Twister Sister Summary - ladies lose after surrendering 65 in second half

[acoustimac]

Well, this is a tough game to write about. I could wax poetic about how good the first half was but unfortunately, we also have to include the second half. I'm gonna focus on three things:
Number one the officiating.
Number two value when the ball
number three disappearance of players


Number one is really easy to discuss. Anyone who has watched women's basketball over the years knows that the officiating in nearly any game is subpar. Even those who are considered the good officials really aren't that good. Sometimes the stars align and you end up with a game in which you have three terrible officials. Tonight's game would be such a game. Unfortunately teams have to play through bad officiating.


Number two is a recurring theme with our basketball team. Turnovers. As I followed the second half that's almost all that appeared to happen to our sisters. I think that most of the players ended up with practically more turnovers than points in the second half. Yes that's an over exaggeration, but every time I turned around it seemed like someone...usually a guard... had a turnover. Some of this had to do with defense from Texas Christian, some of it had to do with officiating and what they let happen, but a big part of it is how our ladies deal with pressure. They don't. Second game in a row with 21 turnovers. That my friends will allow you to win very few games. Even worse...it happened against two of the weaker teams in the Big 12. Nearly everyone who touched the ball became a turnover factory. Exactly one player on the team didn't turn the ball over - Ellis. This team needs to learn how to handle pressure or this season is going to get ugly in a hurry. If TCU can score 30+ off of turnovers against us, what will Texas do Saturday?


Number three puzzles me. The first half line score showed some great things. Williamson was scoring and rebounding. Ellis looked like she had claimed a spot in the lineup looking for a double double. Moody had dished out a half-dozen assess. If only the game had ended then. Unfortunately there was a second-half. For all intents and purposes the offense disappeared in the second half. That's weird to say considering we scored 40, but if you eliminate 50% of the turnovers how many would we have scored? Moody became a stupid foul machine and essentially negated herself in this game. Getting 15 minutes from your point guard is not good for any team. In the last ten minutes of the game our post presence was zilch. Then you consider that because of number two, TCU had 17 more shots that the sisters. Wow.


The positives? You sure can't complain about the shooting percentage from the field, three or the line. 80 points ought to win any game. That's all good. That's the only good in this game. Brynn played a yeoman's game being in all 40 minutes. Ellis was tough.


But...see number two. It all comes back to that. 65 freaking points in one half. Is that a record? A team almost would have to stand back, dish the ball to the opponent and let them shoot to get that many. 65 points.


Unfortunately the heat turns up by about 300 degrees come Saturday. One of the top teams in the conference (#3 nationally) rolls into town and I'm sure they smell blood. Two days is a quick turnaround. Follow that up with another top five team in Baylor and then quick rematches with these same two teams that turned us into turnover U and life could get interesting in a hurry. Will The coaching staff have a little wisdom to impart on the players? Will the players come together to make a stand? Time will tell.

 

[gizzsdad]

I did not watch the game, but my wife was listening to the radio and tearing her hair out.

A couple of things stand out: 1) Nikki is so important to this team, and she alluded to that once during an interview while Jadda was out- and that she needed to be smarter about fouling. So much for that. So many of her fouls are high risk/low reward in very bad situations. As others have commented, we need more from a four year starting PG. 2) As other teams see this tape, it's hard to imagine that the pressure will not ramp up exponentially.

When I was coaching, it was always hard to simulate pressure on my ones with the twos and threes. So I started using 6, 7 or even 8 if I needed to - to make it almost impossible for them to advance the ball without being extremely disciplined and having a plan.

Hopefully, the men's scout team will be utilized at a high level to help overcome this glaring weakness.

 

[Buster28]

Speaking to point #1, it goes without saying that we will probably never see a well-officiated wbb game in this league (or any other, since a lot of them work multiple leagues within a certain area). Bob Trammell, Laura Morris, and Lisa Jones were responsible for the travesty in stripes last night. It's almost hard to believe it wasn't Dee Kantner or Lisa Mattingly, because they are consistently bad about not blowing the whistle and losing control of physical games. I hate that there is zero accountability with refs. Fennelly had said a couple years ago that the Big 12 has only let go a single ref since the beginning of the league. I don't know the circumstance, but it's hard to imagine what can actually get you canned by the powers that be when you see what they call/ignore on the court.

