The Lady Tigers’ basketball squad scored prolifically in their 74-45 win over Fort Wayne Snider in Thursday’s home opener with an aggressive defense creating opportunities for Warsaw to score easily.
This success visibly bolsters the confidence of a team while, on the other hand, a solid opponent not adjusting sufficiently to this style of play can actually look worse than they really are.
It’s reasonable to expect to see this against other opponents during the 2024-25 campaign.
It appears the Lady Tigers are all-in when it comes to Coach Krebs’ game plan. These aren’t just one set of girls who are more talented than another set of girls in different laundry for an evening run up and down the court.
One assistant coach, Jim Speicher, implemented a deliberate but aggressive defensive game plan that can be called an abstract offensive strategy. The girls are already playing physical ball in the early season, when officials seem to customarily call hand checks and other bump-and-run behavior more tightly until the season progresses.
The girls seem clever and confident enough on the court to test the officials’ limits as they did against Snider.
Will this be one of Warsaw girls’ basketball’s most savvy squads? I comfortably expressed an affirmative to that question when my wife and I left our seats in the Tiger Den, heading home in turn.
I can count on only one hand how many dumb shots they took Thursday night. I’m not a coach, nor an expert, but still, their choices looked good for the most part.
You know, everything was right from the pass, to the inside or lateral move the athlete made, and except for the outcome of the missed shots, I still found myself either saying or thinking nice shot at a basketball game more than I can ever remember doing either.
With all good things, we must manage our expectations, nonetheless.
Fans want to see their squads go 22-0 or 24-0 and hoist a state title trophy. Well, this would be nice here in the Lake City, but the Lady Tigers play a tough schedule focused on the Duneland Athletic Conference, The Northern Indiana Conference, and the Summit Athletic Conference (where Snider calls home).
Sprinkle in a few Indianapolis metro area schools, annual clashes with smaller enrollment power teams like Norwell and Columbia City and it’s easy to see, but hard to swallow if you want a perfect record, a team who finishes 16-6 or 16-8.
As for me, I’ll take it, and I’ll enjoy it immensely.
There is nothing worse, conversely, than polar levels of talent on any basketball court in a given night. The continued downward trend in participation (19% less participation nationwide over more than a decade in fact) in girls’ basketball has widened the gap between elite and struggling programs among lady hoopsters.
A team’s conference is like a mishmash of relatives you do or do not want hanging around, but you’ll have to pay them a visit or host them with unconditional acceptance. The Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) is no different.
Warsaw and Northridge will eviscerate most of their conference opponents, then watch them cannibalize each other for third through eighth place. Some of the NLC programs will personify the downward trend I mentioned while a few programs have solid years then lose key talent to graduation.
Most of the NLC girls’ games on Warsaw’s schedule, for me, are the toughest to enjoy.
Offensively, Warsaw has a next-level game plan, but you must understand you’ll only see shooting percentages in the mid-50s or mid-60s if there are lots of points inside the key (points in the paint). The most successful girls’ teams are able to win games shooting as low as 43% as Warsaw did Thursday.
The next-level part of this offense is its pace. On a 43.3% shooting night the Lady Tigers did two things: they hit nine 3-point shots and took 60 shots during their possession time in a 32-minute basketball game; created lots of opportunities to score.
If you break down the evening, Warsaw was 9 for 26 beyond the arc (mid 30s percentage), but 17 for 34 on two-point attempts including many layups from steals, and putbacks because the girls inside are blocking out better than ever.
Consider, as well, the fact Warsaw took the air out of the ball during a stretch lasting nearly two minutes.
I call this action next level because you can watch this all take place among women’s college games between programs that are not part of the traditional power conferences.
At least a score of three-point attempts on the stat sheet is par for the course, and when the box scores are released from games among NAIA, Divisions III, II and non-Power conference Division I, when the points in the paint pile up, this is when you see 50% shooting or better.
Collegiate cagers are aided by a 30-second clock to maintain the pace you see the Lady Tigers work at without a shot clock; increased scoring opportunities, and more transition play. The orange and black are giving you something you usually have to travel to a college campus to see
IHSAA, please bring on that 35-second clock. If I’m going to watch shooting percentages in the low 40s, at least give me a greater number of offensive sets to watch.
Warsaw also doesn’t mind hosting or traveling to elite opponents because it boosts their readiness levels for postseason tournament play.
There are 15 to 17 non-conference games since most Indiana high school athletic conferences play a single round robin schedule instead of a double round robin schedule more common in Ohio and Michigan.
I believe, from my experience following and watching so many years of Ohio conferences in double round robin action, some of the strongest teams would have preferred some of those league games facing a stronger non-league opponent instead.
Fans, please continue to appreciate and enjoy the quality product Warsaw girls’ basketball presents on the hardwood. For many other programs, It’s a jungle out there, so be glad you’re… Tigers… in that jungle.