In Reply to: WBB Opener vs Lehigh (spoiler alert) posted by truk on November 02, 2026 at 13:48:46
I was only able to watch in fits and starts. but ...
The 2 players that look most confident, Bransford and Deas. Deas makes all the hustle plays. In 13 min, 3 reb (2 O), 2 Stl, a block. But, she can't shoot.
Bransford and Hunter made for a good 2-3 pairing.
Hunter had an nice statistical game. But, I didn't notice her as much as Bransford. I'll rewatch.
Betts is not as good as we all hoped she'd be. She put up a lot of shots that rolled off the rim and had 5 TO's. Oh well, it's a long season. Speaking of that, she had 3 fouls in the 3rd Qtr. If she's in foul trouble a lot, it will be a real long season.
Speaking of that, I've been advocating giving Muse a lot of minutes defending the post to take pressure off Sienna. Weirdly, Muse played perimeter defense the whole game, from what I could tell. She's fast and has long arms. She can mess with the opposition's passing and hopefully deny penetration, but we need post defense help. Speaking of Muse, she does these "look coach, I'm doing it right!" things that hinder her game. She still runs down the court, or cuts to her position, with an arm held straight up. Why? It slows her down, and I'd bet holding your arm over your head makes it harder to catch the ball. And, I've never seen anyone pass her the ball when her arm was straight up in the air. And, on a possession, she was by herself underneath the basket. So, she spread her legs so wide and held her arms out so much that she couldn't move when the ball came off the rim. A Lehigh player just ran right past her to grab the rebound b/c Muse had made herself immobile. I wish she'd just play the game instead of making such a show of doing "fundamental" things right.
And, more on Muse, watch her take free throws. She has a reallly nice stroke. I'm convinced she could be a very good shooter if we gave her the greenlight. And, she had a very smooth, nice layup on give and go at the end of the game. I hope she gets a lot of minutes to develop. We need her size.
Gardiner looks like a player who playing her first real game in a year and a half. At one point, she moved very awkwardly. As if her knee wasn't fully strengthened yet.
Oh well - onward and upward!