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**ZagDad84** · 12-12-2021, 12:38 AM

From the Spokesman-Review:

Gonzaga Women Must Take Care of Ball Against Stephen F. Austin’s Defensive Pressure
By Jim Allen
[email protected]
(509) 459-5437

Taking care of business means taking care of the ball, something the Gonzaga women didn’t do in Wednesday’s 51-49 nonconference loss to Washington State.

The Zags committed 20 turnovers and allowed the Cougars to steal the ball 13 times, the most by an opponent in almost two years.

“Some of the passes we made, I don’t know,” coach Lisa Fortier said. “One of them came straight to me.”

Senior guard Abby O’Connor agreed.

“The momentum they got off turnovers really hurt us,” O’Connor said.

The importance of ball security will be underscored on Sunday night, when the Zags (7-2) host Stephen F. Austin.

An NCAA Tournament team last year, the Ladyjacks are 8-1; more to the point, they rank second in the nation in steals with almost 15 per game.

That number is slightly misleading. Of their 131 steals, 25 came in a lopsided win against Division II Arlington Baptist. The Ladyjacks got 18 more in their last outing, a 90-31 romp over Our Lady of the Lake University.

In their only loss, at Texas A&M, they snagged only eight balls; and another nine in a narrow win over New Mexico.

Moreover, GU isn’t turning the ball over more frequently than it did last year, about 15.5 per game; it’s just that turnovers played a big factor in the loss to WSU.

Lose the handle again on Sunday and the Zags will have lost their margin of error for earning an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.

You can read the rest here: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/20...against-steph/

ZagDad

**upan8th** · 12-12-2021, 10:21 AM

You can SAY it all you want . . . the DOING'S the hard part. The O/U on TO's vs SFA's relentless pressure should be about 16. Which will likely lead to 15/20 points for the L Jacks, and another close game with the Zags scoring under 60 points. And another L. Aside from Stanford, SFA is probably the best team GU will face in their OOC schedule. The questions here all seem to revolve around Lisa's coaching/team management failings. Perhaps an evaluation of the players is in order. Does this group actually have the horses necessary to win consistently? Maybe not.

**SkipZag** · 12-13-2021, 06:38 PM

Well another unsettling evening….

Sorry but this team is not getting better…. Yes there are players that are playing better but not as a team. Way to many games being controlled by the other team. I’m really concerned that we will not be ready for the WCC. And they are taking note of the weakness of this team. And while I think the coaching staff is more than capable…. I think they have allowed way to many distractions in and it’s showing with the team play.

What I have seen over the years as far as making shots is attitude and we saw it at the end of the game with CW and K14. They came down the court with the attitude that they wanted the ball because they were going to make the shot. We need a team with players with attitude…

And coaches that are willing to get back to the business of basketball.

A little over 2700 at the game last night.

Go Zags!!

**ZagDad84** · 12-13-2021, 08:18 PM

Post Game Reviews:

From GoZags: https://gozags.com/news/2021/12/12/w...tin-64-54.aspx

From The Slipper Still Fits: https://www.slipperstillfits.com/202...zags-sfa-recap

From Stephen F. Austin Athletic Department: https://sfajacks.com/news/2021/12/12...n-spokane.aspx

From Spokesman-Review: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/20...nters-to-pull/

Spokesman-Review Photo Gallery: https://www.spokesman.com/galleries/...n-dec-12-2021/

Game Highlights on Lady Zag Twitter and Facebook Page:
- Lady Zag Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ZagWBB/
- Lady Zag Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/ZagWBB

Congratulations for Cierra Walker who hit the 1,000 point mark in yesterday's game. Way to go Cierra, an excellent mark for you to hit.

Entire Lady Zag team had 11 blocks yesterday. 1st time since 2015 Lady Zags have had 10+ rebounds in a single game.

ZagDad

**ZagDad84** · 12-14-2021, 03:11 PM

Hey UP, how did you do?

The O/U on TO's vs SFA's relentless pressure should be about 16. Which will likely lead to 15/20 points for the L Jacks, and another close game with the Zags scoring under 60 points.

Scary good Up. GU ended up with 18 (painfully close to your estimate of O/U 16) turnovers leading to 19 points for SFA, right between your guess of 15-20 points. Very good. The only upside for the Lady Zags and their coaching staff is that they only had 5 turnovers in the second half. But that first half, looked like a glorified middle school game on the Zag offensive side of the ball.

