Davis led the Rockets with 13 points, including 3-4 from three. No one else more than 6. Black did not score.
Whitaker with 7 boards, Rokkanen with 6.
Santucci 4 assists.
Black & Lockett each with 3 steals.

(11-09-2019 02:56 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  I can see why Lockett is starting. She is really quick and can get to the bucket in tight areas. She got beat off the initial dribble twice by a really quick UD players, but was fast enough to get back and block the shot both times (only credited with 1 tho.) Her shot hasn't been falling (missed 2 layups) but that will come. I think Cullop got another good one in her.

I agree that Lockett has some potential. What I don't get is why Morgan-Elliott starts, especially when up against a team with size. Whittaker and Beacham should have been playing together most of the game. Whittaker seems to be a factor whenever she is in the game and while Beacham didn't have a great game, this team is going to struggle if she doesn't become a reliable inside threat. And they certainly can't win if Black is not a scoring threat.

(11-09-2019 04:12 PM)kazoorocket43 Wrote:  

(11-09-2019 02:56 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  I can see why Lockett is starting. She is really quick and can get to the bucket in tight areas. She got beat off the initial dribble twice by a really quick UD players, but was fast enough to get back and block the shot both times (only credited with 1 tho.) Her shot hasn't been falling (missed 2 layups) but that will come. I think Cullop got another good one in her.

I agree that Lockett has some potential. What I don't get is why Morgan-Elliott starts, especially when up against a team with size. Whittaker and Beacham should have been playing together most of the game. Whittaker seems to be a factor whenever she is in the game and while Beacham didn't have a great game, this team is going to struggle if she doesn't become a reliable inside threat. And they certainly can't win if Black is not a scoring threat.

IMO, because you need to have 1 of them on the floor most all the time to play the 5. Whitaker seems to be a true 5 who is not quick enough to stray more than 5-8 feet from the basket. Most team's 4s are stretch 4s or true 3s which take a lot of 3 pointers, which would mean Beacham would have to roam and cover those types of players all the time, which is not her strong suit and would tire her out. It's unfortunate that TCH has not developed into a player who Cullop feels she can play. Ideally, she's a stretch 5 who could be a great counterpoint to either of the other two.

The better question IMO is why is Elliott starting at 4 instead of Rokkanen, who they have been developing into a stretch 4 for the last couple years. My guess is that they want Sara to be a spark off the bench when she comes in, but I don't know for sure. Maybe Elliott has just earned it by out-playing her in practice.

(11-09-2019 04:03 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  60-42 final.

I think it is interesting that 3 Dayton starters played essentially the entire game, and a 4th only didn't because she got in foul trouble early. So after the 30-7 Dayton start, Rockets won the rest of the game 35-30, still playing against Dayton's starters - and the Rockets still didn't play their best ball during that stretch.

Davis and Rokkanen were the only Rockets that I thought played well. Whitaker had some moments. Everyone else, not so much. Beacham got really dominated on both ends by Dayton's bigs. Rebounds 53-28 Dayton. Gotta fix that or aren't gonna win many, even if the shooting is better. 8-16 from the stripe, also needs to improve.

As far as winning the rest of the game 35-30, I'm not sure how excited we should get about that. I think teams have a tendency to coast when they get a big lead. I am relieved, though, because at one point I thought we might lose by 60!

I wonder what Wiard did to earn a reserved spot on the bench. Nothing that I noticed.

Nakiah Black was about as absent on offense as a player can be (0 points, 1 assist), but she led the team in minutes played.

Happy for Tatyana Davis. I agree with the earlier post that she and Rokkanen were the bright spots.

Santucci doesn't dribble close enough to the player setting a pick for her. The defender was just going right over the top and staying with Santucci.

(11-09-2019 04:45 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  

(11-09-2019 04:12 PM)kazoorocket43 Wrote:  

(11-09-2019 02:56 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  I can see why Lockett is starting. She is really quick and can get to the bucket in tight areas. She got beat off the initial dribble twice by a really quick UD players, but was fast enough to get back and block the shot both times (only credited with 1 tho.) Her shot hasn't been falling (missed 2 layups) but that will come. I think Cullop got another good one in her.

