COLD HARD FACTS

If it seems that I've been somewhat irritated of late, there is a good reason for it.

Although we aren't as deep as we've been over the past few seasons, we certainly have the talent to compete with every team on our schedule (even Providence & Pike). However, stats don't lie. We’re scoring less and giving up more than we have in the past five seasons.

The scoring drought is easily explainable by looking at a couple of things:

We haven't had a "true" point guard since we lost Liz in 2007-08. That's not a slam in any way-shape-or-form on Sheff or Olivia, but a "true" PG knows how to set up her teammates and make them successful, which gets everyone involved. A true PG understands the flow of the game and when to get the ball to the "hot-hand" and when to take it inside. A true PG understands her real value to her team is running the offense. She also must understand that her team can't afford to have her sitting on the bench due to foul trouble.

2FG% - We aren’t attacking the basket with confidence. Instead we’re rushing and throwing up garbage. We’ve missed 172 attempts from inside the arc in our first five games, most of which were lay ups.

3FG% - Over the past two seasons, we’ve had a tendency to be impatient and jack up the first open look we get rather than making the defense play defense for a few seconds. If we’re hitting the shots, it’s not a big deal… but our 3FG% this season is the lowest it has been since 2004-05. Shot selection is usually the #1 reason teams win or lose.

FT% - When we aren’t attacking the basket, it’s hard to get to the line. When we do attack and get the call, we must learn to slow down, both mentally and physically, and focus on making our FT’s. As a team, we are shooting 32.1% from the line (which is absolutely embarrassing). Remember when the jokes about Shaq and his FT shooting were funny? He was at 52%. Those jokes aren’t so funny anymore.

Mental toughness – although this can cover a lot of stuff, it comes down to being disciplined on both sides of the ball. When we play overly-aggressive defense, we get into quick foul trouble. In addition to having to sit our players due to the foul trouble, we send our opponents to the line for uncontested FT’s. So far this season, we’ve given up 44 points at the line to our first five opponents (in 84 attempts) compared to our 27 points in 84 attempts. Do the math and it’s easy to see to that we’re sending them to the line and we aren’t hitting ours. 21.4% of the points we've allowed this season have come from the line.