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Post by sparty on Feb 6, 2022 8:07:57 GMT -8
I get your point, but my view is that this should be a year where our bigs are taking the pressure off of the young guard because they are the experienced players. We shouldn’t be forced to need frosh and transfers to be leading. If Aquino, Morris, Simmons, Goforth, and Samuel had panned out, or at least Kennedy/Jones could regularly combine for 30-35 ppg, this team is easily a tourney team. That’s a lot of recruiting misses too make up for - and part of us not having upperclassmen guards who aren’t transfers was due to the huge investment in bigs that didn’t pan out. Transfers, injuries and unfulfilled potential are all part of the deal - every program has to deal with this. Can you imagine UConn or Stanford missing the tournament? We see Rueck as having built an elite program, but elite programs don’t miss the tournament regardless of some bad luck. Our scale of recruiting misses resulting in a missed postseason means systematic missteps by our coaching staff that needs a complete rethink IMO (which may have already happened, as I previously pointed out) Happened to Notre Dame though. They were terrible in 19-20, two years removed from an NCAA championship and one year removed from an NCAA championship appearance, despite being a perennial power. They lost elite caliber players and didn’t have the players to replace them, plus they had some injuries and transfers. After landing two major 2021 recruits and Stanford transfer Maya Dodson, they’re back in the top-15. We need to land a really good guard or two in the off-season to get back to where we were IMO. And they had a coach that basically step down with the partial reason she was burned out with the college game and where it is heading.
That and Notre Dame is a national brand name.
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Post by hoopheritic on Feb 6, 2022 12:24:47 GMT -8
In the 3rd quarter our best line-up dominated. Talia, Greta, A.J., Kennedy (a big, BTW)and either Ellie or Taya, were rollin'. Then a timeout and Rueck subbed in several players and the turnovers began. There was no reason to do that. That lineup wasn't seen the rest of the game. Both Greta and A.J. are our fastest players and they both can handle the ball. Of course the one official was making questionable calls all game but we overcame them. The technicals were embarrassing to the Pac-12 in general. Ending a game with 6 free throws??? Also, the ref who called the technicals was laughing and joking with the ASU coach all night on camera. There were virtually no replays shown. Starting to see why we lost our long athletic guards last year. Scott seems to keep his athletes on a short leash. He won't let Greta or AJ learn from mistakes. He's going to lose AJ to the Portal this year I predict. |
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Post by rmancarl on Feb 6, 2022 20:16:59 GMT -8
I get your point, but my view is that this should be a year where our bigs are taking the pressure off of the young guard because they are the experienced players. We shouldn’t be forced to need frosh and transfers to be leading. If Aquino, Morris, Simmons, Goforth, and Samuel had panned out, or at least Kennedy/Jones could regularly combine for 30-35 ppg, this team is easily a tourney team. That’s a lot of recruiting misses too make up for - and part of us not having upperclassmen guards who aren’t transfers was due to the huge investment in bigs that didn’t pan out. Transfers, injuries and unfulfilled potential are all part of the deal - every program has to deal with this. Can you imagine UConn or Stanford missing the tournament? We see Rueck as having built an elite program, but elite programs don’t miss the tournament regardless of some bad luck. Our scale of recruiting misses resulting in a missed postseason means systematic missteps by our coaching staff that needs a complete rethink IMO (which may have already happened, as I previously pointed out) Happened to Notre Dame though. They were terrible in 19-20, two years removed from an NCAA championship and one year removed from an NCAA championship appearance, despite being a perennial power. They lost elite caliber players and didn’t have the players to replace them, plus they had some injuries and transfers. After landing two major 2021 recruits and Stanford transfer Maya Dodson, they’re back in the top-15. We need to land a really good guard or two in the off-season to get back to where we were IMO. Exactly! |
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Post by rmancarl on Feb 6, 2022 20:20:57 GMT -8
In the 3rd quarter our best line-up dominated. Talia, Greta, A.J., Kennedy (a big, BTW)and either Ellie or Taya, were rollin'. Then a timeout and Rueck subbed in several players and the turnovers began. There was no reason to do that. That lineup wasn't seen the rest of the game. Both Greta and A.J. are our fastest players and they both can handle the ball. Of course the one official was making questionable calls all game but we overcame them. The technicals were embarrassing to the Pac-12 in general. Ending a game with 6 free throws??? Also, the ref who called the technicals was laughing and joking with the ASU coach all night on camera. There were virtually no replays shown. Starting to see why we lost our long athletic guards last year. Scott seems to keep his athletes on a short leash. He won't let Greta or AJ learn from mistakes. He's going to lose AJ to the Portal this year I predict. I'll be the first to come on this board and give you credit for this prediction if you are correct. My gut feeling is that you will be wrong about AJ. Of course, I also though Aleah would return this season, so my track record may not be so great. |
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Post by grayman on Feb 6, 2022 20:54:16 GMT -8
The biggest problem with the bigs is that Jones is out. Mitrovic has definitely improved on both ends of the court (but mobility is always going to be a factor) and Brown has struggled with her offense but has played fairly well in the other areas. I think Brown has been pressing too much and often rushes her shot. When she doesn't, she's been fine.
