B1G Game 7: Gophers Host Illinois (1-15-23)

Excepting Micheaux, we were pretty much out classed especially at the guard position. Rose caused Shauna Green and the Illini some consternation especially after the foul and technical Rose earned. Micheaux had a nifty spinner to the right side in the second half that she missed-it still looked nice. But elsewhere, blah. It took almost three quarters for Braun to get her first point. And the Illini offense just took us one on one sometimes and set up threes other times. The Illini sped it up or slowed it down at will.

It was family weekend and there was a good turnout.
seeing the cut down on TO's were nice to see.. teams are truly just pretty much saying.. we are going to take Mara out of the offense.. and we will let anyone else beat us.. somehow we have to get Mara involved somehow.

I was kind of shocked we didn't see more Cayton with her speed.. but
 

seeing the cut down on TO's were nice to see.. teams are truly just pretty much saying.. we are going to take Mara out of the offense.. and we will let anyone else beat us.. somehow we have to get Mara involved somehow.

I was kind of shocked we didn't see more Cayton with her speed.. but
They did try some different things today to get Mara looks, used her more on the ball and gave her ball screens, even tried to post her up a couple times. Really need someone else to step up and hit some outside shots to open things up.
 

They did try some different things today to get Mara looks, used her more on the ball and gave her ball screens, even tried to post her up a couple times. Really need someone else to step up and hit some outside shots to open things up.
agreed.. we missed her a few times when she was posting up cook.. I do wish Mara would get the whistle that other guards seem to get..

will be interesting how Wed goes..
 




agreed.. we missed her a few times when she was posting up cook.. I do wish Mara would get the whistle that other guards seem to get..

will be interesting how Wed goes..
Penn State got boat raced in 2 road games this week. I watched some of the PSU-Iowa game yesterday, and the body language from the PSU coach and players was bad from about 5 minutes into the game. Hope the Gophers can take advantage of what looks like some bad vibes with the Lady Lions.
 










It's a plan, I guess.

All they can do is keep working, Lindsay Whalen said. Keep getting to practice early, staying late, getting up shots. Eventually, she is sure, there will be a breakthrough.

"That's the only way I've ever known,'' said Whalen, the Gophers women's basketball coach. "And our players are putting in the work.'
 



Very physical game today. Illinois has some really good guard play, and they got to the basket and got to the rim attacked, and scored. They had the finishers and made some threes. Wish Gophers would have pressed and trapped more on D. I know a lot of us complained about turnovers but Gophers looked disorganized without Katie B today.
 

Very physical game today. Illinois has some really good guard play, and they got to the basket and got to the rim attacked, and scored. They had the finishers and made some threes. Wish Gophers would have pressed and trapped more on D. I know a lot of us complained about turnovers but Gophers looked disorganized without Katie B today.
on the Katie topic.. I'm not sure they got to practice without her before the game.. on twitter yesterday they posted pictures of a family dinner and Katie was there.. and the announcement she wasn't playing today was made an hour before the game.. so who knows.. but we did have less TO's..

2 1st quarter
6 in the 2nd
ZERO in the 3rd
2 in the 4th.
 

Penn State got boat raced in 2 road games this week. I watched some of the PSU-Iowa game yesterday, and the body language from the PSU coach and players was bad from about 5 minutes into the game. Hope the Gophers can take advantage of what looks like some bad vibes with the Lady Lions.
Penn states defense is awful if they dont force turnovers. If the Gophs can take care of the ball theyll get a ton of open shots. Hopefully a game where some players can get some shots to drop and build some confidence back up.
 


A couple observations:
  • Mara doesn't get open because she doesn't use the picks. She gets a lot of picks but goes around the pick wide so the defender can get through. A good pick, at this level, requires risking an offensive call every time. The timing has to be just right. The picker needs to move into position as the person being picked also closes the gap, which doesn't allow the defender through. A collision is involved. We leave a 2 foot gap which makes the pick nearly worthless.
  • We need more shooters. Tough to say but only Mara, and Katie count as shooters. It's not enough.
  • Boy Maggie is an athlete. She can move. Boy she works hard on defense. She's earned more time in my view.
  • We couldn't stay in front of the Illinois guards to save our lives. Katie would have helped here. I understand Ratzlaff is quick and can defend. I would have given her a shot. Don't know if Counts is quick enough but I thought we needed to go smaller. If we can't stop them from scoring we weren't gonna win. Illinois got a lot of wide open shots from the 3 point line, and when they drove we couldn't stay with them.
Out.
 

A couple observations:
  • Mara doesn't get open because she doesn't use the picks. She gets a lot of picks but goes around the pick wide so the defender can get through. A good pick, at this level, requires risking an offensive call every time. The timing has to be just right. The picker needs to move into position as the person being picked also closes the gap, which doesn't allow the defender through. A collision is involved. We leave a 2 foot gap which makes the pick nearly worthless.
  • We need more shooters. Tough to say but only Mara, and Katie count as shooters. It's not enough.
  • Boy Maggie is an athlete. She can move. Boy she works hard on defense. She's earned more time in my view.
  • We couldn't stay in front of the Illinois guards to save our lives. Katie would have helped here. I understand Ratzlaff is quick and can defend. I would have given her a shot. Don't know if Counts is quick enough but I thought we needed to go smaller. If we can't stop them from scoring we weren't gonna win. Illinois got a lot of wide open shots from the 3 point line, and when they drove we couldn't stay with them.
Out.
Heyer is a shooter but I agree, need more that are reliable outside shooters.
 

A couple observations:
  • Mara doesn't get open because she doesn't use the picks. She gets a lot of picks but goes around the pick wide so the defender can get through. A good pick, at this level, requires risking an offensive call every time. The timing has to be just right. The picker needs to move into position as the person being picked also closes the gap, which doesn't allow the defender through. A collision is involved. We leave a 2 foot gap which makes the pick nearly worthless.
  • We need more shooters. Tough to say but only Mara, and Katie count as shooters. It's not enough.
  • Boy Maggie is an athlete. She can move. Boy she works hard on defense. She's earned more time in my view.
  • We couldn't stay in front of the Illinois guards to save our lives. Katie would have helped here. I understand Ratzlaff is quick and can defend. I would have given her a shot. Don't know if Counts is quick enough but I thought we needed to go smaller. If we can't stop them from scoring we weren't gonna win. Illinois got a lot of wide open shots from the 3 point line, and when they drove we couldn't stay with them.
Out.
Oh and... the Illinois posts didn't do a thing. We get 24 & 14 from Rose and we still can't win. You gotta look at our guards and wonder.
 


Heyer is a shooter but I agree, need more that are reliable outside shooters.
I should also point out that they use Gradwell for shooting outside but she is a sub 30% 3-point shooter and I don't consider that good enough. Battle is shooting 36% from outside but a small sample size (4-11). I would like to see her try more outside shots.
 

Illinois only has three losses this season. One loss was to Delaware on 83-80. The leading scorer for Delaware in the game was Klarke Sconiers, one of many transfers from Gophers team last year.
Sconiers 7-11, 4-5FT, 18PTS. Delaware 10-6 this season. Delaware defeated Lehigh by 12.
 




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