December 31st, 2016: Bryant at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: LIU fought hard, but never got over the hump in their 62-53 loss to Bryant. Shanovia Dove came off the bench for 21 points and 10 rebounds for LIU. Kierra Palmer led Bryant with 18 points, with Alex Klein contributing 15 points and 10 rebounds.

For ending the year, travels, class dynamics, a conveniently placed Pokestop, fundamentals, and hustle, join your intrepid and off-cycle blogger after the jump.

We close out 2016 much as we started it- in conference play with one of our chosen teams. It's Bryant. It's LIU. It's the NEC, coming to you on tape delay on the Game Notes of Doom!

Part of me thinks it's a crying shame Paris Jones has spent so much time injured. Part of me is like, "Damn, girl, you lookin' good out there." At least if we get stuck with a chronically injured player, we get one with phenomenal fashion sense.

This game is a double-header. I don't know if we'll stay for the men's game, though. I don't have a roster card or anything. We didn't. New Year's Eve plans with the family trumped that. I have serious pennies to win at the card game tonight, after all.

Bryant did a good job of keeping our shooters out of their preferred spots (though sometimes it's hard to tell with our shooting) and was much more aggressive on loose balls for much of the game. That's not a good sign. LIU's not going to beat teams on talent; they have to beat them on heart and hustle.

Chanel Ramcharran is adorably tiny. She ran point briefly in the third quarter. Sydney Holloway was very aggressive on both ends of the floor, driving the paint offensively and working hard on defense- a little too hard at points. I think she was one of the many players who had trouble with her footwork today. Haley Connors finished well at the rim.

Morgan Olander's minutes were limited by foul trouble. Her height was extremely advantageous for the Bulldogs. She was able to deflect a lot of passes and shots. Alex Klein looks like a player who watched a lot of Tim Duncan growing up. She was very fond of going high off the glass for bank shots, with mixed success. She has to get better with her off hand- the contortions she was putting her body through to get to the strong side were rather spectacular.

I don't remember much about Stephanie Lesko, though I am wondering if she's related to Tori Lesko over at Iona. Naomi Ashley was limited by foul trouble, but made a couple of solid defensive plays. I really enjoyed watching Kierra Palmer, both defensively for the work she did keeping Shanovia Dove out of her sweet spot and offensively for her ball movement and scoring at the basket.

This is really more of a pregame note, but good Lord the bulldog head on the Bryant shorts is huge.

I don't know why Coach Oliver didn't go back to Drew Winter in the second half. Sure, she had one truly awful pass that demonstrated why LIU doesn't sponsor football, but I don't think she was so much worse than Dionne that she shouldn't have gotten a couple of more minutes. Autumn Ashe soaked up a couple of minutes at the end of the first half and took a really bad shot underneath. Stylz Sanders brought defensive hustle, but she needs to not box out her own teammates. You know these people, Stylz.

I'm not sure how this dynamic with Coach Oliver and Shanovia Dove is going to play out. On one hand, Shanovia has been the only consistent scorer I've seen us have, so it makes a negative amount of sense to have her come off the bench (though she started the second half). On the other hand, I think a lot of her points are coming off freelancing, and she's certainly been very shot-happy. There were several possessions where she jacked a three early in the shot clock and Coach Oliver did not approve. Brianna Farris has really regressed, and it's really sad. Her three-point shot (which was always streakier than a Windex knockoff) has gone very wild, and her defense has gone from tight to overly physical. She used to be better, I know it. DeAngelique Waithe is proof that I am cursed to love defensive posts whose shot leaves something to be desired. Her rebounding is good, her defense is good, and I love to watch her defending inbounds passes. But her shooting form is not good, and she needs to finish better at the rim.

Dionne, we need to have a talk about your shooting. You can't take the second-most shots on the team in a game and not make any of them. I honestly thought she took more threes than the box score would indicate, and a replay might show some long twos out there. I thought Dionne Coe was calling her own number way too often, possibly because she didn't see better options. And better options were out there. I'm worried about Seneca Richards- if a player is brought in to be a three-point specialist, her three-point shot has to be somewhat more reliable. And if her shot isn't being reliable, then she's not bringing anything else to the table. Maybe I'm being too hard on her, since she is a freshman, but I haven't seen anything out of her that impressed me. Victoria Powell had a three that got the Blackbirds back in the game during one of the runs, but otherwise seemed to be playing a little tentatively.

I really like Aja Boyd, but I would like her a whole lot better if she could finish at the rim, and if she could hold on to the ball. I'm impressed with her strength, and she's got the right instincts, but she needs work on her fundamentals. She's a freshman, though; there's time for that, if she's got a coach that's willing and patient enough to work on that with her. Gabrielle Caponegro needs to stop being scared out there. Go up strong with the ball! Don't back out of a good shot! She passed out of way too many opportunities. She has to get stronger and she has to be less afraid. I detect a trend with these freshmen.

I'm kind of weirded out by starting four freshmen and a grad student when much of the productivity I've seen has come from the upperclassmen. Maybe the games I'm seeing are the anomalies and the freshmen are playing better in games I haven't seen. I don't know.

The officials got travel-happy in the first quarter- I think there were five travels called in the first five minutes- and a little inconsistent about contact in the second half. Either I was really off on out of bounds calls or they were really missing a lot of players going out of bounds.

I wish I knew what LIU was missing. Maybe it's just the difference in skill level among my conferences, and I should stop expecting more from LIU than they can ever provide. But is it wrong for me to want them to be better?