I agree with a few other posters on the whole point guard and team quickness issues (and they go hand in hand for the most part). When the program had the big run of success for those four years or so, I truly believed that SR just needed a true point with good quickness and maybe one or two other quick players on a given roster to fully move into elite territory. I was happy to see Destiny join the Beavers and thought her presence would put the program over the top. Instead, that all fell apart and the cracks began to show. SR's offensive philosophy has everything to do with it. I would argue that it's like a football coach that still wants to run the ball 75-80 percent of the time in the modern era. It just doesn't work at the elite level. I will say that it's obvious that Rueck is aware of the need for quickness. Just look at how much he played Adams against UA. The problem is can he bring in and keep those players? And who is going to replace Adams next year?
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Post by beaverstever on Feb 6, 2022 22:06:41 GMT -8
The biggest problem with the bigs is that Jones is out. Mitrovic has definitely improved on both ends of the court (but mobility is always going to be a factor) and Brown has struggled with her offense but has played fairly well in the other areas. I think Brown has been pressing too much and often rushes her shot. When she doesn't, she's been fine. I agree with a few other posters on the whole point guard and team quickness issues (and they go hand in hand for the most part). When the program had the big run of success for those four years or so, I truly believed that SR just needed a true point with good quickness and maybe one or two other quick players on a given roster to fully move into elite territory. I was happy to see Destiny join the Beavers and thought her presence would put the program over the top. Instead, that all fell apart and the cracks began to show. SR's offensive philosophy has everything to do with it. I would argue that it's like a football coach that still wants to run the ball 75-80 percent of the time in the modern era. It just doesn't work at the elite level. I will say that it's obvious that Rueck is aware of the need for quickness. Just look at how much he played Adams against UA. The problem is can he bring in and keep those players? And who is going to replace Adams next year? Commenting on Rueck's philosophy .... I continue to struggle with the combination of a) defense does not force TOs, and b) offensive system is TO prone. It's not uncommon to be -10 on TO margin. Rueck recruits very big to try and gain a rebounding margin, and recruits shooters and fundamentally sound defenders to try and generate a shooting % delta. The issue with that is that when we don't shoot well, we are really vulnerable, as a rebounding margin alone often won't offset a pretty predictably large TO margin. In Rueck's defense, both ASU and UCLA have a philosophy that pushes for a TO margin and emphasizes physicality and quickness, yet has less to show for it in Rueck's tenure. I do like Rueck's system for theo next recruiting class a lot - they have the potential to be efficient scorers, and certainly solid rebounders. We also bring in two distance shooters that have some of the most fluid shooting motions we've had in the program IMO, so hopefully they will pan out better at the D1 level. So I'm not for a system change, especially if we are on the verge of bringing in a group that is a much better fit to how Rueck likes to play. |
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Post by hoopheritic on Feb 7, 2022 10:04:36 GMT -8
Starting to see why we lost our long athletic guards last year. Scott seems to keep his athletes on a short leash. He won't let Greta or AJ learn from mistakes. He's going to lose AJ to the Portal this year I predict. I'll be the first to come on this board and give you credit for this prediction if you are correct. My gut feeling is that you will be wrong about AJ. Of course, I also though Aleah would return this season, so my track record may not be so great. I hope you're right. She's exactly what we need right now; an offensively aggressive athlete that can score from anywhere. I worry that SR is so focused on players who are more system oriented right now like Greta. AJ has a higher ceiling but is more raw. I'd love to see the three true 'ballers' on them team cut loose to see what they can do; Ellie, Talia, AJ. Everyone else is very good at operating in the system/plays but those three play on instinct and feel. Which probably why, with Taylor out, they lead in points per minute. Or at least they did last time I had a look. |
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Post by jdogge on Feb 7, 2022 10:09:00 GMT -8
In the 3rd quarter our best line-up dominated. Talia, Greta, A.J., Kennedy (a big, BTW)and either Ellie or Taya, were rollin'. Then a timeout and Rueck subbed in several players and the turnovers began. There was no reason to do that. That lineup wasn't seen the rest of the game. Both Greta and A.J. are our fastest players and they both can handle the ball. Of course the one official was making questionable calls all game but we overcame them. The technicals were embarrassing to the Pac-12 in general. Ending a game with 6 free throws??? Also, the ref who called the technicals was laughing and joking with the ASU coach all night on camera. There were virtually no replays shown. Starting to see why we lost our long athletic guards last year. Scott seems to keep his athletes on a short leash. He won't let Greta or AJ learn from mistakes. He's going to lose AJ to the Portal this year I predict. Here we go ... the "Fire somebody" crowd has arrived. |
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Post by believeinthebeavs on Feb 7, 2022 21:22:41 GMT -8
That's funny, I thought we still had some games to play this season. It is quite the message as to what kind of a fan some of you are. I bet none of you have either coached or played at the p5 level, I know I haven't. Easy to bitch about things you have no experience in. And then there are those that sign up for the forum just to bad mouth the program.
