WBB: Iowa State Hosts No. 9 Baylor Sunday 3:00 pm ESPN2

[CYDJ]

Ursin15 boards- I know Baylor "put the clamp on" but they were fouling a lot on defense. very physical game-

As always. That's their mo. If you aren't ready to match it, it will beat you most of the time cause the officials are not going to help you (for long). Today in the first half they called some otb and displacement for a change though.

 

[CYDJ]

To Baylor’s credit they just kept slugging, punching, pushing, holding, away.

Fify

 

[bozclone]

How impressive is it that we are legitimately competitive with Baylor and we are starting 3 freshman. I really enjoy this team. The effort is always great.

 

[CycloneBob]

Maybe Ashley was told to continue to drive down into the paint, but seemed like Baylor had that figured out the majority of the time and ended up with a lot of turnovers - likely more turnovers than buckets.

 

[bozclone]

Kylie was really good today. Showed some great athleticism going to the basket and hit a couple 3s. I also think Maddie wise played great, but didn’t get enough minutes.

 

[theshadow]

Today I learned that hip checks are allowable against a driving opponent as long as your arms are straight up.

 

[mwwbbfan]

Part of the issue was it was really hard to have movement off the ball - the game as CBF said in the post game was "ultra-physical" If you are not allowed to make your cuts, set your screens etc because the defenders hands / arms / body is on you the entire time it is going to make your offense ugly. When you shoot 10 FT in Qtr 1 and 14 in the rest of the game it is kind of a head scratcher.

 

[CyclonesFan4ever]

 

[BenEClone]

This isn't the Baylor of yesteryear, but it is a very good, top ten team. Even with mistakes, ISU is close - we'll get better.

 

[NWICY]

Skipped to the last page. If we could have kept the rebounding closer we could have got them probably. I was overall pleased with the way we played. What was up with the weird clock stoppage at 8:14 left in the (3rd?) Also a little disappointed we fouled with about 30 sec left it was over then IMO.

It was great to see the freshman have a strong game again. Lots of promise with this team, disappointing to lose but a good game to watch.

 

[NWICY]

So who was wearing the walking boot on ISU's bench today?

 

[Tornado man]

About Lexi's game. Lexi has been one of the most athletic players ever played for ISU. She has the quickness and jumping ability we rarely see from most other ISU players. but her physical strength doesn't warrant the ability to finish at the rim in Big12 play as she did in high school. I can see her improve this area greatly next year but right now, she needs to realize drive-in layup is not her best scoring option, she needs to be more flexible such as drive and pass or drive and make midrange jumpers, and her step back 3s is her best weapon the score more efficiently.

I don't agree - what made Donarski such a great prospect in high school in part was her aggressive attitude, and slashing to the rim - no matter who was guarding her.
I hope she keeps it going, it's what we need: players who force the action and initiate contact and fouls. We have enough jump shooters who want to avoid defenders. Love her physical mentality. The more she goes to the basket the better.

 

[CyclonesFan4ever]

Two small details.

1) MEM was seen wearing a boot again on the sideline during the game. Tommy Birch reported it's related to her previous injury. I hope it's only for the precautionary purpose. Does any WBB insider know how long she will be out? Or can anyone ask Coach Fen about her availability on the next media conference?

2) Ashley was seen wearing an ice pack wrapped around her left upper arm/shoulder area in the postgame interview (posted on Cyclones.tv). It shows the physical beating she took in the game. What a warrior! Just wish she could improve her game by not forcing issues against the strong interior defense. If the scoring chance near the basket is is not good, pass the ball out, make the defense move, then repost for a better position.

 

[CyclonesFan4ever]

I don't agree - what made Donarski such a great prospect in high school in part was her aggressive attitude, and slashing to the rim - no matter who was guarding her.
I hope she keeps it going, it's what we need: players who force the action and initiate contact and fouls. We have enough jump shooters who want to avoid defenders. Love her physical mentality. The more she goes to the basket the better.

