This was a tough home loss. The PSU coaching staff once again refused to employ a zone defense and were outscored 44 to 26 in the paint. Obvious fatigue by our starters in dealing with EWU's pressure defense down the stretch caused poor decision making, costly turnovers, and a collapse in the last 3 minutes of the game. This team, that showed so much promise in starting the season with an 11-5 record, is regressing, and looked dispirited after the loss.
My first impression after watching yesterday's game was that the ladies put forth a great effort even though they were out-hustled at the end. This team has proven that they will play hard and not give up, even when matched up against a physically superior opponent. That being said, the PSU starters looked tired and sluggish towards the end of the game, compared to EWU's starters. I point the blame for this squarely at Coach Murrell. She is known to punish her team with brutally long practices after a loss, and does not subscribe to a generally accepted, modern training philosophy of tapering down workouts prior to a game. Combine that with playing her main 3 starters for extended minutes without rest, and the reasons for yesterday's slowly deteriorating play, at home, become clear. I know of many coaches who do not practice AT ALL on the day prior to a game, knowing that it is vitally important to replenish muscle glycogen stores and thus get the best performance from their athletes on the day of the contest. Many coaches just have walk-throughs and film study on this day.
There are several stat's from yesterday's game to back up my assertion that PSU's play deteriorated as the game wore on: PSU's 2nd half turnovers, fast break points, EWU's 2nd half FG% etc. But the most glaring deficiency was PSU's inability to handle EWU's press during the last few possesions of the game. It's not like this press was something that we hadn't seen before. We simply looked exhausted and lacking in enough energy to advance the ball safely up the court. Our guards too often backed into traps, waiting for teamates to get open, rather than dribbling out of trouble, or advancing the ball, resulting in forced passes and turnovers. I have seen our press-break operate adequately in other games this season, although I believe that the press-break that we are running this year is flawed. In fact, it looks downright remedial considering that the strength of our team is with our ball handling guards. They seem to pull up their dribble at the mere suggestion of a press, passing the ball away, thereby putting the pressure of ball handling and passing onto others who are less adept at these skills. We then become easy prey for good trapping teams. In this game, fatigue in the execution of our press-break was the most obvious reason for our inability to protect a 5 point lead with 5:29 left in the game.
There is still reason for optimism and to believe that PSU can return to their winning ways - but not if our coaching staff continues to 1) run our ladies into the ground after losses and 2) refuse to adopt a zone defense. I have previously written about the virtues of adopting a zone defense as a means to stop the oppositon from dominating us in that extremely important "points in the paint" stat. A Hall of fame coach that I greatly admire said that a zone defense 1) saves your players and 2) prevents penetration. We need both these attributes right away if we are to be successful. Playing "man" defense for an entire game places a heavy burden on a team that does not play it's bench players very much. The starters get fatigued and the bench players don't gain confidence due to lack of meaningful game-time experience. I think those are our biggest problems right now, that, and our inability to run an effective press-break. Time for our coaches to recognize this and make the necessary changes or we will soon be struggling to even make the six team Big Sky Tournament field.
My first impression after watching yesterday's game was that the ladies put forth a great effort even though they were out-hustled at the end. This team has proven that they will play hard and not give up, even when matched up against a physically superior opponent. That being said, the PSU starters looked tired and sluggish towards the end of the game, compared to EWU's starters. I point the blame for this squarely at Coach Murrell. She is known to punish her team with brutally long practices after a loss, and does not subscribe to a generally accepted, modern training philosophy of tapering down workouts prior to a game. Combine that with playing her main 3 starters for extended minutes without rest, and the reasons for yesterday's slowly deteriorating play, at home, become clear. I know of many coaches who do not practice AT ALL on the day prior to a game, knowing that it is vitally important to replenish muscle glycogen stores and thus get the best performance from their athletes on the day of the contest. Many coaches just have walk-throughs and film study on this day.
There are several stat's from yesterday's game to back up my assertion that PSU's play deteriorated as the game wore on: PSU's 2nd half turnovers, fast break points, EWU's 2nd half FG% etc. But the most glaring deficiency was PSU's inability to handle EWU's press during the last few possesions of the game. It's not like this press was something that we hadn't seen before. We simply looked exhausted and lacking in enough energy to advance the ball safely up the court. Our guards too often backed into traps, waiting for teamates to get open, rather than dribbling out of trouble, or advancing the ball, resulting in forced passes and turnovers. I have seen our press-break operate adequately in other games this season, although I believe that the press-break that we are running this year is flawed. In fact, it looks downright remedial considering that the strength of our team is with our ball handling guards. They seem to pull up their dribble at the mere suggestion of a press, passing the ball away, thereby putting the pressure of ball handling and passing onto others who are less adept at these skills. We then become easy prey for good trapping teams. In this game, fatigue in the execution of our press-break was the most obvious reason for our inability to protect a 5 point lead with 5:29 left in the game.
There is still reason for optimism and to believe that PSU can return to their winning ways - but not if our coaching staff continues to 1) run our ladies into the ground after losses and 2) refuse to adopt a zone defense. I have previously written about the virtues of adopting a zone defense as a means to stop the oppositon from dominating us in that extremely important "points in the paint" stat. A Hall of fame coach that I greatly admire said that a zone defense 1) saves your players and 2) prevents penetration. We need both these attributes right away if we are to be successful. Playing "man" defense for an entire game places a heavy burden on a team that does not play it's bench players very much. The starters get fatigued and the bench players don't gain confidence due to lack of meaningful game-time experience. I think those are our biggest problems right now, that, and our inability to run an effective press-break. Time for our coaches to recognize this and make the necessary changes or we will soon be struggling to even make the six team Big Sky Tournament field.
