Capsule the Marshall women’s basketball season and an amusement park entity comes to mind. This entity gives its riders tilts and whirls. The Herd intermingled whirls (successes) and tilts (short falls) at both team and player levels.
Winning streak whirls included three, two, four and six games. Tilt losses included two, five and three games.
Over the season, Marshall played 124 quarters. The fourth quarter was a 24-6-1 whirl. Quarters one, two and three were tilts. By quarters: first, 13-18; second, 13-16-2; third, 12-18-1. The floor game was an overall whirl with one major tilt. Successes included assists, steals, blocks and foul disqualifications.
The major tilt was rebounding with Marshall losing both offensive and defensive boards. Against conference opponents, 18 season and 2 post season, the team finished 3-17 (3-15 season, 0-2 post season). A minor tilt worth noting was personal fouls.
Shooting was a mix of whirls and tilts. Successes included more total points, field goals, 3-point goals and total field goal percentage. Short falls came on 3-point percentage, free throws, and free throw percentage. Field goal percentage developed into separate camps of whirl and tilt. The Herd met or exceeded the generally accepted 40% base 17 times. The team’s best effort logged at 57%; the median was 40%. Marshall tilted 14 times including a four time low of 32%.
Player performance finalized as a major maze of whirls and tilts. First the whirls.
Fourteen players led or shared top performances of a game stat at least once. Shooting stats and rebounds validate this data.
Points: Roshala Scott, Abby Beeman, Terah Harness, Mahogany Matthews, Aarionna Redman, Sydni Scott, Kendall Miller.
3-Points: R. Scott, Harness, Beeman, Redman, Meredith Maier, S. Scott, Matthews.
Free throws: Beeman, R. Scott, Matthews, Miller, Shanniah Wright, Redman, Samantha LaFon.
Rebounds: LaFon, R. Scott, Ashley Tudor, Matthews, Beeman, Maier, Kia Sivils.
The tilt is that no player emerged as the go to. Each game tipped with the questions of (1) would a leader step up and (2) who would that player be?
Based on the above insights, the program’s core problem is inconsistency. Time will tell whether this can be resolved through continued whirls and reduced tilts.
The season and an era ended with the resignation of Head Coach Tony Kemper. Marshall filled the vacancy by signing Glenville State University Head Coach Kim Stephens. Currently the hope for, and enthusiasm about, goal achievement is running high.