Don't get me wrong. I wish she could score more down low by attacking the basket. I have no double she will be unstoppable come next year. But right now the problem is she's not finishing there and rarely draw fouls when seeking contacts, which means she needs to get stronger physically and it takes time to make the change. Because of Covid, there's less opportunity for her to improve in this area in those non-conference games. Right now, with her being the second player who takes the most shots in a game behind Ashley, she needs to improve her efficiency, because every game from now on matters in terms of league standings and NCAA tournament seeding. We all know layups and 3 pointers are the two most efficient ways to score in modern days basketball. If she can't dramatically improve the layup scoring ability or draw enough fouls as Ashley does, she'd better improve her overall scoring efficiency in a different way, such as her step-back 3s which sometimes I think is semi-unguardable. Whatever she's doing, I hope she can contributes in a more efficient way.

 

[ISU40]

Two small details.

1) MEM was seen wearing a boot again on the sideline during the game. Tommy Birch reported it's related to her previous injury. I hope it's only for the precautionary purpose. Does any WBB insider know how long she will be out? Or can anyone ask Coach Fen about her availability on the next media availability?

2) Ashley was seen wearing an ice pack wrapped around her left upper arm/shoulder area in the postgame interview (posted on Cyclones.tv). It shows the physical beating she took in the game. What a warrior! Just wish she could improve her game by not forcing issues against the strong interior defense. If the scoring chance near the basket is is not good, pass the ball out, make the defense move, then repost for a better position.

Tommy Birch said via twitter MEM is out for the next two weeks then they will reevaluate and see if she can go or out the rest of the year.

 

[qwerty]

Baylor rebounded more Baylor missed FGs than ISU did. They had 23 offensive rebounds, we had 18 defensive rebounds.

 

[Tornado man]

We all know layups and 3 pointers are the two most efficient ways to score in modern days basketball. If she can't dramatically improve the layup scoring ability or draw enough fouls as Ashley does, she'd better improve her overall scoring efficiency in a different way, such as her step-back 3s which sometimes I think is semi-unguardable.

Lay-ups yes - but when you attempt lots of 3's you're going to be on the low end of one of the key stats in winning basketball: offensive rebounds.
Mid-range shots, from 15 ft. in, are more "efficient" in that if you miss, you have a better chance at rebounding the ball. The shooter can follow her shot better. Pretty sure Baylor had three times as many offensive rebounds as we did today.
Shooting 3's is fine when they go in - but most teams miss 2/3 of them, and that comes at a price.

 

[qwerty]

Pretty sure Baylor had three times as many offensive rebounds as we did today.

Yep, Offensive rebounds were 23 to 8.

 

[CyclonesFan4ever]

Mid-range shots, from 15 ft. in, are more "efficient" in that if you miss, you have a better chance at rebounding the ball.

I have suggested this strategy in my previous post. I rarely see Lexi do that. Rather, the whole team rarely shoots the midrange shots outside the paint (check this game's ISU shot chart on ESPN.com). Alexa Middleton is the only noticeable player in recent years that take more midrange pull-up jumpers efficiently. Maybe it's Coach Fen's game strategy (layups, free throws, 3 pointers). What I want to stress is, the in-game adjustment needs to be improved (Coach Fen did mention in the postgame interview that the late-game shot selection was not good). If they kept missing layups or forcing issues down low, they should've considered more perimeter scoring opportunities since the three balls were falling better than expected.

 

[CyclonesFan4ever]

Speaking about the rebounding issue, I think the ladies have done a remarkable job overall in this season considering how undersize as a team we are. This is one thing I don't think we can fully control, not because of lack of effort (shame on the MBB side), but because we don't have a good low-post physical presence. Kristin is more like a perimeter player (all her field goals made today were 3 pointers) and her game is more like Hallie Christofferson's. Mogan has tried hard but we haven't seen her improve significantly since her freshman year.

Which leads to the recruiting issue of getting good post players. We haven't had a good dominant player since Chelsea Poppens. What I want to consult with you long-time WBB forum posters here is why it's so difficult for ISU to get a few good post players while the Hawks keep getting them without problem? Who's responsible for recruiting post players? What about the post player development issue? This unbalance of great guards and below-average post players has resulted in several years of mediocrity. As I often check mred's future recruiting threads, we are still focusing heavily on guards, not enough post players.

Imagine if we had a "Chelsea Poppens" on this team, we can win the Big12 this year.