Lady Zags scored 64 points, scary close to you estimated Zag score of under 60 points. Not too bad at all UP.

And another L. Aside from Stanford, SFA is probably the best team GU will face in their OOC schedule.

Obviously, you missed it with the prediction of another "L" as the Zag offense woke up by scoring in 42 points in the in the 2nd half and refused to wilt under the SFA pressure at the end of the game. For every burst put forward by SFA, was met with one by Gonzaga, and Cierra stood up as the senior leader she is to lead the Zags to victory.

No argument on SFA being perhaps the best OOC team the Lady Zags will face this year outside of Stanford. SFA was a team with an 8-1 record, with their only loss being by to SEC Texas A&M in College Station by only 7 polnts. Coming into the game, SFA averaged 85.9 ppg (5th best in the country), with a margin of victory of 29.8 ppg. Their average number of steals per game are one of the best in the nation. No reason to think they were not a top quality team.

Perhaps an evaluation of the players is in order. Does this group actually have the horses necessary to win consistently? Maybe not.

An absolute NO from me. Start with the record of the team 8-2, losing to two (2) Pac-12 teams by a total of 6 points. In addition, the Lady Zags had the opportunity to win both of those games. You are not in these games if you don't have the horses to compete. You do not hold Utah to 20+ points under their scoring average, SFA to more than 30 points under their scoring average and you do not hold the sum of all of your opponents to 53.7 ppg without a darn good defense. You do not play this level of defense without having "players" on the team.

Despite the obvious problem with the turnovers and the inconsistent nature of the offense, the Lady Zags are still averaging 66.8 ppg, which is not too bad. Even on Sunday's game, the Zags could have not looked worse on offense in the 1st half do to lots of turnovers (13), poor shot selection, slow ball movement, etc. leading to a grand total of 22 points. The Lady Zags and coaching staff turned it around in the 2nd half scoring 42 points. Once again, you don't play that well on offense if you don't have the horses. Keep in mind that the Lady Zags are playing without their starting point guard. If you don't think that matters, ask UConn how it's going without Paige Buekers. Even though Kaylynne is doing a pretty good job, without KayLeigh, we are going stretches of the game without a true point guard in the lineup. I think once Kayleigh gets back to full strength, the office will get back to its more consistent self.

Best thing is no games during finals week, so nothing to distract the ladies from their studies. A quick trip down to Cali to play UC Davis (decent team) on Sunday, back to Spokane for a
Tuesday night game versus EWU, then 9 days off before having to face USF in the Kennel on December 30. Hopefully, we have K-11 and EH back to full health by then.

ZagDad

**SkipZag** · 12-14-2021, 07:51 PM

ZD… I like all the positive parts of the game you have brought up.
And there were enough in the second half to pull out the win. But as you have said in the past, you have to play all four quarters.
The first half was probably one of the worst I have seen from GU WBB and scoring 22 points in a half isn’t going to put a “W” in the column.

Hopefully with some time off there will be some positive change. A lot of great student athletes on this team. They just need to start getting back to basketball and having some fun.

Go Zags!!

**upan8th** · 12-14-2021, 09:41 PM

Okay, Z'Dad. Got ya. Pleased somebody FINALLY put something up here that, though I'm sure you were reticent, you felt compelled to respond to. Agree that, with the current squad's zeal for defense, they have a chance to stay in every game left on the schedule. Primarily because, aside from BYU, the rest of their WCC opponents are lacking, with (I believe) only BYU owning a top twenty win. Get Kayleigh and Eliza back, get into the conference schedule, check the L's & W's, & then maybe we can talk "horses".

Bye the bye, neither I nor anyone outside GU's inner program staff was aware that EH & KT11 would not be playing vs SFA. Had I known, I'd have picked the Lady Jack's (gotta love that name) by ten. So, kudos to KT14 & Ciera for coming through in the clutch & everyone else for making their damn free throws.

**ZagDad84** · 12-14-2021, 11:40 PM

Hey UP, glad you responded.

