Sixteen games into and just over half way through the regular season, the women rank 7th nationally and currently number 1 in the SEC in scoring defense at 50.5 points per game. Now we had a weak
nonconference schedule and have only played four league games, but still, that arguably is a large enough sample size to see a trend. And we are doing it without much length or athleticism. We play a morphing zone to compensate for lack of quickness, but everyone knows their assignments and plays help D, particularly when the ball goes into the post, where we often swarm the post player, gambling on the perimeter pass for an open outside shot but most of the time making the post player so miserable they can't do what they want with the ball. We play it with consistent intensity, too. I know the men's and women's games are different in terms of the quickness of the athletes, but so far this season CMB has shown that you can mask weaknesses with a zone and make it work if the players buy in and play hard.
Interestingly, we are also number 1 in the league and 8th nationally in offensive field goal percentage at 48.8 %. The turnover bugaboo is still there and has probably cost us 2 or 3 more wins since just a few more possessions with our shooting percentage would have garnered several more points. The redshirt junior point guard transfer from Texas Tech, Minta Spears, has undoubtedly made the team better this season and we would be struggling big time without her.
nonconference schedule and have only played four league games, but still, that arguably is a large enough sample size to see a trend. And we are doing it without much length or athleticism. We play a morphing zone to compensate for lack of quickness, but everyone knows their assignments and plays help D, particularly when the ball goes into the post, where we often swarm the post player, gambling on the perimeter pass for an open outside shot but most of the time making the post player so miserable they can't do what they want with the ball. We play it with consistent intensity, too. I know the men's and women's games are different in terms of the quickness of the athletes, but so far this season CMB has shown that you can mask weaknesses with a zone and make it work if the players buy in and play hard.
Interestingly, we are also number 1 in the league and 8th nationally in offensive field goal percentage at 48.8 %. The turnover bugaboo is still there and has probably cost us 2 or 3 more wins since just a few more possessions with our shooting percentage would have garnered several more points. The redshirt junior point guard transfer from Texas Tech, Minta Spears, has undoubtedly made the team better this season and we would be struggling big time without her.
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