As the NCAA tournament continues to power along and the Women’s college basketball transfer portal seems to almost double in size every day, it’s never too early for Minnesota Gopher Fans to look forward to the next season and for reporters or contributors to review the 20-21 reason and examine what went wrong and what should have fans thinking that next year could be a special one for the Golden Gophers. For this two-part review, I will come at it from half the perspective of a loyal ever-optimistic fan and half from an unbiased point of few that isn’t clouded from fan rose-colored glasses.
In this first part, I review some of the struggles and issues the team both had to deal with and put on themselves at times and how it affected the season.
Struggle One: Covid
Overview:
It’s not just the elephant in the room, it seems to be the elephant everywhere you look in the world these days and during the season. The Gophers did have to two separate pauses due to covid along with multiple games that left them shorthanded in games this season, however overall, the team luckily only had to miss two total games during the season, both of which coincidently happen to be against the Michigan Wolverines.
Fan View:
The covid-induced breaks seemed to come at some of the worst times in terms of chemistry for the team. The first one came right at the start of preseason training, which in losing valuable practice time, this talented team both missed out on building chemistry and having all of their players available for the first two or three games of the season. Missing out on that kind of time unfortunately set them back and the team struggled to find the consistency which cost the team games in terms of execution and turnovers.
The second pause for the team came at a point in the season where the team had seemed to be developing their mojo and were winners of three of the last four games before the break. Despite coming out of the second break and winning two of their next three games, those wins were against the bottom two teams in the conference standings so it was hard to see the cracks that a pause could have caused until the competition ratcheted up.
Unbiased Observer:
While clearly covid did play a part in the season, to put it bluntly, other teams around the country also had to deal with covid, and some of the those even made the NCAA tournament, some even still playing in the tournament in the elite eight and final four rounds. A team needs to embrace the next women up mentality and be able to not fall apart when adversity hits. Overall, it is more than okay to view Covid as something that threw a wrench into the season but in the end, every single team in the country was playing in the same covid-effected world as the Gophers were so it can’t be an end all, be all explanation for a disappointing season.
Struggle Two: Injuries
Overview:
Another overriding theme for the Gophers during the season was both the number of injuries they had to handle as well as the lack of games they were able to put the same players out on the court. A look at the season’s box score and you will see that there was one single player, Klarke Sconiers, of the thirteen on the roster, who was able to play in every single game of the season.
Fan View:
Injuries not only happened in numbers, but they happened, it seemed, every time the team started to muster up some steam in a game or part of the season. Multiple games, at the beginning of the season and towards the end of the season, the team was playing with between seven and eight players. At times three or four of those players would be playing in either their first season of college basketball or first season in the Big Ten.
Other examples would be in the Gophers game at Wisconsin. The team played possibly it’s most complete half of basketball in the early season in the first half of this game. A huge part of that first half was sophomore Sara Scalia. Then in that game, in the third quarter, Scalia takes a tough screen and boom, she suffers a shoulder injury that she might have never fully recovered from the rest of the year.
Another example would be at the end of the team’s game at Penn State. Just as the team was trying to closing out the second half of their second win in a row, a PSU defender fell and landed on Gadiva Hubbard’s ankle. This was another injury that, while the player returned later in the season, never seemed to fully heal from the injury.
The final example was on full display in Minnesota’s first round Big Ten tournament game against Nebraska. As a camera panned over to Gopher’s bench, you saw Jasmine Powell, Sara Scalia and Kadi Sissoko all in street clothes. To do the math, that is over forty points a game sitting in street clothes. That would be hard for the best of teams to try and overcome.
Unbiased Observer:
Similar to the covid issue, it’s hard not to fall back on the old saying that the Gophers were not the only team to deal with injuries. The other part to it is that if an injury or two derails the season to the extent some fans would like to think it did, that highlights that the coaching staff has to either do better developing a deeper bench and/or recruiting more serviceable players so a loss of one or two could be made up by player ready and waiting for their moment.
Struggle Three: Third Quarter Woes
Overview:
While it wasn’t every game, an overriding theme for the team this season would be back-breaking slow starts out of the halftime break. While a game is not over after the third quarter, having a season scoring difference of 444-311 against the Gophers sure made some games feel like they were over once the third quarter hit. The Gophers suffered third quarter defeats such as 30-13, 28-8, 17-7 and 26-14 this last season. Those would be hard margins to overcome or withstand for a completely healthy team in a normal season, let alone an injury-riddled and covid-hindered one.