That being said, ISU has to be better about playing through ****** officiating. They absolutely did not do this last night. A good team can get past it and still win the game. We are not in a position to do that right now. It needs to change quickly or this season will end up spiraling the drain sooner rather than later. If this is all ISU is capable of against two of the lesser Big 12 teams, I hate to see what it looks like against UT, BU, and WVU.

 

[907CY]

This game should have been a road win for us. Other than Brynn, Ellis, and Johnson the rest of the team was mailing it in and probably should have stayed back in Ames. Moody had her worse game of the season. A lack of intensity and focus were her keys for the bad performance. Yes, the officiating was bad last night but we gave this game away. We had them down and couldn't put them away. This team doesn't have the killer instinct that good teams have and that starts with the floor general and senior leadership. I would think some butts need to be kicked or this is going to be a long, long season.

 

[BoxsterCy]

I am sure the 65 points in one half by an opponent is a record although they don't list that sort of thing in our archives.

Even in some of our worse historic defeats, the opponents total doesn't lead me to beieve we have ever given up that many in one half. UConn beating us by 40 was still only UConn with 74 points for the game. The record game for total points (both teams) was against Iowa in 2000 and that took three overtimes and that wasn't even close to 65 points.

Just such an odd one with the opponent tripling their first half scoring.

 

[cyinne]

I didnt really look that hard but this is the first thing I found- not sure ISU puts media guides online anymore, not sure if they even make media guides at all....

According to the 2007-2008 media guide the record for ISU points in a half is 71 v. Central (2-14-76)- the record for opponent points in a half is 68 from Drake (2-23-81)- the game with Drake also set the record for most points in a game by an opponent with 122.

 

[kcdc4isu]

This game should have been a road win for us. Other than Brynn, Ellis, Kid, Jadda and Johnson the rest of the team was mailing it in and probably should have stayed back in Ames. Moody had her worse game of the season. A lack of intensity and focus were her keys for the bad performance. Yes, the officiating was bad last night but we gave this game away. We had them down and couldn't put them away. This team doesn't have the killer instinct that good teams have and that starts with the floor general and senior leadership. I would think some butts need to be kicked or this is going to be a long, long season.

FIFY 16 and 10 points is not mailing it in. I do agree we do not have a killer instinct and are not a physical team overall. We play the game the way it is supposed to be played and when we do try to get physical it seems we get called for any contact we make. As many have said the officals for womens basketball are terrible and as there are very few of them they ref to many games a week. All I have ever wanted from officials is to call the game the same on both ends of the court. If you allow pushing and shoving in the post (which is not allowed by the rules) then a simpple hand check should be allowed even if it is against the rules. Too many of todays officials call what they want to calll not what the rules dictate they should call.

 

[ruxCYtable]

I hate to speak out against my officiating brethren but what little officiating I've seen in women's basketball this year has been really bad. I hate to be blunt but nobody, except maybe some of the female officials, dreams of officiating women's college basketball, IMO. With a few exceptions, the people working D-1 women's basketball are those who weren't deemed good enough to work men's basketball.

To make it worse, and I could go all philosophical on the reasons why, in some ways women's hoops is more difficult to officiate than men's (quality of play issues, harder to apply advantage-disadvantage, calls aren't as clear cut, etc.)

Unfortunately, I don't know what can be done about it.

 

[kcdc4isu]

I hate to speak out against my officiating brethren but what little officiating I've seen in women's basketball this year has been really bad. I hate to be blunt but nobody, except maybe some of the female officials, dreams of officiating women's college basketball, IMO. With a few exceptions, the people working D-1 women's basketball are those who weren't deemed good enough to work men's basketball.

To make it worse, and I could go all philosophical on the reasons why, in some ways women's hoops is more difficult to officiate than men's (quality of play issues, harder to apply advantage-disadvantage, calls aren't as clear cut, etc.)

Unfortunately, I don't know what can be done about it.

A couple questions, first, just how many womens college games have you seen in person this year? If you truley believe most of the men want to do mens game but are not good enough, why are they then good enough to do womens games? And to the comment that it is harder to do womens games that must mean it takes the best officials to do a good job. Hence we are back to the problem, there are to many poor officials who should not be allowed to do any game other than a junior high game. I may seem hard on officials but I get tired of hearing excuses for why they can't do a decent job, either do it right or find another way to earn an income. If I had performed the way they do in my job I would have been fired instead of working 35 yrs for the same company.

