Lord Elrond

It was a great assist, no question. It was also offsides from what the replay shows. Oh well, if the refs don’t call it who am I to complain.

Last game Kiley Bess was in was the game vs Rhody on Feb 2nd. She was out the rest of the year last year. She was expected back at the start of the season, I’m not aware of her still being injured. During the pre-game shooting drills she’s dressed out and participating in all drills, the injured players are just in their sweats and don’t participate other than maybe chasing down loose balls. That’s all I know.

She was injured last season, and ended the season early. I don’t know what her injury was, and I don’t know her injury status now, but if she’s not game ready why have her dress out and go do warmups with the other players?

I see her warm up every game, looks fine to me, I’d say coach’s choice not to play her

It must be mental at this point, just don’t try, at least for a while.

A 77-58 win. They played good defense early, held Air Force to 21.8% shooting in the first 3 quarters. Flowers had 13 rebounds and 5 blocks. Offensively they got into the paint. This game pointed out 3 things that SLU needs to do for the rest of the season: 1-DEFENSE and rebounding are the key, 2-get the ball inside on offense, 3-don’t shoot 3 pt shots (they were 3-25 against Baylor, 4-23 against Belmont, 2-17 vs Air Force, total last 3 games 9-65, 13.8%). Don’t shoot from 3pt range, just don’t.

Billikens up 60-34 after 3 quarters. Nice to see

Belmont 78, SLU 68 3pters still a problem, 4-23. They did out rebound them today, 42-40. First time I can recall SLU doing that. Oh well, let’s see who will be there opponent tomorrow

And in another note, there was a 4th commitment to the Billikens this year, Mackenzie Hare committed in Nov 2021 with the other SLU freshman (recruited under Lisa Stone). With the coaching change she uncommitted, and on the same day Coach Tillett was hired by SLU signed with Marquette. She’s averaging 8.8 pts per game for them, three of her 6 games in double digits. While it looks like she has a lot to work on like all freshmen, she seems quite a prospect.

I really don’t get the poor defense on this team. Defense should be better than this, continuing like this will not be a pleasant thing to watch. Your point is well made, these are the players she brought over with her. Not a good first impression.

Sadly Clegg seems to be the same type of player…

True, she needs to recognize that when she’s not shooting well, or doesn’t have a good shot, then she needs to pass to a teammate and work for a better shot from someone else. Overall her numbers aren’t bad, she’s shooting .348 overall, .327 for 3pt shots. But when she forces a shot sometimes that shot doesn’t even come close to the basket.

McMakins (and Clegg for that matter) both seem to be streaky players, they are either on or they are off. More consistency is needed, or awareness that when they aren’t hitting someone else needs to take the shots. In today’s game, McMakin was 2-14 in FG, 1-6 3pters, 7 total points, Clegg was 2-11, 1-8 3pters, 5 total points. When they are on they are really good.

Final BYU 79-Dayton 75. Looks like Dayton lost all 3 in the Battle 4 Atlantis

Final, Baylor 92, SLU 58. Looks like the subs got a lot of playing time when things got out of hand. 3-25 from 3pt line. Mia Nicastro’s stat line in the box score looked good, 5-8, 7 rebounds (4 ORB) for 12 points in 20 minutes, Peyton Kennedy 5-12, 5 rebounds for 11 points in 19 minutes. Julia Martinez led starters with 8 rebounds, Brooke Flowers was 5-8, 13 points and 5 rebounds. Neither McMakin nor Clegg had good stat lines in the box score.

Chris May quoted in the news release announcing Lisa Stone’s departure: “Women's basketball is a critically important program at SLU," May said. "Our goal is to play in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship regularly. This is a great job in women's college basketball, and our program is well positioned for sustainable, long-term success with Chaifetz Arena and, in the very near future, the O'Loughlin Family Champions Center.” So yeah, that’s the goal for Coach Tillett. Not sure that means this year, but she’s expected to take us to the NCAA’s regularly.

Kyla McMakin this year, FG 45-121, .372, 3pt 16-45 .348 Caija Harrison last year, FG 160-401, .399, 3pt 31-101, .307 Harbison was a little better on FG, but worse on 3 pt shooting by more. I’ll call it even so far. The real problem is we were a losing team last year and a losing team this year, so I would say the problem both seasons has been elsewhere than the shooting guard position.

They need to do something to mix it up, what they’ve been doing hasn’t been working. Three games they were up with under 2 minutes to play they lost.

Sadly the internet here in Rivendell is apparently run by orcs…

None that I could find, said I, thinking surely I must be mistaken but unable to prove it. No announcement on the twitter feed, or their story archives, and nothing on wbbblog.com. I can’t find any. Surely I am mistaken and am just incompetent at locating that information.

TCU beat them 112-42 in an exhibition, so yes, beating them by 60 seems about right.

Good catch, I had to look and see. In addition to outscoring the starters, the bench also out rebounded them by nearly double, starters 16 total rb’s, bench 31, starters 4 orb’s, bench 15 orb’s. Looks like 4 of his starters started all games this year too. Weirdest box score I can recall seeing offhand.

I haven’t heard of her getting a job elsewhere… Seriously, there’s no going back. I think everyone was hoping we could avoid a total rebuild, but that might be where we are headed. I would guess Coach Tillett gets first shot at the rebuilding thing, so let’s hope her recruiting skills are up to it. Not sure what to expect this year, let’s see where we stand Monday after this tournament. Hopefully still not on one win, but the competition in the tournament they are in looks very tough.

I think after that they pull team names out of a hat or bowl. They should probably just get the teams together and do PK’s at some point. It would make for better TV viewing. Or, being FIFA, they could probably be bribed….

Best figure out how to put some balls in the goal against England, us getting out of group is probably going to come down to goals scored/goal differential. We’ll know more after Wales vs Iran on that