Okay, Z'Dad. Got ya. Pleased somebody FINALLY put something up here that, though I'm sure you were reticent, you felt compelled to respond to

No problem giving kudos when they are well earned. If there is anybody on this board who knows what it is like to not be responded to, it's me. I may not agree with some (or even most) of your projections, but it is probably because I hope you are wrong and I am simply a bigger homer (or hope'ier) than you are. I have no problem giving credit where credit is due, and I even have no problem eating crow now and then (hopefully not too often, crow is not my favorite dish).

Agree that, with the current squad's zeal for defense, they have a chance to stay in every game left on the schedule. Primarily because, aside from BYU, the rest of their WCC opponents are lacking, with (I believe) only BYU owning a top twenty win.

I took a look at the NCAA "NET" rankings which is the primary ranking used by the NCAA to select teams for the NCAA tournament. You may be surprised to find that the WCC is not really all that bad. GU, BYU, USD and Portland are all ranked in the Top-67 of all teams. USF, SC and St. Mary's are ranked between 100 & 167 while, Pepperdine, Pacific LMU are ranked between 200 to 275. So, 7 teams out of 10 are ranked in the Top 162 and no teams are ranked below 300. Certainly, no world beater of a conference, but it was not too long ago we had as many as 3-4 teams below 300. With 3 teams plus GU having a NET ranking below 70, we have the ability to help ourselves by beating our conference foes more than in past years (or at least not hurt ourselves as much by playing conference games).

The team has been very good defensively all year against all levels of opponents. As you say, there is no reason the Zag defense does not keep the Zags in their remaining games.

Before the Kayleigh injury, I don't remember any occasion the Zag offense ran good to very good for four complete quarters (but the Utah game was close), they still were averaging over 72 points per game. Offensively, I think the absence of Kayleigh had a much bigger impact that most of us expected on the Lady Zag offense. While Kaylynne (K-14) is probably 85-90% (and getting better every game) of the point guard that Kayleigh (K-11) is, missing K-11 impacts the team in other ways. While CW can play the point for short periods of time, she is not anywhere close to the ability of the Truongs. Despite Fortier's insistence, Bree is simply not a point guard at this time in her career. Bree is too worried about her dribbling and not turning the ball over to even think about running the offense. Abby and McKayla simply do not dribble well enough to play the point guard position. You can imagine what happens when K-14 comes out of the game. CW has to run the point and needless to say, if we stay even with the opposition, it was a decent shift. When CW and K-14 are both out of the game, just getting the ball up the court is an adventure. When the team has K-11, K-14 and CW all available, CLF can rotate each of these three players at the point resting them as necessary, bringing in McKayla and Bree to play the #2. Not having either Payton or Callie available, really shows with K-11 hurt. Hopefully, K-11 will get back to full strength before the start of the conference season.

My bigger concern with the offense (assuming K-11 is coming back healthy), is the play of the forwards/post, exclusive of Eliza. I have no problem with a forward taking the defender to the hoop when they are 1 on 1. My issue is when the forwards insist on taking the ball up against double and triple teams. You get the pass, if your open to the hoop, you put the ball up (& make the freak'in bunny). If you are guarded, make your move and if the double team comes, immediately pass the ball out. Holding onto the ball under the basket, continuously making pump fakes getting double and triple teamed does nobody any good and leads directly to blocks and turnovers.

The Zag offense rolls when the ball moves quickly in and out and around the key. When the guards drive to the key drawing the defense in and then passing out to the wing and around the perimeter. In the last 3 game stretch, the guards are stopping a step or too short, not pulling the help defense in far enough away from the wing. Make the defense stop the ball handler before you pick up your dribble or pass the ball. The Lady Zags know how to do it, they did it for much of the 2nd half against SFA. Why did we have to go through that first half forcing passes under the basket, turning the ball over (bad passes, stepping on the out of bounds line, etc.) before we got there?

If the Lady Zags could ever put 4 good quarters together on offense, they could be very dangerous in the WCC and maybe even co-favorites. If they give BYU 20 turnovers, they may get beat by 20 or more points.

The game against UC Davis is on ESPN+ for any of you subscribers.

The EWU game is only a half hour drive from Spokane. Hopefully we will have a bunch of Lady Zag fans turnout and make Reese Court another Zag home away from home.

ZagDad

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Pre-Game Analysis for Lady Zag Wbb versus Stephen F. Austin

Pre-Game Analysis for Lady Zag Wbb versus Stephen F. Austin

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