Cletus wrote: ↑Sat May 29, 2021 8:12 am
I'll be shocked if Charlotte North doesn't win the Tewaaraton now. I read some of the ridiculous posts alleging North's ineffectiveness in yesterday's game. First off--are they even
in the final four without North's 96 goals and 170 draw controls? Secondly--if you just want to make it about yesterday's performance--even better for North's case:
North had two goals and an assist for 3 points, figuring in 3 of the teams 11 goals. You work out the percentage. Only teammate Jenn Medjid had more goals or points than North. Only two members of the Tar Heels had more goals and points than North. Charlotte had two electrifying goals at key times during the game yesterday. Her first goal, which developed because of the deftest ground ball pickup running at near top speed I've ever seen, and then the spectacular goal following to tie the game at 4. North then set up Medjid a little over a minute later for the go ahead goal--a lead they would not share or relinquish for the remainder of the game.
Then the silly draw control argument. Fine--North technically didn't win any draw controls? How about the 7 the team got? She had nothing to do with that? She gets no credit for telling her teammates where to go and winning the draw in that direction? Or getting in the way of an opponent so a teammate could grab the loose ball?
And to top it off--all these nit-picky critiques on North for a game BC won. That's usually only done when a team loses. Please.
So who should the award be given to instead--Scane? Scane is nowhere
near being in the same category as North because of the draw control statistic. North 170 Scane 12. And for goals: North 96 Scane 98. Ortega? 82 goals 0 DC's. Moreno? Colson? Stop it already.
Oh, and just for good measure, North now owns the NCAA Tournament all time record for goals scored which she broke a few days ago, and she still has one game to play.
If the committee gives it to anyone but North--they'll get it tragically wrong.
As the author of some of those "ridiculous" posts, let me respond.
I 100% disagree with you about North's performance yesterday. I'm actually quite surprised at your comments as you usually study things pretty carefully. I made my case in some detail yesterday. I guess I have to do it again.
My comments were about her game yesterday. Yesterday only. If we were talking about her overall chances for winning the Tewaaraton, then, sure, her season as a whole is relevant. But my comments were about her play against UNC. Yesterday was "even better" for North's case? Huh? No. It hurt her chances.
She shot two for eight. 25%. Against a goalie who had a bad day. If you think that was a good shooting performance, there is nothing I can say. It wasn't. Even our friend "Mr. North" hasn't said she had a good day yesterday.
She has now twice been shut down by Emma Trenchard. Does that disqualify North from winning the Tewaaraton? No, but it doesn't help her case. It hurts it.
You put more stock in "electrifying" goals than I do. A goal is a goal. Counts the same.
As to the "silly" draw control argument, posters have argued quite a bit that her DC process should be factored into her Tewaaraton candidacy. Rightly so. Well, yesterday she came up goose eggs in that department. In the biggest game of her life. The seven her team got? What about the fact that she got ZERO herself? What about the 16 the other team got on her watch? You like to look up stats. How many games this year did she get no DCs? Generally she's good at drawing to herself, but wasn't able to do that at all yesterday. Zippo. When I rewatched the game, I was looking at shots, not DCs, so I didn't make a list of whether North should get any "credit" for any of the seven draws her team won. But my general impression is there were a lot of draws won yesterday in mad scrambles involving the circle players, the centers, and sometimes even players over the restraining lines. In those scrambles, the center got little to no credit for directing the ball to one of her teammates so she could collect the draw. There is no way North is entitled to even some credit for all of the seven draws BC got. Maybe some credit for some of them. But that's it. All in all her draw performance yesterday was not good and way, way below her normal level of play.
And then there were her turnovers. The box score has her with one. I counted at least two on the replay. And at least two of her shots were saved, which effectively were turnovers.
Where did she rank in terms of individual performances on her team? Well down the list. Behind Hall. Behind Medjid. Behind Smith. Behind Urbank (6 DCs). Behind local girl Mossman. Don't know the defenders well enough by name to list the ones that played well yesterday, but there are probably two or three who played better than North. So the Tewaaraton finalist was outplayed by a significant majority of her own teammates yesterday.
My take is North's play yesterday (when viewed in isolation) hurt her chances for winning the T. They were helped because the other finalists didn't have strong games either. And they were helped a lot by the fact that she's now the only one still alive. Of the four finalists who played yesterday, only Moreno had a worse game than North. Ortega didn't have a good game (1 for 4 shooting, two assists), but it was slightly better (or less worse) than North's. (If you want to argue about that, I could see calling their games pretty similar.) Scane had the best day of the four, but even her game was by her standards only pretty good (4-9, 3 assists). She is the only one of the four who didn't hurt her candidacy yesterday.
I actually think the race is still up for grabs between Scane, North, and Ortega. The latter two had clunkers yesterday so their respective poor performances may cancel each other out. Was Scane's better game enough to put her over the top? Maybe. North has a chance tomorrow to redeem herself. If she has a balls out game that plays a significant role in her team winning its first Natty, that will certainly help her. But if she has another poor game, perhaps the committee with disregard the Final Four for all three candidates and just look at the regular season. If they do, I think the race is wide open between these three.
It is always a mystery what weight the committee gives to the Final Four as opposed to the regular season. I can think of one instance in which the winner's team lost in the finals and she didn't have a good game.
