Bibbs needs to go to Tweet

[oleschoolaggie]

well, i haven't seen all of their games but i did see the chicago state game. so i have some very "preliminary" opinions of beatdowns unlimited (though my knowledge of them is only based on one game and stats).

first of all, there's absolutely nothing to panic about. i knew this team would need some time to establish a new identity. folks, please don't underestimate how difficult that task can be. i attended the chicago state game at towson university and my immediate overall impression was that we're a team that's searching for an identity. offensively, no one was confident enough to take the game over except tweet. but tweet "appeared to me" to be holding back offensively, choosing to get her teammates involved instead.

i think until this team finds an identity, we need to give tweet the green light offensively to shoot the basketball whenever she's confident she has an offensive advantage. of course, i'm not suggesting she shoot the ball whenever she wants. i'm just suggesting she should be our first option within the execution of the offense. in close games, i want the ball in her hands. tweet is the type of player that if she gets a lot of shots, she will occasionally get into a zone where "no one" in the meac can defend her. when her jump shot is on, i don't think she can be stopped. give her the ball, let her put the team on her shoulders for a little while until the team gets accustomed to playing without ab and btj, and also while incorporating new players.

speaking of new players, i was very disappointed with crystal murdaugh in the chicago state game. she had literally no impact at all on the game. literally invisible while in the game! i hope its just because she sat out last year and she's trying to get accustomed to playing in games again. but she was very unimpressive to me.

now, the freshman puppy, amber calvin, is gonna be a good one. she's a "natural" point guard. she's very confident and she doesn't get rattled under pressure. she's gonna gradually get better and better this year.

my favorite, mona smalley, looked a little out of shape against chicago state but she was still very effective. i think when she fully recovers from her injury and is 100% back in shape, beatdowns unlimited will become much tougher to beat and smalley may become our #2 go to scorer.

btw, i need to see jee sams become more aggresive offensively. its time for her to take on a leadership role on this team.

one other comment. i was not impressed with our defense in the first half of the chicago state game. we gave up way too many open 3's and chicago state was knocking 'em down. but towards the end of the 2nd half when it was crunch time, our defense tightened up big time. my only problem with that is that if they'd played tight defense for the entire game, we would've blew them out!

overall, we're a work in progress, but that's to be expected early on. i think we'll see gradual and steady improvement from this team. but for now, we need to go to tweet, and also smalley (if she's physically up to it)...

[Bornthrilla]

I agree that Jaleesa and Crystal need to both step up. I'm confident that they will.

I expect Gorham to be more of a weapon in the low post also as the season progresses, but she is still trying to get accustomed to the college game.

[Bornthrilla]

BTW: I may be in the minority, but I think Tierra Thomas can be a legitimate scorer for this team. She just needs to improve her confidence. She has the strength and ball-handling ability to get to the basket for high percentage shots.

And look out when Reisha Bullock comes back next semester ....

[aahhbigboy]

What do you guys think will be this team's identity? You don't think the losses will get the ladies down do you?

[Bornthrilla]

Right now, this is a team that has to play great defense and create a lot of points off turnovers.

Tweet is scoring at a career pace so far this season, but besides her and Mona I don't see a lot of confident scorers on the roster. We are going to have to just grind games out and give opposing teams fits with our traps until either Jaleesa or Murdaugh or somebody else starts averaging double figures.

[oleschoolaggie]

i know one thing for sure, mona had better stay healthy for the long term or else we could be in big jeopardy of not winning the meac championship. unlike previous years, mona is gonna have to look to score more often this year. she's very capable of averaging 15 or more points per game but she's got to remain healthy.

i think the jury is still out regarding what the identity of this team will be, and it could take some time before we'll know. remember how long it took our men last year? the unc tarheels are struggling with the exact same thing right now.

someone could emerge like btj did last year. remember, btj didn't even consistently start until last year. in her first two seasons, she use to start sometimes but often came off the bench. amber bland and tweet were the clear scoring leaders for our team at that time, but btj surpassed them both last year. i was hoping jee sams would have that same kind of breakout year this season but so far, it doesn't look that way. however, that doesn't mean it won't happen. it's still early.

i think you'll see the freshman gorham get significant playing time. if she continues to improve and deblanc can pickup from where she left off last season, we could have a very formidable force in the middle.

this team has a variety of ways that it could eventually evolve. we're just gonna have to wait and see how it takes shape. and thrilla was correct, bullock would probably give our ladies a big boost if she were in the lineup. looking forward to getting her back...

