As Mara Braun was getting ready to leave the podium after she had scored 25 points in a 92-57 victory over Long Island University at Williams Arena on Wednesday, she made an observation:
Her coach, Dawn Plitzuweit, was probably going to be up all night watching film. Moments later, Plitzuweit confirmed it.
The University of Minnesota women's basketball team opened a new coaching era with a bunch of new faces and a whole lot to like.
A hot start that led to a 34-9 lead after a quarter. The play of the returning core players. The fact the team shot 54% while holding LIU to 35.1%.
But there are some things to work on.
And it likely starts with turnovers.
It was a problem last season. The Gophers committed 532 turnovers, second-most in the Big Ten Conference. Their assist to turnover ratio was about 0.9. It was a big point of emphasis all summer and in training camp.
On Wednesday, the Gophers committed 21 turnovers. The good news is they played defense well enough to limit the Sharks to just 13 points off those turnovers. The bad? Well, anyone watching Plitzuweit on the sidelines in the second quarter, when LIU's full-court defense cased the Gophers problems, knew how unhappy she was about it.
"There are different types of presses," Plitzuweit said after the game. "We'd seen some presses in scrimmage situations and did a good job. This was more of a passive press."
The Sharks weren't trapping right away. Against such a look, Plitzuweit said, the key is more handling of the ball and less passing it. Braun said their problem was over-passing. Plitzuweit agreed but added the team needed to be more patient once they did break the press. Then, at the start of the third quarter, the big problem was lack of movement by the Gophers on the offensive end.
"Finally, when we got into screening and moving, we got some great looks," Plitzuweit said.
This is not to take away from Braun's big game and impressive debuts by freshmen, led by Grace Grocholski, who started and scored 10 points. Or the team's big rebounding edge, which included 16 offensive rebounds turned into 20 second chance points.
And the turnovers won't go away overnight. This is a young team, a new coach and a new system. But Plitzuweit will not stand for too many turnovers. There are certain things that will always set her off.
"Oh, there are," she said. "All of those things we'll get better at, and hopefully quickly."
As Braun said, it was just the opener. "First game, new faces, people trying to get their footing," she said. "I'm sure Coach will be up all night watching film."
Correct.
