Malouf ’08: Time for Change

Rich Scarcella wrote an excellent article in the Reading Eagle yesterday about women’s basketball head coach Janet Malouf’s plan for change in 2008. Let me be the first to say: it’s about time.

(In bold is the article. In regular font is some analysis.)

Janet Malouf, bothered by missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time in her career, knew that something had to change.

Why stop there? Coach Malouf was a fairly impressive 64-32 in PSAC East games during her first eight seasons at KU, which included not one losing season against divisional opponents. Since then? 32-40 over the last six years including just one season with a record above .500 against the division. Only four times in school history, all under Malouf, have the ladies advanced past the first round of the PSAC Playoffs. Never have they won a PSAC crown.

It was her.

"We've had to change a lot, and I've had to change a lot," said Malouf, the Kutztown University women's basketball coach. "I felt I needed to make changes and trust my players a little bit more. I have to let them know they're making mistakes out there and let them ride through them.

"I have to learn to have a little more patience with them."

It is no secret that half of the team’s problem over the last few years has been player management. For whatever reason, the seniors tend to have the shortest leash on the team and the freshmen have the longest. Each season, it seems that the freshmen get way too much work, which is fine in a rebuilding year, but hey, you can’t rebuild every year and expect to win.

Last season, Meredith Starr was thrown into the point guard role as a freshman and certainly had her share of growing pains. Melissa McQuade was one of those superstar talents that deserved to be in the starting lineup immediately, but, again, it’s going to be hard to succeed when you continually lean on freshmen. Furthermore, Malouf has had a bunch of freshmen standouts over the last few seasons, but they rarely seem to improve on their freshman year production. Maybe McQuade can turn the tide on that trend.

What is most interesting about Coach Malouf’s use of player personnel is not simply that she overuses freshmen—it’s more of what happens to those freshmen the next year. I did a little study on players who played significant roles as freshmen by taking a look at how much playing time they had their sophomore year. Of the 26 freshmen that played at least one minute during the four seasons spanning from 2003-04 to 2006-07, all but eight of them saw less minutes their sophomore season. This is partially a result of 10 of them leaving the team, but of the nine players who played at least 275 minutes in their freshman season (not including two who left the team), only three of them saw more work the following season.

Players who saw at least 275 minutes of work as a freshman:

Freshman Season
Player Name – Freshman year minutes – Sophomore year minutes

2003-04
Bainbridge – 910 – 718
Brady – 474 – 582
Daley – 300 – 162 (Left team)

2004-05
Reyna – 302 – 273
Weidensaul – 777 – 564
Harlor – 275 – 148
Van Wagner – 694 – 670

2005-06
Dellegrotti – 556 – 784
McElmoyle – 582 – 0 (Left team)

2006-07
Wisemiller – 295 – 521
Melvin – 610 – 513

If that doesn’t prove at least some sort of freshman bias, I don’t know what will.

Malouf will need plenty of that in her 15th season with the Golden Bears. She has six freshmen and just one senior on her roster as Kutztown tries to return to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs for the first time in three seasons.

It shouldn’t take too long to see if Malouf really has changed. Lara Dellegrotti, Rachel Wisemiller, Melissa McQuade, Meredith Starr, Vivian Melvin, Katie Dovey, and Chauntelle Schroeder return from last year’s team and all seven can be effective at this level. There is no reason each of them shouldn’t get an opportunity to earn minutes early in the season while the freshmen are slowly worked into the mix. The strategy of throwing the rookies right into the fire hasn’t worked. It’s time to try something different.

A few days ago, I emailed Coach Malouf to ask if she had chosen a starting five yet and while her response was not a total shocker, it was a pleasant surprise. She listed a “main crew”, which consisted of 10 names. The first seven listed were the names of the seven returning players. No complaints here.

She will continue to run a structured offense, but with greater flexibility and freedom for her players. The Bears, at times, became paralyzed on the floor, worried more about where they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to do than playing basketball.

As mentioned earlier, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to notice this was happening. Each player stands out in her own way and the head coach holds the responsibly of taking full advantage of those skills.

In no particular order, a list of a few things I’d like to see in 2008-09:

1. An isolation play for Vivian Melvin – Melvin has proved she has the talent to be in the starting lineup. Where she gets into trouble is turnovers. Often you will see Melvin get the ball on the wing, make a good move to get free of her defender, drive to the lane, and turn the ball over when three defenders block her shot or strip the ball. An attempt should be made to set up Melvin with an opportunity to make plays in the lane.

2. When in doubt, force the ball to Melissa McQuade – She proved in her freshman season that she is the team’s best player. The best way to win is to get her the ball on offense. Let her score some buckets and take some pressure off the rest of the team. When defenses begin keying on her, it will set up opportunities for players like Dellegrotti and Wisemiller to knock down a few threes or for McQuade to find Schroeder, Dovey, etc. open underneath for a layup. McQuade had 59 assists last year while also leading the team in scoring. Her court awareness is hard to find at this level and should be taken advantage of.

