Cold shooting ends Iowa State's season

[brentblum]

http://www.cyclonefanatic.com/basketball/womens/news/blum-women-story/

Tough day for Cyclones. Great quotes from Fennelly on Hallie Christofferson. She was a gem.

 

[Wesley]

Hey, the ball must go in the hoop to win. Thought we were too slow to pass the ball around and to pull the trigger as they were following us around like bees. Really needed an option to score and we found none.

 

[Tornado man]

"It wasn't a lack of open shots, Iowa State had a multitude of unguarded attempts that clanked off the rim or spiraled in and out."

I beg to differ Brent. Thirty-eight 3-pt. attempts is obscene, open or not. Just because a shot behind the line is "unguarded," doesn't mean it's a good shot. The first question posed to Fennelly in the post-game presser addressed this very issue.
We need an offense in the future that works to get better looks closer at the basket, other than just jacking up 3's.

 

[BoxsterCy]

This season left a bitter taste for me, mostly because of the recruiting failures that left a great Cyclone like Hallie, a small forward, out of position at the post all season.

 

[CyCloned]

"It wasn't a lack of open shots, Iowa State had a multitude of unguarded attempts that clanked off the rim or spiraled in and out."

I beg to differ Brent. Thirty-eight 3-pt. attempts is obscene, open or not. Just because a shot behind the line is "unguarded," doesn't mean it's a good shot. The first question posed to Fennelly in the post-game presser addressed this very issue.
We need an offense in the future that works to get better looks closer at the basket, other than just jacking up 3's.

An unguarded 3 for a decent shooter is always a good shot. Unfortunately, for some reason this WBB team is just not a very good shooting team, which is hard for us Clone fans. BF teams have always been good from the outside, that is what they do best. Not so much this year.

 

[brentblum]

"It wasn't a lack of open shots, Iowa State had a multitude of unguarded attempts that clanked off the rim or spiraled in and out."

I beg to differ Brent. Thirty-eight 3-pt. attempts is obscene, open or not. Just because a shot behind the line is "unguarded," doesn't mean it's a good shot. The first question posed to Fennelly in the post-game presser addressed this very issue.
We need an offense in the future that works to get better looks closer at the basket, other than just jacking up 3's.

I absolutely understand where you are coming from. But this team had a limitation in their ability to score over size in the paint. Perhaps they should have attacked more, but it is tough to say the shots they did take weren't open.

 

[SoapyCy]

Today was my first live women's game ever. From the first 5 minutes on I knew it would be bad. FSU was on our girls all the time and made passing impossible. I have a few questions in general about the women's game. I've never seen so many kicked balls- is that a legitimate defense move? FSU had 25 turnovers but there were almost no points from these. Do women tend to pass across the court multiple times every possession? Saw this almost every time down the court. and finally, maybe it's strength but the women don't catch and shoot. It's like they push it up there but need to ready themselves first. Just frustrating is all...

Other than the actual game we had a good time today!

 

[Tornado man]

I absolutely understand where you are coming from. But this team had a limitation in their ability to score over size in the paint. Perhaps they should have attacked more, but it is tough to say the shots they did take weren't open.

Oh yes, they certainly were "open" - just as a shot from mid-court would usually be. My point was, a lot of them aren't "good" shots, as we don't have many effective outside shooters. It's been far too easy to explain losses this year by saying "we had good looks, the shots just weren't falling." Then work to get better shots by dribble-drives or more motion, instead of stationing three (sometimes four) players around the 3-pt. line...

 

[Wesley]

"It wasn't a lack of open shots, Iowa State had a multitude of unguarded attempts that clanked off the rim or spiraled in and out."

I beg to differ Brent. Thirty-eight 3-pt. attempts is obscene, open or not. Just because a shot behind the line is "unguarded," doesn't mean it's a good shot. The first question posed to Fennelly in the post-game presser addressed this very issue.
We need an offense in the future that works to get better looks closer at the basket, other than just jacking up 3's.

Unfortunately, I agree. I have not been impressed with our offensive sets. We look simplified and not capable in many games. He needs to change something over the off season. We even have problems weaving the ball. Too loose.

 

[geewago]

This season left a bitter taste for me, mostly because of the recruiting failures that left a great Cyclone like Hallie, a small forward, out of position at the post all season.

Totally agree. To me she was far more impressive last year. She was right where she belonged and it worked well.

 

[mitten1975]

I believe our players can shoot. Hallie, for example shot much better last year, and I don't think it is coincidence that so many players on our team had difficulty shooting many times during the season. I remember many times, Kid was unconscious shooting. Today she could hardly connect with the rim. They were keying on our three point shooting, and left two to guard most of the people that came in the paint. That is enough with this team, because they guard players that drive and if we put four outside the arc, they send someone out. They simply played better than we did, their defense was more effective, they had a deeper team than we did, were probably all around a better team than we are. We have no inside game except for Hallie, therefore our offense is very limited to whether we hit our shots. They contested a good many threes, and that gets the players worrying about shooting the three and throws off accuracy. We need an inside game.

 

[Cycsk]

Nice to read about Coach's comments to Hallie. That was the sort of thing I hoped he was saying to her as she left the court.

 

[IsUaClone2]

I think the team's confidence or heart left when Maddie got hurt. I don't believe that Maddie would have been able to do what Hallie did but she could have done something and freed-up Hallie. I think Hallie would have been even more effective than she was playing inside.

 

[SammyWild]

obviously, Florida State was a lot more athletic than we were.

Not only did that make it tougher to get good shots, the times the ladies got some daylight, they seemed rushed.. they really sped Iowa State up, and we just couldn't get the proper spacing, and penetration to set anything up.

