WBB: Landmark Conference

[ronk]

 Kate qualified on 3 counts: prowess in bball, lacrosse, and coaching, being 1 of only 3 coaches to defeat the Lady Royals last year. . Congrats also to Kate's backcourt running mate during her career, Katie Dougherty, on her selection in the same Wall of Fame induction class. Katie is my alltime favorite Lady Royal because of her combination of proficiency and hustle/effort.

[ronk]

 The Lady Royals had a stern test in E-town today, winning the battle for the Landmark lead against the Blue Jays. I'll project that E-town will finish 2nd this season. They were aggressive, physical, and well-coached.
  Kudos to Lia for hitting 3-4 3-pters when the lead was cut to 3 in the 2nd half in addition to 7 rebounds and 3 steals.
   

[saratoga]

Ronk:
"Physical" is certainly an understatement.
One play in particular had Noel (sneaking in for a rebound), grabbed from behind and thrown hard to the floor with no whistle.
In Waverly, Pa., that aggression carries a mandatory 3 year sentence.

[ronk]

  Congrats to Meredith on getting 1500 points tonight in only 3 years. Catholic, then Moravian, both on the road next for the Lady Royals. Thought E-town might finish 2nd, but they're 1-3 since I made that assessment.
Scranton   7-0
Catholic     5-1
Susque     5-1
Moravian   5-2 
E-town     3-4
Drew        3-4
Juniata     2-4
Goucher   0-6
MMA        0-8

[saratoga]

Scranton barely pulls one out tonight at home vs. a team they beat on the road by 20 plus.
Their bigs need to establish themselves much better on the blocks & their guards simply have to contribute something offensively.
Not firing at all, some games they look like they are regressing rather than improving.
Credit to MBS of Moravian...clearly had a game plan & out coached  her counterpart at Scranton.
Much, much work to do if this Lady Royal team wants to play beyond the Landmark playoffs.

[ronk]

  Lady Royals allowed too many offensive rebounds, especially against a team known for that and the inbound attempts with 29 secs remaining weren't reassuring for when they play better teams. Lindsay looked like she cramped in the 2nd half; her 39 mins of play might have contributed to that. They're missing the go-to player who can create her own shot, especially as the shot clock winds down, but the rest of the tools are there - time to upgrade their play as they get into season crunch time. 

[sp0rtsfan]

Contrary to Coach Strong's statement about leaving behind a very very good team, I feel this Royals squad has too many deficiencies to be a legitimate Top 15 program. The bench is the weakest I've ever seen and the overall team is slow and even a little soft. I feel Coach DK is making the most of what she's been given for this season.  There's no question that Meredith is a force, however, the weaknesses which were already pointed out by Saratoga and Ronk along with their lack of speed and toughness will haunt them as they play against more athletic teams....When playing their best ball, they may be competitive against FDU or Montclair State for a half but will end up losing by 20....That said, I wish the Lady Royals well and will continue to root for them until the end..

[ronk]

  The Lady Royals are a Top 15 team; what is keeping them from the Final 4 level is an appreciation of the value of each possession on offense and the desire to contest every opponent possession, including the afore-mentioned boxing out. Sometimes they need a kick in the butt like the Sweet 16 game against Montclair last season but they were a young team then. They're a year more experienced now and shouldn't need that kick anymore.
   Coach Deanna says in her interviews that they've been working hard on defense from the opening practice; they've shown stretches of good defense; it's now time to do it consistently.
  Juniata will get after them tomorrow and Catholic in 2 weeks, although neither is as talented as they have been in recent years. Susquehanna is more talented than they've been in a while, including a couple of sisters that I tried to interest in Scranton. E-town is a young team that battled them in early January. We'll see what progress is made in the next 3 weeks.

