Gotnext Women's Basketball Boards

cbibat · Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 232

i'm really excited about our turn-around the second half. The Merc are playing ball like was expected of them from the beginning and looking like they're having fun at it.

But, have a question - is our turn-around because of Maria? Or, it is because the 'chemistry' just started working. Or... This board has had previous conversations about the whole chemisty issue, coaching responsiblity, etc. so what happened, what changed?

Also, Ashley is playing really well - has having Maria allowed her the time to develope, or fired the competitive juices necessary to develop? And.. can Ashley replace Maria when she leaves?

caune · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 1562 Location: Phoenix

My educated guess is better post players freed up the perimeter players.

Kelley · Joined: 16 Jun 2002 Posts: 29 Location: Atlanta, GA

caune wrote: My educated guess is better post players freed up the perimeter players.

I don't think the merc got better because "Maria" returned, but strong post play was the linch pin. Our eastern block combo is going to be hard to beat. :wink: Taking the pressure off the perimeter has allowed them to gell and we got better overall. It takes a whole team to win. Could the Merc do it with another player other than Maria? Sure. But why would they want to? 8)

Kel

Mercurymaniac · Joined: 04 Aug 2002 Posts: 1197 Location: Scottsdale

Maria has definitely been a positive, with her and Kamilla, people think twice before going in the lane. As Henry Bibby learned the hard way, our posts are also an offensive presence. Now teams have to guard 5 players and not 3.

Also, I think Ashley has really stepped up because she's now competing for playing time.

I think the chemisty has improved because of winning. Winning can cure a lot of ills and you start believing in the people around you.

SportsFan48 · Joined: 12 Jun 2002 Posts: 1135

As to our turn around, I think mranderso said it best when we were having discussions about chemistry, coaching, etc.

mrsanderso said:
Quote: By nature I'm pretty pessimistic person … However, I see us as just two games behind in the battle for a playoff spot, Kamila has started
just one game, 24 games to go in the season, 14 at home.

If the team hasn't gelled yet, not sure stirring is the solution.

Quote: Win at home and steal a few on the road. Is that anything different
than we needed to do before the season began?

We already have two road wins, and were a trey away from taking one from Houston.

We've lost two early ones at home with a depleated lineup. Shrug.
If we won those two, and had lost all our road games, we would be in the same spot.

We knew from the day the schedules came out that we were in for a rough start to the season.

Quote: Like everyone else here, I would like to see some wins. It's just that the thread looked somewhat familiar, like towards the end of the 3-7 slide last year. Players needing to have more fun, lineup changes, must win games, etc. Maybe Maria arriving with a similar effect to the mid-season trade for Gwen did.

http://www.gotnext.com/mercury/viewtopic.php?t=920

http://www.gotnext.com/mercury/viewtopic.php?t=923

Last year we started with 7 home/3 road games. (and were only 5 and 5 at the end of 10 games).

I saw some pretty loose players at the noon home game. At the player intro, Lisa and Shreka were chest bumping the starting line as it was introduced. Diana, faked up, and ducked between them, leaving them hanging. Smiles all around. So, I don't see them at the end of their rope just yet.

I was lucky enough to see them play in LA and Sacramento last week. In LA, the local fans were pretty sparse and there seemed like a significant and vocal Mercury crowd. But, Sacramento was much different, fewer Mercury fans, and a much more vocal home crowd. I think I came away with a new appreciation of how difficult playing on the road trip could be.

I also watched the LA game on TIVO later. I think the passion of players doesn’t always come thru the small screen. Things, like the pick Shreka took in person, was much more dramatic than it came across on TV. So I think some of the missing spark is just that we’ve not had much of an opportunity to see them play at home yet.

So hopefully, we’ll get some more home games soon. We’ll get to exchange some energy with the player, and fans and players will both feel a little more upbeat about the season.

Here is a link to the entire thread.

http://www.gotnext.com/mercury/viewtopic.php?t=1419

The Mercury started with a huge road to home game disparity. Added to that, they were in a roller coaster ride with their roster. I am sure those things are much a factor as having Maria in the middle.

As for chemistry....I don't know for sure but there were other roster changes made besides those added. My feeling is that one of those changes had a postive affect on team chemistry. And am not talking about the one we waived to make room for Ivey.

Ivey's addition has been a positive especially since our injuries to a couple of our point forwards.

As for Ashley...I think a lot of her improvement has come because she got a lot of playing time earlier in the season. She has come to realize that she can compete in this league and I think she knows she has something to offer this team.

Bottom line, however, is that our turn around is largely due to our ability to score more points than our opponents, now instead of earlier in the season.

mb · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2005 11:58 am Post subject:

Ashley is showing great improvement and has still has tremendous upside.

She needs to work on her 12-15 foot jumpshot (let Maria take them for now) and her freethrows.

The Marine side of me would make her shoot 1000 freethrows for every time she waived to somebody in the stands during a team huddle.

Memories of Adrian flash to me when considering her attitutde. At present she doesn't have the fire of DT or AD, nor the focus and concentration/determination of PT or KV.

My hope is thet we see a monster come playoff time...she can do it.