Cause for Pause, but Nothing to Fret About

Depending on how you look at the numbers, they can tell you a different story.

As a coach, which angle to you prefer?

The numbers in question are the assist totals for Colorado State women's basketball in a two-game set against Wyoming last weekend. The Rams had eight. Total. Heading into the Border War series, the figure would be an average half of basketball for Colorado State.

Eight would be a pretty good night for point guard McKenna Hofschild, who leads the Mountain West in the category at 5.88 a contest, ranking 14^th in the nation. In the second of the two games, the Rams had just two – both coming in the first – and Hofschild didn't have either of them.

Weird, right?

"I was disappointed in myself. Getting people involved is my job as the point guard, so to see those two assists and I not have any of those, that was disappointing for sure," Hofschild said. "I'll make it a point to get everybody involved and get the shots they need."

So, an immediate fix is necessary, obviously.

Or is it?

Coach Ryun Williams has been at this long enough, so he's not going to overreact. He's going to look at the big picture. For one, Wyoming has a habit of doing that to teams – stopping ball movement, guarding the arc and taking away transition – but the Cowboys took it to the Rams better than they've done it to other teams.

In the end, Colorado State found a way to win both games, each contested to the wire. Colorado State's offense adapted to the Wyoming plan and put up points by winning individual battles, which the Rams are equipped to do this year.

They prefer to run and share, but they can back a defender into the paint, too. So Williams walked away concerned, but not exactly alarmed. Breaking it down, he felt it was 70 percent Wyoming's defense, 30 percent the Rams not adjusting. The 30 percent is what he wants his team to be aware of in the future.

"Because of how they guarded us, we started to stand," he said. "We quit running our motion like we practiced. If you see that resistance, you've got to work harder. When teams play us like this, we can still be better as an offensive unit. That's what we've got to work on."

The reason is clear.

Sports is filled with copycats. If a coach sees something work against a team, they're going to steal it. This deep into a season, they can dive deeper into game film and have a better understanding of what the opponent does really well and what gives them fits.

So as New Mexico visits Moby Arena this week, the Lobos do so as the team nipping at the Rams' heels in the standings and looking for every advantage, starting Friday at 1 p.m. The Rams (14-2, 10-2 MW) control their own fate, but the Lobos (9-2, 6-2) have a chance to steal it away.

"It's taking what the defense gives you, within your system," Williams said. "The older players understand that a lot better than the newbies. If they're going to take some concepts away, then they're giving you something else. It's your job within the possession, within the motion, to figure it out. That's what really good basketball players do. We're learning to become better basketball players. It's not about running plays or sets, it's figuring the game out with how they're guarding you and making those adjustments in the game."

Williams said he can do a better job, too. He can run sets which would allow a Tori Williams to get free for a 3s, a good option as she leads the conference in making them. She only took four in the two games. That matches the fewest she's taken in a single game where she's played more than 20 minutes.

And Hofschild said they can do a better job. It was clear what Wyoming was taking away, and with five defenders sprinting back, the Rams actually made a good decision in not trying to force things.

"I think looking back, there's always things where you say we could have done this, we could have done that," Hofschild said. "In the heat of the moment, it's a little harder to make those adjustments and see those things. We're just glad we got two wins, obviously.

"We'll make some adjustments. That was weird. That was definitely not a stat that we're used to. The next games we're going to look to get everybody more involved. That's a priority for all of us."

But the main priority was winning, and the Rams took both. For Williams, the major development for this team has been finding ways to score, even when the main option is not as readily available.

So he looked at the assist numbers, and he didn't like them, either. It told him there are things to work on, but they also showed him his squad was smart enough to execute other things they do well.

The key now is to make sure to find a way what they do best in the process.

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