Progress tonight from the ladies, even though the game was a bit similar to the Applachian State game. They played well enough to take almost a 20 point lead at one point. Dayton whittled it down to 11, the 110 started in to "winning team, losing team" despite Lou telling them to knock it off, and Dayton got the final margin to six.
Dayton's a big team so the girls got outrebounded by 16, but I was really impressed with how active they were defensively. They frustrated Dayton for three quarters and they just couldn't get much going. Another thing I was pleased to see is, everyone seemed confident in what they were doing. Last year with people just totally in new roles they weren't expected to be in, too often they would just look lost and not really even resemble a team. Tonight the pieces, even when things weren't going well, looked like they fit and flowed well together. Much unlike last year's jumbled, disjointed mess after the injuries.
Madi Mace comes across as super mature and she did the heavy lifting in the first half offensively. Her big knee brace is hard not to notice. She deserves to stay healthy. Cassidy Lafler didn't start which surprised me, especially against a team like this, but she looked like she's really worked hard to improve herself physically and I thought she did a solid job. Jaya McClure got to play but she didn't start but was the best player on the floor. Perhaps she's just getting worked back in and will start soon. All the freshmen that played looked like they belong. Monica Williams seemed to have the biggest impact, and Bailey Tabeling helped out in the post at times. She had a nice steal and coast to coast basket. Finally, Kennedi Watkins is a female Shereef Mitchell.
I don't have any idea how Dayton compares to the team that made the NCAA tournament two seasons ago. Their games were UConn and Lindenwood, two extremes that aren't much of a measuring stick. But a win's a win, and the Bobcats looked worse last season against worse competition. Despite there being so many new faces, they are certainly a team worth your time and treasure to support. They look like a team.
You have to believe McLure was hurt but we'll never know what it was. Guice must be too. Guice and Mace are the last remaining members of a group that we'll never know how good it could have been with just a normal amount of injuries. This is a crazy young team without Guice playing. I think that even Mace can come back for two more years if she wants but I'm not sure that I'd bet on that. Though the transfer Alper looks like she is contributing a good amount and I don't think she could come back next year it bodes pretty well for the future if they can just be competitive this year.
You need to hand it to the band for keeping some stuff going after the OZone died and before Chase brought it back but starting this really needs to be the decision of one person, and it needs to be agreed upon before the game starts, and obviously that person needs to have thought about making sure there is absolutely zero chance of a comeback. You can look on your phone and go to an app like ESPN and see when the win chance reached 99.9%. But that isn't good enough. That's 1000-1. There are several thousand games played every year and there are a handful where comebacks like that happen. Those games usually make SportsCenter or other national media. The last thing we need, if it were to ever happen to us, would be to have winning team/losing team on SportsCenter on top of the loss. I don't know what you can do about it though if a random fan just jumps in and starts it.