Defense.
It’s a word that flies around Lady Tiger practices and interviews among players, coaches and trainers every single day. In fact, I think I even heard those little people that wipe the players’ sweat off the court during timeouts stressing defense to the team.
“We want people to talk about our defense like they talk about our motion offense,” said Lady Tigers coach Pokey Chatman back in January. “We chart every defensive possession. We have a defensive chart, and one of our assistant coaches is responsible for that. It has 13 categories. You get possessions for contesting, for help, for cover, for blocked shot, alter shot, charge and kids can place a value on that so you can see what area of defense you’re not good with.”
Call it obsession, call it wasted time, but say what you want because the extra emphasis on defense this season is definitely working.
Yesterday, updated stats were released and the Lady Tigers are making a good living in the upper tier of those rankings.
The team is first in the nation in scoring defense at 47.6 points per games and fifth in steals at 12.9 per game. The team ranks tenth in the nation by holding opponents to 34.7 percent shooting a game and sixteenth in rebounding marking at plus 8.7.
Vince Lombardi said, “Defense wins championships,” but a lot of people overlook the first part of his quote – “Offense wins games.”
Face it if you want to or not, but the seemingly-perfect Lady Tigers do have an offensive void.
Look, I know Seimone Augustus ranks sixteenth in the nation, scoring 19.9 points per game, and I know Sylvia Fowles shoots 67.1 percent from the floor, which ranks fourth in the nation.
The last time I checked, you need five players on the floor to play a basketball game, and the Lady Tigers need at least one more player to step up their offense.
It’s not like Pokey Chatman needs my advice. She has the second-best coaching start in NCAA I-A women’s basketball history, but let’s just play along. Here’s three changes the Lady Tigers need to make to win a national championship.
One…
Here’s something many Lady Tiger fans don’t know and probably don’t want to know. Out of 324 teams, the Lady Tigers rank 309th in three-point field goals per game by averaging 2.6 three-pointers per game.
Drum roll…In comes senior guard Scholanda Hoston.
Last season, Hoston shot 34.8 percent from behind the arc, but this year that stat is down to 30.5 percent per game. So what. How much is 4.3 percent? Probably not that much, but the team lost 51-48 to Connecticut and do the math, yes, three points.
The Huskies clearly demonstrated that if you get Fowles into foul trouble and play tough defense on Augustus, you can beat the Lady Tigers because there is no other significant scoring threat. Against UConn, Augustus only shot 6-of-19 from the floor.
Two…
Yes, Fowles gets to the line a lot, but it’s called a charity stripe for a reason. Fowles is shooting a lowly 58.3 percent from the line. In the Georgia game, Fowles only made 3-of-7 from the line and only 2-of-5 against UConn. Let’s not think of the possible outcome of the game where Fowles goes 5-of-5.
Fowles is emerging as one of the most dominant centers in the country, no question, but her improved free-throw shooting would make her that much more dominant.
And finally, three…
Chatman needs to keep Erica White at the point. Against Georgia’s veteran backcourt, White played all 40 minutes and dished out a career-high 10 assists. RaShonta LeBlanc’s career high in assists is only eight.
White also had four points in 28 seconds down the stretch against Georgia to pull the team within three.
She runs the floor better than LeBlanc and made several nice passes into the paint against the Bulldogs. White also turned the ball over only three times against Georgia and only twice in her first start against Alabama. Hold your breath – she even reminds me a little bit of Temeka Johnson running the point.
So here you go, Lady Tiger coaching staff and fans – my list of things you probably either already know or think is completely wrong.
The only thing I can do is watch.
 
Kyle is a public relations freshman.
Contact him at [email protected]