Who Starts???

[ZagDad84]

At last night's GU men's game, Tillie and Williams III did not start and Larson and Rui started in their place. Tillie and Williams came into the game off the bench and both had tremendous nights.

After the game, Few was asked if their "benching" was due to any particular item. Few's response was that in the previous game against North Dakota, he thought that the team and in particularly the team leaders came out "very flat" and were not into the game. He could not see "rewarding" those players who did not come out ready to play, so those players on the bench who came to play were started.

How refreshing to see a coach who actually started the players who they feel earned the start instead of just starting players due to their seniority.

Put on your big boy (and big girl) pants. You are the GU coach for tomorrow night's game against Western Illinois. With the assumption that everybody on the GU team is healthy (except EW), who do you start and why?

Given that Western Illinois is not very tall (start 4 players (guards) under 6'0" and their one starting forward is 6'1") and is quick, my starters for tomorrow's nights game are:

"Z" at the post - She earned it based on the St. Francis Game
JB at the #4 - If healthy she has to be in the game. If not healthy, JT starts here.
CS at the #3 - What can I say. MVP of the team this year.
ES at the #2 - If she is healthy, she provides great defense on WIUs best player.
JL at the #1 - The last two games have shown that LS is not ready to go. She is playing at a much reduced level right now.

If ES is hurt, I would shift CS to the #2 and put JT in at the #3 which I would consider doing anyway. With Zee, JB and JT inside we have the height, athleticism and tenacity we need under the boards.

What say you??

ZagDad

[SkipZag]

Like your lineup ZagDad...
The key is the bench and control of the game. If they run a run n gun, we need to keep our team fresh which means.. breaks and the bench playing well.
Would like to see LF play more. With her quickness and length, might cause problems for their 3s.
Also agree on LS... we need her healthy.
Taking control of the game means getting a great game out of our bigs... making baskets holds down their fast breaks.
Defense... got to be on their guards like glue. That means lots of hustle.
No classes... let them sleep in and back to the training table during break.

Really want to see teamwork... saw a lot of butt patting the last game. Lets keep it up!!

Go Zags!!

[ZAG 4 LIFE]

Whoever starts, and/or plays, needs to be ready mentally, as Western Illinois slapped around Stanford
last night in Palo Alto. While this is not a vintage Stanford team, that is still a very nice road win for W.I.
W.I. forced 19 Stanford turnovers and held the Lady Cardinal to 31% shooting... so they can apparently
play a little defense too.

[ladyzaga]

I like your lineup ZD but I would go with CS at 2 and JT at 3. The time has come for change and why not tomorrow. After W ILL. we will not face an opponent in the top 150 RPI for the rest of the season so there will be lots of opportunity for all. Lets go out tomorrow change things up and see what happens. They may not be large but they will give us a fight and we have seen our girls have difficulty fighting back when it gets mucky. I can't wait to see how they respond in what is going to be their toughest test for the rest of the year.

By the way, there is about as much a chance of our coaches changing things as my SHLD stock skyrocketing. So I guess I am saying...there is a chance. There is always a chance.

[ZagDad84]

I like your lineup ZD but I would go with CS at 2 and JT at 3. The time has come for change and why not tomorrow. After W ILL. we will not face an opponent in the top 150 RPI for the rest of the season so there will be lots of opportunity for all. Lets go out tomorrow change things up and see what happens. They may not be large but they will give us a fight and we have seen our girls have difficulty fighting back when it gets mucky. I can't wait to see how they respond in what is going to be their toughest test for the rest of the year.

By the way, there is about as much a chance of our coaches changing things as my SHLD stock skyrocketing. So I guess I am saying...there is a chance. There is always a chance.

When deciding on "my" line-up i had that age old dilemma of size versus speed. It can be argued that the Lady Zags have played their best this year when we had a 4 guard and a single big squad on the floor. Given that WIU starts 4 guards under 6'0" and a forward at 6'1", we certainly can start with a significant height advantage. After seeing WIU outscore Stanford in the paint 36-24, I made the call for a couple of bigs in the paint.

For all the things that JB is good at, she is not exactly fleet of foot and can be beat relatively easily off the dribble. With her injured ankle, JB will be even slower on the transition. Sometimes JB can defend from behind with the block when the dribbler goes to the hoop. If the dribbler gets double teamed however, the left alone opponent is open underneath for a lay-up. The question becomes, do we need JBs offense enough to sacrifice our some of our defensive capabilities. In my line-up, I made the call that JBs offense was more important to the team than her liability on defense.

On the other hand, I could easily see JL, ES, CS and JT on the perimeter along with a big (ZR, JB or the Wirths) in the middle to counter WIUs 4 guard line-up. LS is not effective in the 4 guard line-up with her current level of play, in addition, she is by far the worst defender of the top 5 guards.

As you noted, change in the starting line-up is less likely than a 80 Deg. X-Mas day in Spokane, particularly since ES's parents are supposed in town for Christmas and I assume in town for tomorrow's game. But there is always a chance.

ZagDad

[SkipZag]

I get that there is a concern on how to defend against their 4 guard lineup... but I look at what defense willl work the best against them.
At the same time, I want to go with how we best take control of the game... and that is with the bigs and exploiting with our size inside. Our bigs were recruited for their quickness and speed... lets see if they got it.
I also want to introduce KC and LF to the lineup with their quickness and speed.

One more time to see if the coaches can get them prepped for this type of team and challenge.

Go Zags!!

[ZagDad84]

The real question is not what strategy you start with (as any number of initial strategies can be successfully argued), but if Strategy "A" does not work, does CLF have a strategy "B" or "C" and how long does it take her to change strategies?

With WSU, we knew we were short of bigs, had a 4 guard line-up ready to go and CLF implemented it relatively early. Against UNLV, we hung around all game, but it was not until we got down by 8 that she put the 4 guard line-up in to catch up and eventually take the lead. UNLV did not handle our 4 guard line-up at all. If CLF had implemented the 4 guard line-up early in the 4th quarter, the 3rd quarter or earlier, maybe the game does not come down to a last second shot.

Having multiple strategies is the first piece of the pie, the second is knowing when to use them. Let's hope that CLF will be brave enough to at least try different strategies even if we are not behind to see in one strategy works better than another. You might find that Strategy "A" works better with one line-up while strategy "B" works better with a different line-up. Don't be afraid to experiment.

I'll be honest and say I did not notice KC on defense last game. Good in that I did not see any obvious mistakes but also I did not notice any steals, blocks, etc. I did notice her offensive game was much more physical than in previous games. She was very willing to take it to the hoop among the trees. Good improvement. I think she may have a little JT in her.

Absolutely we need to get LF on the floor with the starters. She could turn out to be a game changer during league season but we will never know if all the minutes she gets are in the last 5 minutes of the game with the subs. She needs to get playing time with the starters.

Go Zags

ZagDad