Colorado State University Athletics
Rams Look to Defense To Alter Course
2/8/2022 12:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Attention to detail preached for stretch run
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – In some respects, it's felt like two seasons already. Ryun Williams would like to add a third tier before his squad gets to the fourth – the postseason, which starts with the Mountain West Tournament at the beginning of March in Las Vegas.
His Colorado State women's basketball team came out of the gates hot, running to a 10-1 start, the only loss to then-No. 10 Louisville after winning the first six games of the season. Once conference play started, it's been a much different story.
The Rams have ebbed back and forth, sitting a 5-6 in conference play, with a pair of two-game skids and just one point of two successive wins. With seven games remaining in the regular season, Williams and his team know they can alter the course of their path, but it has to start in one place.
Defense.
"It's where we have to make the biggest impact," Williams said. "We will not win consistently if we can't guard consistently on a nightly basis. Again, we've proven it, we just have to be more consistent with it."
The Rams enter Wednesday's Orange Out game with Utah State at Moby Arena (6 p.m. tip) having lost two in a row. In each instance – at New Mexico and at Air Force – the Rams were in the game with 3 minutes to play. They trailed the Lobos by four at that point, but defensive lapses allowed the Lobos to pull away.
The next game, they led the Falcons by six to start the fourth and led by three with 2:58 remaining. The Falcons won by four. Guard Upe Atosu feels the Rams are a good defensive team, but they haven't been late in games.
Then, when fatigue is setting in, it's the details she feels they've been missing.
"I think we are, it's just maybe toward the end of the game, sometimes we miss on that, and that's really what we need to focus on," she said. "From the first to the fourth quarter, until the final five minutes, we're doing great. I think that sense of urgency in the few minutes to end the game, we lose a little bit of focus. I think if we focus on that, I think we're going to do well.
"That's five minutes where anybody can win. Even if you're up 20 points, anybody can cut it. The sense of urgency has to be there. We have to fight to the finish."
Williams sees that, too. Injuries and illness have whittled away at the team's depth most of the season, so he understands the fatigue factor. The first step to correcting it is looking at himself he said, to use what depth he has at his disposal on a given night and spread some minutes out to keep legs fresher.
The other part, however, is on the players themselves. After Tuesday's practice, he again emphasized in those tough moment, what will get them through is what they have in the guts.
He won't diminish their effort every night. He also believes they are a tough team, but they can be tougher, especially in those closing moments where the outcome is dictated mostly by which roster is ready to take the fight to the other.
It is in those moments where both he and his players feel the details which are so crucial get lost in the shuffle. In these last seven games, that, they agree, has to change.
"I think that definitely has to improve, especially these last games of the season," Kendyll Kinzer said. "They're going to be tough ones. Knowing our defensive assignments, knowing what my job is to float and help everybody out and then knowing the girls who guard shooters have to stay locked. We don't want shooters getting hot. We don't want them to have any momentum, and my teammates have to know I have their back if a shooter does decided to drive, that I have their back to help cover that up."
At times, it can be a player trying to help too much. The Rams are no different in other teams in having defensive shortcomings, be it individual players or in the team concept. Like every other team, they work around those, and Williams doesn't assign a defensive task to a player who isn't strong in the area.
As part of their individual assignments, there are areas where they are required to lend help, others where they are not. Specifically, he's seen an over-eagerness come back to bite them.
"The devil's in the details. You always have a correct spot to be in, you always have a job to do depending on where your lady is and where the basketball is," Williams said. "They know what they have to perform, but that's where we're making the biggest mistakes at the most crucial times."
The past two losses have highlighted it even more for the team. Kinzer believes the Rams can be a good defensive team when those details are followed and not expanded. She's convinced if they do so, the final seven games of the Mountain West slate can help steer the team more toward a spot in the standings the Rams feel they should reside.
That's not middle of the pack, playing break-even basketball.
