Getting off to a good start is an oft-heard clich?(c) in the sports world near the beginnings of new seasons or even games. It makes sense; score early and don't let the other team score. No brainer, everyone wants to win, right? The Bulls are no exception, but this mental approach, to this season at least, has now become defunct.
The women's basketball team has dropped their first two contests of the year, to Canisius and Colgate. Head coach Cheryl Dozier decided to give the team a rest over the holiday break to allow them to re-focus on what seems to be the theme for most clich?(c)s: winning.
For the Bulls, winning starts with defense.
"It really all has to start with our defense," said Dozier. "Our defense was what really got us back into the (Colgate) game. We've got to come out of the gate right away knowing that our defense has to be the lead story for us."
Good starts are the exact opposite of what UB has executed in their two outings so far. Against Canisius Buffalo was down 42-24 at the half. In the first quarter of time played against the Colgate Raiders, UB fell to a 24-8 deficit.
"We've struggled getting out of the gate early," said Dozier. "We go down 18 to Colgate and we claw and fight our way back to take a six point lead. It was a 24-point swing, but we just ran out of gas after that."
The UB defense did stiffen, holding the Raiders to only 10 points in the remainder of the first half to bring the Bulls within three at 34-31. Colgate held out for the victory, but it appeared as if the Buffalo defense had finally awakened from its two and a half game slumber. Dozier hopes that a brief vacation would help foster improvements.
"We gave the past couple days off, got them fresh, and we have been spending a lot of time in practice shooting the ball," said Dozier. "Hopefully that will carry over into the game tomorrow."
Youngstown State, meanwhile, has also seen a rough patch of games, losing three straight to sit at 1-3 on the year. Their one win, however, came against the MAC conference.
"They've always been (playing MAC teams), even when Ed (Digregori) was their coach," said Dozier. "They have a new coach now in Tisha Hill who actually was in the MAC, she was an assistant at Ball State, so she knows the MAC really well."
"They got off to a good start this year by beating Bowling Green," said Dozier.
That good start evaporated when the Penguins lost their next three to Auburn, New Mexico and Elon by a combined score of 184-120, scoring 36 points in two of those games.
Dozier is confident in her team's defense, but recognizes that the offense needs to step up when the opportunity arises. Buffalo is shooting a very poor .361 percent.
"If I was a team scouting us right now, I'd just camp it in on out two big kids, because we haven't proved that we can score from the perimeter right now," said Dozier. "That's on our perimeter players, to be able to get a good balance and be able to knock shots down when the ball comes outside. So far we haven't done that, although Brooke Meunier had a really good game at Colgate."
" We've got to get Kim going," said Dozier. "Kim Kilpela did not play well at Colgate and got into early foul trouble. We need to get her going early."
Kilpela is only shooting .333 from the field; however, she has only taken 15 shots and averaged 26 minutes a game while accumulating six personal fouls.
Working for UB most of all is the crowd. Attending Wednesday's game are elementary school students, giving the students a chance to get into Alumni Arena to enjoy a college-level basketball game they might not have had a chance to see otherwise. The previous time that a group of elementary school students attended a game at Alumni Arena, the kids responded well.
"It's all about an atmosphere," said Dozier. "Two years ago we did one for an exhibition game, and I couldn't even hear myself think, let alone what I was saying to the kids during a timeout. That's the atmosphere that we all want to play in and I want to coach in."
Along with the crowd support, the time of the match may be in Buffalo's favor as well.
"We have 6 a.m. practices, so an eleven o'clock tip isn't going to bother us too much," said Dozier. "Our kids are used to practicing and playing in the morning."
The bottom line will be about the team defense, which is compounded by injuries and a lack of players on the bench. Amy Kucheran will be out and Tahcahrah Owens will be limited in action. Belinda Gibb, the freshman guard from Denmark, will still be ineligible.
"We're going to have to change some things up because we don't have a lot of depth right now, and I can't afford for kids to be in foul trouble," said Dozier. "So you're definitely going to see a lot of different defenses from us."
At this point, before things get too out of hand, any defense is what Buffalo needs to see out of the team.
