In Reply to: WBB vs Illinois - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly posted by BruinWebNeophyte on January 29, 2026 at 22:36:03
Their big, with the help of the refs, gave Lauren a hell of a game. She was beating on Lauren like a rug, knocking her wayyy off her spot, making her all kinds of uncomfortable. And, as you note, in the third, we force fed her. In the second, with Sienna and Angela as the bigs, we cut them up.
In the second, we reverted to our style before the Texas half time. We made it allll about Lauren. And, their big Vasconcelos (say her name) did a great job. Everything bogged down. It was disappointing to see us revert like that. The other thing, Vasconcelos could handle Lauren one on one, so Illinois was able to expand out their D and cover our perimeter like a blanket. Unfortunately, it appears that our schemes for freeing a player on the perimeter are dependent on someone (Lauren) being doubled, and us finding the open player. We're much better at that this season than last. I won't bore with a recap of the tactics last season. But, we still don't run screens to get people open on the perimeter, So, when no one is doubled, no one is open.
As the game progressed, Vasconcelos got in foul trouble, had to sit, and eventually fouled out. As Vasconcelos lost the ability to bang on Lauren with impunity, things loosened up for Lauren. I think at one point, Lauren was 3-11. So she really turned it around later in the game.
Imo, we played great with Dugs and Sienna as the bigs. There were several plays where they cut to the basket and no one went with them. I hate to say, but I think there will be times when the other team is defending Lauren well (with the help of the refs), that we should sit Lauren and go with Sienna and Dugalic. But, we tend to double down on Lauren. That can work if hammering to Lauren can get the opposing big in foul trouble. But, if the refs aren't calling it, or if the opponent has multiple bigs to throw at her ....
If Lauren had been able to play more than 4 minutes in the first half, then Vasconcelos would have been in foul trouble muuch earlier. JMO.