Wow. How to begin. I’ve thought a little about this on the ride home and I think I’m going to divide this end of year summary up into a couple of parts. First, the game.
From the outset of this game you could tell something was off with the sisters. It has been rare this year that players seemed “lost” on the court. Tonight, I felt like I had gone back in time a full year and was watching last year’s version of the Sister’s act. Why? Everyone was differing to Bridget tonight. There were times on offense that Joens and Wise looked like shell shocked freshmen, not seasoned players. There was too much standing around with little ball movement unless it was Bridget. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the only problem. Missed shots. At least five layups that I counted. Clear, open bunnies that weren’t really that close. Every single one of them cost us. How about the three point shooting. I can’t remember a time when I saw such abysmal shooting from deep. Two for seventeen abysmal. One in each half. That was it. Even an average day of shooting and this team wins.
Did the players battle? Oh yes, they definitely put up a fight. The problem was they couldn’t get out of their own way. Poor passes, bad ball handling, and the ability to get lost on defense were all afflictions tonight. Here is what I said Saturday about Missouri State
“Missouri State has some really good three point shooters. They play aggressive defense and can take you out of your flow. If the officials let them get away with their physical play it could be a close game. Of utmost importance is not leaving their shooters open on the perimeter.”
Guess what? We left them wide open for threes on multiple occasions. We let their defense make us stagnant and no flow was created. When we did push things we missed open shots. Missouri State did exactly what they wanted to. They played a ten deep lineup and kept at the sisters all night. No let up. We responded here and there and every time we drew close…we missed another key shot or free throw and let them restretch their lead. Bridget was Bridget. She scrapped, sliced and scored. She scored more than the rest of the team combined. Unfortunately, late in the game MSU started to double and triple team her. So she passed out and we missed wide open looks. How about these glaring stats…
Quarter by Quarter Scoring? 17/13/15/15. Ugh.
Combined shooting for Joens and Wise? 3/21 (Wise was 0-6).
Who else scored besides Bridget? No one.
Bench scoring? MSU 20. ISU 1
The thing I will say about MSU is they are for real and are coached well. Even scarier is the fact they only have one senior on the team. Mostly freshmen and sophs. They will be a team to keep an eye on in the future. To have that confidence in your 10-12 deep says a lot. There was one point where MSU subbed out all five players for another five.
Part II
My one gripe about the game. This entire weekend the officiating was terrible. I’m not saying it was biased one way or another, but to miss some of the calls they did was terrible. A jump ball being called when the MSU player wasn’t even touching the ball. Non-existent fouls being called. Missed foul calls. An MSU player that took three steps before shooting. It was ugly out there. They were embarrassing for NCAA tournament level officials.
Part III
This is the important part. This was a fantastic team that didn’t get to end their season the way they wanted. It’s so much easier to take a loss when you know you played your best. I’m sure this one hurts…badly. I want to say again how much I enjoyed watching this team this year. They had some big wins along the way, some heartbreaking losses, and through it all they were one. We saw records fall. We were graced with ISU’s first Big 12 Player of the Year. Thank you to the coaching staff and to the Twister Sisters. You brought joy to Who-ville and we were privileged to be able to be there with you. Though we can look forward to next year with another great set of recruits coming in to Hilton, we need to relish and reflect on what we had this year. It was special. For Bridget, Alexa, and Mere, I only wish the best. I anticipate seeing Bridget wearing a red oak leaf on her jersey in the next Olympics. She will be the second person I’ve met or known that has done that (I knew Ian Davies who played for Australia’s national team in the 80 and 84 Olympics). I can’t wait to cheer her on one more time. For the rest of the team. Get some rest. Cherish what happened this year and then start working to get ready for next year. Let’s make this winning thing the norm. Thank you ladies.
From the outset of this game you could tell something was off with the sisters. It has been rare this year that players seemed “lost” on the court. Tonight, I felt like I had gone back in time a full year and was watching last year’s version of the Sister’s act. Why? Everyone was differing to Bridget tonight. There were times on offense that Joens and Wise looked like shell shocked freshmen, not seasoned players. There was too much standing around with little ball movement unless it was Bridget. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the only problem. Missed shots. At least five layups that I counted. Clear, open bunnies that weren’t really that close. Every single one of them cost us. How about the three point shooting. I can’t remember a time when I saw such abysmal shooting from deep. Two for seventeen abysmal. One in each half. That was it. Even an average day of shooting and this team wins.
Did the players battle? Oh yes, they definitely put up a fight. The problem was they couldn’t get out of their own way. Poor passes, bad ball handling, and the ability to get lost on defense were all afflictions tonight. Here is what I said Saturday about Missouri State
“Missouri State has some really good three point shooters. They play aggressive defense and can take you out of your flow. If the officials let them get away with their physical play it could be a close game. Of utmost importance is not leaving their shooters open on the perimeter.”
Guess what? We left them wide open for threes on multiple occasions. We let their defense make us stagnant and no flow was created. When we did push things we missed open shots. Missouri State did exactly what they wanted to. They played a ten deep lineup and kept at the sisters all night. No let up. We responded here and there and every time we drew close…we missed another key shot or free throw and let them restretch their lead. Bridget was Bridget. She scrapped, sliced and scored. She scored more than the rest of the team combined. Unfortunately, late in the game MSU started to double and triple team her. So she passed out and we missed wide open looks. How about these glaring stats…
Quarter by Quarter Scoring? 17/13/15/15. Ugh.
Combined shooting for Joens and Wise? 3/21 (Wise was 0-6).
Who else scored besides Bridget? No one.
Bench scoring? MSU 20. ISU 1
The thing I will say about MSU is they are for real and are coached well. Even scarier is the fact they only have one senior on the team. Mostly freshmen and sophs. They will be a team to keep an eye on in the future. To have that confidence in your 10-12 deep says a lot. There was one point where MSU subbed out all five players for another five.
Part II
My one gripe about the game. This entire weekend the officiating was terrible. I’m not saying it was biased one way or another, but to miss some of the calls they did was terrible. A jump ball being called when the MSU player wasn’t even touching the ball. Non-existent fouls being called. Missed foul calls. An MSU player that took three steps before shooting. It was ugly out there. They were embarrassing for NCAA tournament level officials.
Part III
This is the important part. This was a fantastic team that didn’t get to end their season the way they wanted. It’s so much easier to take a loss when you know you played your best. I’m sure this one hurts…badly. I want to say again how much I enjoyed watching this team this year. They had some big wins along the way, some heartbreaking losses, and through it all they were one. We saw records fall. We were graced with ISU’s first Big 12 Player of the Year. Thank you to the coaching staff and to the Twister Sisters. You brought joy to Who-ville and we were privileged to be able to be there with you. Though we can look forward to next year with another great set of recruits coming in to Hilton, we need to relish and reflect on what we had this year. It was special. For Bridget, Alexa, and Mere, I only wish the best. I anticipate seeing Bridget wearing a red oak leaf on her jersey in the next Olympics. She will be the second person I’ve met or known that has done that (I knew Ian Davies who played for Australia’s national team in the 80 and 84 Olympics). I can’t wait to cheer her on one more time. For the rest of the team. Get some rest. Cherish what happened this year and then start working to get ready for next year. Let’s make this winning thing the norm. Thank you ladies.
