two cents
01-11-2003, 11:16 AM
Tech has played a lot of "half" games this year. Against Washington, Valparaiso, Wyoming, and Texas A&M, they have built 20+ point leads in the 1st half and then coasted. Against Creighton, they built a 20 point lead in the first 10 minutes, let it shrink, and then extended it again during the last 10 minutes. Against Pacific, they extended a 10 point lead by 21 points in the 2nd half. Against Oregon St., Chattanooga, and S. Mississippi, the Raiders were kind of up and down throughout the game. They played poorly against Rice, but made the key plays necessary to get the win (good to see that happen).
The team gave its poorest defensive effort against Rutgers, but the Scarlet Knights are pretty good, Tech was in control the whole way, and I think the coaches wanted to work on a few things that would benefit the team later in the season. Offensively, they performed well against Rutgers. This is important, because they only forced 8 turnovers which meant that they had to execute in their half-court offense rather than depending on the transition game (of course, they still transitioned off rebounds at times) to up the field goal percentage (52.5%). Their best overall game was played against Hawaii. They had to deal with foul trouble and generated relatively few turnovers (13), but they showed the Rainbow Wahine little mercy in either half (22% fg pct overall). I think island officiating annoyed them enough to show a bit of a killer instinct. I hope that just after the middle of March somebody will get them seriously ticked off! Maybe I can write a post that will do the trick. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif
The Lady Raiders have proven that they can play oppressive defense when they are sufficiently motivated. In every game except for those against La Tech and Rutgers, they have had one half in which they held the opponent to 31.0% shooting or less. During the best defensive halves of each of their 12 wins (including Rutgers' 35 pt 1st half), Tech has given up an average of 23.83 points. In those same halves, Tech has scored an average of 40.25 points. They haven't exactly been slowing down the game to keep opponents' point totals low. These numbers are impressive, but if they played both halves with the same defensive pressure and intensity, their average winning margin during the last 12 games would be over 32 points per game. And this includes games where their performance has been up and down within the best half. The actual margin of victory during these 12 games has been 22 points per game which is not too shabby.
This is why some Tech fans have commented that the team hasn't really gotten it together yet, or hasn't neared their peak performance level. I agree. For a team with championship aspirations, building mental stamina is just as important as building physical stamina. I understand that a team cannot maintain its highest level of play for an entire 40 minutes every game. I would love to see the Lady Raiders consistently do so for at least 80% (32+ minutes) of each game. The players have proven that they can take charge of a game, withstand opponents' runs, and squeak out a victory. They haven't proven that they can play at a high level of concentration for most of a game.
At least, I think they haven't, but I (we) might be wrong about this. The coaching staff might be having the players scale back the defensive pressure at times. Turnovers and transition buckets can cut down on the number of possessions available for half-court offensive execution. Executing an offense in practice is fine. Executing it in a game is better. I think the half-court game has improved substantially in recent weeks. I want this team to be stellar in every phase of the game. If this accounts for some of the apparent lapses in defensive intensity; that's cool. Point differential, per se, doesn't interest me very much. If the team can improve, under game conditions, aspects of play in which they need to get better, margin of victory is an excellent sacrifice. Still, I'm anxious to see Tech pour on the defensive pressure for almost an entire game, just to know that they can sustain it for that long.
The team gave its poorest defensive effort against Rutgers, but the Scarlet Knights are pretty good, Tech was in control the whole way, and I think the coaches wanted to work on a few things that would benefit the team later in the season. Offensively, they performed well against Rutgers. This is important, because they only forced 8 turnovers which meant that they had to execute in their half-court offense rather than depending on the transition game (of course, they still transitioned off rebounds at times) to up the field goal percentage (52.5%). Their best overall game was played against Hawaii. They had to deal with foul trouble and generated relatively few turnovers (13), but they showed the Rainbow Wahine little mercy in either half (22% fg pct overall). I think island officiating annoyed them enough to show a bit of a killer instinct. I hope that just after the middle of March somebody will get them seriously ticked off! Maybe I can write a post that will do the trick. http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/wink.gif
The Lady Raiders have proven that they can play oppressive defense when they are sufficiently motivated. In every game except for those against La Tech and Rutgers, they have had one half in which they held the opponent to 31.0% shooting or less. During the best defensive halves of each of their 12 wins (including Rutgers' 35 pt 1st half), Tech has given up an average of 23.83 points. In those same halves, Tech has scored an average of 40.25 points. They haven't exactly been slowing down the game to keep opponents' point totals low. These numbers are impressive, but if they played both halves with the same defensive pressure and intensity, their average winning margin during the last 12 games would be over 32 points per game. And this includes games where their performance has been up and down within the best half. The actual margin of victory during these 12 games has been 22 points per game which is not too shabby.
This is why some Tech fans have commented that the team hasn't really gotten it together yet, or hasn't neared their peak performance level. I agree. For a team with championship aspirations, building mental stamina is just as important as building physical stamina. I understand that a team cannot maintain its highest level of play for an entire 40 minutes every game. I would love to see the Lady Raiders consistently do so for at least 80% (32+ minutes) of each game. The players have proven that they can take charge of a game, withstand opponents' runs, and squeak out a victory. They haven't proven that they can play at a high level of concentration for most of a game.
At least, I think they haven't, but I (we) might be wrong about this. The coaching staff might be having the players scale back the defensive pressure at times. Turnovers and transition buckets can cut down on the number of possessions available for half-court offensive execution. Executing an offense in practice is fine. Executing it in a game is better. I think the half-court game has improved substantially in recent weeks. I want this team to be stellar in every phase of the game. If this accounts for some of the apparent lapses in defensive intensity; that's cool. Point differential, per se, doesn't interest me very much. If the team can improve, under game conditions, aspects of play in which they need to get better, margin of victory is an excellent sacrifice. Still, I'm anxious to see Tech pour on the defensive pressure for almost an entire game, just to know that they can sustain it for that long.