Sydney Uni 89 AIS 65 Preseason game notes
Sunday 04 September 2005
Who suited up for the Flames: Fallon, Afeaki, Woodyard, Samuels, Vicki Brick, some ABA players
The AIS kept it moderately close for the first quarter but the Flames slowly drew away. Trish Fallon played the whole game. Flames played a man to man for most (if not all) of the game and it was pretty effective. On offense, there was a lot of motion but it was good to see Woodyard, Samuels and Fallon posted up a lot.
I think new Flames point guard Vicki Brick is a keeper. She has two qualities that Flames point guards have lacked in the last couple of years: vocal on-court leadership (I really like the fact she directed the team on D quite vocally) and defensive toughness. She's not very big (the listing of 5'7" on the Maryland website is very generous) but she has active hands, took care of the ball and made good decisions. She lacks a three point shot and isn't an outstanding playmaker but she drives the lane well and was very conservative when it came to shot taking (which is fine by me, the Flames have more than enough scorers). Brick would have made a good complement to Poto but she'll probably get the chance to be the primary point guard and I am looking forward to what she can do with the team at full strength.
Georgia Woodyard was aggressive on the offensive end and the AIS posts found it difficult to contain her. She's a bit short (certainly shorter than Fallon) but she'll slot into the post rotation nicely.
Jamie Samuels has definitely improved in the offseason. She got quite a few deflections and blocks on D because of great timing. She's still a bit raw on the offensive end but if it's between her and Woodyard for the starting spot, I'd go with Samuels because rebounding and defence is what the Flames need from the 5 spot and Samuels is much better at that than Woodyard (who is more developed at the offensive end but lacks Samuels' defensive skills).
Trish Fallon was literally a woman among girls and played like it. She never seemed to get out of first gear yet she dominated the AIS with pull-up jumpers and her moves towards the basket. I think she was the leading scorer of the game (20 plus points). Trish simply outclassed evrybody and nobody on court really showed that they were close to her (which is actually a bit scary).
Eva was subdued but had a solid game. She rebounded well and had a couple of nice moves. I hope she focuses more on her paint game this season as opposed to shooting jumpers. Very few players in the league could stop that spin move of hers.
I can't say the ABA players impressed me that much. Charmianne Purcell probably had the best game - hustled hard and scored a couple of baskets. None of them would crack the Flames rotation though.
I still think the Flames need that 6'3"/6'4" banger who can rebound - they need the size badly (Woodyard and Samuels are about 6'0" each!) and I don't think Gemma Sutherland (where was she for this game?) is good enough to fill that need well enough (she's more than welcome to prove me wrong). Besides that, I am looking forward to the upcoming season. I think the Flames have filled two things that were lacking last year - stronger presence from the point and rebounding (Natalie Porter will really help in this department).
Barring any big last minute signings (hopefully, there is one for the post), I think the rotation will be:
PG: Brick
SG: Snell
SF: Fallon
PF: Porter
C: Samuels
PG/SG: Musselwhite
SF/PF: Afeaki
PF/C: Woodyard
PG: Veal (when she gets back)
Musselwhite could start instead of Brick but I think Brick is the better player to start off the game with because of her tough D and she's a better ball distributor than Musselwhite.
I wasn't that impressed with the AIS at all though they were missing some key players (Camino out for whole season, Manou has been out for a while and Scaglia wasn't present). Christina Fox reminds me of Kelly Wilson - quick, impressive scoring skills but questionable floor leadership ability. The AIS offence this season will mainly run through her and Mikaela Dombkins, who needs to see more ball as she is quite effective off the dribble. New scholarship holder Molly Lewis has a sweet outside shot and I think she'll see good minutes because the AIS will really need her offence.
The AIS has to be really worried about their post game - their post game has generally been quite ineffective since Richards left for Oregon and Caitlin Cunningham got saddled with a bunch of injuries and I don't think it shows much signs of improving. Manou apparently has some good potential but is still out with a serious foot injury. Louella Tomlinson can block shots, handle and drive but fouls more per minute than Janell Burse and Suzy Batkovic combined. Melissa Smith is more of a Trish Fallon type (without the outside shot), as opposed to a real post and Abby Bishop hustled hard but didn't do much on the offensive end.
The new coach didn't make much of an impression on me but I noticed that previous coach Phil Brown was a lot more expressive on the sidelines.
The AIS is going to struggle this year but that doesn't really matter. The players' development is the most important thing and one thing I hope the AIS does is get a good post coach in.
Other notes:
* Seen in street clothes on Flames bench: Natalie Porter, Michelle Musselwhite, Lauren Paterson
* I like the new uniforms. I hope they do have names on the back of them when the regular season starts though (took me a while to figure out most of the AIS players and I didn't get most of the names of the trial Flames players).
* Louella Tomlinson fouled out in the middle of the third quarter. After a brief consultation between the refs... she kept on playing. It's only a friendly match after all!