[saratoga]

The Lady Royals coach can say "they" are working on defense since the start of practice because she is assisted by Coach Cianci...who is well known near and far as an outstanding teacher of defensive sets.
From that aspect, they are in great hands.
What she needs to kick into high gear is her offense.
She has players 6' or taller that make themselves 5'6" when receiving passes...stay tall & make yourself even taller in the post. They receive the ball reaching below their waist allowing hands to slap the ball away.
If your 6'1"...play 6'4".
The offensive spacing is horrible....how many times do we still see players bumping into one another & simply handing the ball to a teammate rather than passing it to them.
This allows the defense a much easier time to herd the offense as opposed to spreading them out over the court and creating lanes to drive.
The offense is far too one dimensional.
Teams are simply going to say...Maredith gets double teamed, have someone else beat us.
Scranton clearly has other offensive weapons, they need to get them involved.
The incessant dribbling & standing around on offense rather than crisp passing & motion with a mindset to crash the offensive boards for second chance shots & put backs is mind boggling.
The Lady Royal "D" can hold even decent/good teams to 50 ppg however, if their offense continues to look like a pickup game at a rec. league & they can only score 40 because passes are 2 seconds late into the blocks or the wrong people are forced to take 25' jumpers because the clock is down to 3 seconds, they lose.
The Lady Royals most certainly have the talent, they need to master the basics.
Teams go zone...get your bigs moving down low & bang it in or dish to cutters...stop playing into the other teams plan & keep firing over the top.
Establish all the talent you have down low & the outside game will be there.
Too much standing around on offense...this generally happens when the ball is moved by dribbling rather than passing.
When on, this team can be scary good.
When playing like it's the first time they've ever been together this late in the season.... it's just plain scary.
Here's hoping the talent that rose to the top in last year's stretch run through the Landmark playoffs & well into the NCAA tournament finds its mojo....the talent is certainly there.

[ronk]

 Noticeably more movement offensively for the Lady Royals against Juniata yesterday; still, a number of shot clock airballs; may have to go with a reasonable shot with 15 secs left on shot clock rather than waiting til under 10 secs.

Regional rankings forecast:

1. Scranton
2. Salisbury (hopefully, at least 1 of Scranton and Kelly will get the AQ so we don't have to compete for Mid/Atl spot for Pool C
3. McDaniel
4. Stevenson
5. Mary Washington
6. Catholic

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Just a thought... McDaniel has one of the worst SOS numbers in the country: .458 = 352nd of 440. While I am not saying I disagree with third in your rankings, ronk, I wouldn't be surprised if at least Stevenson (.573 - 34th) is head of them.

[ronk]

Just a thought... McDaniel has one of the worst SOS numbers in the country: .458 = 352nd of 440. While I am not saying I disagree with third in your rankings, ronk, I wouldn't be surprised if at least Stevenson (.573 - 34th) is head of them.

Dave,
  I didn't have any SOS numbers for the women(unlike tomaroonand gold blog for the men's SOS) - just a scan of their non-conference opponents.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

There is a link under the news tab on the d3hoops site.

[ronk]

There is a link under the news tab on the d3hoops site.

Thanks for the link - I'm revising my RR forecast.

Noticeably more movement offensively for the Lady Royals against Juniata yesterday; still, a number of shot clock airballs; may have to go with a reasonable shot with 15 secs left on shot clock rather than waiting til under 10 secs.

Regional rankings forecast:

1. Scranton
2. Salisbury (hopefully, at least 1 of Scranton and Kelly will get the AQ so we don't have to compete for Mid/Atl spot for Pool C
3. McDaniel
4. Stevenson
5. Mary Washington
6. Catholic

revised Regional rankings forecast:

1. Scranton
2. Salisbury (hopefully, at least 1 of Scranton and Kelly will get the AQ so we don't have to compete for Mid/Atl spot for Pool C
3. Stevenson
4. McDaniel
5. Elizabethtown
6. Catholic

[ronk]

  Congrats to Lindsay Fluehr on breaking the Lady Royals' career assist record; She also hit 3 big 3-pters to help defeat pesky Susquehanna.