes a game but has not played at least the last 3
she is 6' but had no particularly meaningful stats

they have 13 on the roster and 9 are seniors or grads

if you look ONLY at the starting 5 and you guess that Paiton matches up with Kitley, we are actually taller at every other position except PG and that is equal. one of Tori or Myah has a significant size advantantage. i would guess they put the taller girl on myah. i think Kitley is pretty athletic and i would not be surprised if they put her on Myah either. would she follow Myah out to the arch and leave the lane open for Paige and Timmie??

if they put 6'2 Gregg in for one of the shorter players the size is almost identical except for Kitley

last thing. obviously i cannot guarantee it, but my gut feeling is if we beat them on the boards we win the game. we gotta keep the boards close no matter what!! and it would be nice if we have more than 1 or 2 girls score. i expect them to do everything imaginable to make sure Myah does not beat them


OOOPPS one more last thing

2 games ago ACC championship game
they beat Louisville 75-67
obviously we played Lville long ago but we won 65-55 for whatever that is worth, maybe nothing

[jackdaniel]

well OH will be doing his official kickoff post soon i imagine

but i wanna change the conversation from refs and tv announcers, etc..

after we win the next game i will try to do my part to focus more on how lucky we are and that this great group of kids represents our school and the things they have accomplished. That is NOT an attempt to tell anyone else what they can talk about and IT IS an admission that i did more than my part to make the postgame conversation too much about frustrating things than AWESOME things

one last thing before i discuss VTU. i do give myself and everyone else a bit of a pass. the game was kinda ugly and the refs and announcers were an interesting topic. obviously i love to talk about everything related to our teams and i did find those things curious but for me personally i am not overly pleased with my tone being more negative than it should be. on to VTU

seems very likely this game is gonna be ugly too. USC gave up under 55 a game and i think VTU gives up about 58 and about 38% FG shooting about 28.5% 3pt shooting. also similar to USC they are probably not overall much bigger than us but they have one player 6'6. not saying i have it exactly but i think they held their first round opponent to mid 30s

that said i do think our girls MORE THAN deserve a break from everyone thinking they played bad because the game was not aesthetically pleasing! usually what that means is the offense looks pretty and gets and makes the shots they want. well sometimes the other team deserves credit for making that hard. the best way to overcome those teams and still play pretty offense is to shoot the 3 well. last year we probably were less suceptible to looking ugly because in particular Paiton and Tori shot the 3 WAY WAY better. not gonna look it up this moment but i think Paiton was at least 12% better and Tori somewhere around 20% better having 2 more threats from 3 like that can make it a lot harder for teams to ugly things up

but this team still finds a way to do the things they do well and get wins no matter if they score in the 80s and 90s OR the 50s and 60s. USC got a LOT of credit for being a very good defensive team. to be hones they had to paint them as the defensive team because compared to the jacks they were obviously not the good offensive team!!! but to be honest the jacks are probably a better defensive team than usc in every way except blocking shots!! so it might not always LOOK the way we would prefer but please dont short change this team!! they are REALLLY GOOD and it is very impressive all of the different ways they can win basketball games

make your case if you want and i know some will disagree, but i think this team would have finished in the top half in any conference in the country this year

i rarely ever come out and flat out say we will win. playing a 1 seed today obviously it is gonna be a challenge!! but if we played this team 10 times i think it is likely we would win more than once.

for the season 7 players have had the most significant playing time:

6'6 senior Kitley probably an AA. over 18 pts and 10 boards a game and a bit over 2 blocks a game 35 minutes

5'6 junior Amoore over 15 pts and 5 assists a game most prolific 3pt shooter and shoots about 35% similar to Timmie % wise 36 minutes

5'9 senior Traylor about 11 pts 3 boards 3 assists 1 steal 30 minutes

6' senior King second most 3s and about 37% 8 pts and 3 boards 30 minutes

those 4 top 30 minutes a game

the other starter

5'11 grad Soule about 11 pts 5.5 boards 1.8 assists 1 steal 28 minutes


i dont know how far back, but in recent games they are basically playing 6

the 6th is
6'2 senior Gregg averages about 23 minutes only scores 5pts a game but did shoot 38% from 3 which leads them amongst those who shoot very many and she averages over 6 boards a game so kind or their Kallie but made 21 3s for the year

they do have another senior who was playing about 15 minutes a game but has not played at least the last 3
she is 6' but had no particularly meaningful stats

they have 13 on the roster and 9 are seniors or grads

if you look ONLY at the starting 5 and you guess that Paiton matches up with Kitley, we are actually taller at every other position except PG and that is equal. one of Tori or Myah has a significant size advantantage. i would guess they put the taller girl on myah. i think Kitley is pretty athletic and i would not be surprised if they put her on Myah either. would she follow Myah out to the arch and leave the lane open for Paige and Timmie??

