Her energy and tenaciousness is fun to watch.
**** WBB: Gamethread - Cyclones host Cincinnati - 6:30 pm ESPN+ ****
- Thread starter BoxsterCy
- Start date
I'll give him credit for taking the leash off Paulk.
Really early in the game after a badly missed rebound I noticed Bill practically yank A Willy off the bench immediately to send to the scorer's table. Thought it was for Audi because she was the one that was closest to the rebound and didn't go after it but maybe that was when Harris was pulled now that I think about it? Paulk definitely is earning some playing time these past couple games.
Time will tell if that is a one game deal or if he is going to let her play through mistakes in future games. She was a big help in this game.
I hope so, we are missing Brown's rebounding bad. She isn't going to replace Brown's scoring, but her ability to nab offensive rebound and steals really enables others to score. Getting those usually throws a defense off because they are out of position.
That was a when Syd came out. Rebounding was obviously a priority in this one. That’s one thing Willie can do is move and jump. It didn’t pan out in stats this game. It was def clear the team talked about being aggressive on the boards. Def showed up in Beaty’s stat line.
I love this bit from the Register….
“After talking with Fennelly earlier in the week about shot selection, Williams warned her coach that she may start launching shots if she connected on a few early on Wednesday. After spending a ton of extra time getting shots up recently, she anticipated a barrage could be coming.”
“She goes, ‘Coach, if I hit a couple, there’s going to be a heat check,’” Fennelly recalled. “She had a couple of heat checks tonight.”
“After talking with Fennelly earlier in the week about shot selection, Williams warned her coach that she may start launching shots if she connected on a few early on Wednesday. After spending a ton of extra time getting shots up recently, she anticipated a barrage could be coming.”
“She goes, ‘Coach, if I hit a couple, there’s going to be a heat check,’” Fennelly recalled. “She had a couple of heat checks tonight.”
More of this, please. Confidence is the most important thing in basketball. Striking the balance between discipline and confidence is the hardest thing for a coach to do, and I'm not sure Bill has done it well the last few years. But it's time to let the girls play freely.
AJ never really shows any emotion on the court, but I saw her laughing about the incident with her teammates in the huddle. Loved it!
I don't think she did anything other than frustrate the player with her aggressive defense.
Doesn't fit the narrative that the whole team is afraid of CBF and plays scared all of the time.
Yeah at first I thought Bill was ticked at Audi as that rebound went right past her without much effort but Harris must have been in the vicinity too and he didn't like what he saw. Once Harris didn't come back in I figured whatever it was on that play was why.
Making the switch early to Paulk definately helped last night. Harris when she is hitting her shots is a nice weapon to have but you never know what you are going to get out of her on a given night as consistency has not been there.
Paulk has struggled on offense.
Evangelia adds a lot from a D and rebound perspective. But with both Addy and Arianna out, IMO the staff probably felt we needed a better offensive player on the court. That need is less with Arianna back.
Would love to see Evangelia start go forward at Addy's spot because she is an effort player who's a great defender and rebounds in space.
As excited as I am about last night's win, still feel staff needs to focus on expanding offense beyond Audi and Jada. IMO, CBF needs to consistently get 4-8 PPG from Arianna, Kenzie, Evangelia, Sydney, Reagan, Reece and Alisa. But to do that, we probably need to run sets to get them open shots.
One other thing they utilized this game was screens, even Audi was setting them up. It opened quite a few people to shoot good looks. It was a good change, especially since officials don't really call moving screens all that often.
Watching the game last night, I wondered if Audi's knee(s) or leg(s) are bothering her some. To me she is not moving as well as she did earlier in the year. I have always been impressed with her agility at her size, but it hasn't seemed as good lately. I'm sure there is a lot of wear and tear given how physical teams are with her. She also seems to be getting knocked to the ground more recently.
Bill had to have noticed the roar from the crowd clapping for EP when she was substituted out the first time. Just saying....
I still noticed many possessions where our players stand flat footed around the perimeter instead of constant motion. The men's team does a pretty good job of keeping movement so 1. defenders have to move and expend energy 2. you get open much more/easily.
As I have stated before, I am a HS official and did a JV game Tuesday night, both teams were in constant motion to get open shots. Incredibly, both teams made about 6 out of first 7-8 shots, and misses were rebounded cleanly. From opening tip, we went 5 minutes without a whistle, and then I called a kick on a pass. That was a great game from a spectator end, but made us officials do a lot of running as both teams like to get out too.
I noticed Paulk was getting frustrated when she was struggling at the FT line. I saw Audi giving her a "pep talk" & a little hug. Hopefully the whole team is working on free throw shooting.
