The Aggies return home for an afternoon game against the Tritons after a lackluster performance Saturday at Fullerton in which they were plagued with cold shooting and lost 67-51. It's been an uneven, up and down season for the Aggies who are still looking for consistency.
The Ags lose a tough one 65-63 to San Diego with 1.7 seconds to go on an inbounds play when the Aggie defense broke down and the Titans made an easy layup. Hard way to lose a back and forth game.
I switched it on in the 4q. Terrible play down the stretch. We had the ball, tied, with the shot clock off. We HAVE to take the last shot, basically as the clock ticks to zero. Worse case scenario you go to OT at home. Instead, we missed a jumper with3 secs left. The womens game allows you to call a timeout and advance the ball to the front court, which ucsd did. Defensive breakdown leads to an easy layup. Just really poor basketball.
I always wonder if the transfer portal has hurt the women's basketball team. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they still play the Princeton offense. (I don't have enough basketball knowledge to see if they play this.) If so, my understanding is that this offense is very complicated, and therefore would need lots of veteran players to play this correctly. As a result, the transfer portal allows too much shuffling that the Princeton offense would be ineffective. Thoughts?
I'm sure that Jen and her staff take everything into consideration when they bring in a transfer and our transfers have often had significant, previous playing experience and some have been starters here from the get go. Examples of experienced transfers who came here and were starters immediately are Tess Sussman from Harvard this year and Mackenzie Trpcic from Albany from a couple of years ago. Players like this have no trouble fitting right in to the Aggie offense.
Other transfers are often players who the coaches see as having a lot of potential and still have enough eligibility left to develop significantly. Lena Svanholm from Colorado State and Victoria Baker from Irvine are examples of players like this. Svanholm suffered a knee injury before the season this year and it appears that she will miss the entire season. She was expected to be our 6'6 post this year. Baker is only a RFr and she's a dynamic fireball on the court and, although she isn't starting, she is brings energy and dogged determination to the floor when she enters the game. She may well work her way into being a starter in the future.
So, overall, I think our transfers have fit in very well to the system that Jen runs.
IMO: overall, the team got really young last year and this year, and I think that is hurting execution. The last time Davis was running so many young players in the line-up was when the twins and Morgan were featured, and I think we all realize how special that was now.
I agree that the Princeton offense does take time to perfect, as could be seen earlier in the season. BGA is right that the players Coach Gross brings in are smart and the learning curve is diminished by their skills/experience. But it does take a lot of court time to get all the pieces moving correctly. I honestly don't think we'll see the true potential of this team until next year, when Svanholm is back, the Megan's have a year under their belts, and Sabel gets more experience