That game Thursday night... chuckling.
The thought emerging in my mind about the Vikings was one of Meghan Klingenberg's Thorns pre-game speeches, imploring her teammates to "f#<& s#!+ up!" They played so ugly they brought Montana State down to their level. The offense was designed to either get an open 3 or force something up with one second left on the shot clock, and... SMH. But on defense, it was overplaying all the passing lanes... sometimes giving up a layup, and otherwise getting more steals than Montana State would usually give up. It was glorious trash for 32 minutes, the usual 7 for PSU tired and Kola Bad Bear asserted herself. Esmerelda Morales kept Darian White in check. Jada Lewis hit key 3s earlier. Definitely some defensive building blocks for the next couple years.
I wanted to compare PSU to the old Dick Harter Kamikaze Kids at Oregon, but really it's more catenaccio (Italian for "dead bolt"). Put all the effort into the defense and hope to exploit the gaps later. Maybe only one game in the Viks' 4 of 5 win run got into the 60s (the loss did). It can be interesting to watch.
The thought emerging in my mind about the Vikings was one of Meghan Klingenberg's Thorns pre-game speeches, imploring her teammates to "f#<& s#!+ up!" They played so ugly they brought Montana State down to their level. The offense was designed to either get an open 3 or force something up with one second left on the shot clock, and... SMH. But on defense, it was overplaying all the passing lanes... sometimes giving up a layup, and otherwise getting more steals than Montana State would usually give up. It was glorious trash for 32 minutes, the usual 7 for PSU tired and Kola Bad Bear asserted herself. Esmerelda Morales kept Darian White in check. Jada Lewis hit key 3s earlier. Definitely some defensive building blocks for the next couple years.
I wanted to compare PSU to the old Dick Harter Kamikaze Kids at Oregon, but really it's more catenaccio (Italian for "dead bolt"). Put all the effort into the defense and hope to exploit the gaps later. Maybe only one game in the Viks' 4 of 5 win run got into the 60s (the loss did). It can be interesting to watch.