Liberty is good. They’re 28-4 after finishing 14-2 in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The two league losses were to Florida Gulf Coast by four and eight points. They beat 16th ranked Virginia Tech by 19 earlier in the year. They’re big with two 6’5s, a 6’3 and two 6’2 players. Mya Berkman, a 6-3 sophomore, is their best player at 12.5 ppg and 7.3 rpg. She shoots an amazing 67 percent from the floor, and, as a team, they pretty much all shoot it well.
Defensively, I’m hoping we can do to them what we did to Murray State…swarm them and wear them down with pressure. They do have more size than Murray, which might help with beating the pressure.
Vandy has already exceeded any reasonable expectation this season, but a Sweet 16 appearance in the NIT would be a huge cherry on top.
Slow start for both teams, but suddenly it looks like they're getting into a flow, Vandy with two 3's from Moore. Now 12-7 at the end of the first quarter.
After the slow stop, we've now got a 31-22 halftime lead, led by Moore's 12 point, and Jordyn has 9 Long way to go, but I'd rather be 9 points up than 9 points down.
Now it's 43-22 with 3:53 left in the third quarter. At the beginning of halftime, on the VU radio broadcast, they said that Belmont was up by 2 over UT with a min to play. So I turned that game on, too. Now, with halftime over, and 3:53 in the third left in the Vandy game, UT finally defeated Belmont. That's a long long time to play 1 min of basketball! There were 3 lonnnggggg official reviews of out-of-bounds plays and timeout after time out.
Seadog73 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:56 pm
Another big win for the Dores. Can't believe what a difference in how these young women play for CSR. Just an amazing transformation.
Agreed, but to clarify, it's the difference in what the team looks like, not the difference in how these particular young women play. Going back to last season, Chambers and LaChance were the only players who played in the last few games. There's been pretty much of an almost complete turnover of personnel since then because of transfers, grad transfers, and players who were out with injuries last year. I'm probably forgetting somebody, but I can't think of any particular player who looked so-so at best last year who looks really good this year. Rather, it's more that the players who came in/came back are looking really good and have melded into an effective team.
Didnt watch ut game, but they have always been so dang lucky! Glanced at their board & all the complaining about "how refs favoring the high seeds (UConn esp) etc etc; complaining about Key being manhandled in the post"; I know we all remember who got the favorable calls, 99% of the 50/50 calls for many many years, & seeing several of their (ut) games this year it sure seems to be ongoing; no one got beat up more than Chantelle!! Sorry - had to vent. Love our team & Coaches -incredibly proud of them!
At MTSU next - we lost to them earlier - will see how much we have improve over the season. If we can get the W it will be a real measure of team improvement under Shea. I think she is an incredible coach. Whit, would you agree that this road rematch is a way to see if coach can improve team and players?
charlestonalum wrote: ↑Tue Mar 22, 2022 6:37 am
At MTSU next - we lost to them earlier - will see how much we have improve over the season. If we can get the W it will be a real measure of team improvement under Shea. I think she is an incredible coach. Whit, would you agree that this road rematch is a way to see if coach can improve team and players?
Kinda sorta. I think the eyeball test/body of work over several games on either end of the season is a more solid way to tell, and as far as I'm concerned, that's been settled with a positive YES, we can definitely see improvement in the team and individual players over the course of the season.
But a game against the same opponent in the same venue will be a very interesting way to look at it. A loss wouldn't disprove my believe that we haven't improved, but a win would provide a nice piece of further evidence.
BTW, if anyone besides me is interested, here's a box score from the previous game:
A couple of things that jump out to me is that two players with 25+ minutes in that game -- Brinae Alexander and Brylee Bartram -- are no longer with the team. Sacha Washington, who's become a very solid post player only played 4 minutes in that game. In this week's game, I'd certainly like to see fewer TOs (23 in that game) and a better FG% (30.6% in that game), and a better assist-TO ratio (10 to 23 in that game).
charlestonalum wrote: ↑Tue Mar 22, 2022 6:37 am
At MTSU next - we lost to them earlier - will see how much we have improve over the season. If we can get the W it will be a real measure of team improvement under Shea. I think she is an incredible coach. Whit, would you agree that this road rematch is a way to see if coach can improve team and players?
Kinda sorta. I think the eyeball test/body of work over several games on either end of the season is a more solid way to tell, and as far as I'm concerned, that's been settled with a positive YES, we can definitely see improvement in the team and individual players over the course of the season.
But a game against the same opponent in the same venue will be a very interesting way to look at it. A loss wouldn't disprove my believe that we haven't improved, but a win would provide a nice piece of further evidence.
BTW, if anyone besides me is interested, here's a box score from the previous game:
A couple of things that jump out to me is that two players with 25+ minutes in that game -- Brinae Alexander and Brylee Bartram -- are no longer with the team. Sacha Washington, who's become a very solid post player only played 4 minutes in that game. In this week's game, I'd certainly like to see fewer TOs (23 in that game) and a better FG% (30.6% in that game), and a better assist-TO ratio (10 to 23 in that game).
I think the improvement is clearly evident. I would not put too much on this outcome bc remember MTSU probably has improved a lot as well. They are at home with motivation to beat the SEC team. Without Alexander’s scoring vs. a very good defensive team could prove problematic for our team. A win would be outstanding.
