After watching this game again it is even more evident that it isn’t the players. When they are motivated like they were yesterday they’re a tough group to stop collectively. It’s on Holly to get them playing that way every game and at this point in the season it’s too little, too late.
Sure Ole Miss isn’t a good team, but Vandy and Alabama are arguably worse this season. We just made Ole Miss look as bad as they are.
We tapered in the 4th quarter a little but to me it looked like that was because they were ACTUALLY tired from playing ACUTUAL defense for 3 quarters. Biggest plus is that their play early in the game gave them an insurmountable lead. Hoping that they learned a little bit there. You can take one or two plays off (though you shouldn’t) if you have a 30 point lead.
They took and hit open shots like they haven’t done since December. Why now? Who knows. Like I was saying the other day, the 3 ball was a weapon for this group and opens up the lane for the drive and makes it easier for the bigs to get offensive rebounding position. Also prevents opposing teams from packing it in a zone slowing down the pace of the game.
We were able to open up the lead because of the 3 point shot. We don’t hit those early 3s at the end of the first quarter it likely would have been a single digit game at the half which gives inferior competition hope. If you allow them to play with you for 20 minutes they start to believe they can do it for 40 and you lose games to much worse teams. Have to be the more dominant team for the entire game.
We did allow one player to have a big night, but really nobody else. Not sure if that was the game plan, but it honestly wasn’t a bad idea. We keep getting beat by the “others.” The A&M game in particular I felt like we should have focused less on Carter. So what if she drops 40? Let them get theirs, but make darn sure the supplemental players, like Wells, can’t get going.
Biggest thing I saw is that we moved on offense and passed the ball. In the Vandy game the ball got stuck way too much. They got easy looks yesterday because of their ball and player movement. Amazing how the shooting percentage sky rockets when you’re taking good shots. They had 25 assists on 29 made field goals and only 11 turnovers. I don’t remember the last time a Holly coached team did that. Several of which came in the last few minutes just being lax with the ball when they put on their full court pressure.
The freshman looked much more under control, Collins has become more physical and she is shooting a nice percentage from the floor.
Massengill still doesn’t get it, ball gets stuck in her hands on offense way too much, her shot isn’t there yet and she’s a poor defender. I think she has potential, but she shouldn’t be playing more than 5 or so minutes a game with her current play. Too many times she’s in LaLa Land ball watching on defense or watching the play develop on offense instead of being an active part of the play. I think the college game is still too fast for her, needs to watch a lot of film this summer.