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Great effort ladies to end the season. We made it a game for a while. Tough to beat a squad when 1 player hit 7 3s all by herself. We did a stellar job from the stripe, but had a few too many bunnies not fall.

We have much to work on in the off season. Our guard play needs to step it up a bit, especially when we are guard heavy, Hopefully we will get the help in here that Tabby needs.

Frustrating to watch at times this season, it was still a lot of fun. I felt we did a much better job the last 3 games with the players we started. I'm guessing Scott couldn't go. Rumor has it, she's seen her last game as a crusader. I hope the rumor mill is wrong.

So.....What happens in this contest? Who steps up? How big would a win be in this one?

Freeman's coming back to town. So will we start this game off like we have most others? I guess we will see. We have to come out ready to play and attack the basket. Our guards have to spark the offense, and hit some shots, to open up the inside. They also have to help rebound. We need to push it tonight and control the tempo.

Same 2 starting guards, same start to the game. Not that it mattered vs GB, but come on, let's try something different. Just because it's what you always do doesn't mean you always have to do it. Our starting guards neither generate "O", but they don't get the ball inside and get the others involved.

We need a statement game, and tonight is the night. We handled them pretty good at their place last month. With GB coming up Sat. we need some momentum before heading north. Milwaukee is coming off of a win in the last seconds vs CS, so they will be pumped. I'm sure for them they look at this game as winnable, if they play well. We need to come out strong and keep the preasure on. Pound the ball inside and get them in foul trouble early.

Certainly a tale of two games here. I felt we played as well as we can play in the first half. I also feel it's time to shake up the starting line up. We continue to start each and every game with 2 defensive minded guards. We should have had a 20pt advantage going into the half. Richards had a good game on the offense, but it isn't her game. When she shoots that much, there is a breakdown somewhere. We stagnate on offense when she's out there. Again, I like Richards. She's a hard worker, and plays well on defense, but we always give it up on offense whenever she's out there. She doesn't provide the spark it seems, and we dribble around far too much and, again, end up with some forced offense.
Charea - 2 for 10.  - That can not happen with a starting #2 guard. I say, bring her off the bench next outting and maybe it'll spark some offense. Carr went 2 - 2 yesterday. maybe we give her a shot and see if she can generate some O. I still think the O runs better with her on the floor. Didn't see Miller one time yesterday. Could be a dicipline issue, who knows. We needed a spark yesterday, but we didn't have the players in at crucial times to provide it. With 3 minutes left to go, we had 2 players that had hit the 3 in this game on the bench. It's time the coaching staff started looking outside the box.
Nice game from Liz. I thought she played well. I still think we need to get her in as a starter one game, give her a little confidence, and see what happens. She has the game, the coaches just need to realize it. This vanilla offense we run isn't working. Time for a shake up. How bad do you want it Dorow? The game we run is far too predictable.

Should be a good challenge for the ladies to get out of WS with a "W". A reunion of sorts for a lot of the ladies, seeing Freeman again. I doubt there is much insight Freeman can give his squad about us that will be helpful, moreso then just watching film, since we aren't anything like we were last season.
WS is a lot like us in that, the scoring can come from anywhere. We have to knock down our shots, and limit their second chance points to be sucessful tonight. Demmings is probably one of the fastest guards in the league right now, so it will be key to slow her down, and don't give up a lot of fast break points. We have some speed. Dorow needs to keep fresh legs in tonight to keep up on "D".
Rebounds, and free throws will be huge tonight.
Good luck ladies. Bring home another road "W".

[Keys to the game:]

Looking forward to see which team (and coaching staff) shows up for this contest. We need to build on the possitives from the last game, and recognize what areas we need to target to get better.
Keys to the game:
1. Block out.
2. Set screens.
3. Pick and roll.
Our shooting is starting to come around, but we need better, and smarter looks. We need to get our shooters in possitions to shoot. #2, and #3 above will be key to do this.
We must limit Milwaukee's second chance opportunities. They rebound well. So do we when we have Gina and Tab inside working together.
We need to cover Rodriguez like a blanket and limit her touches. We can't allow her to sit outside and shoot the 3 like she did vs Cleveland State. It's going to take a solid defensive effort from everyone tonight. They have several players that average in double figures. This needs to be formost in Dorow's mind. We can't have players on the floor that don't D up well, in hopes that they drop a few buckets. That negative gain approach will have us in trouble tonight.
Go get them ladies. Let's get some momentum going coming into Saturday's match up with GB.

Great win for the lady Crusaders! First Tourney win ever in the HL. Pretty impressive. Got to love the heart of this squad. Got it handed to us 9 days ago at MIL. Came back to beat them, on their floor, to end their season. May have been a blessing in disguise that we didn't get a home game. Record outting by Timmerman. I'd say the senior wasn't done playing yet. 20 pts. Nice.
Off to Green Bay. Give em Heck!!

Good Luck Ladies. Let's end this regular season on a possitive note!

Good luck tonight ladies. Leave it all on the floor.

[16!!!]

