GAME THREAD - UCLA 12pm Jan 1

First game I attended in person this year, and my observations echo most:

Bendu was a great presence, leader, and key to the game. She brought the ball up without drama, and did the best defensively on the UCLA guards.

#10 for UCLA (Conti) is an assassin. She can shoot the lights out, has great form. I thought she was going to win it single-handedly for the Bruins.

TVO seemed winded, out of shape, or maybe not feeling well. Not her best game. I was worried coach wasn't going to give her a blow in the 4th quarter, and she would be spent. If her fitness level was like #10, she would be able to shoot better. Her body language always says "I'm tired". Several drives to the basket where she didn't even hit the rim. Her first step is not great, she sometimes "outlasts" the opponent to get to the layin, more than gets by them.

Not flattering to say "She's a load", but not sure anything better summarizes Raegan's game. Not many upper bodies like that in Women's BB. Back when I played, I used to try to guard men with bodies like that and I would just get crushed. Good awareness of where she is, and she gets the ball in the basket, which is what it is all about.

I am still an AJ fan, but she got very little time. The rotation seemed tight, maybe 8 players saw action? Coach needed a win.

It appears CSR has narrowed things down on who he needs to go with to have the best chance of winning (with less players seeing action). I don't envy having to make those choices!

Regarding your comments on TVO, I don't think she's out of shape. And it seems like every time she has an off game, people speculate that she might be ill. The reality is that a lot of OSU fans tend to believe that TVO is an elite guard and then are surprised when she doesn't dominate. 
TVO is a very good player. She can shoot the lights out when she's on but does tend to be a little streaky at times. She's strong and can bull her way to the hoop and is an excellent rebounder for a guard.
She has pretty good "basketball IQ," is a good passer for the most part and can hit clutch free throws.
However, her strength is tied to her build, which is not at all like the slightly-build, whippet quick guards out there. And at 5-11, there's no height advantage.
She does not have that great first step. In fact, she's not particularly quick at all. Nor is she a particularly good ballhandler. 
Opposing teams are very aware of this and that's why they double and triple team her as much as possible, often forcing TOs. But TVO is prone to getting her pocket picked in one-on-one situations as well, including times when she brings the ball down the court.
I've noticed that her ball skills in general can drift into sloppy, almost lackadaisical, territory. She had 91 turnovers last season and leads the team in TOs again so far this season.
I believe that TVO needs to be more of a spot-up shooter and cut back on trying to do so much and often too much. Beers should be the offensive focal point from now on and already seems to be, judging by the UCLA game.

The published height for Beers on the OSU website recently increased from 6'2" to "officially" 6'4".

Whatever height Beers truly stands, it may be time to start making comparisons of her early game to Courtney Paris, the former Oklahoma center who was simply too powerful for her collegiate opposition. Beers is figuring out what works at the D1 level. And all of us Beaver WBB fans are liking what we see.

The skills that Scott hoped would make Kennedy a star big were: her defense, which turned out to be as advertised; and her ability to stretch defenses with 3 pointers, which never came to be.

That said, I really liked her game and wish she was still here. But it was mostly on defense.

I agree to some extent with Grayman's TVO assessment. But on the TO's.

TVO has the ball a lot and yet her TOV rate, % of her plays that results in a TO, is 2nd on the team (Lily has the lowest %).
TVO's assist rate, chance that her possession of the ball will result in an assist, is the best on the team.
Noelle's asst/to ratio is much better than Talia's, but that is a reflection that Noelle goes for the safe pass and Talia pushes the envelope.

Watched some of the highlight stuff for Beers and noticed Talia setting two rock solid screens for Beers scores. Talias knows how to play and isn't afraid of a little contact.

The only real knock on Talia's game that I see, other than quibbles like be more careful dribbling the ball, is that she has no goto scoring ability. Destiny had the step back jumper or her ability to use screens, Gulich had the fade away jumper, Mik had the pull over drive, etc. Some move that you've gotten down to where you can, at need, score against most anyone. If Talia has something like that I haven't noticed it. She can nail the open shot and pretty much drive against anyone. But the other good teams know they need to keep someone on her at all times if she has the ball, and there needs to be someone to help the defender against the drive. After that Talia seems mostly nullified. What Talia did against UCLA was drive and drive to draw the fouls and then nail the FT. If she can keep doing that and fouling out the defenders I guess that works.