We knew going into this game...actually this stretch...things could get pretty tough. It's not like the team has been playing stellar ball and this was going to be the game that saw just how good they were. Instead, we have a team on the ropes that is its own worst enemy and struggling to regain its footing.
Rather than recap each quarter I'll point out a few things that were happening in tonight's game. I'll start off by saying the crowd was one of the best of the season. Student turnout was great and the crowd was pretty vocal throughout. The game actually started out like two boxers feeling each other out. Some swings made contact while others missed. The sisters would take an early lead and it would be back and forth for much of the first six minutes. Ryan hit our first trey to continue the streak. The defense was actually pretty salty and was making OU work for everything they could get on their last trip to Ames. BUT...here's the dreaded but...the turnover bug continued. The ONLY reason OU was in this game early were silly turnovers by the sisters. OU's offensive output was greatly aided by getting so many more opportunities to score than the sisters. By the end of the first they had nearly as many made baskets as the sisters had in attempts. Yes, it was that bad. The last four minutes were a combination of turnovers, missed shots and OU capitalizing and ended at 27-19 after a 10-0 OU run to close it out.
The second was just a bit more of the first. After a brief comeback due to a couple of three point shots that would draw the sisters within two possessions, the wheels fell off again. Five minutes into the second quarter OU had taken fourteen more shot attempts than ISU and ISU already had ten turnovers. The other aspect (other than OU capitalizing on all of those turnovers) was the sisters being dominated, and I mean dominated, on the boards. Especially the offensive end. Too many ties we would see ISU players getting out hustled to the ball or one OU player getting the ball while surrounded by two or three ISU players who just didn't have the same level of attack in them. One other familiar thing we've seen in this nasty stretch of losing has been every time the ladies seem to put something together they immediately fall apart and give it all back or more. A perfect example was Diew hitting a trey followed by a Ryan steal...a real chance to get the game close...and instead Ryan would make the 13th turnover of the game. Instead of being down only six, OU would capitalize on two straight turnovers for an 11 point lead. Overall, the energy level of our team in the first half was terrible to almost non-existent in some players. The half ended with OU up comfortably 49-35. Without looking I would guess this was the most points given up in any half this season.
One a positive note, the sisters came out in the second half with a ton more energy, stingy defense and a desire to get after the rebounds. They fought and scrapped and even got the game within 8 points. OU was missing shots and not getting second chance opportunities. But of course...the wheels fell off once again. This time it wasn't turnovers (we only had five in the second half), but just missed shots (lots of missed layups and no one could hit from outside) and OU seemingly started to score at will again. They actually stretched the lead out to 18 on a couple of different times and ISU never seriously threatened the rest of the game.
What was actually refreshing to watch was the last five minutes. Coach Fen put the five freshmen in and they finished the game. In my honest opinion, I thought there was more cohesion, ball movement, and togetherness work than I'd seen all night long. It was the one positive I took from this game. In the end OU would win comfortably by 14, 86-72.
Observations
The first half was a take you behind the woodshed type of moment for this team. OU did literally anything they wanted to do and ISU struggled to find itself. Even when substitutions were made, players seemed lost. They didn't communicate and often missed defensive assignments because they had no idea who they were supposed to guard. After the first six minutes of this game and the first five minutes of the third quarter the sisters never threatened.
POG - I'm tired of not giving this out. I'm going to give it to Audi, but even she struggled in finishing after the foul and establishing her position better. But we all saw what happened. OU collapsed on her and beat her up. She hit 8 of 11 free throws (much better!), pulled in six boards (it should have been higher) and had six assists (feeds to outside shooters which is also good). Her five turnovers really hurt our effort though.
The guard court - whew...Between Ryan, Belanger and AJ we got 24 points, 8 boards, 5 assists and 9 turnovers. That's not good.
Diew - while she had a couple of "what was that?" type of plays, Diew hit some nice shots tonight (scoring 10 points), only had one turnover, and overall was a positive contributor to the effort tonight.
Natabou - this may have been one of her scrappier games. She was in their fighting tonight. Seven points and four boards. Free throw shooting was abysmal. But the effort was definitely there. I like this Natabou.
Bristow - three points, one board and a couple of turnovers. I don't think that shows what she was doing tonight. She was in there scrapping and often times it didn't show in the stat line. I like her energy.
Brown - I'm not sure what's happening here. Her offense has gone out the window. The double-double machine has a broken cog. She grabbed nine boards (I think most in the second half - she looked dead in the first). Outside of that she had twice as many turnovers as assists and couldn't find the basket all night long going 3-14. This is another big reason why this team is losing. We've lost a very key contributor on offense. She also seems to be frustrated out there.
Joens - man, I like this little buzz saw. She played a lot of minutes tonight and was as scrappy as anyone on the court. Five points and five boards with no turnovers. She was flying all over the place. She is most definitely a Joens.