3. Rachel Wisemiller and Lara Dellegrotti can shoot the basketball…so let them – When McQuade isn’t dominating the inside of the perimeter, plays should be designed to get Wisemiller and Dellegrotti, both superb shooters, open looks from long range.

4. Pretend Chauntelle Schroeder is Monique Boykins – Remember how crazy “Mo” was? She wasn’t the best at making her layups in one shot, but she would usually get her own rebound if she missed and put it right back in. She was also an absolute monster on the boards. She managed to make such an impact because, despite her sometimes sloppy play, she simply was bigger and more aggressive than most players in the PSAC. Schroeder isn’t quite as tall as Boykins, but she plays a very similar style. She’s worth a look at the center position.

5. Don’t overreact to mistakes – Freshmen aside, the fear of God seemed to be on the mind of every player on the floor during the last few seasons. As mentioned, the leash got shorter as you aged and that meant that Coach Malouf wasn’t afraid to pull a senior starter off the floor a minute into a game if she turned the ball over. Furthermore, you’d see a veteran come off the bench, miss a layup, and get pulled immediately. That player usually wouldn’t see another second of play that day. Sure the bench player’s job is to be ready to come in and perform at any given moment. That said, it should be no surprise that a player is going to be nervous and overwhelmed knowing that this is their make or break moment. Going out onto the court with the mindset of “Okay, I have to make a play here and not screw up or I won’t see another second today” is no way to play. Not to mention it is a terrible confidence booster. And, in my irrelevant opinion, confidence is more important in basketball than any other sport.

Kutztown finished 12th (out of 14 teams) in the PSAC last season in scoring and last in turnover margin, committing almost six more turnovers a game than its opponents. Those numbers led to a 11-16 record and a change in Malouf's approach.

And that was an improvement from some of the jaw dropping turnover numbers put up in previous years. Over the last five seasons, KU has averaged 22.3 turnovers a game. Last year they actually were better than that when they averaged 21.6 turnovers a game, which, as Scarcella pointed out, was still high enough to put them last in the PSAC in turnover margin. If not for Malouf’s dominant defensive system, her teams would be lucky to win five games all season…at least that’s been the case for the last half decade.

"We want to keep the big picture in mind and not get bogged down in all the details," she said. "I think we did that too many times the last two years. We'd pass it around and pass it around and the next thing you know, instead of taking a shot, we'd have a turnover.

"We don't want them to pass up good shots."

Amen.

The Bears lost two of their three leading scorers, All-PSAC East first-team pick Mercedes Van Wagner and second-team pick Rachel Weidensaul. But they return sophomore Melissa McQuade, their leading scorer and rebounder last season, and Lara Dellegrotti, their best 3-point shooter and their only senior.

"Lara is the one who's been around the most and who has played the most," Malouf said. "She understands what college basketball is all about.

"We certainly have high expectations for Melissa. Our opponents are going to be more aware of her as well. "

Point guard Meredith Starr, another returning starter, will be in the backcourt with Dellegrotti. Rachel Wisemiller, a top reserve last season, moves into the starting lineup with Chauntelle Schroeder. Juniors Katie Dovey and Vivian Melvin, and 6-1 freshman Hannah Mertz also will be in the rotation.

Add Brittany Greaves and Brittany LeVan to that list and you have the players likely to make a significant impact in 2008-09. Expectations won’t be too high for a team that lost two of its best players in Van Wagner and Weidensaul, but I believe the team will actually improve this season. Not only does Coach Malouf claim she will open things up, but Dellegrotti-McQuade-Wisemiller is quite the trio. That said, the frontcourt is where games are won in this league and that is where the question marks lie. It shouldn’t take long to see where this team stands.

Kutztown has been strong on defense during most of Malouf's career. The Bears finished second in the PSAC in field goal percentage last season, the 13th consecutive season they've been first or second.

Coach Malouf is the defensive mastermind of the PSAC. No one will ever question her defensive prowess.

Their question mark, though, is how quickly they adapt to their new freedom on offense.

"We're not so rigid," Dellegrotti said. "Last year a lot of us were afraid to make mistakes within the offense. We really didn't deviate from plays to just play basketball.

"She (Malouf) has made an effort to make sure we know we can go out and play. Last year, I think, we lost that. It's amazing. It's just not as stressful. You feel a lot less pressure."

Hey Lara, you know that “stress” and “pressure” you felt on the court? If it is any consolation, know that it was as palpable as the scent of mushrooms at the Rt. 222 Business exit in Reading. Everyone in the arena knew the team was stiff and afraid to make a mistake or deviate from the play that was called. It’s too bad it took this long for Coach Malouf to realize it, but, hey, now is better than never.

In conclusion, I’m rooting for Coach Malouf to get this straightened out. She proved in her early years at KU that she can be an outstanding coach, but she has yet to push this team over the top. California University of Pennsylvania has proven that a PSAC team can win the Division II title, yet KU hasn’t even been a serious threat to make the field of 64 in its history. Kutztown University is growing every year and it is about time that the women’s basketball program begins to take advantage.