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Post by jj on Dec 21, 2010 8:14:19 GMT -5
Wow! a 51 pt. loss on our home court. Why? It appears that Keith is on his way to coaching another team that will have less then 10 wins at season's end. Our recruiting is suspect. Hot shots from rural Indiana schools, come on. Keith,retire. Farve will,why not you?
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Post by valporun on Dec 21, 2010 16:33:28 GMT -5
jj, this time I really understand your frustration. It isn't anything to do with the recruiting or coaching in this game. The Lady Crusaders are missing Ashley Varner and Kelly Watts. Both have been battling the injury bug all season. Unfortunately, we've been having to play some of the young pups earlier than when Keith was ready to use them, but not much he can do, unless he wants to lose a lot of games by 50+ points. Once we can get everyone back, and playing again, things will be fine. Last night, we just had to battle as best as we could without the height factor that was expected to be had for this game in September, when Keith was getting everything planned out for this season.
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Post by rlh on Dec 21, 2010 17:13:09 GMT -5
Varner will not be back this year at all, she is being reshirted....as for Watts, a problem has occurred. She graduated at mid-term and isn't enrolled in grad school, so she isn't a student at the moment. Hopefully that will be remedied after the break and she will be ready to play. It was an oversight on her, or someone's, part..nothing intentional obviously
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Post by valporun on Dec 21, 2010 18:54:00 GMT -5
Varner will not be back this year at all, she is being reshirted....as for Watts, a problem has occurred. She graduated at mid-term and isn't enrolled in grad school, so she isn't a student at the moment. Hopefully that will be remedied after the break and she will be ready to play. It was an oversight on her, or someone's, part..nothing intentional obviously Thanks for the info, rlh. I know Ryan was telling me that a lot of this schedule was planning for having Varner and Watts in the lineup together, but due to the injury to Varner and now this academic eligibility oversight for Watts, we're getting to see players that Keith wasn't wanting to give significant minutes to, but has had no choice but do now.
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Post by vuweathernerd on Dec 21, 2010 19:03:37 GMT -5
it certainly doesn't help that nd has a quality team. did they travel as well this year as they did 2 years ago when they visited the arc?
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Post by valporun on Dec 21, 2010 19:06:43 GMT -5
I doubt it. I don't think the game was over Christmas break though either?
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Post by indyvalpo on Dec 21, 2010 20:15:43 GMT -5
With no injuries this team would have been lucky to reach 10 wins. Lack of player development is sadly obvious. Varner had marginal improvement, Ray was basically destroyed in her first 2 seasons and Thomas played 13 minutes last night which is probably more than any one season in total. That is our senior class.
Last year while our season tanked we continued to play seniors setting back decent freshman Lange, Gick and Moore. Moore left to be closer to home but I wonder if she played the minutes she should have things would be different (no way to tell). Lange and Gick are basically still freshman.
Our freshman show potential, will they be developed?
How do you lose by 51 and play your last person only one minute?
At 2-9 perhaps it is time to try a different starting line-up. You simply can not start Ray and Richards together. No points potential.
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Post by jj on Dec 21, 2010 21:33:30 GMT -5
UCONN just won their 89th. in a row. How many rural and small town Hoosiers on that team? Go Huskies - 100 or more!
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Post by indyvalpo on Dec 21, 2010 21:55:26 GMT -5
UCONN just won their 89th. in a row. How many rural and small town Hoosiers on that team? Go Huskies - 100 or more! one
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Post by valporun on Dec 21, 2010 22:12:14 GMT -5
With no injuries this team would have been lucky to reach 10 wins. Lack of player development is sadly obvious. Varner had marginal improvement, Ray was basically destroyed in her first 2 seasons and Thomas played 13 minutes last night which is probably more than any one season in total. That is our senior class. Last year while our season tanked we continued to play seniors setting back decent freshman Lange, Gick and Moore. Moore left to be closer to home but I wonder if she played the minutes she should have things would be different (no way to tell). Lange and Gick are basically still freshman. Our freshman show potential, will they be developed? How do you lose by 51 and play your last person only one minute? At 2-9 perhaps it is time to try a different starting line-up. You simply can not start Ray and Richards together. No points potential. Freeman doesn't commonly put a lot of minutes of freshmen because he wants them to learn the pace of the game, and feel comfortable with their roles in his offense before he puts confidence in them to get the green light to play strong minutes. If he has to play a freshman significant minutes, either an injury occurred, or they came in and really showed a major grasp of the offense, and where they fit in it. It rarely happens though. This is just a freakish year because of the injuries that weren't expected.