As long as there are games to be played I'll be cheering the team on, win or lose. This team is made of young women that make it easy to support them.
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Post by beaveragain on Feb 8, 2022 21:36:12 GMT -8
Bigs are not our issue. We do not have consistent guard play. When Taliia is at point she turns the ball over and we don't have consistent shooters outside for her to pass to. When she is not running point our transfer pg doesn't shoot. Talia seems to turn the ball over at critical times in the game that prevent us from extending leads in close games and letting the other team back in it. She is a great talent just needs to learn from this. I get your point, but my view is that this should be a year where our bigs are taking the pressure off of the young guard because they are the experienced players. We shouldn’t be forced to need frosh and transfers to be leading. If Aquino, Morris, Simmons, Goforth, and Samuel had panned out, or at least Kennedy/Jones could regularly combine for 30-35 ppg, this team is easily a tourney team. That’s a lot of recruiting misses too make up for - and part of us not having upperclassmen guards who aren’t transfers was due to the huge investment in bigs that didn’t pan out. Transfers, injuries and unfulfilled potential are all part of the deal - every program has to deal with this. Can you imagine UConn or Stanford missing the tournament? We see Rueck as having built an elite program, but elite programs don’t miss the tournament regardless of some bad luck. Our scale of recruiting misses resulting in a missed postseason means systematic missteps by our coaching staff that needs a complete rethink IMO (which may have already happened, as I previously pointed out) "systematic missteps". So Rueck should have been able to foretell that Aquino would develop heart issues? That Kennedy and now Jones would have injury problems and would be able to play less than a dozen games together? That Morris (who was only ever intended to be a backup so far as I could tell) would be doing so well that she'd transfer out to try to become the starter somewhere else? The only post recruit whose scoring didn't pan out the way Rueck probably hoped for was Jo. So beyond Jo it's been all pac-12 in Ruth to Marie to Taylor. What, you demand 1st team all-americans each year? You might need to adjust your expectations. |
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Post by beaveragain on Feb 8, 2022 22:59:25 GMT -8
And for all those people who keep groaning about how they need quickness. If Rueck got a bunch of quick shrimps I strongly suspect you are the one who'd be groaning about how Rueck can't ever recruit length and why does everyone else have all of this great length. We need to get taller players. How come we don't have tall players?
I like winners. If they happen to be quick that's fine. For the past 7 years the pac-12 champions have been OSU, UofO and Stanford. Which of these do you think had the quickest team in the year they won? I say none of them.
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Post by rgeorge on Feb 8, 2022 23:07:36 GMT -8
And for all those people who keep groaning about how they need quickness. If Rueck got a bunch of quick shrimps I strongly suspect you are the one who'd be groaning about how Rueck can't ever recruit length and why does everyone else have all of this great length. We need to get taller players. How come we don't have tall players? I like winners. If they happen to be quick that's fine. For the past 7 years the pac-12 champions have been OSU, UofO and Stanford. Which of these do you think had the quickest team in the year they won? I say none of them. Well... not really arguing the basic premise, but! You really haven't watched Furd over the last few years if you think they aren't/ weren't quick and athletic at almost every position! |
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Post by beaveragain on Feb 9, 2022 0:31:35 GMT -8
And for all those people who keep groaning about how they need quickness. If Rueck got a bunch of quick shrimps I strongly suspect you are the one who'd be groaning about how Rueck can't ever recruit length and why does everyone else have all of this great length. We need to get taller players. How come we don't have tall players? I like winners. If they happen to be quick that's fine. For the past 7 years the pac-12 champions have been OSU, UofO and Stanford. Which of these do you think had the quickest team in the year they won? I say none of them. Well... not really arguing the basic premise, but! You really haven't watched Furd over the last few years if you think they aren't/ weren't quick and athletic at almost every position! Pretty sure I didn't say they were slow. I asked if they were the quickest last year when they won the championship. I'd say both Arizona and UCLA were quicker. |
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Post by flyfishinbeav on Feb 9, 2022 6:05:17 GMT -8
Slam. Click. Bolt... on the use of, or non use, the quote function! But, back to the OP... yeah might as well claim "Covid" for the rest of the season. Cuz, you know a team playing inconsistent ball, mediocre at times, can't possibly go into a Pac12 tournament, get hot, win the damn thing, and go dancing! Nope... never can happen 😖 Who's gonna score? |
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Post by speakthetruth on Feb 9, 2022 7:23:38 GMT -8
Well... not really arguing the basic premise, but! You really haven't watched Furd over the last few years if you think they aren't/ weren't quick and athletic at almost every position! Pretty sure I didn't say they were slow. I asked if they were the quickest last year when they won the championship. I'd say both Arizona and UCLA were quicker. The pac12 record over the past 6 years including this year is trending the wrong way, whether a lack of quickness, lack of defensive aggressiveness, lack of a true point guard, coaching philosophy, etc..I'm not sure but a coach better figure it out sooner than later. |
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