IUP Women's Basketball | 2019-20

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It's astonishing the Clarion women's team is now 0-20.

Yet again tonight, they were oh so close. The Golden Eagles had IUP on the ropes with a few minutes to play. Last week they lost to Cal in OT. They play hard.

It's generally pretty difficult to say much good about 0-20. I'll say this: if you watched them tonight without knowing their record, you'd probably guess they were 12-8. It's almost unbelievable.

IUP was up 23 in the third quarter. Most winless teams would have thrown in the towel at that point. Clarion nearly tied the game up 10 minutes later. They kept fighting and perhaps IUP took the foot off the gas some. Still.

[TheMadLibs]

Trust me. Nobody at IUP wants to hear about injury problems. This has been a cursed season in Indiana.

The men's and women's team - combined - is dressing 15 to 16 players. Think about that.

The women's team also had four players (yes, four) quit AFTER the season began. None of the four would have played much, if at all, but it wiped out their depth.

The show goes on.

Haha, Gannon had so many last year on both sides I hear you. It sucks for everyone, including the competition. Everyone wants to beat or be beat by your best.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Like a lot of teams, Cal has been again hit with a number of injuries. Their scoring his very peaks and valleys, and their depth is a problem. But that defense typically keeps them in games. I will never count a Strom team out with her defense scheme still at play.

Trust me. Nobody at IUP wants to hear about injury problems. This has been a cursed season in Indiana.

The men's and women's team - combined - is dressing 15 to 16 players. Think about that.

The women's team also had four players (yes, four) quit AFTER the season began. None of the four would have played much, if at all, but it wiped out their depth.

The show goes on.

[TheMadLibs]

Like a lot of teams, Cal has been again hit with a number of injuries. Their scoring his very peaks and valleys, and their depth is a problem. But that defense typically keeps them in games. I will never count a Strom team out with her defense scheme still at play.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Cerro has looked off the past few games. She had some real shaky decisions last night. The backup PG also committed a whooping 6 TOs in limited minutes.

IUP really should have that game by 25 points. Their self-inflicted turnovers can be infuriating. I agree on the timeouts. You can't take them with you.

They also have a very short bench

That wasn't a typical Jess Strom team. Good athletes, speed and nice size, but very few go-to scorers.

I was surprised too that they had a lack of scorers. They had the one girl that hit some threes, but they didn’t get the numbers they typically do out of their big. That’s where IUP being able to throw three legitimate bigs with talent at you is such a huge advantage. They were in that girl’s head last night and dominated her physically.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

There’s a John Wooden quote that applies to this team and that’s “Be quick, but don’t be in a hurry.” For whatever reason they have stretches in games when they play unnecessarily in a hurry trying to make long passes to bigs running down the floor or ill-advised passes during transition. They also rushed a couple shots on semi-breakaways that resulted in embarrassing misses when all they needed to do was dribble out and set up the offense.

All of those things can be corrected. They can still play up tempo without trying to turn games into a track meet. Few teams have three legitimate bigs including one that’s 6’1” and can hit threes and I think they could lean on that advantage more. I’m sure it’s discussed in practice but maybe calling a few more timeouts in games to reset the thinking would help. I hate to be too critical after a big win where they dominated most of the way, but we saw the sloppy play cost them against Edinboro and inevitably it will again down the road if not corrected.

Cerro has looked off the past few games. She had some real shaky decisions last night. The backup PG also committed a whooping 6 TOs in limited minutes.

IUP really should have that game by 25 points. Their self-inflicted turnovers can be infuriating. I agree on the timeouts. You can't take them with you.

They also have a very short bench

That wasn't a typical Jess Strom team. Good athletes, speed and nice size, but very few go-to scorers.

[EyeoftheHawk]

IUP actually had a chance to blow them out early but of course the turn over issue let Cal linger.

There’s a John Wooden quote that applies to this team and that’s “Be quick, but don’t be in a hurry.” For whatever reason they have stretches in games when they play unnecessarily in a hurry trying to make long passes to bigs running down the floor or ill-advised passes during transition. They also rushed a couple shots on semi-breakaways that resulted in embarrassing misses when all they needed to do was dribble out and set up the offense.

All of those things can be corrected. They can still play up tempo without trying to turn games into a track meet. Few teams have three legitimate bigs including one that’s 6’1” and can hit threes and I think they could lean on that advantage more. I’m sure it’s discussed in practice but maybe calling a few more timeouts in games to reset the thinking would help. I hate to be too critical after a big win where they dominated most of the way, but we saw the sloppy play cost them against Edinboro and inevitably it will again down the road if not corrected.

[IUPalum]

Nice win by the ladies tonight. They took control early and didn't let up.

Interesting game up next -- oddly against an 0-18 Clarion.

IUP actually had a chance to blow them out early but of course the turn over issue let Cal linger.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Nice win by the ladies tonight. They took control early and didn't let up.

Interesting game up next -- oddly against an 0-18 Clarion.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Played well today. SRU is awful.

[TheMadLibs]

How close are they to an open gym tryout a la TCU?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

The good news: big win in the McKenna Center for IUP (that's been a house or horror for them over the years).

The bad news: IUP should have NEVER been in a close(ish) game.

This program - going on years now - misses more layups than any team I've ever seen. The self-inflicted turnovers are also alarming.

As I said the other day, this is a very talented, balanced team. They are just sloppy - some more than others.

Two upperclassmen are in a funk. Luckily for them, they can't get benched. There's nobody on the bench. I think IUP dressed 7 players tonight.

Carey and Lombardi are in a secret game to see who can have the least players dressed.

It was a very tough atmosphere --;WAY louder than the men's game. SH has a very passionate women's following.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

She left the floor twice from the 8:00 minute mark. Neither time did IUP lose the lead and in fact, they built a two possession lead with her off the floor. They had the lead when she came back on the floor and subsequently lost the lead with her on the floor. She also took and missed the final shot. She also led the team in turnovers today with four. I’m in no way putting it on Maria, but to suggest they lost the game because she wasn’t on the floor the entire time down the stretch is reaching.

Their biggest issue is careless turnovers. The concern is these are upperclassmen guards who shouldn't be making freshmen-ish mistakes (routinely). I'd bet at least 50 percent of IUP's turnovers in the loss were self-inflicted. The whole running the baseline thing they love drives me insane, but they also love risky, low-percentage passes way too much.

If one were to break down that film from Saturday, it would be sickening to watch.

It would also teach the ageless lesson that when you let a good team hang around forever - instead of putting them away - eventually you get burned.

I don't think this group has yet fully learned how to best play together. An adjustment was expected. They have a lot of new faces. One of Carey's early traits has been losing some games he shouldn't. Saturday was another of those.

The technical was an absolute killer. That was a massive momentum swing. It swung the whole game in my opinion.

This team is good. No question. Can it take that next step? We'll see.

[TheMadLibs]

From individuals close to the program, I, also had heard that they are extremely high on that individual being redshirted. She certainly had a remarkable high school career, so we shall see. But, Cleve has a history of bringing in talent and blending it into his system and the results speak for themselves.

One night after glass of wine number 3 or 4 I found video of her in the playoffs last March. She reminds me so much of Brittany Tabron in the post. A true presence, soft touch, and I think she can hit the 3 too? Good to hear people are saying similar. All of my close connections are gone, and I can't make it in person so I rely on my mediocre observations 😂.

[TheMadLibs]

The painful part is that team is SO close to being very good.

They are sloppy. Carey has all the tools.

The machine just isn't fine-tuned. That's on him.

They lost a game they should have won by double digits.


Clean the sh!t up.

This.