[thefriscotxaggie]

oleschoolaggie,

I have seen the team play via a viedo link. Does Murdaugh seem to be just trying to assume a role on the team and I say this because she was dominant against some of the teams in the MAC her freshman year. Does she appear to be very athletic ?

[oleschoolaggie]

Nov 25, 2009 9:53:51 GMT -5 thefriscotxaggie said:

oleschoolaggie,

I have seen the team play via a viedo link. Does Murdaugh seem to be just trying to assume a role on the team and I say this because she was dominant against some of the teams in the MAC her freshman year. Does she appear to be very athletic ?

frisco, i wish i knew the answer to your questions but i don't. i haven't seen her play enough. but against chicago state, she basically seemed invisible out there. she only shot the ball "2 times" for the entire game and she only had a total of 2 "defensive" rebounds. i couldn't tell if she was athletic or not because she never really got into the flow of the game. basically zero impact.

now there may have been a legitimate explanation for her lack of impact that i didn't know about. perhaps she was ill, injured, or simply having a bad day. she started the game, so obviously bibbs has confidence in her. but she wasn't very productive at all. chicago state had some players with decent height and long arms, perhaps that caused matchup problems for murdaugh. i don't know, but you would've never known she was in the game unless you were only looking at her specifically. she did nothing in the game that would make you notice her.

yet, on the other hand, i had no problem noticing nakia gorham's production. she played only 12 minutes for the entire game, but she was more productive than murdaugh who played 25 minutes. in less than half the time that murdaugh got, gorham shot 3 of 5 from the floor (60%), scored 6 points and had 2 rebounds (1 offensive). that's with only 12 minutes of playing time. murdaugh got more than twice as much playing time (25 minutes), shot 1 of 2 from the floor (50%), scored 2 points and had 2 rebounds.

i don't know why deblanc isn't getting more playing time. i vaguely remember someone saying she has an injury. but she only played 6 minutes for the entire game, yet she was even more productive than gorham in that small amount of time. deblanc was 3 of 3 from the floor (100%), scored 6 points, had 4 rebounds and 3 of them were "offensive". that's why i previously stated that if she's healthy and picks up from where she left off last season, she and gorham as the twin towers could cause a lot of problems for meac teams (especially on the boards).

all of that being said, let me reiterate that my observations are very premature. there's a heck of a lot of basketball still to be played. there's a big difference between just practicing with the team versus playing real games with the team. murdaugh may be just re-acclimating herself to the speed of real games. i'm not prepared to draw any permanent conclusions about her or the team just yet. i need to give them more time.

but i will say this, i think bibbs could have used a cupcake or two on her early season schedule this year to facilitate the development of a new chemistry for her team. i'm not knocking it, but playing only stiff competition early in the season doesn't give bibbs the luxury of tinkering with her rotations without jeopardizing the outcome of the game. this year's schedule would have been great for last year's team because we didn't have to "redefine" the team like we do this year. but this year's team needs an easy game or two just to experiment with different combinations and to give the new leaders confidence to lead. you can't do that when all of your early season games are against stiff competition...

[Bornthrilla]

I think our only cupcake game will come next Saturday against Norfolk who was predicted to finish dead last in the MEAC. Everybody else is gonna be a problem.

But like they say: if you want to gain national respect come tournament time, this is how you need to schedule out of conference.

[aahhbigboy]

[quote author=admin board=main thread=5692 post=68172
But like that say: if you want to gain national respect come tournament time, this is how you need to schedule out of conference.[/quote]

Exactly Thrilla! Calling for simple games is idiotic. To BE the best you've got to............we all know the saying lol.

I feel Bibbs on taking all comers. Keep them cupcakes in the oven. On this level, cupcakes are not for coaches who try to win championships every year like Bibbs and Bozeman. That's for 2nd tier programs.

