I don't like UGA playing zone with this team. Eleven uncontested threes in the first half is where we lost the game. You can't win when a team is hitting threes, maybe one player but not the whole team. Coach Abe needs to take the zone and put it in her back pocket. I would like to see her keep the team in man defense. We rallied against Missouri with man defense and we got as close to 4 points twice in the second half. Zone defense is for teams who can't shoot threes, not for teams who can.

She doesn't have the depth to play man the whole game. It takes a lot more energy. Plus Mia's knee gives her trouble playing man defense. I watched MSU warm up before the game. They were doing a drill where they had a line of guards and wings taking turns shooting threes. Right in front of our bench. At one point they rang 17 in a row. And this is with a different girl shooting each shot. They were not just ringing them but stripping the net each time. I watched them shoot about 40 more. They only missed five or six. I told my wife we were in trouble today if they kept shooting like that. Amazing shooting by them. I was impressed. We tried to take away their threes more in the second half. That opened the inside up more and they scored fairly well in there too. Especially their very tall girl. I can't wait for us to get the players we signed for next year here and playing. I am so proud of our girls today. They never gave up and played their butts off. Cutting it to four points several times late in the game was an impressive feat. Hang in there guys. We are making progress even though it's slow and sometimes hard to see.

Dawg44, I understand everything you are saying, but you still have to run up and down the floor for zone are man. 2 passes around the zone and they were shooting threes wide open. You just have say, if I play man, you will not have all that confusion on defense. Miss State only had 8 points in the first half that wasn't threes. If we play the first half like the second, we would have had a great chance. The big girl wasn't going to beat us, the more she handles the ball, the more chance for turnovers. If you look at all the great team, they are playing man defense. She definitely have athletes coming in next year that can play man defense. Eleven threes in the first half and we lost by eleven points. The math adds up.

I understand but we only played seven players. Whether we are in a zone or man we have our players sag way off when the ball is not in the area. When the ball swings back, in either man or zone, we never get back to the shooter in time.

Again, I understand what you are saying Dawg44, but 11 threes in the first half and nobody close to shooter. The second half with man defense was totally different. Now I know you are not going to stop every three, but you can limit what the other team does. And she could have played Indya Davis if fatigue was a problem, but the team looked okay condition wise.

I agree with you. I totally felt like we should not allow three point shots the whole game. I was concerned about that before the game started after watching them warm up. These coaches are so concerned about giving up layups, they make it easier to get the three pointers. It's tough to face a great team that can do both. We both feel the same way. I am a retired high school girls basketball coach. Trust me, it takes a lot more energy/quickness to play good man defense. We need more height and shot blocking ability inside. I think it's coming next year? When I was a coach, we tried to take away what the other team was doing well. It was not fun or easy when they could do everything well. And it was a lot easier to defense a team if they only had one main scorer or maybe two. These college teams are loaded with good scorers. We just need to keep upgrading our talent, especially good shooters so we can score as much as these great teams. I thought our defense played better than Mississippi States, but they played good defense too. I was hoping for another last second win today, but they just kept ringing the basket. It's impossible to catch up with a team if they keep scoring.

I agree with you on that, scoring is up all over the country. If you have noticed, a lot of teams are scoring 80 points easily and you have to get players who are outstanding defensive players in high school. They bring that mentality with them to their college team. Aubrey Beckham, Jocelyn Faison and Zhen Craft all are excellent defenders and Harissoum Coulibaly plus Meghan Yarnevich know how to play the game. What I really like also is they have length. Next season will show a lot of improvement. I think recruiting is on the way up. I think we will be in it till the end for Isabella Ragone and Kate Harpring is not out of the question for Coach Abe. UGA is still the favorite school for Georgia high school kids. I am seeing Coach Abe heading to being in the top 10 recruiting.

I have some inside info on the Harpring kid. But I won't share it in a public format. I'm busy with my grand daughter today, but you and I will talk on the phone soon so I can share with you.

Sounds like a winner.