In Reply to: Thoughts and responses posted by TheHappyBurgermeister on July 22, 2026 at 21:37:48
HB, I hear your thoughts on Gardiner and she does have the height but so far she has really wanted to hang outside and focus on her three point shot (which will. be important to us this season) and sometimes driving inside. I'm not holding my breath expecting her to play much in the post. She has said iirc she wants to show more of a complete game but remains to be seen especially as important as her three point shooting may be in stretching the defenses we'll face.
Deas' rebounding is - as advertised - 'way above what one would expect from a shorter player - lots of energy. Maybe she's the spark we'll need.
One week into practicing and our offense once Canada upped its defense and began to defend Sienna more, frustratingly consisted of individual players trying to drive then stepping back and trying to shoot fallaways. And those did not drop. Aarnisalo was 3-13 shooting the ball - at that rate her looking for her own shot so much cannot be a key component of the offense.
As the game wore on, our defense wore out - pretty much disappeared in terms of defending the three point line with our players drifting inside and leaving Canada able to get absolutely wide open looks from three after a few passes. To me that was more a sign of trying to pull together a new team and playing a solid opponent one week into the process than anything else.
Bransford and Gardiner withheld for precautionary reasons and the young Spanish guard not even here until next month. A lot of way to go but the entire preseason to get this team fully put together and learning one another's games. Sienna has the moves and is terrific on offense. We are badly missing Gabriela's flash and burst creating fast break buckets. (Among other things)
It's going to be really hard but we're starting over. The brilliance and drive of Kiki, the spark (on and off the court) of Gabriela, the dominance of Lauren, the jack of all trades game of Angela, the mastery of Charlisse, the top it all off of the great offensive game of Gianna Kneepkens.
But this was always a much too early exercise - more an introduction to playing with one another against a real team. This done, lots of video to review and learn from, they can get back now to Coach Close's actual program to build her new team one step at a time.