 

[runbikeswim]

FIFY 16 and 10 points is not mailing it in. I do agree we do not have a killer instinct and are not a physical team overall. We play the game the way it is supposed to be played and when we do try to get physical it seems we get called for any contact we make. As many have said the officals for womens basketball are terrible and as there are very few of them they ref to many games a week. All I have ever wanted from officials is to call the game the same on both ends of the court. If you allow pushing and shoving in the post (which is not allowed by the rules) then a simpple hand check should be allowed even if it is against the rules. Too many of todays officials call what they want to calll not what the rules dictate they should call.

Sorry, but Jadda played terribly. She had 5 turnovers, and often causes others she passed to be trapped. She turned her back towards the defenders instead of attacking the press. A lot of the problems with breaking the press started with Jadda. Sorry, but that is how I saw it.

Nikki needs to play defense more with her body and less with her hands.

To me, it is a sad statement for this program that our highest ranked recruit ever, as a sophomore, can't break a press. Guess she needs to spend more time with Lyndsey.

 

[geewago]

Like the rest of you, I can scarcely believe the results of this game. Horrible second half. I doubt that Tx Tech will win over 1 or 2 more games at best and TCU got beat rather solidly up there. Did you see that lopsided score in Techs next game at OSU? This team needs to bring it together rather quickly because Texas is no longer mediocre. They are playing real ball this year. Hopefully this is the low point of the season.

 

[kcdc4isu]

Sorry, but Jadda played terribly. She had 5 turnovers, and often causes others she passed to be trapped. She turned her back towards the defenders instead of attacking the press. A lot of the problems with breaking the press started with Jadda. Sorry, but that is how I saw it.

Nikki needs to play defense more with her body and less with her hands.

To me, it is a sad statement for this program that our highest ranked recruit ever, as a sophomore, can't break a press. Guess she needs to spend more time with Lyndsey.

As I did not SEE the game,only got to listen to it I was going on the fact she did score 10 points. Take away those points and the defeat is even worse. Problem was listening to the broadcast could not tell if the problem was poor play byour players or rough play (with no fouls being called) from TCU. So if Jadda was as bad as you say she should not get any credit.

 

[NWICY]

Like the rest of you, I can scarcely believe the results of this game. Horrible second half. I doubt that Tx Tech will win over 1 or 2 more games at best and TCU got beat rather solidly up there. Did you see that lopsided score in Techs next game at OSU? This team needs to bring it together rather quickly because Texas is no longer mediocre. They are playing real ball this year. Hopefully this is the low point of the season.

I hope we learn from this loss and get a win Sat. I don't believe we will though, I think this year will be a learning yr. for the team. I'm hoping for a good yr. next yr. The team hasn't done well in the tourney for a while and I don't see that changing this year, lots of season left and I hope to be proven wrong.

 

[acoustimac]

The beginning of the season initially looked reasonable for our ladies. KState and TCU being four of the first six games looked like four wins. With this ugly loss and a poor second half against KSU now make the beginning of the season look pretty tough with Texas and Baylor fitting in between those games. If the ladies continue to forget their defense it's likely the season starts out 1-5. That would be tough but not impossible to come back from.

Personally, the ladies need to learn how to handle pressure and play defense. If they do I'm at least thinking TCU is a win here and we start 2-4.

 

[ISU71]

I hate to speak out against my officiating brethren but what little officiating I've seen in women's basketball this year has been really bad. I hate to be blunt but nobody, except maybe some of the female officials, dreams of officiating women's college basketball, IMO. With a few exceptions, the people working D-1 women's basketball are those who weren't deemed good enough to work men's basketball.

To make it worse, and I could go all philosophical on the reasons why, in some ways women's hoops is more difficult to officiate than men's (quality of play issues, harder to apply advantage-disadvantage, calls aren't as clear cut, etc.)

Unfortunately, I don't know what can be done about it.

In the 20 years that we've watched women's college basketball closely three things stand out: 1. The Big 12 women's basketball officials are the worst in America. 2. We have seen High School officials that are infinitely more competent/qualified than the vast majority of the women's officials in the Big 12. 3. The arrogance displayed by the Big 12 women's officials on the court is sickening.

Still, that is no excuse for blowing a 24 point lead to one of the worst teams in the league. Baylor, Texas, WVA, OU and OSU are going to eat us alive if we don't see some mental toughness, maturity and leadership from the players that should be showing it after 3 years.