if they put 6'2 Gregg in for one of the shorter players the size is almost identical except for Kitley

last thing. obviously i cannot guarantee it, but my gut feeling is if we beat them on the boards we win the game. we gotta keep the boards close no matter what!! and it would be nice if we have more than 1 or 2 girls score. i expect them to do everything imaginable to make sure Myah does not beat them


OOOPPS one more last thing

2 games ago ACC championship game
they beat Louisville 75-67
obviously we played Lville long ago but we won 65-55 for whatever that is worth, maybe nothing

Poor ole Louisville just about got beat by Drake yesterday, they are a very unpredictable team at times, not to diminish Drake, they had a great game. I really liked your breakdown of VT. You really did your research well ....Thanks for posting it, One thing I'd like to see, is us having more possessions than VT, and getting a shot up (good shots) on the vast majority of them , that cures a lot of ills. Need crowd control, would be nice to hear the " sound of silence ".

[LetsGoRabbits]

Poor ole Louisville just about got beat by Drake yesterday, they are a very unpredictable team at times, not to diminish Drake, they had a great game. I really liked your breakdown of VT. You really did your research well ....Thanks for posting it, One thing I'd like to see, is us having more possessions than VT, and getting a shot up (good shots) on the vast majority of them , that cures a lot of ills. Need crowd control, would be nice to hear the " sound of silence ".

well actual possessions are almost always pretty close, but if your possession ends with a TO instead of a shot that obviously makes a huge difference. i am scared to say it but i will be absolutely shocked if we come close to the same TO number we had against USC.

i think there is almost zero chance that VT presses except in an emergency and i wonder how long they could do it even then. i think they have really been playing only 6 girls for quite a while. anyone else is getting nothing more than a couple minutes

the other way to get more shot attempts is NOT giving them more than one shot per possession and getting multiple shots on our own, unless of course we just dont miss any shots making offensive boards unavailable)))

their fan board FWIW does not seem to think Kitley plays very big. they did not come off as irrational - they way bison fans sometimes sound complaining about their FB coaches- and said she lacks strength and athleticism. i thought i recall the espn bracket folks liking her a LOT and thought they felt she was athletic but maybe i got that wrong

if she does not dominate the boards (similar to usc marshall with i think 13) we could really have a shot to beat them on the boards, which i already said, i believe would win us the game. BTW we did outrebound usc despite marshalls individual dominance. i think we had 3 with 8 or more

[jackdaniel]

well actual possessions are almost always pretty close, but if your possession ends with a TO instead of a shot that obviously makes a huge difference. i am scared to say it but i will be absolutely shocked if we come close to the same TO number we had against USC.

i think there is almost zero chance that VT presses except in an emergency and i wonder how long they could do it even then. i think they have really been playing only 6 girls for quite a while. anyone else is getting nothing more than a couple minutes

the other way to get more shot attempts is NOT giving them more than one shot per possession and getting multiple shots on our own, unless of course we just dont miss any shots making offensive boards unavailable)))

their fan board FWIW does not seem to think Kitley plays very big. they did not come off as irrational - they way bison fans sometimes sound complaining about their FB coaches- and said she lacks strength and athleticism. i thought i recall the espn bracket folks liking her a LOT and thought they felt she was athletic but maybe i got that wrong

if she does not dominate the boards (similar to usc marshall with i think 13) we could really have a shot to beat them on the boards, which i already said, i believe would win us the game. BTW we did outrebound usc despite marshalls individual dominance. i think we had 3 with 8 or more

What do you think of our PG's vs their one PG? Paige is same size and probably just as quick , actually shoots the 3 ball at a higher percentage, and Dru is taller and elite passer, I think that matchup at that position favors us, doesn't it? Maybe we can wear her (Moore) down a little and throw her off a little two having two different styles to contend with repeatedly through out the game.

