I'll chime in before the "Moral Victory Warriors" make an appearance.
But in a nutshell - Yes.
From my seat in the arena, there appeared to be several times during the game where this was quite obvious, and I'll just name a few.
#1 - TCU's 'Glue' Guard (Donovyn Hunter) picked up her 3rd foul 3 minutes into the 2nd qtr. With TCU Coach Mark Campbell electing to stick with Hunter, there is NO reason we shouldn't have been going at her constantly throughout that 2nd qtr to get foul #4 on her. If she picks up #4, that likely blows up TCU's game plan. Instead, not only did we not attack her, she ends up finishing the game with 32 minutes and leading all players in assists.
#2 - We didn't shoot nearly as many open 3's as we should have. I'm ok with missing 3's early on and adjusting as the game progresses. But we only had 12 attempts all game long, and by not taking those shots when they became available, we weren't able to spread the floor better and loosen up the TCU interior defense.
#3 - Substitution patterns were questionable throughout the game, but especially at the midway point in the 4th. Given the situation, you could not afford to sub out Vonleh with Prince still in the game and trailing by 6. Call one of your 4 timeouts at that point if you have to. But her absence led to TCU getting a clean look for a three that pushed their lead to 9 with 4:29 left, and that was effectively the dagger.
#4 - Perimeter defense was atrocious in the 4th, and resulted in 3 wide-open looks that led to our demise. With as well as Vonley played against Prince, you could afford to do less switching and just trust your team to play solid, straight-up defense. If TCU hits tight, contested 3-point shots, then so be it.
Going into the half, I thought to myself that this would be the biggest half of Nicki's career here at Baylor, and would determine whether we'd finally turned the corner in this new era.
Well, sadly, it looks like there is still a bit of work to be done. And assuming she is going to be here for the long haul, then I really hope she can be successful.
But we shouldn't be making any excuses. We led late in the 3rd, Vonley had basically neutralized Prince with her own stellar play, and it was only a 2-point game heading into the 4th qtr.
So we had TCU right where we wanted them, but didn't get it done. And a big part of that is directly tied to coaching.
We can spin this however we want, but once you neutralize Prince (which Vonley did), then you have to take advantage and put your team in the best position to win.
And imo, that didn't happen last night.
But in a nutshell - Yes.
From my seat in the arena, there appeared to be several times during the game where this was quite obvious, and I'll just name a few.
#1 - TCU's 'Glue' Guard (Donovyn Hunter) picked up her 3rd foul 3 minutes into the 2nd qtr. With TCU Coach Mark Campbell electing to stick with Hunter, there is NO reason we shouldn't have been going at her constantly throughout that 2nd qtr to get foul #4 on her. If she picks up #4, that likely blows up TCU's game plan. Instead, not only did we not attack her, she ends up finishing the game with 32 minutes and leading all players in assists.
#2 - We didn't shoot nearly as many open 3's as we should have. I'm ok with missing 3's early on and adjusting as the game progresses. But we only had 12 attempts all game long, and by not taking those shots when they became available, we weren't able to spread the floor better and loosen up the TCU interior defense.
#3 - Substitution patterns were questionable throughout the game, but especially at the midway point in the 4th. Given the situation, you could not afford to sub out Vonleh with Prince still in the game and trailing by 6. Call one of your 4 timeouts at that point if you have to. But her absence led to TCU getting a clean look for a three that pushed their lead to 9 with 4:29 left, and that was effectively the dagger.
#4 - Perimeter defense was atrocious in the 4th, and resulted in 3 wide-open looks that led to our demise. With as well as Vonley played against Prince, you could afford to do less switching and just trust your team to play solid, straight-up defense. If TCU hits tight, contested 3-point shots, then so be it.
Going into the half, I thought to myself that this would be the biggest half of Nicki's career here at Baylor, and would determine whether we'd finally turned the corner in this new era.
Well, sadly, it looks like there is still a bit of work to be done. And assuming she is going to be here for the long haul, then I really hope she can be successful.
But we shouldn't be making any excuses. We led late in the 3rd, Vonley had basically neutralized Prince with her own stellar play, and it was only a 2-point game heading into the 4th qtr.
So we had TCU right where we wanted them, but didn't get it done. And a big part of that is directly tied to coaching.
We can spin this however we want, but once you neutralize Prince (which Vonley did), then you have to take advantage and put your team in the best position to win.
And imo, that didn't happen last night.
