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Your starting lineup sounds about right...
Posted on: June 29, 2020 at 18:28:49 CT
bluetiger_ MU
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I would be shocked if anyone else on the team beats out any of Dickson, Blackwell, Frank, Dufficy, or Williams at the start of the season.
This team on paper has way more talent, size and athleticism than last years team, and if we get solid performances from several of the unproven players (Kelly, Williams, Dembele, Rose-Smith) this team will have more overall talent than the team 2 years ago when Sophie was a senior. If that happens, the ceiling for this team IMO is being ranked in the 12-18 range, and fighting for a top 16 national seed and home regional, something Mizzou could never quite accomplish during Sophie’s four seasons here.
My keys for that kind of success:
1. We need a solid presence in the post. Unfortunately we have no proven talent there. Williams gets an incomplete from her time at SC due to very limited minutes. Kelly is a freshman. If either, or, preferably both, turn out to be SEC caliber talents we could have an excellent season. If we have to we can be successful with a smaller lineup, rotating Blackwell, Frank, Dickson, Dufficy, Dembele, Green, and Rose-Smith. But in the rugged SEC we are going to get beat up on the boards without a true post player.
2. Dembele and Rose-Smith are the wild cards. Both apparently have great film which is nice. Let’s see how they handle the rugged competition in the SEC. Mizzou fans have been waiting so long for a great pure point guard, the expectations for Dembele to be very successful are through the roof. Hopefully she handles that.
3. If several of the freshmen contribute significantly, we will have tremendous depth, and Coach Pingeton will have some tough decisions to make about who gets the most playing time and how the team chemistry develops, with so many new players adding the freshmen and transfers together with the 3 returning players who will get playing time, Blackwell, Frank and Green. Unless something goes very wrong with a number of the new players, I see a 9 person rotation with Troup and Linthacum struggling to find minutes.
4. The glaring weaknesses have to be addressed by RP: the lack of a coherent offensive plan and flow, and the carelessness with the ball. This was particularly evident with last years team, but both these faults have been problems for years. It just seemed worse last year when the talent level fell through the floor. Better guard play and more scoring options (that means you Dufficy, Dickson and Williams) will help the former, but I have no clue how to correct the latter, and unfortunately the coaching staff doesn’t seem to either.
5. I hope Green gets her fair share of playing time, but there are only so many minutes to go around. She showed amazing improvement from her sophomore to junior season. Her aggressive play on both offense and defense stood out last year. She was fearless taking the ball to the hoop, on a team where too often we were standing around as the shot clock wound down. Just hope she has been working overtime on her free throw shooting which was a glaring flaw in her game.
My anticipation for this team is very high. If the pieces fit together well it has the potential to be the best team of the Pingeton era, maybe by a good margin. But there are so many unknowns still. I won’t hold out hope for a really challenging non-conference schedule, that just isn’t Pingetons style. So it may be awhile before we see how good this team will be.
Edited by bluetiger_ at 18:33:08 on 06/29/20
This team on paper has way more talent, size and athleticism than last years team, and if we get solid performances from several of the unproven players (Kelly, Williams, Dembele, Rose-Smith) this team will have more overall talent than the team 2 years ago when Sophie was a senior. If that happens, the ceiling for this team IMO is being ranked in the 12-18 range, and fighting for a top 16 national seed and home regional, something Mizzou could never quite accomplish during Sophie’s four seasons here.
My keys for that kind of success:
1. We need a solid presence in the post. Unfortunately we have no proven talent there. Williams gets an incomplete from her time at SC due to very limited minutes. Kelly is a freshman. If either, or, preferably both, turn out to be SEC caliber talents we could have an excellent season. If we have to we can be successful with a smaller lineup, rotating Blackwell, Frank, Dickson, Dufficy, Dembele, Green, and Rose-Smith. But in the rugged SEC we are going to get beat up on the boards without a true post player.
2. Dembele and Rose-Smith are the wild cards. Both apparently have great film which is nice. Let’s see how they handle the rugged competition in the SEC. Mizzou fans have been waiting so long for a great pure point guard, the expectations for Dembele to be very successful are through the roof. Hopefully she handles that.
3. If several of the freshmen contribute significantly, we will have tremendous depth, and Coach Pingeton will have some tough decisions to make about who gets the most playing time and how the team chemistry develops, with so many new players adding the freshmen and transfers together with the 3 returning players who will get playing time, Blackwell, Frank and Green. Unless something goes very wrong with a number of the new players, I see a 9 person rotation with Troup and Linthacum struggling to find minutes.
4. The glaring weaknesses have to be addressed by RP: the lack of a coherent offensive plan and flow, and the carelessness with the ball. This was particularly evident with last years team, but both these faults have been problems for years. It just seemed worse last year when the talent level fell through the floor. Better guard play and more scoring options (that means you Dufficy, Dickson and Williams) will help the former, but I have no clue how to correct the latter, and unfortunately the coaching staff doesn’t seem to either.
5. I hope Green gets her fair share of playing time, but there are only so many minutes to go around. She showed amazing improvement from her sophomore to junior season. Her aggressive play on both offense and defense stood out last year. She was fearless taking the ball to the hoop, on a team where too often we were standing around as the shot clock wound down. Just hope she has been working overtime on her free throw shooting which was a glaring flaw in her game.
My anticipation for this team is very high. If the pieces fit together well it has the potential to be the best team of the Pingeton era, maybe by a good margin. But there are so many unknowns still. I won’t hold out hope for a really challenging non-conference schedule, that just isn’t Pingetons style. So it may be awhile before we see how good this team will be.
Edited by bluetiger_ at 18:33:08 on 06/29/20
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Your starting lineup sounds about right... - bluetiger_ MU - 6/29 18:28:49