Photo by Matt Sachs, TexAgs
Texas A&M Women's Basketball
* Against Kansas, you have a post player in Carolyn Davis averaging 18 points a night and the girls were able to hold her to six. A lot of that has to do with the pressure the guards are able to bring defensively on the perimeter. Kelsey Bone and Karla Gilbert did a good job limiting her touches down low as well. Also, the team as a whole was able to attack her and get her into a defensive minded mode from tip-off because she was in foul trouble pretty much from the first five minutes on.
* Any time the team is able to put Sydney Carter on their point guard, it really makes things miserable for the opponent. She is obviously playing better now having practiced for a couple of weeks, whereas the first three weeks back from Christmas when she didn’t practice due to injury. She’s playing better and getting her swagger back defensively.
* It’s been a struggle this year playing defense in the post because the team has some new pieces to the puzzle. It’s still a work in progress, but they have done a good job the past few games down low. All you can do is keep working at getting better. This team has lost some games it shouldn’t have and has played poorly in others, but they have stayed motivated knowing they can’t sulk and feel sorry for themselves. The kids have embraced that mentality and have had some really good practices lately. Against Kansas, this team had their best defensive hour of the year and that’s because of the way they have been practicing lately.
* Very pleased with Kelsey Bone. She still has some areas where she needs to improve and get better and she still has a habit of taking a play off here or there, but she played better in Lubbock last week and played really well over all on both ends of the floor against Kansas. She took the first charge of her career the other night, and it excites you to see something like that. She plays a position on the team that demands not only being a good defender of her position, but she has to help four other people because of the defensive style of the team. Learning that helper role is something that is so hard to learn in such a short period of time because it’s something that comes with repetition. A big part of the recent success is her and Karla are learning to help more and more. They are not only individual forces at 6’4’’ and 6’5’’, but they are becoming good helpers to their teammates, and that is vital to this team’s success.
* Has address Adora Elonu’s struggles the past two games with her. Everyone has been raving about her lately, but the last couple of games she has not played up to par. However, what par is to her is a double-double each night. At the end of the day she is the team’s leading rebounder in conference play, but she has not been herself the past two games. Tyra White didn’t play well against Kansas either going 1-5 with two rebounds. Attributes the struggles to the ebb and flow of a long season and possibly being fatigued in the heart of conference play. With Adora, the staff never questions whether she is playing hard or not. She has also been in some foul trouble recently which has attributed to her struggles lately as well. She’s the type of kid who needs to play 38 or 39 minutes a game, and when she has to sit due to foul trouble, it really hampers her ability to get into the flow of the game.
* The team and staff has not looked passed the game with Kansas State on Wednesday. Kansas State has always been a confident group. Coach Patterson always does a great job along with her staff. They have come into Reed before and beat A&M on more than one occasion. They are not a team that is ever intimidated and they have an admirable toughness about them. A&M will have to be ready to play because Kansas State is a very good team. In order to beat them at home, the whole team needs to play well. This team really needs to play well to keep up the momentum heading into the gauntlet that is the second half of conference season.
Schaefer on righting the ship, Bone's emergence and more
Notes from Vic Schaefer Interview
* The team is certainly playing better, no doubt about that. The team chemistry is a lot better and they have been defending better as well.* Against Kansas, you have a post player in Carolyn Davis averaging 18 points a night and the girls were able to hold her to six. A lot of that has to do with the pressure the guards are able to bring defensively on the perimeter. Kelsey Bone and Karla Gilbert did a good job limiting her touches down low as well. Also, the team as a whole was able to attack her and get her into a defensive minded mode from tip-off because she was in foul trouble pretty much from the first five minutes on.
* Any time the team is able to put Sydney Carter on their point guard, it really makes things miserable for the opponent. She is obviously playing better now having practiced for a couple of weeks, whereas the first three weeks back from Christmas when she didn’t practice due to injury. She’s playing better and getting her swagger back defensively.
* It’s been a struggle this year playing defense in the post because the team has some new pieces to the puzzle. It’s still a work in progress, but they have done a good job the past few games down low. All you can do is keep working at getting better. This team has lost some games it shouldn’t have and has played poorly in others, but they have stayed motivated knowing they can’t sulk and feel sorry for themselves. The kids have embraced that mentality and have had some really good practices lately. Against Kansas, this team had their best defensive hour of the year and that’s because of the way they have been practicing lately.
* Very pleased with Kelsey Bone. She still has some areas where she needs to improve and get better and she still has a habit of taking a play off here or there, but she played better in Lubbock last week and played really well over all on both ends of the floor against Kansas. She took the first charge of her career the other night, and it excites you to see something like that. She plays a position on the team that demands not only being a good defender of her position, but she has to help four other people because of the defensive style of the team. Learning that helper role is something that is so hard to learn in such a short period of time because it’s something that comes with repetition. A big part of the recent success is her and Karla are learning to help more and more. They are not only individual forces at 6’4’’ and 6’5’’, but they are becoming good helpers to their teammates, and that is vital to this team’s success.
* Has address Adora Elonu’s struggles the past two games with her. Everyone has been raving about her lately, but the last couple of games she has not played up to par. However, what par is to her is a double-double each night. At the end of the day she is the team’s leading rebounder in conference play, but she has not been herself the past two games. Tyra White didn’t play well against Kansas either going 1-5 with two rebounds. Attributes the struggles to the ebb and flow of a long season and possibly being fatigued in the heart of conference play. With Adora, the staff never questions whether she is playing hard or not. She has also been in some foul trouble recently which has attributed to her struggles lately as well. She’s the type of kid who needs to play 38 or 39 minutes a game, and when she has to sit due to foul trouble, it really hampers her ability to get into the flow of the game.
* The team and staff has not looked passed the game with Kansas State on Wednesday. Kansas State has always been a confident group. Coach Patterson always does a great job along with her staff. They have come into Reed before and beat A&M on more than one occasion. They are not a team that is ever intimidated and they have an admirable toughness about them. A&M will have to be ready to play because Kansas State is a very good team. In order to beat them at home, the whole team needs to play well. This team really needs to play well to keep up the momentum heading into the gauntlet that is the second half of conference season.
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