I agree that Lockett has some potential. What I don't get is why Morgan-Elliott starts, especially when up against a team with size. Whittaker and Beacham should have been playing together most of the game. Whittaker seems to be a factor whenever she is in the game and while Beacham didn't have a great game, this team is going to struggle if she doesn't become a reliable inside threat. And they certainly can't win if Black is not a scoring threat.

IMO, because you need to have 1 of them on the floor most all the time to play the 5. Whitaker seems to be a true 5 who is not quick enough to stray more than 5-8 feet from the basket. Most team's 4s are stretch 4s or true 3s which take a lot of 3 pointers, which would mean Beacham would have to roam and cover those types of players all the time, which is not her strong suit and would tire her out. It's unfortunate that TCH has not developed into a player who Cullop feels she can play. Ideally, she's a stretch 5 who could be a great counterpoint to either of the other two.

The better question IMO is why is Elliott starting at 4 instead of Rokkanen, who they have been developing into a stretch 4 for the last couple years. My guess is that they want Sara to be a spark off the bench when she comes in, but I don't know for sure. Maybe Elliott has just earned it by out-playing her in practice.

I can't imagine that Beacham doesn't possess the athletic ability or the stamina to stay with smaller 4s. It is certainly possible that Cullop has continued to believe that defense from a 4 or 5 position is never going to be her strong suit. IMO she could get away with not playing Beacham 30 minutes the last two years while she had McIntyre at the 5 but no longer. Put Whitaker at the 5 and sub her with Carlson-Handberg who is actually reasonably good defensively. Then use Beacham predominately at the 4 and sub her with Elliott. How does that sound? Whitaker in particular seems to me to be using far too few minutes early in the season. Maybe that will change. Dayton had 4 6 footers in the top 8 and I don't see why she didn't play these two together today particularly knowing they would both be defending 6+ footers most of the game.

Looking back over the final stats, the Rockets really played a pretty strong defensive game statistically. Held Dayton to 37% shooting. Had 8 steals and 6 blocked shots. Forced 19 turnovers, and Dayton had only 9 assists and got to the line only 8 times. Overall, that's a pretty good stat line, against a very experienced team.

Rebounding is what really made the difference, with UD having more offensive boards than UT had defensive ones. Yikes. That, and leaving 8 free points on the foul line. And missing the good looks when they got them. The rebounding is the biggest concern for me right now, as UT will face some good rebounding teams in the MAC.

With so many new faces, Santucci transitioning to full-time at point, Rokkanen transitioning to mostly full-time at 4, it's gonna take several games before we see if they can gel or not. I expect there are gonna be some really good games and some not good games in the mean time. We'll see.

(11-10-2019 11:08 AM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Looking back over the final stats, the Rockets really played a pretty strong defensive game statistically. Held Dayton to 37% shooting. Had 8 steals and 6 blocked shots. Forced 19 turnovers, and Dayton had only 9 assists and got to the line only 8 times. Overall, that's a pretty good stat line, against a very experienced team.

Rebounding is what really made the difference, with UD having more offensive boards than UT had defensive ones. Yikes. That, and leaving 8 free points on the foul line. And missing the good looks when they got them. The rebounding is the biggest concern for me right now, as UT will face some good rebounding teams in the MAC.

With so many new faces, Santucci transitioning to full-time at point, Rokkanen transitioning to mostly full-time at 4, it's gonna take several games before we see if they can gel or not. I expect there are gonna be some really good games and some not good games in the mean time. We'll see.

Agree with last paragraph. Give them time. I think this team surprises people

Watched the Dayton vs South Carolina game last night. South Carolina completely dominated the Flyers. Dayton team which looked so good and dominated the boards against Toledo was the opposite against South Carolina. And it was exciting to watch Zia Cooke from Toledo who scored 27 points in her third college game. She is a one of a kind talent. Its a shame we can't keep a player like that at home to play with Toledo. Hard to compete with the potential to play for a national championship contender in front of 10,000 fans at home games. Wow!