Posted by xAC  12/23/2023 11:29 am | #1 |
The OOC has completed, and excluding Division II games, the Revs finished at 6-5 and a current ranking of #190 in Massey’s ratings. With injuries clouding the picture, the team’s progress is hard to assess, but the weak schedule, (#310) didn’t do us any favors. So, what have we learned?
What can Brown do for you? – the bright spot so far has been the emergence of Essence Brown, who has improved every year as a player during her stint at GW, especially offensively. Despite a secondary offensive role earlier in the season, Brown has stepped up due to injuries to others and significantly increased her productivity: 14.2 ppg on 52.5% accuracy from the field and 39.1% from beyond the arc. All this while usually guarding the opponent’s best backcourt player. Due to her own injury, Brown has only played in 6 games, but consider this: GW is 6-0 with Brown in the lineup, and 0-5 when she isn’t. In short, Brown has delivered, and very efficiently.
In breaking down the 5 losses, 2 were within one-possession and the others were competitive in the 4th quarter of the game. Could Brown have helped? Possibly, but we’ll never know. As the A10 season approaches, it’s hard to predict the Revs’ ceiling. When the other players return, Brown’s numbers will go down, but she has to remain the glue. To be consistently competitive, the team has to get healthy AND Robertson has to become more efficiently productive and Lok more consistently productive. Additionally, although GW’s inside offense can be unreliable, Taiwo and Durant will have to excel on defense because the A10 is loaded with gifted frontcourt players. Supplemental scoring from Innis, Buford, Blethen, or Engel will be a bonus, but the coaching staff has to solve the rotation issues and figure out how to maximize each individual's abilities.. So far, this year’s crop of freshmen seems to have more potential as a group than recent classes. It will be interesting to see if any one of them can create some separation and make some noise in conference play.
Just one week to go. Is it just me, or does it seem like the coaches have a lot riding the next 18 games?
|
Posted by BC 12/23/2023 2:00 pm | #2 |
xAC wrote:
The OOC has completed, and excluding Division II games, the Revs finished at 6-5 and a current ranking of #190 in Massey’s ratings. With injuries clouding the picture, the team’s progress is hard to assess, but the weak schedule, (#310) didn’t do us any favors. So, what have we learned?
Snip...
Just one week to go. Is it just me, or does it seem like the coaches have a lot riding the next 18 games?
I think the coaches have a lot to prove and I don't think they're doing a good job so far.
|
Posted by dmvpiranha 12/23/2023 3:23 pm | #3 |
Good post! Here are some of my things to watch during conference play:
1) Can the team generate more offense through transition opportunities? It was nice to see the team attempt to run more off a missed shot from Stonehill, but there were too many missed layups in transition. When fouled, the team missed too many at the FT line (just 65% on the year). I've given up hope that WBB can hit the 70 point mark even occasionally, but I think the team can still be moderately successful if they can hit 60. But that number has to be reached every game at the minimum.
2) Can McCombs emphasize the post more? It was nice to see the shots go down more against Stonehill, but the team is still shooting under 30% for the season from 3. For a team in "win now" mode, not enough was brought in outside of Durant to address weaknesses. The team lost Mia and Jayla, and McCombs only brought in Buford, who is a career 30% shooter from 3. Based on that, it's not a real surprise that the team has fallen significantly in the shooting department. To offset shooting shortcomings, both Mayowa and Maren have to be involved more offensively scoring the ball. It's not easy against a zone, but the team needs to be able to break the zone more effectively by hitting the mid-post and running action off that. Not sure why McCombs brought Durant in and have her not even attempt four shots per game - a bit baffling. GW still had a mini drought in the second quarter despite scoring over 10 points against Stonehill, and during that span I noticed the ball never hit the post.
3) Can the team run a more efficient offense? This sounds general, but I'm referring more to the assist to turnover ratio which is appalling for a veteran team. GW averages just 11.5 assists to nearly 17 turnovers a game. If that's closer to even 50/50 that would provide more opportunities to put the ball in the basket.
4) Can the team have multiple scoring threats from game to game? Essence has been great since coming back, but once the Nyas are back from injury Brown needs to remain a major factor shooting the ball and not disappear for multiple quarters/defer to Robertson and Lok all the time. If Nya Robertson becomes the entire offense again this team isn't getting out of the play-in game. Brown being more involved will help Lok and Robertson's efficiency as well. As xAC mentioned, this is contingent on team health which has seemingly always been an issue under McCombs.
5) Which of the other non-freshmen can emerge as complementary pieces/what does the rotation look like? Buford and Inniss seem like locks to play sizable roles when healthy. Asjah in particular has really improved her shot since coming back - if she can keep that up, that would be huge. This is more a question about the Blethen-Engel-Loving-Webster group that xAC had mentioned as well. Faith has been visibly more hesitant to shoot the ball this year but will need to be more willing to do so when on the court come conference play. Maxine continues to shoot the ball better than most on the team, but her role has not been well-defined, often coming in at random times. The same is true for Caia and Taylor, who haven't really seen an increased role this year. In fact, I think Taylor's minutes may actually be down from last season. It again speaks to lack of emphasis in the post.
6) Can any of the freshmen break out in the second half of the season? Kamari Sims has shown promise shooting the ball, but she has only played 10+ minutes just three times all season. Sara Lewis has potential defensively, but is a bit rough on offense. Monica Marsh could become an important piece shooting the ball, especially for a team that doesn't have a ton of true guards on the roster. Marsh will need to be a bit better at picking when to shoot the ball though.
