Notes of Interest from Sharon Versyp Show for Monday 12/21/2020
(with Tim Newton)
Northwestern Game:
The Road Trip:
Holiday Break:
(with Tim Newton)
- Quotes are Coach’s - more or less accurate - unless otherwise
- Items may not be in actual order addressed in the interview to more easily group topics.
- Busy week so just the high points noted
- New info to me - Doumbia injured her ankle in practice the day after the Northwestern game and was in a boot. That is why she did not play Sunday at Penn State.
- Maybe due to COVID? Not sure.
- Home team gets energy from home crowd so playing D is really hard for home team with no crowd there to feed the energy.
- At Penn State the place was completely empty - “couldn’t even hear yourself clap.
Northwestern Game:
- Very good team, very expereienced. “We did a good job on Pulliam but no one could stop Burton.” that night.
- Tim: Veronica Burton plays with great confidence. Not cockiness but confident that she is the best player on the court.
- “Not chippy. Very steady. She lets the game come to her. Didn’t matter what we did.”
- Tim: You were -20 in points from turnovers and you only lost the game by 16. “We just can’t do that.”
- “They get most of their steals in the top 3 (zones)” rather than deep in the corners and that is an automatic 2 pts for them. We just can’t do that and expect to win.
The Road Trip:
- Can’t eat or drink on the plane or the bus.
- Pretty much went to meal, to testing, practice and your room.
- Got to arena Sunday at 12:30 PM for 2 PM game so a lot of time to wait around.
- After the game went into a large room to eat, then on bus and on plane - no food or drinks.
- “Now we know what our road games look like and feel like.”
- Tim: You started to get all your cavalry back in your Northwestern game when you got Rokia Doumbia back and then yesterday (Sunday) you got Karissa McLaughlin back for limited minutes.
- “Rokia has a few minutes against Northwestern and then the next day in practice she turned her ankle and that’s why she didn’t play at PSU. She has a boot on. She should be good to go for the Nebraska game.”
- “Karissa came back. We all want to be great right away” and so did she. We (coaches) were thinking she might be back for Nebraska or the next game but she wanted to be out there. For us, we felt she did what we wanted her to do” but of course she was not satisfied. But “she hasn’t practiced much and that is where you build confidence.”
- “It just takes time to get back in rhythm. Now with Layden and Hardin (after their injuries), you can see they are playing much better. It won’t take Karissa much time and once a shot drops she will get her confidence back. They are offensive players.”
- Tim: It will probably help her to get back on the court before the break. Now she knows where she is and what she has to do.
- “Yes… the biggest thing is the conditioning part.”
- Tim: You have 14 people who can play hopefully for the rest of the year. “Yes, we have 17 B1G games after the break and that’s a lot of games. We need all those people.”
- Tim: Traylor was spectacular yesterday. “Yes, she was - on both ends of the floor… She was in the flow right away. The game was up and down and she had to do a lot and she did it… She had those two steals at the end of the game” that were so big.
- “She has always played D and given us assists but now she is doing everything.”
- Cassidy Hardin was huge. She delivered every time she was on the floor. She kept in front of people and those 3 3PT shots were fantastic.
- Tim: When that many points are scored you need contributions from everyone and even Ajah Stallings hit a 3PT shot. You’ve been telling us she is hitting them in practice and in that game she came thru. “Yes, her 3PT was huge as they were making a little run then… Tam found her in the deep corner and she was ready to shoot that BB. Everyone has to be ready… She was upset missing a couple of FT’s as she is a good foul shooter.”
- Tim: Fatou Diagne has been very consistent. “Yes, she just played at anther level… It was a very fast paced game… Up and down. They (PSU) really push you… Rebounding-wise, scoring the ball, understanding purpose… she just really played where we need her to… She has really felt good about herself the last two games and that builds confidence.”
- Tim: She got a transition bucket. I had to do a double take because it looked like what Farquhar does. “Yeah, she is very capable of that… She did a nice job with their post player getting her in foul trouble.”
- Tim: Because they often went small, it was hard for a player like Kyle to get on the floor in the PSU game. “As a team you have to understand that there are match-ups that are good for you and ones that will not be good for you.”
