OSU-WSU game thread (tonight 7pm)

Great to get a win, and the first half went about as I expected, but the second half was really tough. Good to see the ladies battle down the stretch and hit their last 5 shots and most of their free throws.

Hristova and Molina are the real deal. 

Just back from the game.....
Crowd was handed these orange-lit bam bams/glow sticks (speculation - I didn't get one) that made the OSU team intro even cooler.....nice touch.
KTMac has been jumping center for several games now - has yet to win one, and not sure what the plan there is - defer to the other team? Maybe prepping for Kennedy Brown jumping center next year when she replaces KTMac?
Beavers are making a habit of coming out slow at the beginning and after the half - may come back to haunt them.
DS played a bit more under control, but likely because SR was telling her to repeatedly.
Mik came to play, and back to normal on FTs. We may need DS to work on them next.....
JG playing hard. Would have had an even more impressive stat line had some more of the easy shots dropped for her. I think she is going to have to learn how to play through more contact than the OOC teams (for the most part) presented her with.....
Maddie had a strong rebounding game. Needs to go up quicker with the ball in the paint, sometimes her maneuvering to create space got her into trouble,
Taya had a solid game, even though some of the outside 3s didn't drop for her.
Kat's injury didn't look good. Gill could tell it - you could hear a pin drop in there while she was laid out on the floor.....she didn't come back out until well into the third quarter, and the look on her face when she came back on crutches (no ice) wasn't promising either, though she did jump up on good plays in the 3rd/4th (maybe the Beavs didn't want to stress her any further so they went light on good plays in the 3rd . Let's hope she is back soon!
Aleah was solid. SR swapped her in for DS when WSU started fouling for profit.
McWilliams was more aggressive in spots, but her passing out of traffic when she drew defenders led to some TOs.
WSU always plays us close - compared to last year's OT game on the Palouse, this one was less stressful....
Good crowd for a Friday 7pm game, students should be back in town for the dawgs.

We might surprise some folks, but if we don't clean some things up and come out at the beginning and 3rd with more fire, we will be surprised by some folks as well - especially in this year's Pac-12.

Go Beavers!

Whether "you" didn't, but fact in point the team was. Down with 6 min left, at home, vs a lower tier team... doesn't bode well.

JT's injury was unfortunate, but is not a season change. Kate obviously more important, but not the reason this team will struggle. There is just no overall balance.

It'll be a battle all season...

My observations-

Katie never covered Hristova. Mik and Taya covered her while Katie chased Molina. Really don't understand that. It wasn't a disaster but, I don't understand why.

Rebounding started off badly and SR must have protested after the first 1/4 because it was must better after that.

Aleah gets it in her mind to run a play and she's gonna try to do it over and over until even I can tell what's going on. And when she starts to run that play the rest of the team drops off her radar. Next lesson from Destiny, go with the flow of the game and stop running your head against that brick wall.

Keep being aggressive Katie, the team needs it.

Mik, thanks for being you.

Taya had an odd look to her later three's. I hope her shoulder isn't bothering her still. Maybe just getting tired? Didn't get to work out much before the season started.

Kat, please please be all right. And don't rush your return, make sure you are all right!

Jo had a rough night with the ball but she stuck it out in the middle and played good defense.

Maddie seems to be getting the idea of how to play defense against the bigs. Bet she's got some interesting bruises at the end of this game.

Destiny is getting more into the flow of the game with the other teammates. Fewer wild eyed 3 launches. She really is fun to watch play.

Jas did fine with her time. She's obviously soaking it in. Be great to try some fast breaks with her and Destiny.

Katie did play on Hristova for a while - IIRC, in the second period - and didn't quite shut her down but ended that early-game tear that she was on. I was surprised that Taya took over for her, but I'm sure Scott was looking at the bigger picture and thought he needed Katie more urgently elsewhere.

Maddie's D wasn't just good - it was so good that WSU gave up on their starter and any pretense of a low-post game and put in Subasic. It was a good move for WSU - who knew that Subasic would go 3-4 from the arc (she was 1-3 for the season)?! Kostourkova was 2-10, with most of that frustration coming against Maddie. For me, the biggest surprise of this season has been Maddie's D at the 5-spot. Did anyone predict that?

Jas was smoked again and again out there. She was in for about three minutes and she got beat three times - twice for layups that she fouled on, and once for a short floater. Those seven points (Hristova missed her FT) against her was 100% of WSU's scoring in those three minutes.

From what I gather in Scott's statements, I think both Aleah and Destiny are following the coaches' instructions as best they each can. Scott keeps talking about loosening things up, playing with more speed and depending less on the sets. For the last five years, with Syd and Mik at the point, we've grown accustomed to a deliberate half-court style, punctuated with an opportunistic fast-break mentality - and we've assumed that is Scott's "style", and we assume that Destiny is having trouble fitting into that style. But based on Scott's press conferences, I don't think the problem is Destiny not following instructions, but simply that the entire team isn't executing things according to plan. Someone needs to go analyze the replay, but I suspect that the team in general is not finding the right spots on the floor or taking the right angles to the hoop, which leaves Destiny hanging.

Aleah spends most of her time on the court along with Jo, and I think that Scott wants to simplify the half-court game down for Jo and Aleah sets things up accordingly. We've seen Aleah play with more fluidity, so I think her "tunnel vision" is an illusion.