Are you kidding me? Down at the half, 26 - 16. Yeah, 16!!! How embarrasing. We've extended very expensive scholarships to a group of young ladies who can only manage 16 points against the second worst team in the HL. Time to scrap the program from the top down and start over. If this is the best we've got, we are waisting valuable university resources even having a D1 women's program. This isn't about a short bench. It's all about lacking the skill set to compete.

What a great effort from our Lady Crusaders. A much needed, and well desered win. A total team effort, and win. Hope they celebrate this one tonight.

Down by 1 at the half. It appears that we are in a 6 player rotation once again. What is it now? We are down to a team we should be dominating right now. I love the lady crusaders, but I have to ask the coaching staff - how do you recruit that many kids that really can't shoot? It's not just a matter of missing a lot of shots, we really have very poor fundamentals. Thank gosh for Timmerman or we'd really be getting embarrased right now. I'm hoping we can limp through this one with a W, but it's not likely with 6 players. Where is Carr tonight?

Time to put the past behind us and take charge of our home court tonight. key here will be keeping Tucker off balance and out of the flow. We need to get a body on her on both sides of the floor, and keep her off the boards. This squad has a few players that average in double figures in scoring, but they haven't faced our D yet. I think they'll struggle tonight. Like Valpo, they've had their struggles this season. Coming off their first W in 7 tries, they'll be hungry for another, so we have to set the tone early, and send the message that nothing will come easy tonight. I want to see 5 to 6 fouls on us in the first half - spread out of course. We played very passive in our last contest. Getting through a half with zero fouls told alot about how that one was going to go. We need to get Gerardot involved, inside, early. She needs to finish strong and get to the line - alot. That's been missing.
We dressed 8, but played 7 last contest. maybe we can get all 8 involved tonight. Just having some help when needed helps both physically, and mentally. We need to play hard, smart, and work on some of the fundamentals that have snake bitten us lately - finishing underneath, getting out of possition on D, and following our shots. These 3 things will make a difference tonight. A win here, and we go into Saturday with a little momentum, and a better attitude. The coaching staff needs to be on their game tonight too.
Go Crusaders!

Key to the game - Coaching. We may not win this one, but we can keep from embarrassing ourselves like we did last night. If we don't change the way we approach this one, nothing else we do will matter. UIC has only lost 2 games at home, and have won 7 of the last 10.
Good luck ladies. Keep fighting. We're proud of you!!

The ladies have a a challenge ahead of them this afternoon. The Loyola squad has 4 players averaging in double figure scoring this season. One plus for us is, they haven't faced a defense as good as ours is playing yet. This should slow them down a bit.
Keys: Offense:
We must make the most of every possession. The outside shots have to fall at around 45% to keep this one close. This squad leads the league in blocked shots at 6 a game. The looks will come inside periodically, but only if we make good use of some screens, and back door looks. Playing them straight up inside will be a mistake tonight. Ball handling, and movement will need to be top notch, and we MUST control the turnovers. If we lose the T.O. battle, this one will get ugly.
Deffense:
We've been playing some quality deffense so far. It's kept us in games we should have been blown out in. The biggest change needed here is, we MUST step out on their 3 pt. shooters. This squad shoots almost 40% from behind the arc. If we are to have any hope of staying with this team, we have to get a hand in the face of their shooters, and pick them up aggresively at the top of the key.
Good Luck Lady Crusaders! Let's get another "W".

Not sure where to begin with the keys to this one. I think if we can just get more shots to drop, we can stay in this one. Can't play D much better then we have been. We need to make every trip to the charity stripe count too. Improvement in these 2 areas, and we're in this one.
Go lady Crusaders! Let's wrap up a home stand with a W!

We have a formidable opponent coming in tomorrow to take on our lady Crusaders. I feel we are up to the task. It's pretty simple. 3 keys to the game - Brown, Brown, Brown. She's the leading scorer, rebounder, and cheerleader. Take her out of the game, and this one's a W. Even if we've have another sub-par shooting effort, We can keep them under 47 with the same D we've displayed thus far, if we take brown out of the game. As a side note, our shooters need to keep shooting to keep the preasure on. I'd bet money we won't see another offensive night as we had against CS, the rest of the season. They are as rare as 75% shooting efforts. They just don't happen. I'm predicting a 62 - 47 W for us. I think they'll see us as a wounded duck, and not give our D the respect it deserves.

The team should be rested and ready to go tonight at Wright State. Giving the ladies a little more time off then planned could be a possitive factor tonight. Rest is the biggest need when playing with the short bench.
Keys to the contest:
Keep up the D. The Lady Crusaders lead the conference in points allowed, and are ranked 13th in the country in this stat thus far. That's amazing, playing this short handed. WS averages 69 pts. a contest. I don't see them getting close to that tonight.
We have to keep a hand in Demmings face whenever she touches the ball. Limiting her looks will be very important tonight.
Blocking out: We've done a good job on the boards thus far: we could do a bit better though - Keeping Fox off balance and blocked out will be another key factor.
On offense, We have to take care of the ball. They have 12 Freshmen on their squad who are all fighting for floor time, and will come in aggressive when given the chance. Turnovers could play a part in this one, if we let them.
Our guards need to get off early from outside. Forcing Wright State to step out and guard us will allow us to take advantage of their youth and find the seems to get the ball inside for some easy baskets. It also will negate some of their speed on transition as we'll by allowing us to get back quickly on D if they come up with the miss.
X factor - If Jasone is given the green light tonight, this could give our ladies some much needed rest throughout the contest - it will also give us the opportunity to work her into the fold, and give us a different look that noone has had the opportunity to scout yet.
We need to see Timmerman get minutes tonight, and look to score. If we can get some minutes from Horton tonight, That should help others with the fatique factor in the last 5 minutes of the game.
This is a very winable game tonight. These ladies are tough, resilient, and never quit. Getting off to a fast start may prove to be the biggest key if we can keep this very young, inexperienced squad back on their heals early.
Go Lady Crusaders! Bring home the W.