- “Penn State had not played a game in 14 days and they were preparing for us for 14 days and were fresh.”
- Tim: Madison Layden seems to be getting more and more comfortable. “Yeah, she had a deep 3PT. I told her to expand her game. Her knee is feeling a lot better. The next step is to continue to attack and go around people.”
- “She is very calm. She sees the floor well. She had some big steals - both her and Kayana had some big steals especially in the last 3 mins of the game. But Madison affects the game on both ends of the floor.”
- TIm: She leads the B1G in steals. Some people have a lot of steals because they are quick - like Burton - but some like Madison just have tremendous anticipation. “She just gets it… a lot of long players don’t use their arms but she always has her arms up and hands ready. She was obviously well coached with both her parents coaching her… She is doing a lot of things because she is getting comfortable.”
- Tim: The Nebraska team has some issues with injuries. They only have 9 players on their rosters and two of those were in walking boots as of Sunday. They played IU on Saturday with only 7 and then stayed in Indy until the game here.
- Tim: You’ve played some great games agains the Cornhuskers through the years and it doesn’t seem to matter if they were home or away. Your teams seem to bring out the best in each other.
- “We really do… Amy (Williams) does an amazing job and they have some amazing pieces. They have shooters, they have players that can drive to the hole, they have size with (Kate) Cain (Senior, 6’5”). Their 3/4 players I think are really dangerous. They are a very good BB team but are obviously short-handed right now.”
- Tim: Nebraska has height inside with Kate Cain (Senior, 6’5”), an Australian who leads them (Isabelle Bourne, Sophomore, Forward 6’2”), and Sam Haiby (Junior, Guard 5’9”) are very dangerous if it gets to be an up and down game.
- “Yes, Haiby is a slasher/driver and can get to the hole. How she goes is how they go. So we want to make sure that we’re pushing the BB as much as we can.“
- “Bourne is really doing a great job. She is very efficient and can do a variety of things in the 3/4 spot.”
- “We are very familiar with Cain. She is very efficient. She keeps the ball really high and is face-up. She affects the game on both ends. Hopefully our size can cause some problems for her because we are bigger this year than we have been in the past. If Ra Shaya can get really physical - and Rickie - hopefully that can help us.”
Holiday Break:
- “After the Wed. game they will be off Dec. 24th to the 26th. Some will stay here and some will leave. We will all have to have 3 negative tests before we can meet again.” So we will test when they come back on the 27th, again on the 28th and the 29th. If everyone is negative then we will practice on the afternoon of the 29th. If not, then “X Y Z” (depending on the results.)
- Tim: We’ve seen dropped games already in the conference. tOSU has already had 3 games dropped. So they will have to jam all those make-up games into the new year’s schedule. “Well, but whoever they play may need to postpone so you may not get 20 games in… They will try and cram the games in but it may put different teams at a disadvantage… So we’ll see if we can get 20 games in.”
- Tim: You can be careful but it still may not be enough. “We tell them when they go home it should be just their immediate family. If their family comes here then there will be four families” together (because the students live together.) “So there is no easy way but you gotta do something for their mental health and what they’ve been through already.”
- Tim: The men’s programs are playing through the holidays but the women are taking a break and I think it is the mental stress that is being addressed. “Yes, the mental stress is real… We try to keep everyone safe” but you have to address these mental health issues. The mental stress is real.
- Tim: You have a mix of old and young on your team. How have they done in following the scouting reports? “I think better but we have a long way to go. Our biggest thing is understanding personnel. Some people are better at understanding that than others.The more we connect and apply” the better we will be. “It helps you mainly on the defensive end… You really have to tune in…”
- “If you understand personnel it can really help you perform… It will make you a better player.”
- Tim: You always worry about the last game before the break - whether the team will be there mentally. “I think so because our life doesn’t change much. In three days we’ll be back doing the same thing… Our focus is that “Hey, you’re playing Big Ten games before Christmas.’ Every game matters, every game is so important.”
- “Today we scrimmaged a whole half and it was very good, it was upbeat. They played really well… And we looked at Nebraska all day today.”
- Tim: No show next week. We will be back two weeks from tonight on Jan 4, 2021.
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