Round 2 NCAA GDT: Jackrabbits vs Hokies Cassell Coliseum 4pm CT ESPN2

[LetsGoRabbits]

]I think Amore in VT game was kind of contained and less effective against LSU by them putting fast, athletic, quick defenders [/B]on her harassing her all game long, she didn't seem to get set for the shot as much to me, nor have the time to. I'll have to re-watch the replay to watch specifically that to affirm my limited observation. But the few times I watched , a player hounded her as she moved about without the ball and pretty close even with the ball at times (harassing).

Both these semi-final games were very intense, high energy, adrenaline infused, battles to be sure. Not your regular season games , so much at stake, and it showed. A deep bench is very needed, as there's inevitably going to be some players in foul trouble, and more players fatigued do to the high level of physical exertion in games of this intensity level.

i would have to watch more closely, regarding your comment about how they guarded her without the ball

but to me i feel like they and SC last night shared one important defensive philosophy. and regarding VT i dont know WHY the teams they played last weekend (the second weekend, AFTER she hit 12 threes in their first two games) did not do MORE of this

i think LSU and USC last night were trying pretty aggressively to force the opponents top shooters OFF the 3pt line and / or not give ANY good looks beyond the arc. I definitely thought after our game against VT that was the approach to take against them.

against us for instance King hit 3 threes in the first half and did nothing off the dribble
i am pretty sure Amoore did not make a single shot inside the arc against us as well. obviously i can go check the boxscore but it was 1 at the most. but she hit 7 freaking 3s

anyway point being i think the VT guards are a WAY bigger problem shooting 3s than they are inside the arc and i think that is what LSU did last night

i think USC tried the same thing and that explains Clark being 5 of 17 (still not terrible, except for her) and Iowa not shooting well from 3. the difference is that Clark is 6 inches taller than Amoore and is a much better passer and scorer inside the arc than Amoore is. and Clark was able to take far more advantage of the plan to take away the 3 by getting layups for herself and specifically Cinznano?? i will pretty much guarantee iowa had more layups last night against usc than any other team all year and definitely more than anyone dreamed possible against a team with Boston, Cordozo and company guarding the rim. but that was because of Clark and the iowa shooters and the effort to stop them hitting 3s and clark's length and skill to be able to take advantage of that

[jackdaniel]

I think Amore in VT game was kind of contained and less effective against LSU by them putting fast, athletic, quick defenders on her harassing her all game long, she didn't seem to get set for the shot as much to me, nor have the time to. I'll have to re-watch the replay to watch specifically that to affirm my limited observation. But the few times I watched , a player hounded her as she moved about without the ball and pretty close even with the ball at times (harassing).

Both these semi-final games were very intense, high energy, adrenaline infused, battles to be sure. Not your regular season games , so much at stake, and it showed. A deep bench is very needed, as there's inevitably going to be some players in foul trouble, and more players fatigued do to the high level of physical exertion in games of this intensity level. All these teams are very,very good defensive teams in these semi-finals, it's no wonder AJ stresses defense so much.

[jackdaniel]

Well??? who can say what tape they watched? i sure dont know BUT i have NO IDEA why you would try anything else against them?

basically you HAVE TO have at least 4 people with at least one foot in the paint and much of the time all 5. they are not a great perimeter shooting team. you gotta hope they miss enough and you dont give up a bunch of O Boards

one thing i would do different. whoever is guarding boston and cordozo is not allowed to help one inch. their only job is try to keep those two at least 6 feet from the hoop and dont give up an inch of rebounding position

if the other girls make the first shot?? FINE then you gotta hit enough from outside to out score them, but when you get a stop and they just go get EVERY O board it is back breaking

Not only are South Carolina's post players tall and athletic, but they are big and strong, and have that knack for (for doing it all season long & coaching probably), and desire to get that rebound , and if the ref's let the game get physical like this one was, USC's posts are very hard to box out , they will just man handle you to get the rebounding position they want, especially against smaller players. That's why they are the most dominate rebounding team in the Nation IMHO. Hats off to Iowa for being a gritty, tough team to handle that enough for the win, it wasn't easy.

[jackdaniel]

We've seemed to have kept pretty good company this last season and post season. We played against 3 of the "elite 8" and 2 of the "final 4" teams that played in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. That should put us in good stead for next season for knowing the things we have to get better at, and things we are OK with for playing teams at this level. Thanks to AJ, we play the best teams that he can schedule to keep his teams challenged and prepared the best he can for playing anyone we face. Keep striving to take another step forward Jacks. I appreciate the hard working nature of AJ's recruits to strive to do just that. The future looks bright.