[Defense]

For obvious reasons, this contest will be a tough one to close out the year. The lady crusaders will have momentum coming off their big win at Ball State, but it'll take more then momentum to get the W tonight. It's a given that we'll be short handed again, as usual. I suspect we won't be seeing Scott hit the floor any time soon. It's going to take a near perfect effort, to keep our momentum going.
Keys to the game:
Defense. If we can keep up the defensive preasure that we've displayed thus far, this will be HUGE. EI is averaging 77 a contest, and our D is giving up 58 per. This might just be the biggest factor tonight.
We've got to get hands in the face of Nixon and King EVERY time they touch the ball. If we don't control these two on offense, it'll be a long night. We need Lange and Varner to body up on King and keep her off the boards. She's having a carreer there thus far. Gerardot will be busy enough, and we must keep her out of foul trouble.
We need our guards to play scrappy and continue to come up with boards at key times tonight.
The ladies must continue to communicate and switch off when needed. We did a really good job of that at BSU.
Offense. Continue to push the ball. Without Scott in the mix, Richards, Carr, and Timmerman have to get the ball up the floor quickly, and stay out of the obvious trap situations. We can't afford the turnovers tonight, and we have to keep them back on their heals on D.
Tempo - Have to control it, period. We can't let EI dictate this one. Getting the ball up quick, doesn't mean we can't pull it out and work the offense. Forcing them to play D as deep into the clock as we can will favor us I believe, and it limits the scoring opportunities for them. This will be big too.
We need another gut check from Timmerman. We are a different team with her in the rotation, and it gives others a blow when need. And we need her experience, and scoring.
Horton. Will she be back? Who knows. We could certainly use her.
Ball control. Our guards did a nice job at BSU handling the ball, and looking for each other when the preasure was on. They're doing a great job of recognizing what the D is giving them. Richards and Carr did a nice job of reversing roles at BSU with Richards dishing the assist, and Carr looking to score. They need to pick up on what's availble, in short order tonight.
We did a great job, collectively, at the stripe. That needs to continue if we wan't to get out with a W tonight.
Biggest key of this contest is staying out of foul trouble. We are doing a nice job of that to this point, and MUST stay focused, slide our feet, and resist the reach in. Tonight's the night we have to give up the basket, rather then get the foul.
Good Luck tonight Lady Crusaders. Let's close out the year with a W!

Tough loss at Pitt today:
Observations:
It was good to see we were in this one. It's hard to keep up that level of play when your playing 6 players, and your opponent is getting fresh legs in 2, sometimes 3 players at a time. Even with that, we hung tough, and battled back time and again, cutting it to 1 at one point midway through the 2 half. We did a really nice job at staying out of foul trouble in the first half, and part of the 2nd, but hit a point where they were coming quick which deflated us a bit. We had them in foul trouble early in the first half, being in the bonus, and I felt we could have done more to exploit that by taking it to them inside, but we backed off. More then anything, we hurt ourselves with turnovers at crucial points in the contest. We need to get past that to win consistently. We also must do a better job at the charity stripe. We don't get there enough as it is - we must take advantage.
This was a winable contest, but with our lack of players availble, we would have needed a near perfect game to do so.
Great effort ladies. Keep working hard and continue to fight - the wins will come. We can use the stretch we are coming into to heal up a bit before next weeks game at Ball State. Go Lady Crusaders!

Looking through some stats, I find that, in the ladies contest tonight vs IPFW, Carr from Valpo, and Ogden from IPFW were both starting guards for Hamilton Heights last season - should add a bit of drama and competitiveness to the contest. Good luck Lady Crusaders!! Let's get the "W".

Had an opportunity to catch a little of the ladies practice the other day and had a few observations. I liked the level of energy I saw from this group. There seems to be a more possitive attitude in the air then I've seen in the past. It's apparent the trip to China was a great bonding experiece. There seems to be some good chemistry working here. The addition of Komara to the staff appears to be a good choice as well. The incoming freshmen look to be adding a spark that's been missing. I'm looking forward to the start of the season. It could be a fun one to watch, and a step in the right direction to getting back to their winning ways. I believe the pre-season "experts" that have ranked them 9th in the conference have underestimated the talent and ability of this group. A better assesment of where they are headed will probably be made once conference games begin.
Good luck ladies.