"The last few games, losing the close ones, I think everybody was really locked in these last two days of practice, focused on defense, focused on their job," she said. "We know Utah State is playing well and playing with a lot of confidence, so we need defense in order to get this win."
As well as the others they want to follow.
His Colorado State women's basketball team came out of the gates hot, running to a 10-1 start, the only loss to then-No. 10 Louisville after winning the first six games of the season. Once conference play started, it's been a much different story.
The Rams have ebbed back and forth, sitting a 5-6 in conference play, with a pair of two-game skids and just one point of two successive wins. With seven games remaining in the regular season, Williams and his team know they can alter the course of their path, but it has to start in one place.
Defense.
"It's where we have to make the biggest impact," Williams said. "We will not win consistently if we can't guard consistently on a nightly basis. Again, we've proven it, we just have to be more consistent with it."
The Rams enter Wednesday's Orange Out game with Utah State at Moby Arena (6 p.m. tip) having lost two in a row. In each instance – at New Mexico and at Air Force – the Rams were in the game with 3 minutes to play. They trailed the Lobos by four at that point, but defensive lapses allowed the Lobos to pull away.
The next game, they led the Falcons by six to start the fourth and led by three with 2:58 remaining. The Falcons won by four. Guard Upe Atosu feels the Rams are a good defensive team, but they haven't been late in games.
Then, when fatigue is setting in, it's the details she feels they've been missing.
"I think we are, it's just maybe toward the end of the game, sometimes we miss on that, and that's really what we need to focus on," she said. "From the first to the fourth quarter, until the final five minutes, we're doing great. I think that sense of urgency in the few minutes to end the game, we lose a little bit of focus. I think if we focus on that, I think we're going to do well.
"That's five minutes where anybody can win. Even if you're up 20 points, anybody can cut it. The sense of urgency has to be there. We have to fight to the finish."
Williams sees that, too. Injuries and illness have whittled away at the team's depth most of the season, so he understands the fatigue factor. The first step to correcting it is looking at himself he said, to use what depth he has at his disposal on a given night and spread some minutes out to keep legs fresher.
The other part, however, is on the players themselves. After Tuesday's practice, he again emphasized in those tough moment, what will get them through is what they have in the guts.
He won't diminish their effort every night. He also believes they are a tough team, but they can be tougher, especially in those closing moments where the outcome is dictated mostly by which roster is ready to take the fight to the other.
It is in those moments where both he and his players feel the details which are so crucial get lost in the shuffle. In these last seven games, that, they agree, has to change.
"I think that definitely has to improve, especially these last games of the season," Kendyll Kinzer said. "They're going to be tough ones. Knowing our defensive assignments, knowing what my job is to float and help everybody out and then knowing the girls who guard shooters have to stay locked. We don't want shooters getting hot. We don't want them to have any momentum, and my teammates have to know I have their back if a shooter does decided to drive, that I have their back to help cover that up."
At times, it can be a player trying to help too much. The Rams are no different in other teams in having defensive shortcomings, be it individual players or in the team concept. Like every other team, they work around those, and Williams doesn't assign a defensive task to a player who isn't strong in the area.
As part of their individual assignments, there are areas where they are required to lend help, others where they are not. Specifically, he's seen an over-eagerness come back to bite them.
"The devil's in the details. You always have a correct spot to be in, you always have a job to do depending on where your lady is and where the basketball is," Williams said. "They know what they have to perform, but that's where we're making the biggest mistakes at the most crucial times."
The past two losses have highlighted it even more for the team. Kinzer believes the Rams can be a good defensive team when those details are followed and not expanded. She's convinced if they do so, the final seven games of the Mountain West slate can help steer the team more toward a spot in the standings the Rams feel they should reside.
That's not middle of the pack, playing break-even basketball.
"The last few games, losing the close ones, I think everybody was really locked in these last two days of practice, focused on defense, focused on their job," she said. "We know Utah State is playing well and playing with a lot of confidence, so we need defense in order to get this win."
As well as the others they want to follow.
Players Mentioned
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