Hornets Don Apprehensiveness as USF Cruises to a Win

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 5 – Wednesday evening saw the match-up of two great shooting teams, as the University of San Francisco Women’s Basketball team hosted the Sacramento State Hornets in San Francisco. The Dons were looking to add a win to surpass .500 on the year, while the Hornets needed a win to build much-needed confidence before the holiday season. With the shooting capability of these two teams being about equal, the decisive factors would be ball control and composure.

The game -- as close as it was in the first half -- ended when the second half began. The Dons came out aiming to share the ball and minimize mistakes, and it worked. A positive attitude, timely shooting, and fundamentally sound defense further squelched potential runs by the Hornets. Their minimal trips to the foul line showed the Dons lacked sustained aggressiveness on offense… but fortunately for them, it was not necessary.

This game, however, was never totally in the bag for the Dons. Fueled by consistent and frequent three-point shooting, the Hornets pieced together several small runs in the first half that found them holding the lead on two occasions. Compared to the Dons’, though, the Hornets took fewer risks and attacked less often when behind. Perhaps more importantly, whereas the Dons demonstrated a presence of lighthearted dominance on the court, the Hornets appeared nervous and apprehensive about their misfortunes.

The Hornets clearly have the skill needed to compete with any team on their schedule. This is not an issue. In this game, though, they found themselves on the short end of lightheartedness, positivity, and collective spirit. On the flip side were the composed Dons, with fewer unforced errors: They answered every successful Hornet possession with increased focus and collective effort. In the end, turnovers and assists tell the story.

CONFIDENCE vs. confidence

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 3 -- Sacramento State Women’s Basketball will tip-off against the University of San Francisco at the War Memorial Gym in San Francisco this Wednesday evening. The Hornets recently defeated San Jose State and had a strong showing against Santa Clara, despite coming up short in the end. The Dons were recently on the other end of a close game and return home after a one-possession victory against Oregon State in Corvallis. On paper, the Dons have almost every advantage. With the Hornets’ increasing confidence, though, this contest could go either way.

The Hornets’ phenomenal shooting performance against Santa Clara tells the story: Their expectations are on the rise. Shooting percentages are a good measure of success, but they ultimately rely solely on individual players' actions. This is problematic because the game is played together -- in an intimate setting -- with five players deeply affecting one another. The Hornets have been playing as confident individuals; to win, they will need to play as a confident team.

The Dons have have displayed resiliency during the pre-conference schedule while splitting two Pac-10 road games. They are a savvy team able to protect and shoot the ball against great opponents. Their weakness is passing: As go the assists, so go the Dons.

The identity of a team changes everyday, especially in the context of stressful games. Sometimes players end up on the same page when these changes occur, and other times each player has a different idea of what the team is trying to accomplish. The pre-game task is thus one of making explicit the team's identity and mission.

Will the Hornets' goal to reduce turnovers be superior to the Dons’ effort to create shot opportunities for others? Tune in and find out!

Expect a stingy? Or Expect the Stinger!

SACRAMENTO, Nov. 27 – Thoughts create expectations. Expectations create behaviors. And behaviors create realities. That was the story in Sacramento Tuesday night, when the winless Spartans took on the winless Hornets. Something had to give; one team had to win. And the spoils eventually went to the Hornets, who managed to raise their expectations just high enough to eek out a sustained dominate posture in the game.

Sacramento State began their first dominate trend with about three minutes left in the first half. This was the first time the Hornets established that they were a better team, but only by a possession: 3 points or less. The Hornets’ control of the final three minutes of the first half set the expectation for the rest of the game. They managed to create a three-possession lead in the second half, but quickly saw it regress back to the collective expectation on the court: Hornets by three.

The Spartans didn’t go quietly. They generated a trend of dominance early in the game – and indeed throughout the majority of the first half – that elevated them to a sustained one-possession advantage, and even a two-possession advantage at times. But then disaster struck: Brittany Imaku, in foul trouble, was forced to sit, and the team went out of sync. With a handful of close losses still salient in their mind, dropping behind by a possession proved deadly for the Spartans, as the Hornets sustained their small lead by shooting adequately from the line in the final stretch.

The good news for the Hornets is that they earned their first victory of the season by believing that they could actually win a game. The arguable bad news is that this expectation was not self-derived. When the Spartans got into foul trouble, they became overly-aggressive, putting the Hornets at the line and thus in control of the game. The result: A subtle, but important, difference in dominance.