[LetsGoRabbits]

UNBELIEVABLY ironic
probably the best rebounding team i have ever seen TOTALLY dominates the boards but basically lose the game by giving up an O Board with less than 20 seconds left in the game

DEFINITELY the best two teams. should have been playing on sunday

of the 4 teams in the final 4 Iowa was definitely the worst matchup for S Carolina. you have to be able to shoot it to have a shot and iowa has at least 4 shooters and obvioiusly one of the best ever. VT would have had some shot because they also have shooters and actually Kitley probably would have done a better job on the boards than Cnano (however you spell it)

LSU would have had no chance against SC they play the same exact game except SC is WAY WAY better at it

big congrats to SC!!! it is amazing to be so so dominant while being rather ordinary on offense. they just absolutely dominate on D and they might be the most dominant rebounding team i have ever seen.

[LetsGoRabbits]

Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are hosting an alternate show during the LSU/ Va Tech game. They both said that playing on VT’s court in Blacksburg was easily one of the top 5 toughest places to play. The home court advantage for the opening rounds of the tournament is so strong

I very much believe we will get to the point of being an opening weekend host site. NOT every year of course!!! but we will be in the conversation more than once in a while. without question this is the biggest reason why there are less upsets of top seeds on the womens side. and also without question why if you are not hosting you want to be a 5 or a 12 or a 13!! if you have to play a true road game you want the 4 seed

[LetsGoRabbits]

Very similar defense to what the Jacks played vs South Carolina being employed by Iowa. Do you think they stole some of AJ's game plan for this one?

Well??? who can say what tape they watched? i sure dont know BUT i have NO IDEA why you would try anything else against them?

basically you HAVE TO have at least 4 people with at least one foot in the paint and much of the time all 5. they are not a great perimeter shooting team. you gotta hope they miss enough and you dont give up a bunch of O Boards

one thing i would do different. whoever is guarding boston and cordozo is not allowed to help one inch. their only job is try to keep those two at least 6 feet from the hoop and dont give up an inch of rebounding position

if the other girls make the first shot?? FINE then you gotta hit enough from outside to out score them, but when you get a stop and they just go get EVERY O board it is back breaking

[bigticket1]

Very similar defense to what the Jacks played vs South Carolina being employed by Iowa. Do you think they stole some of AJ's game plan for this one?

Will be interesting to see if Iowa can maintain this pace, or if they run out of gas in the 4th.

[Borderboy]

Very similar defense to what the Jacks played vs South Carolina being employed by Iowa. Do you think they stole some of AJ's game plan for this one?

[SoDakPirate]

Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are hosting an alternate show during the LSU/ Va Tech game. They both said that playing on VT’s court in Blacksburg was easily one of the top 5 toughest places to play. The home court advantage for the opening rounds of the tournament is so strong

[98Jackfarmer]

Watching the LSU/VT game. Mulkey is a nauseating person. I get her shtick, but dang. She isn't a coach I would like to support. Yes, I realize she's good.

[LetsGoRabbits]

the second set of facts i will put here for a lack of the perfect spot and since this was Myah last game i guess here makes sense

Myah and Macy are the top two scorers in program history and you could make a solid argument the top two players (FWIW i put Myah in basically a tie for the 2nd best player in sdsu wbb history with Warkenthien, M Pater, and Waytashek. i know many would argue Vogel. i would have her just behind that group and very slightly ahead of Rotert)

all time rankings aside i want to point out the crazy similarity between Macy and Myah final games (also happen to be ncaa games)

first NCAA game of their final season
Macy 28 points 11 rebounds 2 assists she made 7 of 18 FG attempts made 10 of 12 FT
Myah 29 points 9 rebounds..................she made 10 of 18 FG attempts made 8 of 10 FT

CRAZY myah had 1 more point and shot over 50%. macy had 2 more boards and 2 more assists


final NCAA game of their final season (obviously FINAL game of their careers)
Macy against a 2 seed basically at home (oregon in portland)
Myah against a 1 seed actually at home

