Prior to the game I posted some questions about the game. Well here are the answers.
1. can Creighton handle our bigs and Ashley inside? Yes. When the bigs miss layups and Ashley gets swarmed with not help.
2. will our drive and pass work? At times it was unstoppable. Em drove all day and scored. Others tried and missed.
3. can we guard their guards? In other words, can we knock them off their game? A big fat resounding NO. At times Creighton put on a clinic at our expense.
4. how will the game be called? some ticky tack stuff called. Overall not bad.
5. will ISU be on from deep (which is the key to every other part of our offense)? No. Lukewarm. We missed a bunch of wide open looks while shooting 32% overall.
6. Knowing we don’t really like pressure, will Creighton use their depth to hammer us full court? No.
The game started out with both teams trading blows. Diew started it for ISU with an opening three and I was hopeful that was a good sign. Sadly, it wasn't. Our team was colder than molasses in winter time from deep in the first half. Meanwhile Creighton seemingly almost hit their per game average in the first half. Whatever we did on defense just didn't work. Creighton either had wide open threes or cut to the basket and took advantage of our lack of foot speed to chew us alive. In the second quarter Ash went to the bench with two fouls and quite surprisingly the team stayed with Creighton. Just enough stops and a few baskets here and there and the half time score was tied at 30. I really thought at this point Coach Fen would make some defensive adjustments and we'd be ok. Surely we'd get better shooting right?
The third quarter was one of the worst I've seen since perhaps the beat downs by Baylor or Texas. Creighton came out and literally sliced and diced the sisters. They would find open threes. They would cut or drive to the basket. It all seemed to work and meanwhile the Sisters continued to struggle. When the smoke started to clear in the 4th quarter Creighton had built a 13 point lead and it seemed like this one was in the books. But, as you would expect the ladies still had fight left in their bones. They actually drew within three before making a few critical errors that shifted the game back in Creighton's direction. The ladies had to start fouling and hoping they could in turn score at the other end. It just didn't happen as even Creighton's worst free throw shooter was nearly perfect. In the end the better team won this game 76-68.
Observations
Defense - I was puzzled that our defense didn't seem more prepared for what Creighton was doing. It was the same thing they had done all season and yet our ladies seemed a step slow or way out of position all night long. The best defense we played was the last five minutes of the 4th quarter. So what changed?
Posts - our posts were an absolute non-factor tonight. They were slow plow horses compared to Creighton's quarter horses. Inside or outside (they were guarding guards) they couldn't keep up on defense. On offense they just couldn't find the hoop. 3 points and 7 boards between them. Much of what happened in the third quarter centered around their inability to cover on defense (although others had the same problem).
Playing fire with fire - Coach Fen waited until part way through the 4th to move away from our bigs and insert faster smaller players in an effort to slow Creighton down. Didn't always work, but they started getting some stops. Strangely after seeing Iowa's Czinano eat Creighton up inside our posts couldn't come close to replicating her effort. The only option was go small.
The three - When you watched the game you'd swear we made a total of about 5 threes and Creighton hit 21. In fact, Creighton only hit 3 more than we did on the same number of attempts. The difference was timing...when they happened. Creighton found themselves wide open time after time after time and it stymied anything ISU seemed to have going at the time.
In the lane. At one point Creighton had 24 points in the lane. These were slice and dice cuts to the hoop and it worked over and over again. They executed their offense quite well.
Our offense - for much of the game it seemed like our ladies were very disjointed. No flow to the offense and once we started missing it seemed like frustration set in a little bit.
The stat line - go look at it. Every single line of it looks nearly identical. Creighton made a couple more free throws. Made 3 more treys. Made a total of two more shots than the Sisters. Rebounds even. Turnovers even. The big difference? Assists. They had 7 more assists and each one was a knife in our back.
Ashley - sadly she picked up two fouls early and had to sit the bulk of the second quarter. We never really saw her exert her dominance as we expect. 3-11 from the floor, but 7-7 from the line. Without her offensive presence we were hurting. 14 points and 4 boards on what I hope isn't her last game in a Cyclone uniform.
