Women's Team

[bbtds]

Credit to Wright State. In the last part of the second half everything the Raiders put up went in. I'm not sure any HL women's team, even GB, would have beaten them on Saturday. Mingo is for sure a WNBA player who will, in my view, get picked in the first round. She must have gotten 2 or 3, old style three point plays. Her teammates were also prolific with the old style three point play.

[jack]

Sometimes you just don't have the guns to win the fight. Our best game would have come up short vs Wright State. You have to credit the ladies for putting up a good fight in the first half. The stat that sticks out in the first half was our rebounding. we were handling them on the boards. We had 23 boards in the first half, to their 16. Unfortunately they bettered us by 11 in the second half. Mingo was the difference in this game. 27pts to go along with 11 assist. Not many teams in this league would have an answer for her. Going into the half down 2 probably made their locker room attitude pretty intense. I'm sure their coaching staff lit a fire under their butts. They came out with a whole different intensity level in the second half. They went from 1 offensive board in the first to 12 in the second. Again, we just didn't have the guns to stay in the fight.
We did some really good things in the first half. Hopefully we can build on that and keep improving.

[valpopal]

[tweet]564899308978581505[/tweet]

[valpo4life]

Pretty sure we're getting closer to giving Dani the FOY award for the conference. Her, along with Jaz and Anne, have been pretty impressive for it being their first season in D1 basketball. Jaz has kind of hit that "freshman wall" but was on a tear before these past couple games. I kind of wish Georgi would have been redshirted this season coming off her ACL injury. But she has still shown some promise in what minutes she does get. And with next year's freshmen class being more hyped than these girls, the future appears bright.

[covufan]

[tweet]564899308978581505[/tweet]

Pretty sure we're getting closer to giving Dani the FOY award for the conference. Her, along with Jaz and Anne, have been pretty impressive for it being their first season in D1 basketball. Jaz has kind of hit that "freshman wall" but was on a tear before these past couple games. I kind of wish Georgi would have been redshirted this season coming off her ACL injury. But she has still shown some promise in what minutes she does get. And with next year's freshmen class being more hyped than these girls, the future appears bright.

Congrats to Dani!  She is our leading scorer, but has only started two games.  She is also 7th in mpg - is there a reason she isn't out on the floor more?  She doesn't seem to be foul prone. 

Agree that the first year contributors are playing well, and with the incoming class next years things are looking better.  The one thing I see from the stats is that we are -6.5 in TO margin.  That is too many possessions to be giving up to the other team. 

[valpo4life]

Turnovers are what kills this team almost every game so you're right about that. But I think the reason she doesn't see more minutes is she's still behind defensively. That should improve as she becomes stronger and quicker with off season workouts. Despite being 7th in minutes she still leads us in shots by a pretty wide margin. She's like a post version of Jamaal Crawford, comes off the bench and can put up the points. But other areas are still lacking.

[valporun]

Based on her defense, I wonder how often she really had to try on defense in high school or AAU? I always wonder that with recruits that have high numbers on offense, because it usually means they weren't strong on defense, so they come in with a bad habit that continues being a handicap throughout their college careers.

[valpopal]

It's a sweep for the Walkers: Tevonn & Jasmyn both named Horizon League Freshman of the Week:


[tweet]567378972389175296[/tweet]

[historyman]

We should have the Valpo crowd bring these to the game at Detroit.





Half the Valpo crowd will already be equipped for this.

[IndyValpo]

Where was Franklin last night?

Karungi breaks her nose, Thompson still hurting.....Donchetz, Weidemann, Godwin all out. Almost inpossible to believe until you remember the Freeman year of 6 players....

[valpopal]

Where was Franklin last night?

Karungi breaks her nose, Thompson still hurting.....Donchetz, Weidemann, Godwin all out. Almost inpossible to believe until you remember the Freeman year of 6 players....

Franklin had suffered a concussion in practice. She will also miss tomorrow's game due to a death in the family.

[covufan]

Where was Franklin last night?

Karungi breaks her nose, Thompson still hurting.....Donchetz, Weidemann, Godwin all out. Almost inpossible to believe until you remember the Freeman year of 6 players....

Franklin had suffered a concussion in practice. She will also miss tomorrow's game due to a death in the family.

This team needs to heal.

On the upside - our two leading scorers and rebounders are Freshmen.  With another good recruiting class coming in, maybe things will be looking upward next year.