Macy 21 points 8 rebounds 2 assists..... made 6 of 18 FG, made 1 of 5 3pt FG, made 8 or 9 FT
Myah 17 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist.......made 6 of 18 FG, made 1 of 6 3pt FG, made 4 of 5 FT

their final games are literally identical!! macy had one more assist and myah had one more rebound and macy got to the foul line 2 additional times for 4 additional attempts and makes


just thought this was interesting or ironic or crazy or FUN
thought it was worth passing on

[LetsGoRabbits]

a couple of interesting facts (at least i believe they are interesting)

we did a very solid job guarding VT two studs especially in the second half. Kitley and Amoore only made 4 baskets combined in the second half (unfortunately both shots by Amoore were absolute DAGGER late 3s)

but these two combined for the game to score 35 points on 40 (YES FORTY) shots
but the OTHER 3 starters scored 33 points on only 24 shots it really was these complimentary players who were the difference in the game

[jackdaniel]

i definitely agree with this and NO DOUBT this feels true after our VT loss

but more accurately (a bit anyway) you gotta hit MORE shots than the other team if you wanna win / cause an upset

and while i have said several times we need more scoring and that feels very right, at the end of the day they shot 57% from 3 in the first half but 25% in the second half. did we defend better or did they get cold or did law of averages kick in??

they made 7 FG in first Q. 4 FG in third Q. 5FG in 4th Q. but in the second quarter they made 12! for some reason in the second quarter we really could not stop anyone off the dribble forcing the defender guarding Kitley to step over and help. every time that happened Kitley went directly to the rim and often got an offensive rebound


at the end of the day it feels like the 3s hurt a lot. we had TWO they had TWELVE, but to be honest we neutralized that 10 point advantage at the FT line where we made 14 to their 4. the problem is overall they made 6 more FG and that was the exact margin of the game

and in all my years coaching i was ALWAYS a believer that shooting the basketball and rebounding are the two most important pieces of the game. if you can NOT put the ball in the hoop, EVERY other part of the game gets harder!! and i might speculate a little that ONE partial reason for our uncharacteristically bad defense in the second Q could have been frustration from not really shooting well for 5 or 6 quarters of basketball from friday into sunday??

anyway no matter what the reason for them getting 12 FG in the second, i AGREE with the feeling that we need to score more and think it is a fact that we struggled to score at times this season. but they made six more FG and that was the difference in the game
it does NOT matter how we even that up!!! we can make more or cause them to make less and while the offense did look to blame in both games it is also true that we do not normally let teams shoot 75% for a quarter and make 12 FG

and back to my belief about shooting and rebounding. i think losing to them on the boards by 7 is fairly respectable BUT they made 6 more FG and part of that is due to them getting MORE shots. beat by 7 boards feels respectable but we could have done a better job and that would have definitely decreased the amount of FG they made

at the end of the day i agree we needed to score more and it feels like we need more shooting maybe particularly from 3

but that has never really seem like the way AJ has approached it. he definitely prefers to play good offense while also being very good at defending and rebounding and shooting wise, i think it will always be more normal for us to shoot well as a team with multiple solid shooters.

just a for instance to show how you fairly easily makeup 12 points without really improving your shooting at all or making any additional 3s

Paiton missed a wide open fast break layup
Tori missed 2 layups on one possession
Timmie went 0 for 3 on her first 3 FT

lets say we should have had 6 more points there. now we are down by 6

do a much better job of forcing Amoore, Traylor, and probably especially King OFF the 3 pt line but also NEVER help so aggressively off Kitley that you give up rebounding position

even if that means you get beat off the dribble and give up wide open layups but NEVER a O board for second chance points. if you turn 6 or their 12 3s into wide upen layups they still score 6 less points and you have a tie game

if you assume we recover well enough to get them to miss just ONE of those layups then you win the game

point being i agree i want us to shoot better and score better but that game was winnable without shooting much better at all. make a couple layups and FTs and dont give up 12 threes and dont give up O boards

Agree, sometimes we lose our focus and allow easy offensive boards by not keeping players in good rebounding positions and boxing out. This is even more important when we aren't shooting well ourselves, to me anyway. You are so right to point it out, although generally , we are a good rebounding team. To keep Kitley boxed out increases her chances of being called for a foul, and for Kallie, even at 6'6" I don't think she (Kitley) is gonna come up with the ball over Kallie's back, no way she (Kallie) will let that happen.