Em - The little general did everything she could tonight. Made some mistakes - yes. A few of those "what were you thinking" moments. But her drives down the lane were fun to watch. 22 points, 6 assists, and 8 boards. Wow. She was the main reason we had any chance to win this game. 2:1 assist to turnover ratio.
Donarski - she started the game hot on defense and cold on offense. Made some exceptional hands plays. Did get beat a few times to the hoop, but she was working her butt off. Another tough shooting night missing threes and layups. 11 points and 3 boards. Another big missing link in our offense.
Diew - Probably the most improved player on this year's squad. She hit some critical threes. Played decent defense (although she was victimized a couple of times leaving open three point shooters). What a pleasant surprise she has been. Maybe her best game of the year tonight with 15 big points and 5 boards.
The bench - just not much happened there. four total points. One single player from Creighton's bench more than tripled that output.
So disappointing. I told friends that I just had to tip my hat to Creighton. You could tell their players were having fun. They knew their offense and ran it almost effortlessly, and their quickness exposed some of our flaws. The two teams were called "mirrors" of each other, but in actuality Creighton has some things we don't have. Namely, bench production and better team speed. On the other side, our team (like the one in the Replacements) has grit by the bucket load. Many teams might have folded when down by 13 and everything going the other way. Not our Sisters. They reached inside and grabbed some of that grit and found a way to cut that lead to almost nothing. Almost. Sadly, that "almost" means the most successful team (by win) in ISU history is done for the year. What a ride it was. We were privileged to watch some outstanding basketball and are able to say we were a part of it all. Thanks ladies. It's most definitely been fun.
Now for the waiting game. The only question remaining to be answered is what will Ashley do? Will she choose to go pro or will she decide to take one more stab at it? Of course I selfishly want her to come back next year. We will have a deeper bench with Fritz returning. We will be adding Shantavia Dawkins from Canada as another guard. It's possible the transfer portal might yield something, but I'm not sure what the team would be looking for. So, the question remains...what will Ashley do? Previously I was leaning 60-40 on a return. After tonight I think it is a total toss up. The rest of the team returns. You know this outstanding sophomore class will have fire burning in their veins to take things farther. Fritz will be ready to go. Hopefully our posts will make some marked improvement as well. The clock ticks while we wait on the big decision...
1. can Creighton handle our bigs and Ashley inside? Yes. When the bigs miss layups and Ashley gets swarmed with not help.
2. will our drive and pass work? At times it was unstoppable. Em drove all day and scored. Others tried and missed.
3. can we guard their guards? In other words, can we knock them off their game? A big fat resounding NO. At times Creighton put on a clinic at our expense.
4. how will the game be called? some ticky tack stuff called. Overall not bad.
5. will ISU be on from deep (which is the key to every other part of our offense)? No. Lukewarm. We missed a bunch of wide open looks while shooting 32% overall.
6. Knowing we don’t really like pressure, will Creighton use their depth to hammer us full court? No.
The game started out with both teams trading blows. Diew started it for ISU with an opening three and I was hopeful that was a good sign. Sadly, it wasn't. Our team was colder than molasses in winter time from deep in the first half. Meanwhile Creighton seemingly almost hit their per game average in the first half. Whatever we did on defense just didn't work. Creighton either had wide open threes or cut to the basket and took advantage of our lack of foot speed to chew us alive. In the second quarter Ash went to the bench with two fouls and quite surprisingly the team stayed with Creighton. Just enough stops and a few baskets here and there and the half time score was tied at 30. I really thought at this point Coach Fen would make some defensive adjustments and we'd be ok. Surely we'd get better shooting right?
The third quarter was one of the worst I've seen since perhaps the beat downs by Baylor or Texas. Creighton came out and literally sliced and diced the sisters. They would find open threes. They would cut or drive to the basket. It all seemed to work and meanwhile the Sisters continued to struggle. When the smoke started to clear in the 4th quarter Creighton had built a 13 point lead and it seemed like this one was in the books. But, as you would expect the ladies still had fight left in their bones. They actually drew within three before making a few critical errors that shifted the game back in Creighton's direction. The ladies had to start fouling and hoping they could in turn score at the other end. It just didn't happen as even Creighton's worst free throw shooter was nearly perfect. In the end the better team won this game 76-68.
