WBB: Landmark Conference

[ronk]

 Opening nite for the Lady Royals - this tourney site 6 years ago was the debut of Sarah Payonk with a combo of 18/18 pts/rebs against Montclair St(a final 4 team) and 26/13 vs Washington College; this was arguably the finest frosh debut of any Scranton athlete ever.
I had seen Sarah play 10 games(AAU & HS) the year before(I was really interested in her AAU teammate who played @ D1 Mount St Mary) but I was still surprised at her production. I later analyzed that my surprise stemmed from having seen her play against many scholarship players(D1/2) and that she was able to be more productive in the D3 world.
  There is an incoming frosh capable of similar production but with 4 starters returning along with the 6th man, she won't have the same opportunity that Sarah had. I haven't seen her play in over a year but that was my thought back then.

[saratoga]

Well, another season is underway & although you can't complain with the final results (2 wins), there is obviously a ton of work still to do.

If this team has any aspirations of following in the footsteps of previous Lady Royal teams, their defense simply has to improve & improve significantly.

I saw more uncontested shots go up in the first two games this season than were allowed in the past two years.

Playing tough D for 40 minutes is hard and it takes a total team effort, but if you want to be one of the last teams standing, it not only has to be done, the kids need to embrace that philosophy.

Right now they are giving up 69 ppg, last year for an entire season, they only allowed 48.8.

The press is coming....

Get used to it & work on it every day.

Glad to see after about 8 trips of not getting the ball past half court and passing the ball into a corner where immediate triple teams were taking place, the passes started to go to the middle and a Sophia was moved up to assist.

Bombs away....

I guess this is part of the new offensive scheme & that's great news for Emily S. & Taylor & a few others but it also takes some kids out of their natural zone of comfort. Misses lead to deep rebounds and that leads to the opposition getting the ball down court quicker and preventing the Lady Royals from pressuring the ball & easier baskets.

I was glad to see Mackenzie floating more yesterday into those 10/15 foot jumpers than letting them fly from deep.

She can obviously nail the big 3 (please refer to the Tufts game) but it can't be forced. By moving toward the basket, it also allows her to be in position to be fouled & when you have someone that shoots 84% from the line, take that advantage every time you can.

I guess I'm used to seeing the extra pass being made to get the best shot possible regardless of where it comes from.
Although you can certainly speed this process up, recognition of what is a good shot still needs to happen.

Great to see Emily Shurina step right in and provide an instant spark offensively and if she keeps playing like this, she'll be getting more and more minutes.

The freshman post had a fantastic game on Friday and she'll only get more confidence with each opportunity.

The freshman point also did some nice things but she needs the offense to give her space so she has lanes to drive or dish...too clogged at times with little to no motion and kids bumping into each other.

Most of this team has been to the promised land, the offense is too good & they'll find their mojo.

However, if they have any hope of keeping up with Lady Royal teams of the past, their defense has got to get far more serious and intense.

Offense is fun to watch, defense wins championships.

[Tim the Enchanter]

I agree that there is room for improvement (too many points given up and turnovers committed), but I think that the number of points they've given up is relative:

Ursinus averages 76 points/49% against other opponents.  Scored 64/44% against Scranton.

Gwynedd runs a Grinnell-style up-tempo system, trying to force turnovers and score quick buckets.  Against other opponents they average 88 points on 30% shooting (averaging 100 shots per game).  Against Scranton, they scored 74 points on 22% shooting (and 86 shots).  And from what I saw against Gwynedd they did a fairly nice job breaking the press.  Yes, Scranton committed a way-too-high 24 turnovers, but Gywnedd has forced 31 turnovers/game against their  other opponents.

Given the senior leadership on this team, as they get used to the new coach and style of play, I am reasonably confident that they will tighten things up as the year goes on so that they can have another deep run in March.

[saratoga]

Tim:

Just to keep things in perspective, last year Gwynedd only scored 45 points against essentially, this very same Royal squad.

A 29 point swing in the wrong direction should not be ignored.

[Tim the Enchanter]

Fair enough.

[Rofrog]

Here is a fact this is our 3rd time in this tournament never won it.They did yesterday.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Couple games into a new season ... under a new coach ...

Patience my friends, patience.

[Rofrog]

Agreed!!!

[ronk]

Tim:

Just to keep things in perspective, last year Gwynedd only scored 45 points against essentially, this very same Royal squad.

A 29 point swing in the wrong direction should not be ignored.

This mainly reflects the change by G-M Coach Mondillo to speed up the offense, cause t/o s with more open 3-pt shots and less time between shots.
  Breaking a zone press requires different team capabilities than 1 ballhandler against a man-to-man. Lots to work on this week; G-M did us a favor.

[Rofrog]

Yes they need to stop going to the corner!Gurantee they will get it right.First half they did it fine but I personally think they got a little tired and made some terrible passes.Which can be corrected immediately!

[Rofrog]

See when you have a run offense like he likes they better get in shape quick.Mason,Sheehan,Lily,Taylor handled it well from what I saw at the game Sofia was sucking air but held in there.I think as the year goes on they will get better.Under Trevor he never pressed.He had them sit back and play defense on there end which is fine.

[Rofrog]

See Trevor's team lost to an 0-2 team Quinnipiac!

[ronk]

 The Lady Royals' Emily Shurina, after shooting 54% on 3s last season, upped her accuracy this year, going 5-7 Friday and 6-7 in the first half yesterday. She scored 20 pts in 9 mins of action in that 1st half yesterday. I don't remember any of those makes drawing iron in that 1st half. On 1 of those pure shots she tangled the net in the rim; the refs either didn't notice(they're supposed to stop play and fix the net) or they didn't care. Sure enough, 20 secs later, Emily pures 1 from the corner again and the tangled net almost causes the ball to pop back through the rim. Even the G-M fans were going wild at the display.

[saratoga]

Emily is one of those classic pure shooters.

When she gets on a roll, just keep feeding her.

Beautiful stroke!

[Rofrog]

Agreed Saratoga,Ronk if you could have seen the fans from G-M everytime she got the ball and shot it up they went wild a couple fans.She has a beautiful shot.