Drake

[sdyotefan]

Drake 4-2 at the SCSC tomorrow.
They took #10 Iowa to OT 3 weeks ago before losing by four.

They will be a challenge. Yotes will need excellent D and be able to knock down some 3s and have a solid game for all four quarters.

Go get'm Lady Yotes!!!

[yote18]

Going to be a tough game no doubt. Drake also played Nebraska and beat them by 18. Both of their losses so far were games that went to overtime against Iowa and UMass (who held drake scoreless for the entirety of OT).

[soofooyote]

Win or lose...I just want to see improvement. In effort, in cohesion, and growth as a team.

[kiyoat]

Statistically, Drake is (and has been) a team that wants to play with pace. This was true of former coach Baranczyk, and appears to still be true with Coach Pohlman.

They average 78.9 Possessions a game (#13 nationally).

They average 85.5 points a game (#10 nationally).

They are shooting 50.4% FG (#7 nationally), and 34.6% 3PFG (#69)
and I'm going to guess that they get a lot of transition buckets?

They block a lot of shots, 6.8 per game (#2).

So what are they not so good at?

Offensive rebounding, apparently.  They only get 8.3 O-boards a game (#332) vs 37.2 D-boards (#1 nationally).  That's quite the contrast!  I'm getting a picture of quick transition buckets, followed by the whole team quickly retreating to prevent any transition offense from the other team?  Very lop-sided stat.  Strange.

Although they have a +12 scoring margin, they have a -6.5 turnover margin.  They have a respectable 1.10 Assist/Turnover margin, similar to our own 1.14

What does it all mean?

IDK.  If they want to play fast, maybe we slow them down?  We've done it in the past, but our defense was more formidable then.  Surely we should be able to hold them below 50% FG shooting?  We will need to at least try to keep up with them offensively.

[kiyoat]

BTW - when I was looking at A/TO stats I happened to notice who the #1 player in the country is right now for A/TO ratio.... Kyah Watson with 11.50!  23 assists/ 2 turnovers.  I'll assume she is playing point for WVU.

Sorry for the non-sequitur but that is pretty impressive.

[yotenation]

Dec 5, 2022 16:09:50 GMT -6 kiyoat said:

BTW - when I was looking at A/TO stats I happened to notice who the #1 player in the country is right now for A/TO ratio.... Kyah Watson with 11.50!  23 assists/ 2 turnovers.  I'll assume she is playing point for WVU.

Sorry for the non-sequitur but that is pretty impressive.

I saw that. She's playing 27 minutes a game, about the same as she did last year for the Yotes. 5.4 rpg, 3.3 apg, 2.0 spg, and as you mentioned only 2 turnovers on the year. That's impressive.

In the not so good category, she's only shooting 22.5 percent from the floor. Still, with all the ways she contributes and how good she is as a defender, she's carved out a nice role for them. Nice to see her having some success.

[90yote]

Dec 5, 2022 16:09:50 GMT -6 kiyoat said:

BTW - when I was looking at A/TO stats I happened to notice who the #1 player in the country is right now for A/TO ratio.... Kyah Watson with 11.50!  23 assists/ 2 turnovers.  I'll assume she is playing point for WVU.

Sorry for the non-sequitur but that is pretty impressive.

She is not playing point, she is pretty much playing the same role she did at USD.

[ndfan]

I watched parts of couple of West Virginia games and Kya was not playing point guard but off guard to small forward but their offense seemed to be based on their point guard and their post player. She is still playing great defense and I think this where her assists are coming from after a steal or rebound and bringing ball up the court. She has this role for them. This is different style of basketball than Plitzuweit had in South Dakota but probably based on the talent she has and being able to keep this talent. Her team plays good defense following her style of basketball by playing defense to win games and even average offense can win games. This is what I have noticed this year about this years South Dakota team they are not playing defense South Dakota has played Past several years.

[soofooyote]

Dec 5, 2022 18:30:33 GMT -6 ndfan said:

This is what I have noticed this year about this years South Dakota team they are not playing defense South Dakota has played Past several years.

This is what frustrates me about this year's team.  The lack of consistent defensive effort.  Defense is about effort, coaching, and athleticism.  The only really worrisome aspect of our team for me honestly is our defense.  

[Men's League Waterboy]

Replacing Hannah Sjerven was always going to be an impossible task. Her physicality on both ends was exceptional for this level of competition.

The remarkable fact about this program is that for the last 10 years it has had at least one, and at times three at the same time, of arguably the five (or six?) greatest Coyote women of all time on the court ... not to mention a bunch of other GREAT, great players. The COVID year screwed us out of one tournament run, but also created the circumstances for the Sweet 16 and put off this day of reckoning for an extra year. But now it's here. And it's going to be fine. It's going to be different and bumpy and there will be a less impressive winning percentage, but the next great ones are learning and developing and working and sitting in high school classrooms.

The standard is set and they are not currently reaching it but they know where it is and they will again.

[olifer]

Dec 6, 2022 9:11:09 GMT -6 soofooyote said:

Dec 5, 2022 18:30:33 GMT -6 ndfan said:

This is what I have noticed this year about this years South Dakota team they are not playing defense South Dakota has played Past several years.

This is what frustrates me about this year's team.  The lack of consistent defensive effort.  Defense is about effort, coaching, and athleticism.  The only really worrisome aspect of our team for me honestly is our defense.  

I agree. If you build a formidable defense, the offense will come.  You can't just shoot the ball, make baskets, and expect to win.  I watched the Iowa vs. NC State game last week where Caitlin Clark put up 45 points for Iowa, and they still lost. When they interviewed her, she was frustrated and explained that when she's having a night like that, they always lose. She was critical of her teammates not playing good fundamental defense, and she was right.  NC State had open layups and way too many offensive rebounds and Clark could not simply outscore them. We really need to work on making it hard to score against us and limit teams to one shot when they do get an opportunity. We'll get there again.  

[captaincoyote]

Dec 5, 2022 16:02:43 GMT -6 kiyoat said:

So what are they not so good at?

[/i][/b][/u]

Offensive rebounding, apparently.  They only get 8.3 O-boards a game (#332) vs 37.2 D-boards (#1 nationally).  That's quite the contrast!  I'm getting a picture of quick transition buckets, followed by the whole team quickly retreating to prevent any transition offense from the other team?  Very lop-sided stat.  Strange.[/quote]
You can't rebound made shots.

[Men's League Waterboy]

Dec 6, 2022 10:31:58 GMT -6 Men's League Waterboy said:

Replacing Hannah Sjerven was always going to be an impossible task. Her physicality on both ends was exceptional for this level of competition.

The remarkable fact about this program is that for the last 10 years it has had at least one, and at times three at the same time, of arguably the five (or six?) greatest Coyote women of all time on the court ... not to mention a bunch of other GREAT, great players. The COVID year screwed us out of one tournament run, but also created the circumstances for the Sweet 16 and put off this day of reckoning for an extra year. But now it's here. And it's going to be fine. It's going to be different and bumpy and there will be a less impressive winning percentage, but the next great ones are learning and developing and working and sitting in high school classrooms.

The standard is set and they are not currently reaching it but they know where it is and they will again.

Full disclosure, I'd go Koupal, Seekamp, Duffy, Sjerven top four and Hegge or Lamb as that fifth starter on an all-time team. 

[captaincoyote]

Dream team

[Men's League Waterboy]

And as I type that up I realize that Hegge's senior season was Seekamp's redshirt season, so really it's been almost 15 straight years of having one of the top five players in history on the floor.