Oregon State's Aleah Goodman is espnW's player of the week

People underestimate how valuable a quick release (high arching shot is also a plus ) is for a player. Makes a shot hard to block or defend against. It allowed Goodman to get off shots against quick defenders that are on both Southern California teams. That is also a skill that players need to have at the next level. The quick release ( despite no arch ) is what got Jamie her roster spot on the Sparks.

Goodman has been very solid and consistent this season. She can play aggressively, but also knows when to slow the ball down to re-establish offensive team flow. Her one real shortcoming last season was defense, which she has really improved on this season. Now she is one of the better parameter defenders. It is great to see her intangible skills finally get recognized.

I was glad when Scott removed her from the starting line up and returned her to coming in off the bench. It allows the team to show two completely different offensive looks when she comes in. In the Stanford game she got caught up in the initial tempo and the offensive team flow never surfaced the entire game. Slocum, Pivec and Goodman on the floor to start is not a good combination. Too much dribbling and one on one play. Stanford shut that down those drives to the basket and offensive flow to create open looks never happened.

I always try to notice players intangibles that do not show up in the score card. One thing that Jo has always attempted to do is set picks and screens for teammates. Unfortunately they never seemed to use them  Destiny was the exception. She always used Jo's picks to her advantage. In one recent game she used three of Jo's picks in a row to get a clear lane to the hoop. She is also adept at running her defender into people who are not even trying to set picks. I am sure Aleah has watched and learned. Something Aleah does well with Jo is the pick and roll. The other players do not. 

Every player has things that they do well and other things they need to work on. Sometimes they have reached their ceilings and those weak area's will always remain weak and their strengths have already maxed out. Both Slocum and Goodman still have weak area's that can be improved as do the other players on the team as well. With Slocum it's decision making in respect to establishing team balance in contrast with when to call her own number. She also needs to learn to establishing position on defense rather than relying too much on her quickness. A really good player will use her foot speed against her. If we rely too much on our strengths those very strengths soon become our weaknesss. 

My memory of Aleah's first year seems different from others. I remember a gal that couldn't keep the ball safe, had a nervous tick dribble that was outright dangerous for the team, and seemed at times to have lost track on where the play was supposed to go. Potential, but would need another year to be more than a three point shooter at need. Where that person went I don't know but this impersonator Aleah has none of those problems. She still has plenty of space for growth, but if the conference had a 6th player award I don't see how she wouldn't get it, to say the least. It's kind of funny when she's on court before the game as she's bouncing around, joking, singing, laughing and generally having a good time. And then the time for interviews comes up and her head goes down and she's not sure what happened out there but gee, she's glad they won.

I think Destiny and Aleah have been great for each other. Their games were very different from each other and they are both smart and love to learn and have gotten better playing with/against each other. In passes alone Aleah has learned to put the pop into her hard passes so they don't get intercepted as much and Destiny has learned to make a soft pass that isn't a slow lob so it doesn't get stolen. I hope that PB and/or HVL see how these two have learned from each other and at least one of them realizes the benefit of learning from these two for a year.