For many of us who have attended women's games over the years the band plays a familiar song after many games. Its from the old tv show Hee Haw and its famous line goes, "gloom, despair, and agony on me, deep dark depression, excessive misery..." Well, that's just about how things feel right now in the women's basketball program. The band has wisely stopped playing the song.
The beginning of this game looked strangely familiar to anyone who has watched the sisters post-14 game win streak. What we had were two teams that couldn't make a basket for anything. It took 4 min but finally Brynn hit a three followed by a fast break bucket by Nikki. TCU would answer right back with two inside shots. Back would come Nikki and Jadda though for a 10-6 lead 8 min in. At this point I gave props where they were due and thought the D was pretty good even if the offense was a bit suspect.
There were lots of missed open looks inside and out by both squads. But it was the threes that were slowly giving us separation. Another by Brynn and it was 13-8. The the offense stopped. It was like a DJ who plays that one song every night that you hate. In our case the song is titled, "I forgot how to score again." It was tied at 13 with 8 to go.
If you watched this on TV or listened on the radio you could probably hear the crowd getting testy with the officials. They had a reason to be as it was very inconsistent officiating. No, it was very one sided. But I digress...
Again there was too much standing on offense and the inside game was non-existent. Every time the ball went inside TCU collapsed on Hal and no one else was moving to take advantage of the mismatch. Then Nikki picked up her 2nd on a bizarre drive to the hoop where it appeared she wanted to dish and should have laid it in. It was just very strange looking. To this point Nikki had been playing very well, but oddly she never seemed to recover from that one. Another Sister 3 and it was 21-15 with 4:22 left. Then the DJ played that stupid song again.
We were getting out hustled and TCU actually took a brief lead at 23-21, but the sisters fought back to regain the lead 28-23 to end the half. P.S. We only shot one single free throw in the first half.
The second half started worse than the first. No one and I mean no one was moving or seemed to want the ball. Gave up two uncontested fast break layups after lazy passes. TCU took the lead 35-33 after another questionable foul on a three point shot. Remember Smart from OSU's men's team? The flopper? Obviously this girl has watched his game. Nikki went to the bench with her 3rd foul 3 min in.
TCU continued to outhustle us and our offense was simply disfunctional and slow. We looked like we were in slow motion compared to TCU. Five minutes in and they led 42-36. ( yes, that's a 19-8 run.) A common theme throughout the night was zero inside game. When we did get it inside we either missed the shot or turned it over. I'm over-exagerating but not by much.
Finally, some movement (a sign of life) started on offense and the sisters clawed back in to make it a 1 point game. Williamson hit her 6th trey to knot the game at 44. The sisters woudl retake the lead on a nifty inbounds play from Nikki to Seanna.
Then the offensive woes reentered the game (would someone shoot that DJ?) along with some more questionable officiating put TCU back in front. As long as the officiating is this suspect and our ladies are one dimensional on offense...any game would be in doubt.
With 8 minutes to play we had still only shot one, yes one free throw. Amazing.
Offensive ugliness and giving up boards on the defensive end kept TCU in this thing and with 5 remaining it was a one point game 53-52. Then we finally get another chance at the line and Hal misses the front end. Wow.
The offense missed seeing open players (can't remember how many times I saw either Brynn or Jadda wide open in the corner and completely un-noticed), took bad shots and the defense was flat footed. A three point lead disappeared until Seanna finally hit another 3 to make it 58-56.
TCU would tie it up and then after a missed shot Seanna got fouled battling for a rebound and would hit 2 FT for a 60-58 lead with 15 tics left. Timeout ISU to set the defense and...with 5 sec left the defense completely broke down leaving a wide open three to give TCU the lead 61-60. A freaking 27% three point shooter would hit TCU's 2nd trey of teh night on a busted defensive play. ISU couldn't get a foul call (did we hardly ever) on a drive to the hoop and the Sisters had lost their fourth home game of the conference season.
Player of the Game? Seanna Johnson. She is the most consistent game to game player on the team. You know what you are going to get from her and she delivers every time. How about 10 points and 13 rebounds? Pure grit.
Runner up for her first half play was Brynn. She hit 6 treys tonight, but had a hard time hitting when we needed her in the second half. Yet, if it weren't for her we never would have been in this game.
Off the bench Jadda had a decent night wth 11 points and 6 assists.
This is getting tough to write about. Hal is getting double and triple teamed, but is clearly struggling right now. Shots she would normally make are falling short and tonight she had five turnovers. We need a fully functioning Hal to be competitive and she just was't there tonight. Kidd had a terrible showing and Nikki disappeared after her second foul. Ellis? No help. Silly mistakes, turnovers that led to uncontested fast break layups by TCU and breakdowns on both ends of the court create a recipe for a mediocre team at best.
That is where this one is right now and the schedule is just now beginning to get tough. Its been since the 05-06 squad who went 16-11 in the regular season that ISU has lost four conference games at home. No Bill Fennelly team has EVER lost more conference home games than that. Three is honestly an aberation. Four is almost unheard of.
