After matriculating a highly ranked recruiting class and welcoming nine players new to the program, Minnesota was confident it could reverse course on a run of disappointing seasons in 2022-23. But after 17 games, the Gophers are mostly in the same spot they’ve been the past few years, among the...
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Some quotes:
“The coaches gave us a blueprint, and we just didn’t execute the plan,” Micheaux said.
“I think they were just taking it more at us and getting buckets in the paint, and that was one of the things on the scout, ‘Don’t let them get their feet in the paint, don’t let them get buckets in the paint,’ ” Heyer said. “And clearly we didn’t execute that, so clearly we have to work on that moving forward.”
I'm going to say what others may be thinking.
What is going on in the organization of the defense practices where they cannot execute the defense plan?
A tennis coach can say, "I want you to serve close to the line but I don't have practices organized to be good at that. Let's work on side steps instead and disco moves for fun."
That above paragraph may be hyperbole humor and maybe not. It's fair to wonder.
On the one hand, Whalen has been coached by some good coaches over the years and was one of the greats, so it's not like she's a newbie like some people make her out to be.
But it's fair to wonder what is going on to prep these players.
Coach Bill Walsh in his book I read talked about how you organize and execute practices is how you perform in games. Max effort in practice incremental improvements.
Another example is tournament karate where if you practice pulling your punches you will pull your punches in matches.
I'm not saying that, because how would I know, I bet fans are wondering what is going on with the way this team is organized, especially on defense.
Teams cutting inside easily. Teams making layups easy.
It is odd that this team is last in defense this season and has been towards the bottom for years.
My understanding is that good defense, more than offense, can be less dependent on talent.
I will say that Borowicz guarding a forward tells us the defense scheming is either in disarray or the player(s) assigned to that simply are bad and not going to get any better any time soon so the Gophers put Borowicz on it since the regular was was a lost cause.
Rose keeps coming up in dialogue. I haven't looked at this game on video.
It's looking more and more like getting Sophie Hart was a stroke of luck. At the game she looked much taller than the rest and athletic looking.
My impulse is to rip the defense coordinator but how do I know.
The fact Scalia and Powell did well at Minnesota and declined after leaving tells me it would be unethical for me to blanket blame coaching.
If others have insights into WHY the execution is not happening, then share that. I don't know.
At the game several people in my section said the game made no sense.
I will say the program is playing with fire here.
And as someone mentioned, is it possible to scheme to get the rock star Mara Braun open, screens, picks... Her electric scoring can keep season ticket holders patient but she's hardly open to shoot.
I don't know.
I liked all the comments people posted -- like how Rutgers just went to the basket and scored and scored.
I do not feel like watching any video for insights of this garbage game.
Maybe it's freshmen/sophomore youth, maybe a player(s) who simply are not able to execute period, and then a drop off in talent.
Or/and maybe it's the prepping of players especially on defense. Or something else. I'm just writing what people are probably thinking.
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