411500
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Post by 411500 on Jan 10, 2018 8:07:59 GMT -8
ASU looked pretty solid deleting Stanford a few days back....
I've only watched them twice on TV thus far so I really don't have a genuine sense of their strengths or weaknesses...
ASU doesn't have the blistering quick pressure guards we saw in LA last week, so that is a good thing...The Beavs (like all PAC 12 teams) play better and shoot better at home, so that is another good thing...
The mathematics of the season schedule are now in full force. The Beavs simply cannot afford to split this series, and most assuredly cannot get swept, if they hold any hope for a top 3 conference finish.
This is a big Show Me weekend for the Girls.
GO BEAVS
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Post by beaverstever on Jan 10, 2018 9:41:05 GMT -8
It will be interesting to see what Rueck does to nurture this along. Teams have figured out that turning over the Beavs is the achilles, and every team is going to focus on doing that now, whether they have the players to execute it well or not. It could take a while to recover - being susceptible to pressure-generated turnovers can get in players' heads, and cause more tentativeness on passing and dribbling, exacerbating the problem. It will take the patience confidence of a players working very well together to turn that aggressiveness against the other team. Until this team collectively figures out how to do that (and that's a hard thing to do when you don't have slashers that can do the punishing individually), opposing teams are not going to relent.
As someone else mentioned, I'd also like to see Rueck try having Marie run some point-center. I think it's going to take that level of creativity to reverse the trend.
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Post by ricke71 on Jan 10, 2018 11:13:27 GMT -8
I don’t think the importance of Friday’s game can be overstated. It’s the first home game they’ve had against a quality opponent since before Thanksgiving, and their first opportunity to demonstrate what a full week of practice will produce regarding their strategy of bringing the ball up the court under pressure. I’m hoping it involves more backcourt use of Marie or Corosdale as a quick conduit between guards dribbling/handling the ball. I trust Rueck in figuring out the problem...and the players being able to execute his direction. Go Beavs!!
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411500
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Post by 411500 on Jan 11, 2018 7:08:22 GMT -8
ricke71 - I'm totally with you on what changes (or improvements) we see in the Beavs' ability to bring the ball up the floor against pressure, and to defeat clamps and double teams in the back court. In my experience it is easier to teach a press break than it is to teach escaping well timed double teams. (Mik has great difficulty with clamps and she has since she stepped on campus.)
They say you can't teach height. Well, you can't teach quick either. That's the basic problem Coach faces with this collection of athletes. Very little Quick. Perhaps none.
The basic solution to a lack of Foot Quick is to maximize Passing Quick. This is where the Beavs are pretty skilled. Whether they are skilled enough (especially under duress) we'll find out Friday night for sure.
It is something of an irony that the Beavs, as a team, have very good team speed especially FTL to FTL..But weak overall team quickness...
So, I'm really excited to see how the Beavs (and their coaches) deal with ASU.....It should be a great game.....I hope Gill is rockin'.
GO BEAVS......
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2ndGenBeaver
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Grad Year: 1991 (MS/CS) 1999 (PhD/CS)
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Post by 2ndGenBeaver on Jan 11, 2018 9:13:03 GMT -8
I don't have much to add that hasn't been observed already in this thread - we might get down the floor quickly, but we don't have individual quicks "the book" on beating us will be to press and turn over the guards a'la LA teams we need to use height and passing to negate this I didn't know much about ASU, so I went looking. This article was pretty informative to learn more about their personnel. I didn't realize they had picked up a highly regarded UConn transfer, for instance...... There was a somewhat optimistic article in the GT today about how this season feels like the 2013-14 season as well. Go Beavers! |
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