Good Show

The Maroon · Joined: 23 Feb 2007 Posts: 459 Location: Bethlehem, PA

"It is not the critic - that would be me - who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

I thought we had them.

They never, ever, ever, quit. Not a bad legacy for the seniors.

Decent support on hand. I was at the final in '92 where there was a "smattering" of students to say the most. Not much better in '97.

I'll never figure out what in the world happened to this season. The team has said repeatedly last week that they were disappointed how the tournament played out last year (as I said, I thought they would win it--apparently they did too) and worked hard to be champs. Tammy indicated that she took less of a role in trying to control everything this year and who wouldn't want to be led by this senior class?

Really could have used Serowoky, the matchups down low were brutal for us.

God I'll miss watching Garner play. She was a clinic in showing my daughter how to play the game (she always preferred Spicer, which is fine too).

In the end, a great effort.
_________________
I bleed Maroon

carney2 · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 1174

The Maroon · Joined: 23 Feb 2007 Posts: 459 Location: Bethlehem, PA

Lafalum · Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 843

Carney's points not withstanding (he never let's us down) this was a heroic effort and I have nothing but admiration for the effort, courage, and inner strength these young women showed last night and in the tournament in general. Winning is an attitude and this team showed me something last night and I'm sure showed their classmates and fellow athletes what it takes to be competitive. I know this group will take that with them next year and seniors to whatever they choose to do following graduation. I'd hire any athlete that shows me what these young women showed me last night.

By the way Kudos to the school for the bus and tee-shirts and demonstrates to me that school spirit is still there. IT just needs to be encouraged. It also tells me that athletics is the ONLY all-school activity that brings that out.
By the way did anyone see Weis there??? I missed that.

TheRock90 · Joined: 06 Aug 2007 Posts: 216 Location: Easton

Battery went dead on the BMW.

Xboreturns · Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 231

It was great effort not only last night but over the three tournament games. It was great way for the seniors to end their careers. We had a couple of chances to pack it in but each time we got ourselves back into the game. Other than foul shooting, we shot the ball well 23 of 51 and 4 of 8 on threes. We had 16 TOs to LUs 17 but with the agressive play by both teams it didn't hurt us.
(We really need to exhume Hank Slider to see if we can improve our FT% next year).

With next years tournament being at Holy Cross, the administration needs to bring it to Kirby in 2011. Wright, Jackson, and Virgin will be seniors and we will have 4 full years of scholarship players.

Now to address the Carneys question as to what changed over the last three games. I've been a critic of our "weave and throw a three" offense over the past two years. Too many times we ran the weave outside the arc looking for a back door cut, which seldom occurred, and ended up launching a three as the shot clock ran down, missing more than making by about 2 to 1.

I was happy to see an inside out approach at the AU game. Our attacking offense sent AUs 6'2" center Leer to the bench and eventually fouled her out. We again used that approach against Navy with similar success. With LUs interior depth, I was concerned that we would resort to our old ways for last nights game. Happily, we did not and as a result we had an opportunity to win.

As a direct result of C2's question I went back and compared our last 10 regular season losses to our three tournament games. I compared the average numer of shots taken by our two primary guards (Spicer and Zavocki) and the average number of shots taken by our primary inside players (Virgin, Garner and Smith) in the ten losses to the number of shots they took in the three tournament games.
(I'm sure Andy will check my addition and division.)

In the ten losses, Zavocki (96) and Spicer(9 Cool

took an average of 19.4 shots per game, while Virgin (53), Garner (51), and Smith (16) averaged 12 shots per game. In the three tournament games, it was Zavocki (10) and Spicer (13) for an average of 7.6 shots per game while Virgin (27), Garner (25) and Smith (14) averaged a total of 22 shots per game. We've seen with our mens team, we see it on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, CBS and on local cable. If you can establish an inside game, your chances of winning are a lot greater than living and dying by the three. I hope there was a lesson learned.

Kiltedpard · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 293 Location: Bethlehem, PA

Does the "weave and heave" look familiar boys? Remember BVK? Tammy must have picked his proteges' brain for that offense. If she's seaching for answers there...she is desparate!