Semrau, Seminoles aware of N.C. A&T guards

[captaggie]

www.tallahassee.com/article/20090319/FSU07/903190317


By David Sáez • DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER • March 19, 2009

In its first-round NCAA Tournament game, the Florida State women's basketball team encounters a North Carolina A&T team with strong guard play that ignites its offense and anchors its defense.

The third-seeded Seminoles (25-7) realize they're playing a team in Duluth, Ga. that is making just its second trip to the tournament. This is also a team from a conference that has not won an NCAA Tournament game since 1983.

N.C. A&T (26-6) is a 14th seed that won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles and set a school record for most wins in a season.

Two players are very central to all this.

University of California–Santa Barbara transfer Brittany Taylor-James was the MEAC Player of the Year and conference leader with 19.3 points per game average (22nd best in the country). Then there's Penn State transfer Amber Bland, the MEAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, who averages 15.8 points per game.

"They've got two tremendous guards that do the majority of their scoring," FSU coach Sue Semrau said. "They're very good, very tough."

FSU assistant coach Lance White said: "(These players) are similar to a Clemson with (Lele Hardy who averaged 16 points per game) or like Georgia Tech with (Alex Montgomery who averaged 13 points per game). (They're) kids that can really shoot the ball and are athletic."

North Carolina A&T ranks 10th in the nation in scoring with 76.6 points per game and defeats opponents by a margin of 14.4 points per game.

The Aggies defense ranks fifth nationally with 12.3 steals per game and sixth nationally with a 5.94 turnover margin. They employ a 1-2-2 zone defense, with a half-court and three-quarter press.

"Their guards have long wing-spans," White said, "so passes have to be crisp and on target. And then there's their press. … With that, we're going to have to make good decisions because they love to be able to turn you over and create offense from their defense."

Because of the opponent's strength at guard, matchups between the Aggie guards and FSU guards Mara Freshour, Tanae Davis-Cain, Courtney Ward, Angel Gray, and Alysha Harvin will be key to FSU's success on Saturday. FSU should have the experience to handle the pressure.

"On the games that we've been able to win against teams like North Carolina and Georgia Tech, we've been able to handle the pressure," White said.

FSU will have a size advantage with 6-foot-4 players Jacinta Monroe and Cierra Bravard. The tallest players on the Aggies are 6-foot-2.

"Their post game, even though they don't have size, they have good speed," Semrau said. "They have guard-like skills. That's a tough matchup. In the ACC, we're much more accustomed to seeing true post players, at least one of them."

But, overall, it seems FSU's primary concern will be its ability to control the Aggies' guards.

[Bornthrilla]

OK. Good luck with trying to shut down Amber and BTJ. And don't even worry about Lamona Smalley and Jaleesa Sams.

Man, these Florida State chicks are in for a rude awakening.

[oleschoolaggie]

okay, that's typical "anti-bulletin board" comments from fsu. we'll see if they really respect our girls on game day. i'll be able to tell just by observing their body language.

imo, here's the keys to the game (not necessarily listed in order of importance);

1. plain and simple, we can't afford to commit more than 12 to 14 turnovers. i'd like to see us keep it under 10, but that's asking too much. if we commit much more than 15 or 16 turnovers, our chances of an upset will pretty much go out the window.

2. we need big games from btj and ab, but we also must have major contributions from tweet, smalley, and jee sams. another very key person is freshman nakia deblanc. we need her, especially defensively, in the paint. even though she's not tall based on acc standards, she's still our tallest post player listed at 6'2". she's been out with an apparent head injury but i don't know how serious it is. look for fsu to attack the paint against us, the paint is our most glaring weakness. so we may have to play more half court zone than usual and pray that their guards don't knock down the outside shots. bibbs will probably have to use shantar waddell (6'1") in stretches to help deblanc (if she plays) defensively in the middle. i don't see bibbs putting brittane neely (6'2") in there very much, she's not tough enough. if deblanc is unable to play, it'll probably be a long day for us.

3. our outside shots must fall on a regular basis or we'll be in big trouble because we don't have the size to dominate offensively in the paint and fsu is too talented to force them into a large number of turnovers that can be converted into fast break layups. i'm expecting fsu to take away our high percentage shots with their size. so we've got to consistently knock down our outside shots to have a chance at winning this game.

4. we must play the best defense we've played all season and we must box out to rebound the basketball. other than maybe auburn, fsu will be the most talented team we've faced all season. if we don't defend and rebound well against them, it'll be lights out.

5. last but certainly not least, we need a little help from fsu. we need them to underestimate us a little bit which would be a mistake on their part. they probably won't, but hopefully they'll take us lightly. such a mentality would neutralize their talent advantage over us and it would allow us a little more wiggle room to get away with an extra mistake or two. we wouldn't have to play such a perfect game if they take us lightly and if we can get the crowd to pull for us (non-partial crowds usually pull for the underdog) along with the aggie faithful, we could have a big history making upset on our hands!!!!

LET'S GO LADY AGGIES!! LET'S DO THIS!!!!

[Bornthrilla]

Good analysis, but I also think our free throw shooting will be a key.

We will probably surprise them with out team quickness early on so I expect that to lead to trips to the foul line. We've got to make them pay and knock down those free throws.

[aggypryd]

Rebound, Hit Shots, turnovers...

If we struggle with any of these the 'Noles turn this one into a "Laugher" before the intermission.

[DECKS]

The key for us will be Amber Bland. She's had some off games against majors so it's critical she shows up. We'll need to have a stretch where she completely takes over like she did against charlotte.