Southern Tour: @KC, @ORU

[jmgg]

Feb 24, 2024 12:20:48 GMT -6 dbyote said:

Feb 24, 2024 11:20:07 GMT -6 GoYotes said:

Brings back memories of the 2019-20 team. 30 - 2 record with only losses to South Carolina and Missouri State. Ranked #11 in the final coaches poll & #17 in the final AP poll. There was a reasonable chance that USD could have ended up as a top 16 overall seed and a host site for the first 2 rounds of the NCAA tournament, then along came Covid.

I was thinking about this yesterday.  The best d1 coyote team ever steamrolled the conference and tourney and was robbed of the spotlight they deserved.  It's actually one of the biggest disappointments of my fandom.  What could have been? On the other hand, odds are dawn leaves then and we don't experience the sweet 16 run a few years later.  It likely would have changed history.

I agree.  This team had so much talent AND depth.  It was a very disappointing end to what was and could have been a magic year.  Hell, I was devastated and I didn't have any direct connections to anyone on this team.  I could only imagine how the players and their families felt.  I think Dawn would have stayed because as we all know, the cupboards were hardly bare after this year's team.  I have hope in the women's team that sometime in the future we can get close to this level again.

[dbyote]

The entire team is hot garbage today. How have we won 19 games?

[yote18]

I predict a quick exit in Sioux Falls.

[johnh]

Where have we seen this before - cannot make a basket and lots of turnovers? Usually for at least one quarter per game. Today it was two quarters. There were the usual attempts to get the ball inside, but also it seemed like several where the defender jumped the passing lane out front, which led to easy buckets. Add to that an inability to make much inside and outside, do the same for two quarters, and we have a recipe for being down about 20 points. I did feel we were getting fouled a lot, but nothing was getting called. As a result, we had very few foul shots.

On the other hand, we played even and actually outscored ORU in the second half.

[gopheryote]

Bad matchup. ORU's style and players are the only team in the league that is a true bad matchup for the Yotes, and I think ORU wins 9 out of 10 games on a neutral floor. It is the team we want on the other side of the bracket for SLT - more than SDSU or NDSU (who the Yotes can beat on a good day).

[marco]

ORU came out ready and stuck it to us pretty good in the first half, turnovers, poor shooting and bad defense.

[90yote]

I agree that ORU is a bad matchup, but I think NDSU is even worse. I think Thursday's game might get real ugly. Since a narrow loss to the Jacks at home, NDSU is 6-0 and averaging almost 90 points a game. They are the only real threat to SDSU. NDSU has the best player in the conference, even though my guess is that a deserving Brooklyn Meyer may win POY. I could tell Jory Collins was a good coach when he took over, and it's taken a few years, but they are dangerous now.

For the Yotes, again, it was more of the same. When they play a team that isn't athletic, their skill wins the day. But when they play an athletic team, that athleticism overwhelms their skill. They gave up a 25-3 run early and the game was over. They needed to be able to score 80 to have a chance and against a terrible defensive team, they only scored 13 points in the first 15 minutes. They scored at an 80-point pace the rest of the game but it was too late.

USD is now locked into the 4-spot.

[elcoyote]

Feb 25, 2024 10:01:57 GMT -6 90yote said:

I agree that ORU is a bad matchup, but I think NDSU is even worse. I think Thursday's game might get real ugly. Since a narrow loss to the Jacks at home, NDSU is 6-0 and averaging almost 90 points a game. They are the only real threat to SDSU. NDSU has the best player in the conference, even though my guess is that a deserving Brooklyn Meyer may win POY. I could tell Jory Collins was a good coach when he took over, and it's taken a few years, but they are dangerous now.

For the Yotes, again, it was more of the same. When they play a team that isn't athletic, their skill wins the day. But when they play an athletic team, that athleticism overwhelms their skill. They gave up a 25-3 run early and the game was over. They needed to be able to score 80 to have a chance and against a terrible defensive team, they only scored 13 points in the first 15 minutes. They scored at an 80-point pace the rest of the game but it was too late.

USD is now locked into the 4-spot.

That's the best summary I've read on this team. No amount of criticism is going to change that. 

[yotewannabe]

I don’t think it all comes down to athleticism. I mean I feel we have some athletes. You check out some of these girls hs years and we have multiple sport athletes on the roster. Sometimes we just look like we have low bb IQ. Or maybe it’s some of our combinations when we have too many non-athletic players on court at same time. Basically this team has me perplexed.

