PHOTO COURTESY OF GOBONNIES
BY ALLIE ELKINS, SPORTS EDITOR
The struggle is real for the women’s basketball team and things aren’t looking up for the rest of the season. If I had to describe this team in one word, I’d use the word “lacking.”
This team lacks depth, height and the ability to move the ball on offense. Not to mention, they are inconsistent.
The conversation of depth has been relevant since before the season started. I was scratching my head at the beginning of the season about why head coach Jim Crowley chose to only have 10 players on his roster.
Without even taking their performance into consideration this looks extremely risky on the outside. Injuries are very much a thing, and any basketball fan knows that. Plus, the injury bug hit this team hard early in the season. Currently, Maddy Dziezgowski is the only player injured. That leaves only NINE PLAYERS!
Looking at it from a performance standpoint, this team has eight players averaging over 20 minutes per game, with senior guard Dani Haskell leading the pack averaging 32.1 minutes per game. That’s a lot. There is no way these players aren’t getting tired. Haskell alone ranks 11th in the Atlantic 10 in average minutes played. This explains why they have trouble coming back at the end of games. There is nobody on the bench to pick up the slack.
Don’t get me wrong, this team has some very talented players. Haskell creates a lot of offense for this team and is astonishing from the three-point line. Redshirt junior guard Isabellah Middleton contributes an excellent ability to drive to the basket and be aggressive on offense. Senior guard Nadechka Laccen shines in her ability to dive for the ball and make hustle plays. These are great attributes, but there is no supporting cast.
This team is also at a disadvantage in most games because they lack height on their roster. The team has an average height of six feet. While this average height isn’t terrible, most of St. Bonaventure’s strongest players are under six feet tall. This makes it difficult for this team to produce in the paint. In their last game against Davidson, St. Bonaventure had just 16 points in the paint compared to Davidson’s 40. Davidson had the height advantage this game considering they have seven players on their roster six feet tall and over. This is a familiar story for the Bonnies, but it’s a real problem. Haskell can’t be expected to carry this team when she’s being constantly challenged by defenders much taller than her. She needs help.
These two problems have a lot in common though. Both height and depth are fixed by recruiting people to fill in the missing spots. The Bonnies have two players over six feet joining the roster next year which can’t hurt. Hopefully, the incoming roster will bring some unexpected depth.
Haskell and Laccen are the only two players on the current roster averaging over 10 points per game. UMass, the team in last place in the A-10, has at least four players who average over 10 points a game.
This team needs to find other players to create offense. They cannot just rely on Haskell and Laccen. We do see some offense from Middleton when she is forced to step up in the absence of scoring, but it isn’t enough. This is in direct correlation with one of the other biggest problems for this team, which is moving the ball.
St. Bonaventure averages 10 assists per game, which is last in the A-10 behind VCU in assists. They are also last in the assist-to-turnover ratio in the A-10 behind George Washington. This suggests that St. Bonaventure struggles to effectively move and control the ball on offense. In their last game against Davidson, they only had four assists. It’s important to mention that they had no shortage of turnovers, racking up a solid 17.
The solution to this problem? Chemistry and practice. This team needs to run some basic plays that involve cross-passes. The way they play right now feels like one-on-one. They need to look for open players, work together more effectively on offense and move the ball! Easier said than done but this kind of thing starts in practice.
All is not lost for this team. Help is on the way next season. The Bonnies will see some players with height join their team. They also will see some additional people on their roster, which they could use considering they only have ten players. It can only get better from here!
I also think it’s important to give this team a little grace because it’s Crowley’s first season back since 2016. It is a true rebuilding year and should be considered as such. It’s not easy taking on a coaching job with a roster mostly containing players you didn’t recruit.
This season should be a great learning experience for both Crowley and the players on the roster, but the learning needs to happen sooner rather than later for this team to have any kind of success this season.
elkinsae23@bonaventure.edu
