Don’t think she was “lucky” at all the first 4 games...

Posted on: January 7, 2022 at 20:29:41 CT

She’s a great pure shooter, probably the best on the team except for Frank. You can tell that by watching her in practice, and you could see it those first 4 games.

One problem is, great shooters still need to get open shots, and she is getting very few of those. I’d love to see the team run more set plays for her to get her more open looks from the 3 point line. But she’s also had some bad shot selection.

And I don’t think the fact that we played 4 relative cupcakes in those first 4 games has anything to do with her struggles since then either. It’s not like she’s been in a 10 game slump, it’s more that she has been up and down against both good and bad teams, inconsistent, like a freshman, as many have said.

I thought she had a good game on the road at Baylor, very solid, 8 points in 25 minutes, 2-4 from the field, 1-2 from 3s, 3-3 from the foul line. That’s a solid line for an undersized freshman guard playing in a tough college environment for the first time. She did fine there. She also had a solid game on the road at Illinois, very efficient, 9 points in only 14 minutes of play, shot 4-10 from the field (although 0-3 from 3s).

And then she has struggled also against both good and bad teams, scoring 0 points against teams as varied as Troy, Alabama AM, Mo St and Auburn. Although her playing time was very limited in some of those games, only 10 minutes against Alabama AM and 11 minutes against Auburn. Like any shooter she needs to get minutes, and shots, to get into her rhythm. Problem is, who is she going to take minutes from at this point? Blackwell, Troup, Hansen, Dembele, and Frank have started every game they were eligible to play, and with Williams coming on as the sole post presence we desperately are going to need in SEC play, I’m not sure where her extended minutes are going to come from.

I thought she would have more of an impact at this point, but it looks like it’s just going to take a little more time for her to get that consistency from game to game. Hope she develops that, she could be really valuable as the season progresses and we battle through our tough SEC schedule.