There's some strange voodoo going on right now and its time to call a priestess to undo that spell. And...someone shoot that darned DJ.
The beginning of this game looked strangely familiar to anyone who has watched the sisters post-14 game win streak. What we had were two teams that couldn't make a basket for anything. It took 4 min but finally Brynn hit a three followed by a fast break bucket by Nikki. TCU would answer right back with two inside shots. Back would come Nikki and Jadda though for a 10-6 lead 8 min in. At this point I gave props where they were due and thought the D was pretty good even if the offense was a bit suspect.
There were lots of missed open looks inside and out by both squads. But it was the threes that were slowly giving us separation. Another by Brynn and it was 13-8. The the offense stopped. It was like a DJ who plays that one song every night that you hate. In our case the song is titled, "I forgot how to score again." It was tied at 13 with 8 to go.
If you watched this on TV or listened on the radio you could probably hear the crowd getting testy with the officials. They had a reason to be as it was very inconsistent officiating. No, it was very one sided. But I digress...
Again there was too much standing on offense and the inside game was non-existent. Every time the ball went inside TCU collapsed on Hal and no one else was moving to take advantage of the mismatch. Then Nikki picked up her 2nd on a bizarre drive to the hoop where it appeared she wanted to dish and should have laid it in. It was just very strange looking. To this point Nikki had been playing very well, but oddly she never seemed to recover from that one. Another Sister 3 and it was 21-15 with 4:22 left. Then the DJ played that stupid song again.
We were getting out hustled and TCU actually took a brief lead at 23-21, but the sisters fought back to regain the lead 28-23 to end the half. P.S. We only shot one single free throw in the first half.
The second half started worse than the first. No one and I mean no one was moving or seemed to want the ball. Gave up two uncontested fast break layups after lazy passes. TCU took the lead 35-33 after another questionable foul on a three point shot. Remember Smart from OSU's men's team? The flopper? Obviously this girl has watched his game. Nikki went to the bench with her 3rd foul 3 min in.
TCU continued to outhustle us and our offense was simply disfunctional and slow. We looked like we were in slow motion compared to TCU. Five minutes in and they led 42-36. ( yes, that's a 19-8 run.) A common theme throughout the night was zero inside game. When we did get it inside we either missed the shot or turned it over. I'm over-exagerating but not by much.
Finally, some movement (a sign of life) started on offense and the sisters clawed back in to make it a 1 point game. Williamson hit her 6th trey to knot the game at 44. The sisters woudl retake the lead on a nifty inbounds play from Nikki to Seanna.
Then the offensive woes reentered the game (would someone shoot that DJ?) along with some more questionable officiating put TCU back in front. As long as the officiating is this suspect and our ladies are one dimensional on offense...any game would be in doubt.
With 8 minutes to play we had still only shot one, yes one free throw. Amazing.
Offensive ugliness and giving up boards on the defensive end kept TCU in this thing and with 5 remaining it was a one point game 53-52. Then we finally get another chance at the line and Hal misses the front end. Wow.
The offense missed seeing open players (can't remember how many times I saw either Brynn or Jadda wide open in the corner and completely un-noticed), took bad shots and the defense was flat footed. A three point lead disappeared until Seanna finally hit another 3 to make it 58-56.
TCU would tie it up and then after a missed shot Seanna got fouled battling for a rebound and would hit 2 FT for a 60-58 lead with 15 tics left. Timeout ISU to set the defense and...with 5 sec left the defense completely broke down leaving a wide open three to give TCU the lead 61-60. A freaking 27% three point shooter would hit TCU's 2nd trey of teh night on a busted defensive play. ISU couldn't get a foul call (did we hardly ever) on a drive to the hoop and the Sisters had lost their fourth home game of the conference season.
Player of the Game? Seanna Johnson. She is the most consistent game to game player on the team. You know what you are going to get from her and she delivers every time. How about 10 points and 13 rebounds? Pure grit.
Runner up for her first half play was Brynn. She hit 6 treys tonight, but had a hard time hitting when we needed her in the second half. Yet, if it weren't for her we never would have been in this game.
Off the bench Jadda had a decent night wth 11 points and 6 assists.
This is getting tough to write about. Hal is getting double and triple teamed, but is clearly struggling right now. Shots she would normally make are falling short and tonight she had five turnovers. We need a fully functioning Hal to be competitive and she just was't there tonight. Kidd had a terrible showing and Nikki disappeared after her second foul. Ellis? No help. Silly mistakes, turnovers that led to uncontested fast break layups by TCU and breakdowns on both ends of the court create a recipe for a mediocre team at best.
That is where this one is right now and the schedule is just now beginning to get tough. Its been since the 05-06 squad who went 16-11 in the regular season that ISU has lost four conference games at home. No Bill Fennelly team has EVER lost more conference home games than that. Three is honestly an aberation. Four is almost unheard of.
There's some strange voodoo going on right now and its time to call a priestess to undo that spell. And...someone shoot that darned DJ.