Fan View:
One of the aspects to a depleted or short bench can be running out of steam during the middle of a game. Add in the fact that, as mentioned, covid knocked out a part of the preseason training, which also means there were missed opportunities to work on their stamina. Also not having a traditional non-conference season played into a lack of stamina and fatigue-fueled third quarter lapses due to the team not getting game-speed type of work in before hitting the rough and tumble big ten.
Unbiased Observer:
On one hand, yes fatigue can lead to bad execution on both the offensive and defensive side of the game. However, watching some of those third quarters, it looked like a team that lacked both direction and attention to detail. Not getting back on defense to stop layups is one thing, but not even getting past half court some of the times, is a lack of effort in my view. Too often the ball movement would evaporate, and it would turn into hero ball with players trying to force the issue going one on two or one on three and it resulted in a turnover or a contested shot that did not connect. There needs to be either a coach, in the way of a timeout, or a player who steps up and stops a run before it gets out of control and the game is essentially lost in the first two or three minutes of the third quarter.
Struggle Four: Consistent Defense
Overview:
An overriding theme in some of these struggles is that, at times, one can lead to another or more of the other struggles. This year’s Gopher team at times, really seemed to struggle to gain traction on the defensive side of the ball with any consistency. While the end of the season final numbers of giving up 78.7 points a game don’t automatically mean a panic button needs to be pushed, the fact that the team only averaged 68.7 points a game themselves does mean changes or improvement is needed to be successful.
Fan View:
To replay the theme from earlier, the side the most often will be hurt from a lack of practice and time together as a team would be the defense. It’s the part of the game that requires all five on the court to be in sync with each other and on the same page. That type of trust comes from practice reps and time spent in games together to get that chemistry and defensive grove in order. An improvement in time together and a regular training camp could help the defense be more effective next season.
Unbiased Observer:
This team is missing two things on the defensive end and those are an identity and a go-to lockdown defender. When it comes to identity, what does this team want to do on the defensive side. Are they looking to lockdown the paint and force teams to hit them from the outside? Are they looking to play strong woman-to-woman defense? Are they looking to be a pressing team looking to ramp up the pace and force turnovers? At times this year they would look like all of those type of teams and then none of them in the same game. Having a defined identity on defense and having a player they know game in and game out they can stick on the best player and count on them to make that opponent have to work hard for everything would go a long way in improving this team on the defensive side of game.
Struggle Five: Reliable Post Play
Overview:
Watch this year’s version of the Gophers play for a quarter and it would be obvious that the team would be considered guard-led team. Whether good or bad, rarely were losses and wins decided for the team by the production from their post players. That’s not saying that they don’t have talented post player options however foul trouble and lack of consistent scoring from their posts often put more pressure on the shoulders of the guards to have to produce each game.
Fan View:
The Gophers did have players such as Klarke Sconiers, who was the only player to play in each game this season, and transfers Kayla Mershon and Laura Bagwell-Katalinich all have key moments where they stepped up and played major roles in helping the team squeak out wins. While they likely won’t explode for a 20-point or more scoring outburst, they have the ability to give good effort on rebounds and all have the ability to connect from inside the painted area. Mershon and LBK both provided a veteran leadership for the team both on and off the court. While foul trouble often caught up with Sconiers, she still showed she can be a productive player off both back to basket moves or second chance points from offensive rebounds. If all of them take a step forward next season, the guards could have some much-needed help inside the arc on both sides of the ball.
Unbiased Observer:
Gopher fans need to understand that the days of Janel McCarville and Amanda Zauhi are long gone for Minnesota. As serviceable as the current post players are, they are not on that type of level at this time. It’s not a knock on the posts to say that the bulk of the talent on this team is in the guard positions. Even forward Kadi Sissoko is more of a perimeter or wing type of player and not primarily in the post.
One of the things pointed to with this roster and staff, if a wonder of who is the post-centric coach? While there is improvement in terms of numbers, there does seem to be at times a lack of progression in terms of not getting into fouls or building on skillsets to become an even more effective player from the four and five position. When fans are asked about what they would like to see, one of the most common themes after this last season is either a post coach on staff or at least seeing notable improvement in footwork and abilities from the current roster. It’s a pretty common thought that with the guards on the roster, this group could be one strong, physical post player away from making a jump into the top part of the conference and possibly into the national scene.
Part Two will be a review of improved recruiting both nationally and locally, promising pieces they have to look forward to next season and beyond. Will also give views and thoughts in terms of Coach Whalen and staff and their notable improvements and things that they could continue to work on in the following seasons.
