Phenderson: you will have to get behind me for that “meal of crow”, as I was wrong and knew it in the first two minutes of the SC vs Iowa game. Staley failed to follow what I thought was the only way to stop Clark. I am glad that she didn’t, as I love watching Iowa advance. The irony is that Staley had the depth of athletic defenders who could have shadowed Clark, something that I am afraid Jeff did not have the same luxury. 40 points and a bunch of assists from a 6’1” guard is amazing, but was totally predictable.
Koz is correct about the Mulkey influence over officials, so sad for the sport. I must say that VT’s early TOs in that 4th quarter was reminiscent of some our own collapses.
LSU and SC both have rosters that are incredibly long, athletic and talented; something that explains how the SEC continues to make advances in women’s basketball.
Watching the game, there is soooo much I saw wrong in how it was being coached by the team with superior talent.
Yes...Clark was a handful... but there was no SERIOUS effort put into disrupting her. Jeff doubled her... Sometimes he played the physical game against her. Staley did none of those things. She seemed to basically take the approach of "Let Caitlin get hers against a single tough defender and we will concentrate on respecting her teammates. It was almost disrespectful. Its like she expected Clark to miss a bunch of TOUGH TOUGH shots. It didn't work. And when USCjr did a fake double team on Clark inbounding the ball... the inbounder just inbounded the ball to someone else who passed it off to Clark. Clark basically spent all night zipping and zooming around a faster, bigger, more athletic team... like they were nothing? Why? Because Staley, too mean, seemed to think that all she and her team had to do was show up... and play token defense, and "Punk" other teams with their size, speed, and strength. They looked un-coached. They looked like a typical John Callipari team. You know, teams tthat know how to scare people with their looks.. but when they get smacked in their mouths, don't punch back. Watching Cordova look so bad on defense... so ignorant... Same for Boston and some of the others... its like they had never defended a good team or a team with motion offense and elite athletes like Stanford before. Somebody was stupid enough to coach them to never keep their eyes on THE MOST DANGEROUS player on the floor, Clark. Or rather, someone told their players to be dismissive towards Clark, and guard the other players andn not even help off on Clark. That same person or coach made it believable to HER players that CLark was slow... which is weird because she seemed to get past her man fairly easy.... and get to the rack or hit angled shots in tough spaces. At the end of the day, Staley was downright disrespectful to Clark in how she defended her.... itcost them the game. Yes, sure, they sent doubles every now and then... but whomever defended or brought the double team, brought them, almost with NO purpose to them at all... It was a "show double team, then come and double team, and then lazily race back to the PnR "roller". They were not disguised or timed well at all... it was junk defense...
That is just the defensive misssteps I saw in coaching.
Offensively, Iowa coach certainly respected Staley and Co... by defending the post with 3 and 4 players... and clocking the middle. A smarted coach would have at least tried to sit Cordova and Boston, and brought on a faster 3-point shooting team... But there-in lies her coaching weakness.. Staley obviosly don't recruit 3[point shooters... nor does she develop or train ones who can. They left Diamond open... all night long... but Staley didn't have enough sense to draw up plays to get her a more fluid shot. So the girl stood teir looking like a fool, and wghen she wasn't doing that, she would take the shot like someone who didn't know how to take 1 dribble and shoot it.... at the very least, she could have taken 1 dribble and step in to hit a nice jumper... She would then be set to establish a rhythm for future successful shots. She never did. She made 3-pointers, and only 2 of them looked the same...
The game highlighted how Staley just did not take Iowa seriously...
And now, a team with less size and speed will be playing Iowa for the title. I expect Iowa to blow them out...