Turnovers - they killed us in the first half as the sisters amassed fifteen. The period in the late first quarter was deadly to the outcome. This wasn't because of OU defense. It was poor ball care and in many cases, terrible passing.
Rebounding - two games in a row the sisters have been beaten on the boards after not having it happen all season. As coach would say, rebounding is all about effort. In the first half, that effort wasn't there. I remember watching one play where we had two players stand and watch the rebound bounce away without making a step towards it. The second half was a draw in this category. Again, this weighed heavily on the big halftime lead and the large number of second chances OU had in the first half.
Free throws - we should have been on the free throw line more. Audi was getting beat up and the officials clearly lost control of things during a couple of stretches. The free throw line hurt us badly tonight as the ladies only made 18 of 29 attempts. That is as bad as it gets for an ISU women's team. Woof.
This was clearly an example of a team headed in the wrong direction playing the team that is romping through the Big 12. We know what this team is capable of, but something is clearly wrong out there. We've lost scoring, ball movement has decreased, the swagger of "we can beat the world" has disappeared and our seniors aren't providing the needed help. This is going to sound strange, but I liked what I saw when the fab five were on the court during the last five minutes of the game. The way they play together is magical. There wasn't any dribble, dribble, dribble offense. There was ball movement. There was player movement. I liked watching it.
As for the offense, there are two things happening. First, turnovers are killing any opportunity the ladies have to be in a game by giving opponents extra opportunities. For example, in the first quarter OU had over twice, yes TWICE, as many shot attempts as the sisters while both teams hit about 45%. There's the ball game in a nutshell. Second, when the offense gets a shot off we are missing. Defenses are crowding Crooks and know they can get away with it because our outside shooters are missing. Our outside shooters went 17-48 today or 35%. Two of those players were a combined 7 of 24. Ouch.
OU is in first place for a reason. They have multiple weapons. They are quick. They are scrappy on defense. At the same time I have a hard time seeing them going very deep in the dance. They have weaknesses as well. But they clearly showed the difference between a first place team and a team that is struggling and in a free fall. But I take tonight's margin with a grain of salt as this OU team is in first place for a reason.
The team is in the midst of a killer stretch with KSU coming to town Wednesday and then a road game at Texas. Sadly, if the type of play we've seen in the last 3 weeks continues the ladies could emerge from the smoke and fire with a 7-8 conference record. They need to re-find the fire and determination that got them off to such a hot conference start. There are still games to be won.
Rather than recap each quarter I'll point out a few things that were happening in tonight's game. I'll start off by saying the crowd was one of the best of the season. Student turnout was great and the crowd was pretty vocal throughout. The game actually started out like two boxers feeling each other out. Some swings made contact while others missed. The sisters would take an early lead and it would be back and forth for much of the first six minutes. Ryan hit our first trey to continue the streak. The defense was actually pretty salty and was making OU work for everything they could get on their last trip to Ames. BUT...here's the dreaded but...the turnover bug continued. The ONLY reason OU was in this game early were silly turnovers by the sisters. OU's offensive output was greatly aided by getting so many more opportunities to score than the sisters. By the end of the first they had nearly as many made baskets as the sisters had in attempts. Yes, it was that bad. The last four minutes were a combination of turnovers, missed shots and OU capitalizing and ended at 27-19 after a 10-0 OU run to close it out.
The second was just a bit more of the first. After a brief comeback due to a couple of three point shots that would draw the sisters within two possessions, the wheels fell off again. Five minutes into the second quarter OU had taken fourteen more shot attempts than ISU and ISU already had ten turnovers. The other aspect (other than OU capitalizing on all of those turnovers) was the sisters being dominated, and I mean dominated, on the boards. Especially the offensive end. Too many ties we would see ISU players getting out hustled to the ball or one OU player getting the ball while surrounded by two or three ISU players who just didn't have the same level of attack in them. One other familiar thing we've seen in this nasty stretch of losing has been every time the ladies seem to put something together they immediately fall apart and give it all back or more. A perfect example was Diew hitting a trey followed by a Ryan steal...a real chance to get the game close...and instead Ryan would make the 13th turnover of the game. Instead of being down only six, OU would capitalize on two straight turnovers for an 11 point lead. Overall, the energy level of our team in the first half was terrible to almost non-existent in some players. The half ended with OU up comfortably 49-35. Without looking I would guess this was the most points given up in any half this season.
One a positive note, the sisters came out in the second half with a ton more energy, stingy defense and a desire to get after the rebounds. They fought and scrapped and even got the game within 8 points. OU was missing shots and not getting second chance opportunities. But of course...the wheels fell off once again. This time it wasn't turnovers (we only had five in the second half), but just missed shots (lots of missed layups and no one could hit from outside) and OU seemingly started to score at will again. They actually stretched the lead out to 18 on a couple of different times and ISU never seriously threatened the rest of the game.
