Corosdale - Thropay

I didn't get to watch the game yesterday, but it's my understanding Miami plays with four undersized players and one big. I'm not sure how Kennedy will hold up against which ever player she is guarding, and I'm not sure how Taylor will do either against a pretty talented center. I do expect the Beavs will go with the same starting five, but if Kat can play extended minutes I won't be surprised if the Beavs play with a four guard type lineup (Aleah, Destiny, Mik, and either Kat or Jazz). If Kennedy, or Maddie, is effective against their small lineup, then we may see the normal rotation for the Beavs.

What, in my opinion is the 'normal' lineup without Taya? I'm thinking it's the same starting 5 we've seen so far, with Maddie backing up PF and Post, with a little Trish and Janessa mixed in, and in the right circumstances a small lineup. The good news for the 'small' lineup is that if you have a lineup that has Kat, Aleah, Mik and Destiny, not only do you have a couple who can drive and dish, but you have 4 who are above average (maybe well above) who can shoot the 3. Obviously, you worry about rebounding. Expect Mik, as has been the case last year and this year, to play big minutes. I don't think the Beavs have played against enough good rebounding teams to see how well Taylor and Kennedy can battle for the boards. I thought Missouri State did a great job against the Beavs battling for rebounds. loose balls, and 50-50 balls. The Beavs need to improve in that area. Taya really up her rebounding game in Pac12 play last year. That's a big loss. I'm not sure yet if Taylor or Kennedy are going to be as good on the boards this year as Taya was last year, but we need them to be.

As for a real answer to your question, I obviously don't have that, but I think we will see similar rotation to what we've already seen (minus Taya). I do feel having Maddie as a back up at PF and post is a pretty good option. Maddie has provided some productive minutes over the years, knows the system, has the experience, and is a decent shooter around the basket. Janessa looks much improved to me this year, and that should help as well. I thought Trish had a poor outing in the last game, and I hope that was just a fluke. She showed a couple nice flashes last year, but now I'm wondering if she is still another year away.

I hate, hate, hate loosing Taya! Starting two freshman is a little scary, but at least they are talented players, who should grow quite a bit leading up to tourney play. It's a good thing the team has Maddie right now, or the front line would be pretty thin.

Since she barely played this season, Corosdale didn't really have an established role on "this" team. Obviously we can extrapolate from previous seasons and project what she would've done this year. Last year when Rueck didn't have an ideal rotation in the front court, he continuously adjusted the starting lineup and the rotation. Maybe we'll see that again this year, at least w/ the bench rotation.

The plural of freshman is freshmen. Jones is a freshman, Brown is a freshman; together, Jones and Brown are freshmen.

Rebounding is the main concern with KB and TJ - even in the SUU game you can see Kennedy get effectively pushed under the basket (by an undersized opponent) and out of optimal rebounding position......holding your position is something that comes with experience. Let's hope with larger opponents it will be obvious when KB is getting pushed in the back, or garner the appropriate referee sympathy. KB also needs to bring back the mojo she had against Team USA - she hit some great shots there, but since her outside shot has been hit or miss (and more miss than one would like). Good for her to get her freshman slump out of the way early, I guess.

Taylor has a tendency to go over the back (her undersized opponents have helped facilitate that as well), and that (along with block attempts) is where she seems to get the bulk of her fouls. Luckily we have Mik on the floor to soak up all the rebounds while the frosh figure it out.

I am now realizing (belatedly) how smart Ruth was - in terms of knowing which shots to contest and which to block without incurring huge numbers of fouls (3 foul outs in 132 games, Pac-12 record 425 blocks). The other place the team needs to improve is setting and using screens, that part of the game is not very good yet, and it shows a lot in baseline inbound plays - SR teams usually do some breathtaking things in BLOBs, this team doesn't yet.

Trish's play against SUU was really puzzling - every time they threw the ball into her she would catch the ball and double over (like someone punched her in the gut), in the process losing control of the ball or at least bringing it down quite low. I replayed those segments more than once but could not figure it out. Note that SR said a lot of his team was under the weather against SUU, perhaps that was a factor.

Unfortunately I have not seen the "Kolbie leap" from Janessa, Maddie or Trish. Jasmine has certainly improved significantly, which is nice to see. The end result is we miss Taya, and we need more from Janessa, Maddie or Trish.....

What will be interesting to see is how SR uses his bench, I agree the starting 5 looks pretty set.
And as long as coach doesn't lose any more bets requiring Mik to jump center, we have a pretty good shot at winning the opening tip off too :-).

Go Beavers!

Try: Frosh. Rookie. 1st year.
They're not men. They're women.
Easy to grasp.
It's not merely politically correct. And it's not drivel. They are women basketball players. Describe them for what they are.
GO BEAVS !!

And this has what to do with Taya and Janessa?

Because we feel more emotional attachment to the ladies. The more affectionate we are to a group - male or female - the more likely we use diminutive terms. During war, we talk about "our boys" and songs have lyrics like "boogie-woogie bugle-boy". When we get romantic we might call our lover - male or female - "baby".

Of course, it's possible to use diminutive terms in a disrespectful way. But they are not inherently disrespectful, derogatory, or sexist.