I just watched the game from last night, it was so frustrating that I felt compelled to write this. To preface, I still have very high hopes for this group & program, but this is a significant regression from last year. Throughout this season, it jumps out to me that the core issue with our team is our lack of offensive production. We’re undersized from top to bottom, so naturally, we will struggle defensively. Which makes offensive production even more important.
In my opinion, the shot selection and distribution is the core issue. Bryant and Cook not only are taking poor shots, but they are taking a lot of them. And unfortunately, the cause of these poor shots isn’t due to broken plays or <10 on the shot clock. They occur early in possessions due to isolation. It’s concerning to see how common it is for Bryant/Cook to pull the ball out in the middle of a possession, call for a screen, put their head down and shoot a shot that is either contested or out of rhythm.
Take a look at Bryant and Cook’s effective FG %, relative to their FG attempts. We all know they both can score, but they need shots in the rhythm of the offense. They need to pass the ball or dribble drive to force the defense to shift, they will get it back later in the possession.
Lastly, I was curious to see how teams prep for us, so I watched the Purdue postgame press conference. I’m happy I did. Here’s the most telling quote from Coach Geralds: “Our goal today was to make Cook take more shots than she had points”. She then mentioned multiple times that they were just “Playing percentages” (shooting percentages).
Not only does it seem like Coach Green is perfectly fine with the shot selections from Bryant and Cook, but it looks like opposing coaches are as well. Like others on this forum have mentioned, Dolan needs more looks, and we have to expand the rotation.