What was actually refreshing to watch was the last five minutes. Coach Fen put the five freshmen in and they finished the game. In my honest opinion, I thought there was more cohesion, ball movement, and togetherness work than I'd seen all night long. It was the one positive I took from this game. In the end OU would win comfortably by 14, 86-72.
Observations
The first half was a take you behind the woodshed type of moment for this team. OU did literally anything they wanted to do and ISU struggled to find itself. Even when substitutions were made, players seemed lost. They didn't communicate and often missed defensive assignments because they had no idea who they were supposed to guard. After the first six minutes of this game and the first five minutes of the third quarter the sisters never threatened.
POG - I'm tired of not giving this out. I'm going to give it to Audi, but even she struggled in finishing after the foul and establishing her position better. But we all saw what happened. OU collapsed on her and beat her up. She hit 8 of 11 free throws (much better!), pulled in six boards (it should have been higher) and had six assists (feeds to outside shooters which is also good). Her five turnovers really hurt our effort though.
The guard court - whew...Between Ryan, Belanger and AJ we got 24 points, 8 boards, 5 assists and 9 turnovers. That's not good.
Diew - while she had a couple of "what was that?" type of plays, Diew hit some nice shots tonight (scoring 10 points), only had one turnover, and overall was a positive contributor to the effort tonight.
Natabou - this may have been one of her scrappier games. She was in their fighting tonight. Seven points and four boards. Free throw shooting was abysmal. But the effort was definitely there. I like this Natabou.
Bristow - three points, one board and a couple of turnovers. I don't think that shows what she was doing tonight. She was in there scrapping and often times it didn't show in the stat line. I like her energy.
Brown - I'm not sure what's happening here. Her offense has gone out the window. The double-double machine has a broken cog. She grabbed nine boards (I think most in the second half - she looked dead in the first). Outside of that she had twice as many turnovers as assists and couldn't find the basket all night long going 3-14. This is another big reason why this team is losing. We've lost a very key contributor on offense. She also seems to be frustrated out there.
Joens - man, I like this little buzz saw. She played a lot of minutes tonight and was as scrappy as anyone on the court. Five points and five boards with no turnovers. She was flying all over the place. She is most definitely a Joens.
Turnovers - they killed us in the first half as the sisters amassed fifteen. The period in the late first quarter was deadly to the outcome. This wasn't because of OU defense. It was poor ball care and in many cases, terrible passing.
Rebounding - two games in a row the sisters have been beaten on the boards after not having it happen all season. As coach would say, rebounding is all about effort. In the first half, that effort wasn't there. I remember watching one play where we had two players stand and watch the rebound bounce away without making a step towards it. The second half was a draw in this category. Again, this weighed heavily on the big halftime lead and the large number of second chances OU had in the first half.
Free throws - we should have been on the free throw line more. Audi was getting beat up and the officials clearly lost control of things during a couple of stretches. The free throw line hurt us badly tonight as the ladies only made 18 of 29 attempts. That is as bad as it gets for an ISU women's team. Woof.
This was clearly an example of a team headed in the wrong direction playing the team that is romping through the Big 12. We know what this team is capable of, but something is clearly wrong out there. We've lost scoring, ball movement has decreased, the swagger of "we can beat the world" has disappeared and our seniors aren't providing the needed help. This is going to sound strange, but I liked what I saw when the fab five were on the court during the last five minutes of the game. The way they play together is magical. There wasn't any dribble, dribble, dribble offense. There was ball movement. There was player movement. I liked watching it.
As for the offense, there are two things happening. First, turnovers are killing any opportunity the ladies have to be in a game by giving opponents extra opportunities. For example, in the first quarter OU had over twice, yes TWICE, as many shot attempts as the sisters while both teams hit about 45%. There's the ball game in a nutshell. Second, when the offense gets a shot off we are missing. Defenses are crowding Crooks and know they can get away with it because our outside shooters are missing. Our outside shooters went 17-48 today or 35%. Two of those players were a combined 7 of 24. Ouch.
OU is in first place for a reason. They have multiple weapons. They are quick. They are scrappy on defense. At the same time I have a hard time seeing them going very deep in the dance. They have weaknesses as well. But they clearly showed the difference between a first place team and a team that is struggling and in a free fall. But I take tonight's margin with a grain of salt as this OU team is in first place for a reason.
The team is in the midst of a killer stretch with KSU coming to town Wednesday and then a road game at Texas. Sadly, if the type of play we've seen in the last 3 weeks continues the ladies could emerge from the smoke and fire with a 7-8 conference record. They need to re-find the fire and determination that got them off to such a hot conference start. There are still games to be won.
