I noted in another post that taylor warmed up. but I don't see why she couldn't play in ACC tourney. It is not like we will win it. and would give us some experience for the post season.

SFCALBear72 said:

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Under a new "coach", Zahra King hasn't changed a bit from last season at Cal.

Same old, same old. Constant dribbling! I liked how we kept changing who was guarding her. She couldn't get comfortable with all the changing faces in front of her.

I like Puff, Grace and Isis much better for us.

Was that a record for shot clock violations in one game?? Lol.

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If I had to guess, Zahra saw the number of guards coming in and figured (probably rightly so) that she would really have to compete for minutes.

It was probably the easier path for her to enter the portal.

I saw the same when I was coaching travel softball - if a player is not getting playing time and sees others ahead in the depth chart, leaving is the easiest path, especially if the destination is saying they'll get the playing time.

Zahra is getting the playing time but at the expense of winning. Time will tell if she can contribute to winning basketball. I thought she improved her offensive game and the numbers bear that out - almost 40% on 3s and shooting 44% overall but on a bad team and given the keys to the car, a player will get their numbers.

I'd argue that Cal dribbles too much too - however, Cal has more players that can make shots and that makes a huge difference.

I did see that SMU had 7 players out today due to injuries...don't know if that has led to Zahra trying to take on a role or two that she isn't ready yet for.

Based on today's results, Cal's NET went up from #57 to #53, Clemson fell from #38 to #44 while Stanford went up from #44 to #42. For those of you scoring at home, SMU dropped from #212 to #220 based on today's pasting. FYI: Wake Forest is #121.

Cal ends the regular season:
Quad 1: 1-8 (win over Notre Dame)
Quad 2: 3-3 (wins over Stanford, Virginia and Georgia Tech)
Quad 3: 2-2 (wins over Harvard and Florida State)
Quad 4: 12-0

ZK has good size and athleticism. She's the best player on a depleted SMU team. She seems to have solved her turnover problem that she had as a freshman at Cal.

Next step for her is to improve her defense, as she's got all the traits to be a very good defender

I expect SMU to take a big jump next season and ZK will be central to that

I honestly don't believe that ZK will be on SMU next year; she will almost certainly portal somewhere else with a different coach.

She has twice as many turnovers as assists.

Zahra really stands out in SMU's stats: https://smumustangs.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats

She leads the team in minutes, field goals made and attempted, 3-pointers made and attempted, free throws made and attempted, turnovers, and steals.

She's also second in field goal percentage and assists, third in 3-point percentage, and fourth in fouls.

Overall it looks to me like she's a high use player, even overused, on a bad team. She might look better on a better team where she wouldn't be asked to do so much. Unless she likes it that way.

She has twice as many turnovers to assists. Not what you want from a point guard.

wvitbear said:

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She has twice as many turnovers to assists. Not what you want from a point guard.

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Actually 2.16 turnovers per assist, terrible for any guard. Even worse at 2.48 in conference games. I agree Zahra is not a point guard,

But the whole team has 1.71 turnovers per assist, almost as bad. Only 3 players have more assists than turnovers and they have only played in 18, 13, and 8 games.

Agree with your conclusion

From what I saw she is a very athletic and talented player with no body around her

Yes, she had turnovers because she needs to force the action, but they weren't the type she made at Cal where she would constantly get her pocket picked or throw lazy passes that were stolen

stu said:

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Zahra really stands out in SMU's stats: https://smumustangs.com/sports/womens-basketball/stats

She leads the team in minutes, field goals made and attempted, 3-pointers made and attempted, free throws made and attempted, turnovers, and steals.

She's also second in field goal percentage and assists, third in 3-point percentage, and fourth in fouls.

Overall it looks to me like she's a high use player, even overused, on a bad team. She might look better on a better team where she wouldn't be asked to do so much. Unless she likes it that way.

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I remember several times where she made one handed passes that ended up in trouble and Charmin was shouting two hands. Then she took her out of the game. With Puff coming in, she wasn't going to start at point guard. She couldn't play defense like Mjaricle. She would have either played backup or second string off guard,