Lady Topper Hoops: Talkin’ Lady Tops vs. Oregon State With Building The Dam’s Leo Castaneda
The Lady Toppers embark on their post season tomorrow against Oregon State in what turned out to be a surprisingly fair draw for them…
The Lady Toppers embark on their post season tomorrow against Oregon State in what turned out to be a surprisingly fair draw for them, especially when you consider WKU has to just travel an hour or so south to Knoxville to take on Oregon State.
To help get a deeper look at the Beavers, we instilled the help of Leo Castaneda of Building The Dam to get the 411.
The Towel Rack: Before we dive into the nitty gritty, tell us a little bit about the women’s program out there at Oregon State.
Leo Castaneda: Coach Scott Rueck inherited a down-trodden program in 2010 after the previous coach had run off all but one scholarship player. The Beavers broke through in his fourth year, making the NCAA tournament, and have made it to at least the second round every year since then, including a Final-Four run in 2016.
TTR: OSU seems to be a three-headed monster with Marie Gulich, Kat Tudor and Mikayla Pivec. What is it those three bring to the court to make them, and the Beavers, so dynamic?
LC: Marie Gulich is the most polished post player in the Pac-12. She has a variety of post moves to finish near the basket and she can also hit the jumper from 15 feet. Defensively she has a knack for disrupting so many shots, making three blocks a game and collecting a total more than 170 teams in the NCAA at one point this season. Mikayla Pivec took over the point guard duties this year after the graduation of Sydney Wiese, who now plays in the WNBA. Pivec is more of a two-guard, but has adapted as well as you could ask for someone who hasn’t played at the point since middle school. She’s a strong finisher at the rim, finds open players, and is one of the best rebounding guards in the country. Pivec has flirted with a triple-double a few times this year is bound to get one in her career at some point.
TTR: OSU has outscored its opponents by nearly 500 points this year. What’s their secret?
LC: The special sauce you could say is team position defense. Coach Rueck preaches being in the right position at all times and that’s why you won’t see the Beavers rack up steals. They aren’t out there trying trying to cut and jump in front of a pass, they’d rather be disruptive at the shot. Just look at opposing teams’ shooting percentages.
TTR: The Beavers are at their strongest when…
LC: The three-ball is falling, particularly when Kat Tudor is lighting it up. If you look at OSU’s biggest win of the season against Oregon, Tudor was 7-for-10 from beyond the arc and had 35 total points. This opened things up inside for Marie Gulich who pitched in 28 points of her own. Three-point shooting can be infectious, so if someone catches fire, it seems to spread.
TTR: The Beavers are at their weakest when…
LC: Clean ball handling or passing isn’t happening. Turnovers have been the biggest thorn in the Beavers’ side this season. Teams that are athletic at the guard position seem to give the Beavers fits who lack a true point guard. Look at the road trip to the Southern California schools; they gave up 48 turnovers in those two games in what resulted in their first back-to-back losses since 2014.
TTR: In what ways does OSU overmatch the Lady Tops?
LC: Defense. The Beavers have held their opponents to less than 35% shooting for the season. It has what kept them in games where the three-ball isn’t working or if the team catches the turnover bug.
TTR: In what ways do the Lady Tops overmatch OSU?
LC: I haven’t seen Western Kentucky play this year, but when looking at their season statistics, the number of steals (324) is what concerns me the most. As I mentioned, the Beavers have struggled with turnovers this year, so if the Lady Tops can exploit that, then it can be a very long day for Oregon State fans.
TTR: Got a prediction for us?
LC: This is going to depend on what Oregon State team shows up. Will we see the well oiled machine that took down a top-ten Oregon team, or are we going to see the team that is turnover prone and gives up too many offensive rebounds (see their last game against Arizona State in the Pac-12 Tournament). My bet is that we’ll see a team closer to the former. Beavers will do just enough to squeak out a win.
Thanks again to Leo for taking time to answer our questions, and be sure to give him and the BTM team a follow and some love throughout the weekend.