[dbyote]

A multi-sport athlete doesn't always make a great basketball player. In the coach P years we went up against teams that were FAR more athletic than us. We won because we had really good, smart, savvy, hard working basketball players and a good game coach. There were times, ie against Oregon in the NCAA tourney, where we couldn't overcome our short falls in the size and athleticism department.

We've played carelessly all year, not valuing the ball or possessions in general. Sometimes it's poor passes, sometimes it's bad shots, sometimes it's not playing defense. If you eliminate one of those 3 your chances of winning go up. If you eliminate all 3 you have a good chance to win most days.

[yotewannabe]

Feb 26, 2024 16:32:16 GMT -6 dbyote said:

A multi-sport athlete doesn't always make a great basketball player. In the coach P years we went up against teams that were FAR more athletic than us. We won because we had really good, smart, savvy, hard working basketball players and a good game coach. There were times, ie against Oregon in the NCAA tourney, where we couldn't overcome our short falls in the size and athleticism department.

We've played carelessly all year, not valuing the ball or possessions in general. Sometimes it's poor passes, sometimes it's bad shots, sometimes it's not playing defense. If you eliminate one of those 3 your chances of winning go up. If you eliminate all 3 you have a good chance to win most days.

Agree totally on being good in multiple sports doesn’t always translate to being good in another. For example you can be fast in track but track fast and basketball quickness are two different things. But I don’t think we are so far behind the 8 ball in the athletic category that we can chalk it all up to being unathletic.

[yote18]

It’s a combination of many things. I’d say the biggest two though are we lack overall consistent D1 level BB IQ (which can improve as players grow with the program) and the coaching staff is trying to push a game plan that doesn’t match with our players current abilities. Example, feeding it in to the post, while this is something that you can build over time and will work against inferior teams it’s something we should not be attempting as much in game as we do.

[90yote]

When I say athleticism, I should also add length. The reason I'm focused on this is the following.

They have very little rim protection. Nicole leads this team in blocks. This is a credit to her, but an indictment of the team.

They continually have issues defending dribble penetration on the perimeter, so much so that they go to a zone for some period in virtually every game. This combined with the first point presents all sorts of problems.

And besides Grace and Carley, they don't really have anyone who can penetrate and score at the rim. Holmes does so occasionally, and she and Grace are good at kicking out for threes.

All of these are marks of athleticism and length, or at least the lack of it. Turnovers can be as well, but some of that is decision-making.

I also agree that things just haven't clicked consistently either. I think most if not all players who get regular time are at least rotation players on a real good Summit League team. They all have something to offer. So maybe with a 3rd year under Kayla and a lot more experience under their belt, they can get a fair amount better next season. Experienced seniors really help. And maybe add in Klosterbuer (potentially elite scorer) and one of the two incoming freshmen and then you have a real good team. But it will be really tough to knock off the team up north next year with what they'll have.

[hoopsmom]

Feb 26, 2024 17:39:29 GMT -6 yotewannabe said:

Feb 26, 2024 16:32:16 GMT -6 dbyote said:

A multi-sport athlete doesn't always make a great basketball player. In the coach P years we went up against teams that were FAR more athletic than us. We won because we had really good, smart, savvy, hard working basketball players and a good game coach. There were times, ie against Oregon in the NCAA tourney, where we couldn't overcome our short falls in the size and athleticism department.

We've played carelessly all year, not valuing the ball or possessions in general. Sometimes it's poor passes, sometimes it's bad shots, sometimes it's not playing defense. If you eliminate one of those 3 your chances of winning go up. If you eliminate all 3 you have a good chance to win most days.

Agree totally on being good in multiple sports doesn’t always translate to being good in another. For example you can be fast in track but track fast and basketball quickness are two different things. But I don’t think we are so far behind the 8 ball in the athletic category that we can chalk it all up to being unathletic.

In the Coach P years, almost every single player was a multi-sport athlete in high school. Some of them played 3 and 4 sports in high school. It is well-known that D1 Coaches want multi-sport athletes, because they’ve learned to train different muscles and are therefore stronger overall. They also know how to listen to different coaching staffs, rather than the one basketball coach they’ve had for 8 years in some instances.

[marco]

one really good portal player would help and getting are injured players back healthy