Tuesday night I was PA announcing the IU South Bend women’s basketball game versus IU Columbus. It was a blowout, and in the third quarter I statistician from on loan from another school in the conference asked me, “They’re up by 40 in the third quarter. When are they going to stop pressing?”
I gave him my take.
I told the gentleman the IU South Bend squad plays a high tempo style of basketball. Its presses on defense are actually part of how they generate offense. With numerous backups moving to and from the court, the coaching staff found the opportunity to game-test their backups.
What are you gonna do when you’re a backup player? Take the air out of the ball? You’re in the spotlight, and you want to show your coaching staff their practice time, and your hard work in that practice are paying off.
I asked a handful of the girls after Tuesday night’s blowout in South Bend how they would feel if they were asked to slow down the tempo because of a huge lead. Each of them told me they would not know what to do. They also mentioned they would feel uncomfortable because they train to play this tempo at each practice.
Two seasons ago a few journalists watched the Warsaw Lady Tigers hoopsters run Concord ragged reaching 40-point leads in the second quarter of a sectional game.
“Why are they running the press when they are up…,” one writer asked in a tweet generating several replies.
If you’re a fan of Lady Tiger basketball you know why. This set of ladies also looks uncomfortable defending half the court and slowing down their offense.
Is it only a matter of an abbreviated time when the 35-second shot clock is a part of Indiana high school basketball?
If it is, these Lady Tigers are going to be ready for it.
Their most recent vanquished foe was Wednesday night when they shellacked the Carroll Chargers. The Chargers are usually an opponent who gives Warsaw fits, and they’ve exchanged victories in recent years, but the other night, after the Lady Tigers found their groove from beyond the arc (setting a school record 16 three-point baskets), the orange and black destroyed Carroll by 50 points, 91-41.
If you’re an opposing fan, I don’t know what to tell you.
Watch and learn? That sounds kind of flippant, but there are some lessons to be learned here.
This is high school girls’ basketball, and this is how it’s been looking for two or three very recent seasons. The haves are getting better, and the have-nots are getting worse.
I mentioned how this specific sport is losing participation in rates greater than any other sport. While weaker programs are seeing numbers and interest dwindle, stronger programs continue to field the same number of interested athletes, the slaughters I am seeing in person and in the scoreboards online neither shock nor surprise me.
My take on the junior varsity Lady Tigers is most of the players on that squad have some serious ground to pick up to reach the caliber of play we’ve seen among the last three seasons. There are a handful of JV starters who already look like they are edging closer toward moving at the speed and passing as crisply as the varsity kids playing for Lenny Krebs’ squad.
The others, many of them freshman, just need maturity, practice reps, and time.
I announced the JV game where the younger unit shut out the JV Carroll Chargers in the second quarter to take a 23-4 halftime lead, and eventually win 48-24. Their bench was cleared during the fourth quarter, so even a casual basketball fan could see the difference in skill levels, far more disparate within the squad than their varsity counterparts.
I wasn’t pessimistic about the future of Lady Tiger basketball, though.
Instead, I realized some kids develop at different speeds, and most of the JV players probably just turned 14 or 15 in this calendar year and did not look old enough to be your typical Indiana high school redshirts (for lack of a better term) you see on various fields of play.
Again, it’s just a matter of maturity, practice, and time.
The future of Lady Tiger basketball is exciting. Among the eight or nine players who get meaningful varsity minutes, at least four of them will graduate, and the other juniors and sophomores solely playing varsity, or splitting their time between the two levels, look like they’re champing at the bit to take leadership roles next season. The 2025 grads will surely be missed, of course.
For those of you who enjoy forwards and centers popping threes the way 6’0” senior Brooke Winchester does, 6’0” freshman Madison Branam is already showing some shooting touch in the opening contest each time the Lady Tigers take the floor.
With this said, I worry more about the future of the sport nationwide.
I sound condescending but based on the participation levels in this specific sport, it’s a natural fact and a valid concern.
With the exception of a handful of athletic conferences around the states, higher caliber teams like the Warsaw Lady Tigers might be casting broader nets to fill their non-conference schedules with a quality of opposition to ready themselves for the postseason.
Most conferences’ girls’ basketball fans around the state will watch two or three of their leagues’ teams rout most of their familiar opponents.
In the meantime, watch and learn why the Lady Tigers don’t take their foot off the gas pedal.