First let me say that you learn more from the open practice than the first games. Stats don't mean thing till you see the person in person. Three years ago, I could tell Marva was going to be a good player. she didn't have good stats but there was a reason. On the other hand , S 71 was going ga ga over Ila Lane. One practice told you who was going to be the player. Ila was too slow.

Anyhow to last year's team. They returned 3 starters plus Lulu who was like a 6th man. Only question was point guard where we lost our favorite player (Lelani). One practice told you Kayla was going to make us a very good team. This was a vet team that had all the pieces.

That being said , we didn't improve much as the season progressed. We were already good.

This years practice left me scratching my head. Lots of newbies and not sure what each's role would be. Did pick up that Lola had improved her outside shooting from the three point drills. But she always shot from the corner. Sakima was long. Mjracle was fast.

But how it all fit together was a mystery. Puff was not in shape. But showed some point guard moxie.

So this was a team that would improve whenever it figured out who they were. Taylor and Gisella turned out to be better rebounders than I thought they would be. Mjracle and Lolo both could play a little point. Naya had what I called "Game".

Watching the team the last game, we have at times become a pretty good defensive team. We have size on the wings. When Sakima plays , we are not a small team.

But we have not shot the three well. Lulu seems to be emerging from her slump but it is gradual.

I see us as improving if the following happens. First Lulu has to keep improving her three point shot.

Second , we need Puff back. Without her we are 7 person rotation but we need that 8th man. And she is the best passer on the team.

Taylor, Gisella, or Mjracle have to improve there three point shooting.

Naya needs a midrange jumper and she seemed to be working on that.

Lola needs to hit a three that is not in the corner. When you go to the game, you see things in warmup that are not in the statistics. Early in the season, Lola was hitting all her shots from the corner. Same with the open practice. Bur several games ago .i noticed she was missing in practice and that carried over to the game. The last two or so games, she is hitting her shots from the corner again.

The person would could help us the most in my opinion is Taylor. She's got size, she's good defender and rebounder. But her shooting is erratic. And not just fro three point land. I personally don't like her release but there is hope. Lulu shot miserably the first part of her freshman season but got much better as the season progressed. Maybe Taylor can too.

Puff was improving till she got hurt. she needs to improve her three point shooting too. She seems to be improving defensively.

I still have some hope Grace.

Last year we had Zahara King. She is doing fairly well in her transfer. But she was recruited to be a pint guard. But she wasn't a very good passer. you could see that in the practice . We could have used her as an off guard but she transferred. And i think , having puff coming in, meant she wasn't going to be that point guard. She had 10 assists and 22 turnovers for us.

So on an optimistic note, I see us getting better. And we could even be a very good team by season's end. But we have to improve our three point shooting. The other things re there.

At the post game chat on Sunday, Coach said that she wasn't sure when either Puff or Claudia would return, and that the rotation would include both of them when they returned. She had hoped to get Claudia a lot of minutes against Cal Poly to get her going, and prepare her to help with the bigs of the ACC, but that's when she got ill.