[oleschoolaggie]

Nov 25, 2009 11:23:27 GMT -5 Bornthrilla said:

I think our only cupcake game will come next Saturday against Norfolk who was predicted to finish dead last in the MEAC. Everybody else is gonna be a problem.

But like that say: if you want to gain national respect come tournament time, this is how you need to schedule out of conference.

that's true, thrilla. me and superstar have this debate all the time. but if you look at any major d1 schedule, including the top 25, they all have one or two cupcakes on their "early season" schedule. especially teams that are incorporating new key players into their rotations. look at unc, duke, n.c. state, and wake forest. they've all got one or two cupcakes on their early season schedules. when our men play the money games, those games are considered cupcake games for our opponents.

one or two cupcakes on your early season schedule does not outweigh 30 or so games against more challenging competition. no team will be penalized for playing one or two cupcakes on their early season schedule. besides, it doesn't help your rpi when you play stiff competition and lose the games. it only helps if you win.

i'd prefer to have one or two gimmies in early november for chemistry purposes. stiff competition in december to strengthen the team and build towards the conference schedule. come january, it'll be time to rock 'n roll...

[oleschoolaggie]

Nov 25, 2009 11:30:08 GMT -5 aahhbigboy said:

Exactly Thrilla! Calling for simple games is idiotic. To BE the best you've got to............we all know the saying lol.

I feel Bibbs on taking all comers. Keep them cupcakes in the oven. On this level, cupcakes are not for coaches who try to win championships every year like Bibbs and Bozeman. That's for 2nd tier programs.

well, you might as well call just about every major college coach in america "idiotic" because essentially all of them do it! but i forgot, you're smarter than eaves and all of the major college coaches in america...

[aahhbigboy]

Nov 25, 2009 11:48:35 GMT -5 oleschoolaggie said:

Nov 25, 2009 11:30:08 GMT -5 aahhbigboy said:

Exactly Thrilla! Calling for simple games is idiotic. To BE the best you've got to............we all know the saying lol.

I feel Bibbs on taking all comers. Keep them cupcakes in the oven. On this level, cupcakes are not for coaches who try to win championships every year like Bibbs and Bozeman. That's for 2nd tier programs.

well, you might as well call just about every major college coach in america "idiotic" because essentially all of them do it! but i forgot, you're smarter than eaves and all of the major college coaches in america...

Every major college coach. The last I checked, we weren't major genius. That's why in my post, I said "on this level". Stop seeing what you want to see.

And I love that cupcake Bozeman just beat. He's only outperformed the great one almost every year he's been in the MEAC, so I think he knows what the heck is going on.

[oleschoolaggie]

Nov 25, 2009 11:55:26 GMT -5 aahhbigboy said:

Nov 25, 2009 11:48:35 GMT -5 oleschoolaggie said:

well, you might as well call just about every major college coach in america "idiotic" because essentially all of them do it! but i forgot, you're smarter than eaves and all of the major college coaches in america...

Every major college coach. The last I checked, we weren't major genius. That's why in my post, I said "on this level". Stop seeing what you want to see.

And I love that cupcake Bozeman just beat. He's only outperformed the great one almost every year he's been in the MEAC, so I think he knows what the heck is going on.

bozeman has major d1 talent that is superior to the meac and far superior to any d2 team. he only loss one really key player from last year's team in marquise kately but he returns the bulk of his team including his leading scorer in reggie holmes. just as i suggested for last year's lady aggies, he can afford to play a tougher schedule because he's not "redefining" his team. yet, considering the talent morgan has, even morgan has an easy game or two on their early season schedule.

if ya don't want to check the major d1's, check the low d1's and you'll still see the very same trend. again, i guess you're smarter than all of the head coaches at the low d1 level, if you will. playing all tougher competition when your talent level isn't ready for it and/or you are replacing your leading scorers retards the development of the team...

[Bornthrilla]

I don't know if it retards the development of your team. Maybe it will accelerate it because the players will know that they can not take any nights off.

As the end of the day, all that really counts if doing well in the conference tournament and earning another trip to the Big Dance. This schedule might be brutal, but if our girls can learn and grow along the way, they will be poised to dominant the MEAC again this season. And then come March when they have to go on the road in the first round of the NCAA tournament, they will be well aware of what to expect.