The Ladies host William and Mary today at 2 PM. This is an ACCNx game; you can watch via ESPN Watch. The teams last played in 2011 when the Tribe beat the Hokies 78-59 in Blacksburg.
This is the final tune-up before ACC play starts when the Hokies host Pitt on Dec 21. W&M is 4-6, 2-4 at home and 2-2 on the road with an 80-51 loss at LOLUVA among their losses:
Their tallest player is 6'2" Soph Kayla Rolph; 6'1" Sr. Kayla Beckwith seems to be her relief. The rest of the team that plays regularly are 6' or less. W&M is going to have a hard time with Kitley and Strack. Projected starters are Mikeska, Nascimento, Frisby-Smith, Young and Rolph.
W&M has two players averaging double digit scoring and no one averages more than 5.6 rebounds per game. Six players average more than 20 minutes per game and two more average about 16. Three more have played about 5-8 minutes.
Below is a neat little table I stole from their website:
Last game for Coach Brooks to play around with matchups and lineups before ACC play starts. I would really like to see him try to get Kitley a triple double in this game; she should have a double double before half time. I think if she starts looking for passes out of the posts, 10 assists is possible; given the height advantage, 10 blocks might be an outside possibility.
LET'S GO HOKIES!
Comments
I'd love to see the ladies put 4 quarters of solid play together, no matter who is on the court. It seems like we keep taking at least one quarter off defensively, and one quarter where we are missing everything from 3. We should be out scoring teams in every quarter, not just blowing them out in one or two and playing even in the other two.
Unfortunately looks like they following the model missing everything from three.
Decided to extend the model to the entire first half.
Not gonna win against better competition if we can't focus for a whole game. I was hoping we would have improved on that from last year, but no sign of it yet.
I agree. NC State is going to destroy them if they can't at least pmay middling offense for entire game.
The fact they have allowed the top single player from multiple opponents to keep them in games is also pretty concerning. Can think of four times in wins and both losses where this occurred.
Game time...
Refs allowing a lot of contact. Hokies are ice cold.
Hokies sloppy ball control. Can't seem to find Kitley underneath without a double team.
Absolute rock fight so far, but drawing fouls down low at least
Strack looks like she will be a good replacement for Kitley.
Crazy part is Strack will eventually be more in Summiel/Micheaux spot. Having Silva and Strack together will be fun to watch.
The airballs are out of control
Is WM good?
No - we just look like we are off today
Not really. Got boat raced by UVA. Lost to ODU, VCU and JMU.
Was just about to post this. Watching on the E$PN app during a late lunch.....I've counted like 4 of them since mid 1st quarter. And 1-14 form 3 so far overall......just cold as hell!
1 for 14 and half wide open air balls
I think the Ladies may have been looking ahead to Christmas break. They should settle down soon and start playing to their potential.
Kenny going to get into them. Especially the guards letting Nascimento do whatever she wants offensively. She has 15 of their 20 points.
1-18 womp womp
Bone dry from 3 a game after hitting 17 - classic
Double double for Kitley in the first half.
Feels like both mens and womens teams get into this "we HAVE to shoot 3s" which I get that they are generally good at it, but we always run into a game where we can't hit anything. I wish we would adapt a bit more to inside shooting when the deep ball just isn't there.
How many times have we allowed them second chances by not tracking their shot?
Just seems like we keep letting these awkward bounces off missed shots dribble to them
Nelson going crazy jumping off the bench
Imagine if they could have made shots in the first half....
last checked the score at halftime (27-24, good guys). Just checked the score with 5 min left in the game, 64-39, good guys.
Strack with a crisp 3 from deep!
Beat a bad enough team it only took one quarter of focused play to win by 20. We can be that good. Loved that we had 4 freshman (counting the redshirt) on the floor at one time to close out the game. Hate that we came in unfocused, and still cannot play 4 quarters of our best ball. Cost against Iowa and LSU, and likely will when we play that caliber team again if don't get into a habit of playing all game.
ACC teams in that category that will be here soon.
Jan 7th #3 NC State at home
Jan 11th Miami at home
Jan 14th #21 FSU on the road
Not sure yet what to make of 9-3 GT and 10-1 Syracuse
February brings #3 NC State against, #19 Louisville, #24 UNC (twice) and #14 Notre Dame
ACC has six ranked teams, Miami at #26, Syracuse at #37. Duke is also receiving votes in Coaches Poll. UVA does not appear to be pushover either this season.
Iron sharpens iron. As long as we continue to get better and play our best ball during the tourneys, it will be a good year.