I will say this (apologies... have not been on here in a while)... HVL is what she is. She is a scorer. I don't know and won't quote her win-shares for any and each game.. She is not the worst thing to happen to this team... She takes a lot of VERY bad shots... that is for sure... but real story of this game was that Notre Dame got us with their elite lenth. of the 7 players they used, only and I do mean ONLY Miles and Brandsford were UNDER 6'1"... Miles is 5'10" which is the equivalent of 6'2" or 6'3" in men's BBall. Their length at us up. They consistently went into the paint all game long and scored. HVL is 5'7"... they had 6'1" Citron on her, whenthey didn't put 6'2" Prosper on her... You look up and ND basically brought 4 LONG guards against the likes of Carr, HVL, Konno, andRobinson. Russell comes in for Jones... because, honestly, Jones is incompetent in Walz system. She came into the game and threw bad passes and got lost on defense. Carr, today, was no better. She came in, and tried to run the point. She can't. Her strengths are when she faces shorter guards or when someone can get her open. Well, HVL is not the blazing PG we want her to, so her driving to "embalance" opposing defenses like Dana, Hall, A. Smith, and K. Smith could do during previous years...is non-existent. Put a long athletic player on her, and she will suffer... She needs other faster, athletic players around her to help open up her shooting and driving.... I told the guys over on the other board, that this was not going to be an elite team of Jeff's... because the players he brought in got exposed from day one. We were hoping Jones could be the offensive equivalent of Engstler... she has not been. She has been a dissapointment. She thrives in a very open court offense where free wheeling is allowed. She can only drive to her right...and she is not a strong ball handler. Then you throw in the fact she is not a "Paint person" she is a wing.... Think of her as a less skilled version of Angel McCoughtry... Carr has not had a fraction of the impact that Hall has had. She can't run the team. She is a Russ SMith type player... who can put her mind to it for some good defense... but can't create her own shot... because, unlike Chelsea, she looks strong but is not that strong in her lower body... so she can't make tough drives like Dana and Chelsea would... Yes, I know we outrebounded ND... but Jeff's offense today was not very good. Its not very good because he does not have a lot of the pieces he has had before... with NIL and 1 time transfers... he may never get those pieces, which, he has been blessed to have by having players grow into his system. Right now we lack size. We have lacked size, all through out Jeff's tenure... at the guard spot. Tonight, Jeff tried different things to "keep things interesting". He had Harris guarding Citron for a bit... and Harris, God bless her soul, was up to the task, until a screen came and she had to switch. He tried 4 guards and 1 big... to try to get some speed on the floor... but we all know, Konno has regressed... Kasa is not a scorer, and HVL had a 6'1" or 6'2" person on her all game long. Hats off to ND coach..... hats off to the league... Louisville is down.. and its all on Jeff and staff to recruiter better size and athleticism in the portal. Jayln Broown is more of that future, as is Mobley. It sucks that Verhulst left... bvecause she was part of that future too. We don't have any elite size after this year, with Liz (who was abust at beginning but has come on SUPER strong to wards the end with 10 rbpg average in last 4 or 5 games) and Williams . If you think this year was rough... wait until next year...
I saw all of this after the 5th game of the season. I saw how we struggled to defend Gonzaga, and how we struggled to defend MTSU. We even struggled, at times to defend Cincy...and Bellarmine... at times... and could tell, that this was not going to be a dominant team like we have had before. This team was going to be a 10 loss, 2nd round out team...
