Don't think Christian's D has been all that bad this year, especially with the few minutes and coming in cold all the time. Yes times she gets beat by quicker guards at times, but so does GG, Braun, Battle and even Tori does at times.
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BIG Game 17: Gophers host Michigan State, Feb 22nd!
- Thread starter DietCokeFan
- Start date
How spoiled we've got. Three years ago this team couldn't sniff an NCAA tourney bid with that joke coaching staff. Now we are top 25 and one of the better team's in the BIG10. All thanks to hiring a tremendous coach. Coach P has a team that is anchored in defense and she has tremendous BB IQ. She puts players in a position to be successful. She will continue to recruit the best players around the country (not the local MN players). That is how you succeed.
D isn’t only staying in front of your responsibility but also playing in the realm of the team D. You can get beat but get beat in the direction of the help D. If she is not getting that concept then she’s not helping the team defense. I’ve known Dawn since her Mich Tech days, you had better play defense well or you will struggle to see the floor. It’s who she is.Don't think Christian's D has been all that bad this year, especially with the few minutes and coming in cold all the time. Yes times she gets beat by quicker guards at times, but so does GG, Braun, Battle and
We were 5-13 and 11th in the conference her first year... beat Illinois and we will be 13-5 in her third year and talking 4th or 5th seed in the BTT... she, and her staff, have my vote.How spoiled we've got. Three years ago this team couldn't sniff an NCAA tourney bid with that joke coaching staff. Now we are top 25 and one of the better team's in the BIG10. All thanks to hiring a tremendous coach. Coach P has a team that is anchored in defense and she has tremendous BB IQ. She puts players in a position to be successful. She will continue to recruit the best players around the country (not the local MN players). That is how you succeed.
Chico Gopher
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Some people think playing defense at the major college level is simply a matter of working hard and staying in front of your assignment. Probably one of the major factors in earning important minutes is whether you are instinctively executing all the team concepts (offense or defense) all week in practice. As in, understanding exactly where and when you need to be in what position with-out having to think about it for a 1/4 of a second or be reminded. Something that 3 and 4 year players have a major advantage over a freshman.D isn’t only staying in front of your responsibility but also playing in the realm of the team D. You can get beat but get beat in the direction of the help D. If she is not getting that concept then she’s not helping the team defense. I’ve known Dawn since her Mich Tech days, you had better play defense well or you will struggle to see the floor. It’s who she is.
Some folks don't get that it's not always a matter of Braun or Battle or somebody else got beat on this play, and I wonder if McKenna might have done better if she'd been in there. It's a matter of, even if somebody made a great offensive move and beat our defender, Coach has seen her trusted players execute her system consistently for a couple of years in practice and games and trusts them to do it right. If you're a trusted Jr. or Sr., one mess-up probably isn't going to change the coaches mind. It's different for the brand new players. You may have noticed during the Mich. State game, that Tonga got pulled almost immediately every time she had a lapse in judgement or execution, while Hart, who's been working the system for 3 years now was given more rope. It's that way in almost all sports and honestly, it's that way in a work situation as well.
From what I've seen, I think Christian has a chance to be a bigger contributor next season. Repetitions done correctly over and over in practice is a big deal to earning non-garbage minutes to a lot of coaches. That may or may not be the deal with McKenna C, or it may be that Coach Dawn looks at her top 7 and feels, that for the most part, she has the players with a proven track record (in her mind) of doing things her way consistently.