Fresh off of facing three 2015 NCAA Tournament teams in St. Thomas, the Virginia women’s basketball team continues this early stretch of its schedule that coach Joanne Boyle intended to be arduous.
When asked if this part of the schedule has challenged and will benefit she and her teammates in ways that last year’s may not have, sophomore floor general Mikayla Venson nodded without hesitation.
“Early in the season, we can find our weaknesses and our strengths a lot better,” Venson said. “Going into ACC [play] that can really help us. Like I said being able to play together as a team and attack our defenders. It should definitely give us a lot of experience. This has really shown us what we need to work on.”
Venson, who was one of two players remaining on the court after an evening practice Tuesday, pointed out several important takeaways after back-to-back losses to Rutgers 60-48 and Tulane 67-62 closed out the Cavalier trip to the Caribbean.
“Well, that was a big win for us against Green Bay,” Venson said. “We learned a lot about ourselves in that tournament, just basically mental toughness, fighting through the fatigue, just continuing to play together… We kind of got away from that in the two games we played at the end.”
Wednesday night as part of the Big 10/ACC Challenge, Virginia (5-2) will defend its home court against Iowa, a 3-seed and sweet-sixteen dancer during March Madness last season.
The Hawkeyes (6-1) are outside of the AP top-25 currently but received 49 votes in the latest poll. A double-overtime loss Nov. 27 to No. 21 George Washington 81-77 is the one thing keeping a talented Iowa squad from a spot in the rankings.
Coaches in the collegiate game respect the Hawkeyes and their longtime leader coach Lisa Bluder, who has recorded over 600 wins throughout her career. Like Virginia, Iowa features balanced scoring, as five players average eight or more points per game. The offense runs through junior guard Ally Disterhoft, who attracts a great deal of attention.
“Basically just don’t let [Ally] get hot,” Venson said. “She is a great shooter and scorer, so just play in the defense, help-side defense, playing together as a team. It’s not just one person defending her. We have to help that one person out.”
The second Cavalier who stayed to work on her game Tuesday, sophomore guard Aliyah Huland El will be one of those defenders assigned to Disterhoft during the game Wednesday. Her length at 6-1 could disrupt the Hawkeye playmaker spotting up on the perimeter or shot faking and slashing into the paint and could be a difference in the game.
The hardworking Huland El and her teammates have focused on three key areas in practice this week: transition offense, transition defense, and playing as a team. Versus Rutgers and Tulane, the Cavaliers shot 28.8 percent and 34.9 percent from the floor, respectively. In the frank words of Venson, “that’s bad.”
Still, Boyle did not overload practice with fundamental shooting drills this week.
“Just trying to find the open man, being able to break down your defender and get the easier shot open for your teammate…” Venson said. “I think coach [Boyle] mainly talked about using and setting screens better to get easier shots.”
Granted, the high-pressure Rutgers and Tulane put on the Cavaliers all over the place contributed partly to the offensive inefficiency. But as my high school coach would say, “the ball stuck,” at times during those two games. Virginia is trying to get back to sharing the basketball and running its system.
“I think [the efficiency] will come back when we start moving the ball a little bit more, getting back to playing how we’re used to on offense…” Huland El said. “I think that when we are open and we are passing the ball, we feel good as a team.”
Hopefully, the Cavaliers have gotten off island time and are ready for a test. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET Wednesday against Iowa.
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