Our coaching staff has a knack for bringing in the worst in players, and the team, not the best. Every year we bring in guards that show promise, sometimes lots of it, and by their junior year they've not improved and we're all talking about their weaknesses. I thought Massengale would be great--finally, a bona fide point guard. Didn't happen. Mediocre defender, soft, etc. Carter: not a lot of size but an excellent athlete with a great work rate. Career upshot: Meh. Our best defender and yet she got beat a lot off the dribble and contributed very little on offense. We wouldn't notice our guards getting beat so much if the other four players would get their heads of their shorts and learn the fundamentals of help defense. Our help defense, as a team, is terrible--players not paying attention to what is going on with the ball away from them.
Reynolds: great size and athleticism...showed early on an ability to take her defender down the lane to the basket and score from 8 feet in...should be a force...but seems to have regressed. Not a great defender and not enough scoring. Middleton, Simmons, Jackson: every player on every team has strengths and weaknesses, and coaching is supposed to produce a cohesive team that highlights individual and team strengths. Our coaches do JUST THE OPPOSITE. Look at Middleton: She needs to be a spot-up shooter on this team but is shooting terribly and seems to have no confidence. Injuries have been a factor. I'm sure Carter and Cooper would help--but how much? We had them last year. If those two were playing, we /might/ be a tiny bit better, but we'd still have the same problems and still be losing games.