[KL31NY]

Which season has been crazier from a roster perspective: 2011-12 or 2014-15? I wish I had more time and patience to follow this year's squad, but my senior year was absolutely bananas! Here's what I have written down from that season:

Jessica Carr        Played all but thrice, battled hip injury, also had illness late in season
Shaquira Scott        Appeared in first 10 games, tore ACL in first half at Ball State in December
Betsy Adams        16 minutes in opener at SIUE, dealt with knee, also foot & heel injuries
Stefanie Lang        Missed entire season, suffered leg & back injuries
Laura Richards        Started all but once, missing Montana State game (altitude sickness at CU)
Tabitha Gerardot        One of three players to start, play every game of the season
Ashley Timmerman    Appeared in all but four games, nursed injuries in shins
Charae Richardson    Ruled ineligible (Vincennes transfer) right before team trip to China
Liz Horton            Just 12 appearances, suffered midsesaon concussion, also missed final games
Gina Lange            One of three players to start, play every game of the season
Ieva Jansone        Played 19 of 20 possible games, ineligible pre-HL (Miles CC transfer)
Maegan Callaway        3 minutes in opener at SIUE, missed rest of season with back injuries
Ashley Varner        One of three players to start, play every game of the season, returned from ACL tear
Mallory Ladd        Appeared in first six games, transferred to Evansville due to homesickness

Valpo dressed 9 players in the opener, 8 or less afterwards; The Crusaders even managed to win at Ball State with just five players after Scott's ACL tear and a foulout from Gerardot, finishing 10-21 for the year (5-13 HL, T-8th) with a quarterfinal berth; Valpo was also without early departures Skyler Gick (did not return due to back injuries) and Erika Lang (former walk-on rarely played the year before, went on China trip but left team before regular season)

"I have been coaching for 28 years, and I have never, ever, ever, ever experienced anything like this," said VU head coach Keith Freeman.

[valpo4life]

Pretty pathetic performance today. Good for Sharon to get a double double on her Senior Day. Worth pointing out Jaz had her 5th straight double double. Guard play killed us as it has all year long. Can't win without good guards. But I'm sure someone will question this and my knowledge of this team 

[valpotx]

If only Karungi was this healthy all year, you never know if we could have squeaked out a few extra wins, maybe 2-3.  She is a good player when healthy.  Someone has commented that she turns the ball over a lot, but she only has 20 TOs in 18 games...

[valpo4life]

Wait is someone agreeing with me that our posts are the better players on the team?!? But seriously, Sharon being hurt set this team back. She brought a physical presence no one else could. And with Haylee being a bit of a disappointment. The load was put on two freshmen for a majority of the year and even though they both played well. It would have been nice to her and her voice out on the court.

[bbtds]

And with Haylee being a bit of a disappointment.

Thompson played in the post. You state that Valpo's post players were the better players yet then go and state that one of the post players who started more games was a "bit" of a disappointment. Which way is it? I think that points back to the coaching staff being at fault for not playing the better players.

[valpo4life]

Jaz and Dani were our best two players all season. I feel like everyone can agree on that. Sharon when healthy is a good player, like tx said and as she showed last year. So having one player being a bit of a disappointment in the entire position group doesn't change that the posts were the better players.

As far as minutes, there were only a couple games where we had all 4 in uniform. Let alone all 4 100% healthy. So it's pretty tough to comment on that because we never got to see what kind of rotation we would have gone with. If I had to guess we would start Sharon and Jaz, Dani first off the bench, and Haylee playing some minutes to give someone a little extra break when needed.

[usc4valpo]

I just noticed the women's team is an abysmal 6-21, which is obviously not acceptable. What is going on with this program?

[valporun]

usc, bad guard play. Never had a true floor general. Sure, Jess Carr showed that she could coach on the floor, but she was having to do too much of that, and it affected her play. Abby Dean is looking like she knows how to play, but needs the freedom to shoot from where she's most comfortable, not where Coach Dorow means for her to shoot from. Lexi Miller needs to play less like she's going to lose her scholarship, and more like the game is meant for her. Franklin and Jaz Walker will be built around soon enough. We definitely need a true center, and I hope we have one in next year's class, plus we need some players who don't have to be told how to play basketball by having their hands held. Our post play is tough because either they were out of position or having to do too much with very little true coaching. I'd like this team to show they are coachable, but I think Coach Dorow is not getting through to them by holding their hands, giving them cookies and punch after practice, or being "Mom". She needs to be tough on them, as long as the injury bug isn't a glaring factor in how this team can play.

[usc4valpo]

run, thanks for the explanation. Considering how well the men's team is playing, it would be nice to see the women's team follow.

[valpo4life]

Just add one note to that, we're giving up 76.6 points per game. That's terrible.

[valporun]

We don't play defense  well at all. We look just as lost on defense as we do on defense, plus we're generally slow compared any team trying to fastbreak on us, which I haven't seen a fundamental fast break team I like watching in years.

[historyman]

We look just as lost on defense as we do on defense,

....and just as lost on offense as we do on offense.......... 

[LaPorteAveApostle]