[LetsGoRabbits]

some other interesting bits from their fans- in case you did not check it

they are worried Kitley would struggle to guard Myah 1 on 1 and get in foul trouble. if she is sitting with fouls they have no other option to maintain their size advantage

like i said before and OH pointed it out also, expect them to do EVERYTHING possible to make sure Myah is not the deciding factor in the game, after us making just 2 threes in game one, i wont be shocked if they have most of their defenders with a foot in the paint or very close and dare us to win from the arc

if they do put Kitley mainly on Myah i am SO SO CURIOUS if she will follow her to the 3pt line. that would also feel like a huge advantage for us

they seem really high on 5'11 Soule who has almost 6 boards a game. talked about her playing MUCH bigger and thought she would give Myah trouble. they also like the idea of 6'2 gregg off the bench guarding Myah

i DO NOT want to see Paiton shooting a bunch of 3s if they are not going down but wow today would be a great day for her to revert to last year

finally thier fans seem to really like and support their team but also seem to realize that they are in for a real game today. after seeing us against USC they do believe we are kind of a TO machine and they think they should pressure Paige and Dru


again they are fans. they might be smart they might be total knuckleheads (like me) just found some comments interesting. they were sure a lot more respectful than Providence fans were about our men last year

[LetsGoRabbits]

What do you think of our PG's vs their one PG? Paige is same size and probably just as quick , actually shoots the 3 ball at a higher percentage, and Dru is taller and elite passer, I think that matchup at that position favors us, doesn't it?

well i believe she was first team all ACC and she does score 15.5 and over 5 assists so i think she is definitely deserving of respect. their fans seem to think she could pressure paige and dru but that is based off a pretty substandard performance against USC
if you combine our PG stats we are basically statistically even. i think we would / should probably be satisfied if this battle ends up even. i do not think Dru will ever guard her as the main defender. paige and timmie i imagine. maybe timmer's length could give her a bit of trouble???

i dont have their stats up now but as i recall they have basically 3 girls who shot a meaningful number of 3s and a decent percentage. NOBODY shoots it as well as Myah or Paige percentage wise. their PG has about 100 makes on the year i am sure that is quite a bit more than our leader. i think King has the best %
as i said before last game getting hot from 3 can be the difference maker if one team has a significant advantage

[jackdaniel]

well i believe she was first team all ACC and she does score 15.5 and over 5 assists so i think she is definitely deserving of respect. their fans seem to think she could pressure paige and dru but that is based off a pretty substandard performance against USC
if you combine our PG stats we are basically statistically even. i think we would / should probably be satisfied if this battle ends up even. i do not think Dru will ever guard her as the main defender. paige and timmie i imagine. maybe timmer's length could give her a bit of trouble???

i dont have their stats up now but as i recall they have basically 3 girls who shot a meaningful number of 3s and a decent percentage. NOBODY shoots it as well as Myah or Paige percentage wise. their PG has about 100 makes on the year i am sure that is quite a bit more than our leader. i think King has the best %
as i said before last game getting hot from 3 can be the difference maker if one team has a significant advantage

I saw this too, but then realized she's on the court for 36.4 min a game, and takes most of their teams 3 point shots , 280 our highest at 3 pt shot attempts is Haleigh at 130, she should have way more makes, no?

[Justwin]

I want to see Myah come out and establish herself right away. Waiting until the 4th quarter won't cut it this time.

[LetsGoRabbits]

I saw this too, but then realized she's on the court for 36.4 min a game, she should have way more makes, no?

well she plays more minutes than any of our girls because they basically play 6
but VERY similar to us they spread the scoring around. 4 players score10.5 or more another about 8 another 5.

i think the best comparison is just to combine Paige and Dru. they combine for more minutes but points are almost identical and we are a bit ahead on assists. I HOPE you are right!! i hope paige and dru dominate the PG matchup but i believe i will be happy if it is a draw. i just dont know enough about them to guess more than that

[LetsGoRabbits]

I want to see Myah come out and establish herself right away. Waiting until the 4th quarter won't cut it this time.

TOTALLY hear you and if she makes her first couple shots she will be more aggressive, but i believe we have to have more than Myah today and i would guess AJ thinks so too, so Myah probably is never gonna be the player to force her offense. she is going to try to get her teammates going too

a BIG difference with Myah from when she was POY two years ago is we have other players who have the ball in their hands a LOT more. two years ago even if Myah did not score she was still handling the ball and seemingly more in the middle of everything. now with others handling the ball if she is not scoring it feels like she is not involved, but she is always involved

i think possibly next year if you like to have a leading scorer who takes a more aggressive approach you might get it. both paige and timmie are a lot more aggressive than myah is. not saying at all that one is better or worse they are just different approaches

[jackdaniel]

rushing shots, trying to hard to get all the points back instaed of chipping away

[jackdaniel]

we don't need to go on a 10 pt run , just need a couple shots to fall and we'll be alright, stuck on 7 since Myah's 3 pointer