[jackdaniel]

i definitely agree with this and NO DOUBT this feels true after our VT loss

but more accurately (a bit anyway) you gotta hit MORE shots than the other team if you wanna win / cause an upset

and while i have said several times we need more scoring and that feels very right, at the end of the day they shot 57% from 3 in the first half but 25% in the second half. did we defend better or did they get cold or did law of averages kick in??

they made 7 FG in first Q. 4 FG in third Q. 5FG in 4th Q. but in the second quarter they made 12! for some reason in the second quarter we really could not stop anyone off the dribble forcing the defender guarding Kitley to step over and help. every time that happened Kitley went directly to the rim and often got an offensive rebound


at the end of the day it feels like the 3s hurt a lot. we had TWO they had TWELVE, but to be honest we neutralized that 10 point advantage at the FT line where we made 14 to their 4. the problem is overall they made 6 more FG and that was the exact margin of the game

and in all my years coaching i was ALWAYS a believer that shooting the basketball and rebounding are the two most important pieces of the game. if you can NOT put the ball in the hoop, EVERY other part of the game gets harder!! and i might speculate a little that ONE partial reason for our uncharacteristically bad defense in the second Q could have been frustration from not really shooting well for 5 or 6 quarters of basketball from friday into sunday??

anyway no matter what the reason for them getting 12 FG in the second, i AGREE with the feeling that we need to score more and think it is a fact that we struggled to score at times this season. but they made six more FG and that was the difference in the game
it does NOT matter how we even that up!!! we can make more or cause them to make less and while the offense did look to blame in both games it is also true that we do not normally let teams shoot 75% for a quarter and make 12 FG

and back to my belief about shooting and rebounding. i think losing to them on the boards by 7 is fairly respectable BUT they made 6 more FG and part of that is due to them getting MORE shots. beat by 7 boards feels respectable but we could have done a better job and that would have definitely decreased the amount of FG they made

at the end of the day i agree we needed to score more and it feels like we need more shooting maybe particularly from 3

but that has never really seem like the way AJ has approached it. he definitely prefers to play good offense while also being very good at defending and rebounding and shooting wise, i think it will always be more normal for us to shoot well as a team with multiple solid shooters.

just a for instance to show how you fairly easily makeup 12 points without really improving your shooting at all or making any additional 3s

Paiton missed a wide open fast break layup
Tori missed 2 layups on one possession
Timmie went 0 for 3 on her first 3 FT

lets say we should have had 6 more points there. now we are down by 6

do a much better job of forcing Amoore, Traylor, and probably especially King OFF the 3 pt line but also NEVER help so aggressively off Kitley that you give up rebounding position

even if that means you get beat off the dribble and give up wide open layups but NEVER a O board for second chance points. if you turn 6 or their 12 3s into wide upen layups they still score 6 less points and you have a tie game

if you assume we recover well enough to get them to miss just ONE of those layups then you win the game

point being i agree i want us to shoot better and score better but that game was winnable without shooting much better at all. make a couple layups and FTs and dont give up 12 threes and dont give up O boards

I like how in depth your reasoning is and how it all makes sense. Your a very good analyst, way better than Newitt. I think AJ is going to fortify our streaky 3 pt shooting soon, starting with our ' 24 class, and maybe our '23 class too. But we will have a lot to make-up for losing Myah's 3pt contribution and to a somewhat lesser degree Paiton's. We lost a very good PG , but retained a very good PG.

I agree with the pretty well spoken sentiment from most posters that, yes, our starters have a ton of experience . Generally we are in an excellent position for having the best team returning in the Summit , but that to be the NCAA tournament team we want , should we once again be so fortunate, we will need more scoring, all 4 quarters, and much more capable of consistent scoring (with the aid of great composure , & confidence , the result of hard work) to keep from falling behind by too much to overcome.
Maybe we can get there if the starters take more to being the scorers in the absence of our grads next season , and an emergence from this season's under grads and the other bench players, also. A great opportunity for all the players and new comers going forward, everyone has a shot for more playing time. A nice grad transfer would help tremendously, if we can get the right one. Long wait to get to see how the cards will unfold next season , but remain positive we will be alright in the end.

I agree ,things didn't unfold quite the way we wanted it to in our loss to VT, and maybe we could have won the game by cleaning up some things, it would have been nice for sure. We can clean up ALL our shortcomings by knowing what they are and working hard to remedy them for next season. I'm sure AJ is already planning to do just that as we speak.