NDSU @ USD Friday, Dec 29

[yote18]

Dec 29, 2023 21:08:08 GMT -6 sdyotefan said:

Gave up 55% FG shooting, -16 RBs and shot 52% FTs. All a recipe for a blowout loss. Poor effort overall. We have a deep bench but subbing 2-3 players at a time can disrupt things too much.

Well if this isn't a wakeup call there isn't one. Should make for some intense practices! Next game will be interesting.

We gave up 35 points in the 3rd and had Collins not pulled back reigns a bit in the 4th they could’ve easily scored 100 total for the game.

[elcoyote]

I will say USD played poorly tonight so bash away all you want, but I'm going to echo waterboy in that NDSU is taller, quicker and just more athletic than USD at the present time and you simply can't teach that.

[sdyotefan]

I agree elcoyote to some extent. When you're not as athletic you need to be smarter and your schemes and effort need to be better. We have several players that are very good offensively but not athletic enough to play consistently great on D! Often we double the ball when it's in to the mid range and leave a 3 pt shooter wide open and are to late to recover. Or we don't defend against easy layups. Players all need to know where ideally the offensive player wants to go and get there first and not chase from behind.

It always sounds easier than it is!

I have every confidence this team will continue to improve!

Go Yotes!!!

[gopheryote]

I'm really not too interested in bashing the coach. But I do wonder what overarching team identity or recruiting philosophy is supposed to be? Going by this short thread, I can't imagine the idea is to find unathletic, disorganized, short, non-shooters who play a random style on offense (sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes just watch Grace) and effectively have no idea what is asked of them on defense.

There is certainly a plan - but it isn't stunningly obvious just yet.

[dbyote]

Dec 30, 2023 7:22:12 GMT -6 gopheryote said:

I'm really not too interested in bashing the coach. But I do wonder what overarching team identity or recruiting philosophy is supposed to be? Going by this short thread, I can't imagine the idea is to find unathletic, disorganized, short, non-shooters who play a random style on offense (sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes just watch Grace) and effectively have no idea what is asked of them on defense.

There is certainly a plan - but it isn't stunningly obvious just yet.

We were just really spoiled for a long time with superior talent AND the best coach. It's hard to go back from that and watch a team that doesn't seem to play with any purpose on either end. If grace isn't on this team we may have lost by 50 last night

[marco]

Not good got outplayed its just one game we need to get more athletic. I dont blame the coach the last coach recruited most of the players. injuries have hurt. Bergstrom,Carson and Grange are more athletic and so are our freshman. Just move on to the next game its a long season and playing well in Sioux Falls in march is what matters

[MD]

Dec 30, 2023 9:31:26 GMT -6 marco said:

Not good got outplayed its just one game we need to get more athletic. I dont blame the coach the last coach recruited most of the players. injuries have hurt. Bergstrom,Carson and Grange are more athletic and so are our freshman. Just move on to the next game its a long season and playing well in Sioux Falls in march is what matters

This is kinda wild thing to say to me. The "last coach" won. Like a lot. Am I to believe she intentionally recruited down so we'd stink when/if she left?
I have to say, I got to the car last night in time to hear the post game interview. "Well, honestly we won some non conf games we probably shouldn't have..". What!? I know it probably means nothing but I'd have like to hear "we as coaches gotta do better, it our job to have them prepared and we weren't. We will be better."

[marco]

She did not intentionally recruit down . Its hard to get players like Lamb or Duffy every year some girls workout some dont. Lets give our new coach a chance see if she can bring in some players

[yote18]

Dec 30, 2023 10:16:22 GMT -6 marco said:

She did not intentionally recruit down . Its hard to get players like Lamb or Duffy every year some girls workout some dont. Lets give our new coach a chance see if she can bring in some players

The problem isn’t that we lack talent. Most of our players were sought after by a lot of quality mid majors and they chose us based on the success and tradition of building players up. Right now that’s not happening and to say out players are the reason is a little unfair to them. This isn’t that we lack skilled players, our coaching staff isn’t developing them like they need to be. I agree give coach time but after this season we’ll probably know what this coaching staffs ceiling can be. The staff needs to take accountability and own that they’re not doing something right. If we don’t completely stomp Omaha on Sunday I’ll know it’s gonna be a long season.

