Given the circumstances this year, I think there’s reason for optimism. The young players seem to settle down at the end of the year. From what I observed:
- The number of unforced turnovers was greatly reduced; especially passes to the interior
- More (and better) shots taken earlier in the shot clock; however, need to hit a higher percentage of open shots and finish contested layups
- We had the ability to produce sustained defensive stands; need to better take advantage of scoring droughts by other teams
- Platooning seemed to increase the comradery among the players; playing Overcash and Gumbs post-transfer announcements was a nice gesture
Next year?—some question marks:
- Maund will be hard to replace; Luma was a preseason All A10 Second team selection- will she rise to the occasion after coming off a season ending injury?; how much will MoKwuah improve (there’s a lot of potential there); is Ali Brigham the real deal? (better to temper expectations of true freshmen)
- Can Zambrotta live up to the original hype—she didn’t have a great year; how good can she be?
- How much will Hyduke and Blethen improve? Both showed flashes of brilliance, but need to be more consistent
- Are there hidden gems in the other recruits (Perea, Gingras)?; Taiwo was an under the radar recruit who played for a very small private high school and whose main sport was soccer, but there’s no question she has the most upside of anyone on the team- this was a recruiting coup. If she can straighten out her FT shooting, she’ll be an automatic double digit scorer next year. If she can develop a jump shot, she’ll be all A10 before she graduates
- Depth— any others to transfer out?; any transfers coming in?
Season’s over, so now, nothing to do but anxiously wait for next season to begin.