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Post by ValpoHoops on Dec 21, 2010 22:19:27 GMT -5
With no injuries this team would have been lucky to reach 10 wins. Lack of player development is sadly obvious. Varner had marginal improvement, Ray was basically destroyed in her first 2 seasons and Thomas played 13 minutes last night which is probably more than any one season in total. That is our senior class. Last year while our season tanked we continued to play seniors setting back decent freshman Lange, Gick and Moore. Moore left to be closer to home but I wonder if she played the minutes she should have things would be different (no way to tell). Lange and Gick are basically still freshman. Our freshman show potential, will they be developed? How do you lose by 51 and play your last person only one minute? At 2-9 perhaps it is time to try a different starting line-up. You simply can not start Ray and Richards together. No points potential. Freeman doesn't commonly put a lot of minutes of freshmen because he wants them to learn the pace of the game, and feel comfortable with their roles in his offense before he puts confidence in them to get the green light to play strong minutes. If he has to play a freshman significant minutes, either an injury occurred, or they came in and really showed a major grasp of the offense, and where they fit in it. It rarely happens though. This is just a freakish year because of the injuries that weren't expected. The ladies went 9-21 last year. At what point do you stop "letting the freshmen learn until they're comfortable" and start throwing them into the fire to get experience. As a coach, you have to recognize a lost season sometimes and just move on. I will agree with one of the above posts that player development seems lacking the last few seasons. That wasn't necessarily the case a few years ago when I was in school. I really like the assistant coaches (the ones that work with the development), and I think they are very good coaches, but it just doesn't seem like its working right now... That said, I also don't think the recruiting the past four years or so has been nearly as high quality as it was before...since Caroline McCombs left I think its gone downhill.
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Post by indyvalpo on Dec 21, 2010 22:22:02 GMT -5
Yes, but playing seniors at the expense of freshmen when the season is in the toilet like last year is not very smart in my opinion. This lack of development is killing us and could cost him his job. This will be the third losing season in four and we are heading in the wrong direction.
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Post by valporun on Dec 21, 2010 22:25:30 GMT -5
Don't forget, a lot of the girls that come into D-1 basketball might have been the only true basketball player their school had, so the entire offense was basically built around them. They don't really know a role other than, "Catch the ball, shoot the ball", they don't always know what a point guard or post should really do, if they've never been told to play the position how it should be played.
In terms of the recruiting, I agree that it has gone downhill. I think Greg Kirby is essentially keeping the pipeline between Illinois and Indiana. We might get a foreigner or a transfer, but most of the high school recruiting seems to stay within the state of Indiana or within the Illiana region (Illinois-Indiana border). We used to get a good crop of kids coming in from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states, but since Caroline left, we haven't shown interest outside of Indiana, and I'm not sure why.
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jack
Recruit
Posts: 55
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Post by jack on Dec 22, 2010 9:56:41 GMT -5
It's my opinion, after watching the ND game, that our weakest link is at the point guard possition. It's tough to stay in any game if you don't have a "TRUE" point guard that can be your floor general, and score when they need to. If a team is lacking at point, then it really doesn't matter who you have in the other 4 possitions. Having said that, I think Keith has a lot of talent, and should turn the corner next season. The guards they have need to be developed as others have mentioned, and I think the guard they have coming in next season from Heights will add the help they need. I've watched her play for a few years now and have been impressed with her ball handling, floor leadership, and her decission making with the ball. I didn't see much of that present in the ND game. I really haven't seen anyone at the point that looks comfortable there in the past 2 seasons. The recruits this year have loads of talent, but being young, they need to also have confidence in their floor leader, no matter who it is. I just haven't seen anyone want to step up and take charge this season. Hopefully, they'll get the development they need to put it all together. Some here seem to take issue with the local recruiting that's happened the last couple of years. I think they are doing a great job of getting the talent they need, they just seem to be 1 or 2 possitions off from being a force in the horizon league. I see that changing, soon.
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Post by valporun on Dec 22, 2010 11:44:05 GMT -5
jack, you're right. We don't really have a point guard that is comfortable in the role. I don't feel we've had a comfortable point guard since Lauren Bechtold or Leah Hochstetler. I could put Katie Boone in the point guard position too. The ladies haven't had a solid point guard in at least three to five/six seasons, so we just have to wait for Gick or Adams to really take to the position and play it for now. We'll find a point guard that is really to lead and be the quarterback of that team.
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