[90yote]

Well, that was ugly. They basically got run off their home floor twice - at the start of each half. I agree with some comments. I don't understand the comment about not making adjustments...they went to a zone early in the 2nd quarter, then added a full-court press and a half-court trap in that quarter. It worked, as it got the Yotes playing with more energy and put the Bison back on their heels for a bit, and it got them back in the game.

But when you're not as athletic as your opponent, it's hard for that to work other than in spurts. The most concerning thing to me was, after getting back into the game and knowing they needed focused intensity on defense in the 3Q, they gave up THIRTY-FIVE in the quarter. Three. Five.

It's largely ability, size, and athleticism, IMO. Who is a good defender on this squad? Grace, NAA? OK.

Who else? Kieffer has the effort, but is small.

This team has zero rim-protection. Losing the big 3 two years ago obviously was going to hurt (Sjerven being the rare player who was recognized for being the great she was and still being undersold for what she meant defensively), but losing two physical defenders like Krull and Watson was the dagger.

This means you need to be tight defensively and be a good team defender...and there were a couple examples that stood out. Grace was on Evans...first possession, Evans comes down to the post, then pops out to the top. Grace gets lost/screened and Evans hits a wide-open three. First possession.

About a minute later DePerry didn't see the ball being advanced and allowed an easy layup. Kayla pulled her and I believe she sat the rest of the quarter.

Later in the quarter, Mazurek got mismatched on to Hamling. The ball got reversed so Mazurek sagged into the paint. She either didn't realize who she was guarding or they didn't communicate a switch so when the ball got reversed back Hamling was wide-open for a three. Heaven Hamling. Might want to guard her.

So that aspect was disappointing. Is that coaching? Or not executing? Hard to say from being on the outside.

I'm not going to criticize the coach for the existing personnel. The problem with the long lead time in WBB recruiting is that Kayla's first high school recruits aren't here until next year. And one of the two will be coming off an ACL injury.

Based on non-conference metrics, my preseason predictions were SDSU-USD-NDSU-ORU. I'm now flipping USD to 4th because I think ORU will probably give them similar problems.

[90yote]

Didn't want this to get lost in my manifesto above. 🤣

Grange is hopefully 1-2 weeks away from returning. The target was conference season so barring a setback, she will be close to that.

[marco]

A win in Omaha will get fans to feel better. I wonder if Hansen might get more court time as she showed good energy. Also I liked when they pressed

[Men's League Waterboy]

I don’t have a problem with the coach admitting that the team won a couple of non-con games that they probably shouldn’t have/opponent gave away.

[sfmetroyote]

90yote has a great take on this. My take on this team, is we'll be a middle of the pack Summit team, and right now, I think NDSU will challenge SDSU, if not be the favorite to win the regular season. That team is LONG, atheltic and Heaven H has been there forever. I do think, overall, this team still lacks overall talent, minus Grace. Having seen most of their noncon games and the NDSU game, it's not lack of effort, they are just limited.

Our biggest problem as fans is this, since our last few years as a D2 school to 2022, we have been a premier program and absolutely spoiled as fans. There has been generational talent go through here year after year...Koupal, Hoffmans, Hegge, Seekamp, Duffys, Arens, Lamb, Sjervin and the list goes on. But I can still remember the dark days of the early-mid 90s watching games in the Dome and this program was an absolute laughing stock.

So, let's as fans get behind this team. Are they anything close to 2022 or 2020 or 2016, nope. But it's not fair to compare them. Overall the Summit is very average this year. This team can make noise in SF in March. I will stay optimistic despite last night. Go Yotes!

[90yote]

The other thing I'll mention that didn't make my main post is that this team can shoot it well and be pretty efficient offensively. But they need to do that to beat a decent team. Because of the issues that have been mentioned, it's tough for them to win a different way. And when they start the game the way they did the other night, it becomes that much tougher.

I think this team has shown some ability to be connected defensively this year. Some of their success in defending the arc has been luck, but I'm not attributing all of it to luck. They held three straight P5 teams to poor shooting. Can't be a complete coincidence.

Hopefully this will be a turning point. They are definitively better than a year ago. But in order to make some noise this year, they have to be on-point in their execution. Hopefully we'll see a different team beginning today.

I've gone to almost all non-NAIA home games in the D-1 era with my season-ticket partner, and this has been our favorite Coyote program over the years. I don't think it's a stretch to say that was the most disappointing home game in the SCSC era. It was the first game that I left early. Let's see how they respond.