The Storm will officially wrap up its 2010 preseason schedule Sunday at 11:00 a.m., facing the Tulsa Shock in the Shock’s first game at the BOK Center in Tulsa. For the Shock, this will apparently be a true dress rehearsal: Though the game will count like any other exhibition contest, it is closed to fans.
Storm Head Coach Brian Agler sees Sunday’s game as a learning experience. That’s true of the preseason in general, but this is a little different for another reason: Agler will be the first opposing coach to get a look at Nolan Richardson’s system during Richardson’s first season coaching in the women’s game.
“I’m sort of interested to see how Tulsa’s going to play,” said Agler, “because they’re the new kid on the block in terms of the unknown – the style of play they’re going to bring on the floor.”
Richardson
Richardson has said that stamina may affect the fast pace he would like to play, but he is installing a pressure defense along the lines of the “40 Minutes of Hell” that won his Arkansas Razorbacks team the 1994 NCAA Championship.
The Shock also has made significant roster changes since moving from Detroit. Just five players are left on the roster from last year’s team. The Shock will be younger, but still has plenty of talent.
As far as evaluating his own players, Agler says everyone with the team – 14 players in all, with Le’coe Willingham and Tanisha Wright joining the team in Tulsa – will see action.
“We’ll be getting some of our returning people acclimated to playing together again – getting Le’coe in, getting T back,” said Agler.
There will be no radio or LiveAccess broadcast of Sunday’s game. That coverage will resume next Sunday on Opening Night. You can follow along with live stats via stormbasketball.com.
- Agler discussed the state of the team with Voice of the Storm Dick Fain during an interview Saturday morning on 950 KJR AM. Click here to listen to the interview, including some interesting updates on the process of building a final roster.
- Rookie Alison Lacey was scheduled to rejoin the Storm in Tulsa after missing Friday’s practice to attend her graduation from Iowa State University.
- On Monday, the Storm will host a second scrimmage against the Chinese National Team at the practice gym at the Royal Brougham Pavilion. The scrimmage is closed to fans but stormbasketball.com will have live updates.
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The Storm was beaten by Tulsa 90-80 in their last pre-season game in what looks like a rather disappointing effort. There was no live coverage, but what jumped off the page at me while looking at the box score was the 32 turnovers that the Storm were guilty of. I didn’t know it was possible to turn the ball over that much in a 40-minute game. I don’t know if this was more due to a swarming defense by Tulsa or just poor ball-handling and passing on our part. Tanisha Wright, in her first day back, played well otherwise with 15 pts on 5-6 shooting along with 4 assists, but she committed 6 turnovers in less than 24 minutes – that’s 1 every 4 minutes that she played. Ashley Walker, who’s not really known as a ball handler, did worse with 3 to’s in less than 7 minutes of action, or almost a turnover every 2 minutes on the floor. Sue had 3 to’s in 23 minutes, and her back-up, Alison Lacey, had 3 to’s in 14 minutes on the court. No one was immune to the turnover bug. I know they haven’t had all their players together for practice yet, but this is concerning me. Was it mostly sloppy play or is Tulsa’s defense just that good?
Kevin, did you watch the game? Could you point out the bright spots for me in this game? For the most part, it looks like Sue, Swin, LJ, and Tanisha all had pretty decent games, but didn’t get a lot of help from anyone else, even Camille Little. I didn’t see that any of the newcomers really stood out with their play, but all played limited minutes. It appears that Abby Bishop was pretty active, and an apparent bright spot, with 6 points and 2 boards in a little over 9 minutes of playing time. What was your impression? I know it’s really early and they need to get used to playing together, but there’s very little time to make some crucial roster decisions, and I’m wondering if we still need to add another superb ball handler to the mix? Your comments will be appreciated.
I did not watch the game. freelantz from SwishAppeal covered it and has some in-game observations here: http://www.swishappeal.com/2010/5/9/1464709/wnba-preseason-seattle-storm-tulsa
I generally try not to read too much into the preseason, positively or negatively. Things are just so different from the regular season. It sounds like Coach Agler used a fairly typical eight-player rotation for the first three quarters, but even then it included two players (Willingham and Wright) who had one practice under their belt. The fourth quarter was pretty strictly for evaluating young players.
As for the turnovers in particular, I’d be concerned if they were something that were regularly an issue, but the clean play (just 10 TOs) was the most notable takeaway from last Sunday’s preseason game), and the Storm hasn’t been very sloppy in what I’ve seen of practices or scrimmages. Tulsa will surely be trying to force a lot of turnovers, and may have a lot of success at that early in the season when teams are unfamiliar with the Shock’s style.