November 27th, 2015: Florida State at Long Island

Just the Facts, Ma'am: A spirited defensive effort from LIU-Brooklyn was no match for a taller, faster, stronger Florida State team. The Seminoles won going away, 78-42, behind 20 points and nine rebounds from Adut Bulgak and 15 points and seven assists from Brittany Brown. Paris Jones led LIU with 12 points off the bench.

For seat cushions, new teams, ill-advised drives, disconcerting the shooter, questionable uniform choices, a lack of rstoer cards, changing numbers, elegance on the bench, and a work in progress, join your intrepid and stuffed blogger after the jump.

Happy Day After Turkey Day, everyone! Today is not Black Friday- it's Blackbird Friday, as LIU-Brooklyn hosts their first home game of the year against Florida State.

I don't know anything about LIU basketball so far, but the softball players are really nice- they were manning the table where the complementary tickets are held, and they were very helpful.

I forgot how much I liked LIU's facility, except for that one flight of stairs that is an inconvenience when traveling with my mom, who has two artificial knees and two artificial hips. (She's the Bionic Woman, but don't tell anyone I told you.)

The band is less jazzy and more percussion-driven than I remember. Dance team is more traditional, too. I'm a little sad about that.

Mom decided that sitting directly behind the Florida State radio team was a good idea, so we're mostly around FSU fans. I do not like this and do not recommend it as a course of action.

At halftime, Florida State is up 41-26. They're bigger, faster, stronger, and more aggressive. LIU's playing spirited defense, but the offense is stagnant and the shot selection questionable. There's still a lot of work to be done.

(Is it petty to say that Sue Semrau looks like a version of Kim Mulkey with fashion sense? Well, I can be petty if I want to be.)

Emiah Bingley seemed very fond of the weak-side three, with mixed results for the Seminoles. Maria Conde is extremely raw and still seems to be growing into her body, but she has the right moves and a lot of potential. Rachel Antoniadou was aggressive on defense late in the game, and had the favor returned by Paris Jones so hard that she was rubbing the back of her hand before she took the free throws.

Kai James is a lot of woman. Nobody on LIU was capable of moving her. Ama Degbeon started to get some reps in the second half, running some of the same plays that Adut Bulgak was running.

Brittany Brown impressed me, getting all up in people's business on defense and hitting threes. She wasn't spectacular, but she was solid, the kind of presence Florida State needs to complement their star parts. Leticia Romero really didn't impress me in this one. She was there, and she read the passing lanes well, but she didn't make a lot of big plays. On the other hand, she really didn't have to.

Adut Bulgak is the real deal. I love how gracefully she moves, and how she's able to get position down low on the boards. Granted, she was playing against much shorter players who she could just reach over, but she moves really well, and I can see her being able to adjust smoothly to the 4 in the WNBA. Ivey Slaughter started the game off very well for the Seminoles, scoring down low around the basket. She cooled off a little bit, but still played well on the glass. Shakayla Thomas showed a tendency to add unnecessary degree of difficulty to her shots, which meant she was throwing the ball over the basket a bit. She's tough and very aggressive.

Florida State adjusted very quickly to the LIU defense, and to LIU's lack of size, going to big lineups with Kai James and Adut Bulgak. They had much bigger players and dominated the boards.

Lily Abreu looks a lot like Stephen Curry around the face, but she doesn't shoot like him. Shame- we need an outside shooter. She, like many Blackbirds, looked like she was still trying to find her place in the defense. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something I like about DeAngelique Waithe- she seemed to put herself in the right place at the right time much of the time. Paris Jones made a good first impression, hitting shots and bringing energy. She won over the Queen Mother in a hurry. She seemed to be one of the few players for LIU playing with any sense of urgency.

I really like Brianna Farris's defensive intensity, but she needs to pick up some discipline and stay with her man- a lot of the time she was ducking out to get on the shooter and leaving people open. I'm also not sure about her shot selection, but her defense is her strength. Jolanna Ford reminds me of a couple of Red Storm forwards from back in the day- mind you, she's going to have to get a lot more floor burns and pull down a lot more rebounds before I really compare her to Joy McCorvey, but she has a similar build and can play a similar style. She's not consistent, though.

I... get the feeling that there wasn't a lot of structured offense at LIU before Coach Oliver took over. Shanovia Dove and Shanice Vaughan were both guilty of repeatedly driving the lane without even looking for a teammate to pass to, and then throwing up bad shots that had no chance of going in. Dove was at least rewarded with free throws for doing so more often than Vaughan was, but I don't think this was supposed to be the game plan. Stylz Sanders drove the lane hard as well, but looked for her teammates more. On the other hand, she was also more careless with the ball.

I knew going in that LIU was a work in progress, but there's still a lot of basics that have to be covered before we can get to the more complex issues of designing an offense. The biggest concern was an overarching lack of speed of play. As a team, LIU was too hesitant to shoot (granted, they were all facing larger defenders, even when they had shooting guards on them), slow moving without the ball, slow making decisions with the ball, and telegraphing their passes when they did decide to pass. They have to think faster and be faster on the floor. Learning to run backwards and prepare for passes would also be helpful. Outside shooting is something we can recruit for given time.

Perhaps not the most optimal of introductions, but I've seen worse. And Florida State is a very good team with a very good coach.