We had some good looks, but we took a lot of shots where they settled for a 3 because they couldn't get any movement, too much dribbling, not getting into their defense. Give them credit, they took the crowd out right away, and everytime we had a big shot that could have pulled us within 5, after our miss that scored.

 

[907CY]

"It wasn't a lack of open shots, Iowa State had a multitude of unguarded attempts that clanked off the rim or spiraled in and out."

I beg to differ Brent. Thirty-eight 3-pt. attempts is obscene, open or not. Just because a shot behind the line is "unguarded," doesn't mean it's a good shot. The first question posed to Fennelly in the post-game presser addressed this very issue.
We need an offense in the future that works to get better looks closer at the basket, other than just jacking up 3's.

I totally agree with you. We had midrange shots but didn't take them instead passing out for yet another miss from behind the three point line. Is the Iowa State Way that everyone talks about NOT to shoot mid range jumpers. Buckley had several moves into the paint where she was wide open for a 6 foot jumper and passed it up to pass it out to perimeter. I know that Florida State that Defensive End for a post player but still the stop and pops were open and just not taken. Part of me is glad that this season is over because it has been such a struggle with which team shows up. I am hoping with a year under this year's freshman and our recruiting class coming in that next season will be able to be more successful.

Side noteIncarnate Word won the Missouri State tournament and Bell is going to be very good for us. Fast, and she can shoot the three, and she can pass the ball better than any guard that we have on the team now. Collier is the real superstar and the best friend of future Cyclone Bell. She even gave her a piggy back ride off the court after their win.)

 

[Three4Cy]

Today was my first live women's game ever. From the first 5 minutes on I knew it would be bad. FSU was on our girls all the time and made passing impossible. I have a few questions in general about the women's game. I've never seen so many kicked balls- is that a legitimate defense move? FSU had 25 turnovers but there were almost no points from these. Do women tend to pass across the court multiple times every possession? Saw this almost every time down the court. and finally, maybe it's strength but the women don't catch and shoot. It's like they push it up there but need to ready themselves first. Just frustrating is all...

Other than the actual game we had a good time today!

I speculated it was more of an offensive move by FSU. They didn't have what they wanted and often the shot clock was winding down, so get a kicked ball, shot clock goes back to 15 seconds, reset the offense and see what happens.

 

[Oldgeezer]

Why are you all avoiding the obvious? Shooting well is about confidence. Confidence that has been destroyed by a screaming, intimidating coaching style. With a lifetime contract that can only be changed by this same coach. Does he he have the conscience to step down?

 

[kcdc4isu]

I waited till this morning to comment so that I could think about what I just watched sink in. Brent (and Bill) was correct that poor shooting was our down fall. Had we shot 30% like FSU did we win the game. Everyone on here is an expert after you have watched the game and can point out every error made. The old saying "ifs & buts " comes into play. I have seen people come on here and tear a player apart because they made a bad pass or missed a shot or made another mistake. Lest we forget they are playing the game at game speed and don't have the luxury of stepping back and decide should I do this or this action. I have read post that our coaches made errors in not getting (or having them leave) certain players on the team. Well in this game and the game after ours (yes I stayed for the whole second game) we saw two of those players. Take a look at their stats, there not that great so to say that they were big losses is streching it a bit IMO. This was a tough season to watch, we had great games and we had really bad games. All we who are fans of this school/team can do is to let this one go and get ready for next year. We will miss our seniors but guess what every year we have seniors we love to watch and will miss them also. Go Cyclones and we all need to be cheering on our men today!

 

[Oldgeezer]

I waited till this morning to comment so that I could think about what I just watched sink in. Brent (and Bill) was correct that poor shooting was our down fall. Had we shot 30% like FSU did we win the game. Everyone on here is an expert after you have watched the game and can point out every error made. The old saying "ifs & buts " comes into play. I have seen people come on here and tear a player apart because they made a bad pass or missed a shot or made another mistake. Lest we forget they are playing the game at game speed and don't have the luxury of stepping back and decide should I do this or this action. I have read post that our coaches made errors in not getting (or having them leave) certain players on the team. Well in this game and the game after ours (yes I stayed for the whole second game) we saw two of those players. Take a look at their stats, there not that great so to say that they were big losses is streching it a bit IMO. This was a tough season to watch, we had great games and we had really bad games. All we who are fans of this school/team can do is to let this one go and get ready for next year. We will miss our seniors but guess what every year we have seniors we love to watch and will miss them also. Go Cyclones and we all need to be cheering on our men today!

I don't consider myself an expert, but I have watched ISU sports for about 60 years, and watched Bill F bring this program into national prominence. But you have to acknowledge what has developed in recently. Start with the departure of Ashley Arens, followed by Whitney Williams, Jessica Scroll (in tears), Emiaha Bingley, just to name a few. This starting five is the most athletic group ever assembled by a Fennelly staff. Next year's recruits may be the best class he has brought in. I just feel bad for Hallie C. One of the finest young ladies and best athletes to come through ISU. I would hate to see the talent assembled walk away or underachieve because of poor leadership.

 

[cydney]

Contrary to the post above, I'd say that Coach BF has become too mellow with his coaching style. It was good to move the dial to a lower intensity from a couple years ago. There were several reasons it had gotten dialed up. A lower setting is better for his health and the team's well-being. But Bill is Bill. He is not Fred. You watch or read stories on Geno, and Geno has built a national champion program by being a hard-nosed coach who expects perfection (although reports are that he has mellowed some too). By all accounts, Geno builds confidence through rigorous practices.

It's an exciting future for Cyclones WBB. Part of that future will depend on leadership by the coach and the players. Coach will need to find the right setting for the dial that will work with next year's team, and that will develop and instill the leadership qualities in players that are needed to reach the next level.

Can the program actually set a goal to get to the Final Four, not just get into the NCAA tourney?