There was little opportunity to win last night, but I felt like there was a point where we appeared to have a strategy in place that was effective. To start the 2nd half, Jones was placed in the lineup ostensibly to guard Clark. There were times in the 1st half where Jones was most effective when guarding Clark by herself; the problem was when we tried to double team Clark, which resulted leaving Warnock and Marshall wide open for 3s.
When Carr hit the layup to cut the lead down to one, Jones tried to focus on the offensive end and her two consecutive misses were crucial, not so much because she missed those shots, but rather she lost defensive position of Clark.
Clark is unbelievable in Iowa’s half court offense that begins with their defensive rebounds; I thought that if Morgan could spend the last 20 minutes facing Clark defensively, it was the only way to neutralize Iowa from getting into the 90s. I think Jeff knew that, but when Morgan decided to focus on her own offensive contribution, he had to take her out. Our only chance to beat Iowa was containing Clark, and that requires even guarding her when we were in our own offensive sets.
I believe the both Maryland and the SC coaches witnessed CJW’s strategy using Jones in that intended purpose, and they will dedicate their most effective defender to guard Clark on both ends of the court as a way to deny her the ball. No one will completely shut Clark down, but her points, assists and rebounds can be reduced significantly. Morgan had the length, quickness and athleticism to affect Clark‘s ability to dominate, but somehow Morgan thought she could score as well.
Lead was cut to 1... and Olivia Cochran gathered in a rebound after a miss... At that time, for a few seconds we had possession of the ball with chance to take the lead...
Iowa knew this was breaking point. Louisville knew this was breaking point.
Cochran lost awareness and had the ball stripped from her. Iowa rattles off next 5 points...
This was the most crucial part of the game. It broke our spirits a little, and boosted their's a lot.
It seemed like every time Olivia made a mistake (missed a rebound, missed a jumper, missed a layup, turned the ball over, missed a defensive assignment) seems like it directly led to anywhere from 5 to 9 points for Iowa... But the thing is that Olivia did so VERY LITTLE WRONG, that this was basically HER BEST GAME OF THE SEASON. This is just an observation, and not indicative of Olivia's overall play. Iowa center was averaging like 17 ppg as their teams leading scorer. Olivia was a monster down low. She fouled out the Iowa Center, who, had 9 points... This is the HVL affect. In this one game, Cochran was just all around awesome. But when she made mistakes... they were woefully harmful. In short, HER PLAY was an EXACT MICROSM of the GAME itself against Iowa. WE NEEDED to NOT play our BEST game of the season againt them... WE NEEDED TO BE PERFECT....and obviously, we were not. This is how I define HVL. She is sooo awesome in many aspects of the game... and is so critical to our success.. which means if she is off in the slightest against an overwhelming opponent, then it is devestating.
Jones seemed to lose concentration....
When you step back and look at it, Iowa's offense is 100% motion related. Jeff's offense, on paper, looks decent... but it lacks motion. Its almost an offshoot of the Dribble Drive offense. Iowa coach was genius... She knew what to do. All of her players were tall and long. Not super tall, but long enough to bother our players into taking tough 2-point shots. We hit them in the beginning. As the game wore on, and Robinson and HVL got tired... not a lot of lift on those shots. At that point, we started missing them. They made sure to keep a nice tall player on Carr who isn't blazing fast like Evans was, or particularly strong like Chelsea Hall was last year... They kept another long player on HVL.
See, Iowa coach knew nobody on our team was a consistent scorer. Jones needed to step up and score... but Jones also needed to be an elite defender. Iowa just needed to contain Olivia a little, and defend the heck out of Carr and HVL... Konno, just didn't have it this year. And nobody else was going to step up. Payton, if she hadn't have left... would have filled that spot.
I will repeat it... Jeff's offense, this year, was very bad at times. Yes, you look at the percentages, and it looks on par with others. But really, his offense, for past 2 years has not had a lot of motion and intricate set plays. Its Robinson bring ball down court and waiting for someone down on the block to get position, or waiting for HVL to get lose for an open shot.
He needs another guard like Evans... somoene who can drive, shoot, take command, and dish the ball as well. Kasa, could have been that guard... it took her 4.5 seasons to start shooting... heaven help anyone if she could have been the 3rd 3-point shooter on the floor. Heaven help any opposing team, if Jones would have been the 3rd or 4rth 3-point shooter on the court.
CJW also needs an elite shot blocking center, or at the very least, a center who can shot block. We didn't have ANY of that this year. This was Liz's weakness... 6'5" but bad timing. Williams was never going to be one. This left Olivia, Lester (not playing) and hodge podges like Harris. If USC-jr gets past Maryland for chance at Iowa... we will see it in action. You will see Bria Beal guard Clark... she hedge her, and make her drive for a mid-range TOUGH jumper, or into the paint for a contested layup against USC bigs... who will get blocks...
As for Iowa... hats off to them,
Good Luck to VT, they play OSU tonight. OSU plays a crazy system. They press all game with 7, maybe 8 players. They ran us out of our own Gym. They will chase Amore all over the court... Never thought I would see another player on VT overshadow Kitely, but Amore has, all season long... They have just enough shooters and personal to give everyone in the field fits... I hope they win it all...