Job No. 1 for the Ole Miss women tonight will be to mitigate 6-foot-7-inch UCLA post player Lauren Betts. Betts, a junior, averages almost a double-double at 9.7 rebounds and 19.7 points per game.
Not only is she a tower in the middle, she is an athletic one. She could probably play point guard, if needed.
So what does UCLA head coach Cori Close believe Betts is in for tonight against Ole Miss?
“You know, I think that…I wouldn’t say as many gimmicks,” Close said. “(Betts is) a tough one to, like — it’s a nontraditional situation to be in. You don’t box and one the center same way as you do maybe some guards. But we definitely have seen zones and doubling with your off guard. We have seen just sandwiched up even before she ever touches it, trying to just limit touches.
“But it’s really a matter of how many people they’re sending to her and what that looks like. But we have seen about every kind of rotation, is it coming from the back side, from the strong side, but it’s never — hardly ever one-on-one. I think there’s been maybe — maybe two teams all year that have said, Hey, we’re just going to take our chances and go one-on-one and if we give up twos, fine, but we’re not going to give up inside-out threes.”
Lauren Betts on the practice floor in Spokane, Wash. (Photo: Getty)
Close could put the ball in Betts’ hands every possession, but that is not her plan.
“I don’t know about every possession, but we can’t lose track of her. I think that sometimes if she doesn’t touch the ball, maybe we’re creating something else because we’re reading the situation really well. So as we come down…one of the big things I get really frustrated with her…with our team is if we miss her in transition. If we get great steps and we are unaware that that’s probably our best chance to get a one-on-one opportunity, that frustrates me. I think we should try to get her a touch every single time in transition off a missed basket stop that we’ve gotten at the other end.
“But I think the great luxury of having Lauren is that she also creates really good opportunities for our other players. So I would much rather them read that scenario. We always say no robots allowed. We want to have them be basketball players that are reading situations and making plays out of that. And Lauren gives you a great opportunity to put teams in rotation every single time down the court. Its just a matter of reading how those are coming and how we capitalize that for somebody else.”
Christeen Iwuala (Photo: 247Sports)
One Rebel who will be charged with guarding Betts tonight is 6-3 junior Christeen Iwuala. The junior is a first-year transfer player at Ole Miss…from UCLA. Her reunion with Betts will be a competitive one.
“I think I’m just excited to see her, to be honest,” said Betts. “She’s one of my dearest friends, and I’m just excited to see her face and obviously competing against her will be really fun. I don’t know, I think that her and I obviously go at it and it will just be really exciting to match up against her.”
Tip-off tonight is set for 9 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPN.