Observations
Defense - I was puzzled that our defense didn't seem more prepared for what Creighton was doing. It was the same thing they had done all season and yet our ladies seemed a step slow or way out of position all night long. The best defense we played was the last five minutes of the 4th quarter. So what changed?
Posts - our posts were an absolute non-factor tonight. They were slow plow horses compared to Creighton's quarter horses. Inside or outside (they were guarding guards) they couldn't keep up on defense. On offense they just couldn't find the hoop. 3 points and 7 boards between them. Much of what happened in the third quarter centered around their inability to cover on defense (although others had the same problem).
Playing fire with fire - Coach Fen waited until part way through the 4th to move away from our bigs and insert faster smaller players in an effort to slow Creighton down. Didn't always work, but they started getting some stops. Strangely after seeing Iowa's Czinano eat Creighton up inside our posts couldn't come close to replicating her effort. The only option was go small.
The three - When you watched the game you'd swear we made a total of about 5 threes and Creighton hit 21. In fact, Creighton only hit 3 more than we did on the same number of attempts. The difference was timing...when they happened. Creighton found themselves wide open time after time after time and it stymied anything ISU seemed to have going at the time.
In the lane. At one point Creighton had 24 points in the lane. These were slice and dice cuts to the hoop and it worked over and over again. They executed their offense quite well.
Our offense - for much of the game it seemed like our ladies were very disjointed. No flow to the offense and once we started missing it seemed like frustration set in a little bit.
The stat line - go look at it. Every single line of it looks nearly identical. Creighton made a couple more free throws. Made 3 more treys. Made a total of two more shots than the Sisters. Rebounds even. Turnovers even. The big difference? Assists. They had 7 more assists and each one was a knife in our back.
Ashley - sadly she picked up two fouls early and had to sit the bulk of the second quarter. We never really saw her exert her dominance as we expect. 3-11 from the floor, but 7-7 from the line. Without her offensive presence we were hurting. 14 points and 4 boards on what I hope isn't her last game in a Cyclone uniform.
Em - The little general did everything she could tonight. Made some mistakes - yes. A few of those "what were you thinking" moments. But her drives down the lane were fun to watch. 22 points, 6 assists, and 8 boards. Wow. She was the main reason we had any chance to win this game. 2:1 assist to turnover ratio.
Donarski - she started the game hot on defense and cold on offense. Made some exceptional hands plays. Did get beat a few times to the hoop, but she was working her butt off. Another tough shooting night missing threes and layups. 11 points and 3 boards. Another big missing link in our offense.
Diew - Probably the most improved player on this year's squad. She hit some critical threes. Played decent defense (although she was victimized a couple of times leaving open three point shooters). What a pleasant surprise she has been. Maybe her best game of the year tonight with 15 big points and 5 boards.
The bench - just not much happened there. four total points. One single player from Creighton's bench more than tripled that output.
So disappointing. I told friends that I just had to tip my hat to Creighton. You could tell their players were having fun. They knew their offense and ran it almost effortlessly, and their quickness exposed some of our flaws. The two teams were called "mirrors" of each other, but in actuality Creighton has some things we don't have. Namely, bench production and better team speed. On the other side, our team (like the one in the Replacements) has grit by the bucket load. Many teams might have folded when down by 13 and everything going the other way. Not our Sisters. They reached inside and grabbed some of that grit and found a way to cut that lead to almost nothing. Almost. Sadly, that "almost" means the most successful team (by win) in ISU history is done for the year. What a ride it was. We were privileged to watch some outstanding basketball and are able to say we were a part of it all. Thanks ladies. It's most definitely been fun.
Now for the waiting game. The only question remaining to be answered is what will Ashley do? Will she choose to go pro or will she decide to take one more stab at it? Of course I selfishly want her to come back next year. We will have a deeper bench with Fritz returning. We will be adding Shantavia Dawkins from Canada as another guard. It's possible the transfer portal might yield something, but I'm not sure what the team would be looking for. So, the question remains...what will Ashley do? Previously I was leaning 60-40 on a return. After tonight I think it is a total toss up. The rest of the team returns. You know this outstanding sophomore class will have fire burning in their veins to take things farther. Fritz will be ready to go. Hopefully our posts will make some marked improvement as well. The clock ticks while we wait on the big decision...
