SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Outside a visiting locker room in the Carrier Dome, surrounded by her assistants, C. Vivian Stringer smoldered. Her Scarlet Knights had just lost, 79-66, to Syracuse, and Stringer didn’t know what to say.
She has jumbled her starting lineup after almost each game in search of the correct mix. Yet the team keeps struggling, 10-7 midway through this trying season. Stringer collected herself, walked in to greet her team and tried to find the right message for her squad.
Nothing came out.
“I didn’t say anything,” Stringer said. “Words escaped me. I just looked.”
What can she say? Her team cannot run past their opponents. They cannot out-shoot their opponents. Most of the players are too inexperienced to outwit their opponents.
An example: The Scarlet Knights are not equipped with many accurate shooters. Yet they fired 19 treys on Wednesday – and made two.
“We can be SS – real Super Stupid,” Stringer said afterward.
Another example: She tried to run her 55 Press, but freshmen like Erica Wheeler and Monique Oliver couldn’t execute it.
“I would have liked to have gone to the 55 longer,” Stringer said. “But when I had some of the freshmen in there, I’ll be doggone. Their minds left them and they went to the wrong spot.”
Say it again and again, but it’s true: the only consistent player is senior Brittany Ray. And Ray’s shot disappeared during the past two games (7-for-32 combined). So then what? Senior Rashidat Junaid scored a career-high 16 in each of the past two games. But can she bang against Connecticut or Notre Dame?
Meanwhile, just about every underclassman disappointed in some fashion Wednesday night.
Wheeler* turned in her second straight poor shooting performance (1-for-9 from the floor), unable to shine after Stringer inserted her into the starting lineup. “As soon as she noticed that she was starting,” Stringer said, “she got the shakes, if you will.”
*That's another dip for Wheeler, a McDonald's All-American from Miami, in this rollercoaster season. She started the year as a point guard, but couldn't remember the plays. Stringer shifted her to off-guard to take advantage of her outside accuracy. Now she can't shoot.
April Sykes missed four shots in her 12 minutes. Nikki Speed turned the ball over three times. Chelsey Lee sparked the offense with eight points in 15 minutes, but couldn’t deliver late when the Scarlet Knights trailed by single digits and each possession was crucial. That frustrated Ray.
“I just think that we had a lot of breakdowns,” Ray said. “There were a few passes that Chelsey Lee missed and went out of bounds. We could have scored four points and we could have went up.”
So Stringer heads back to her proverbial drawing board. Part of the problem Wednesday night was Ray’s shooting. If she falters, the team falls right with her. And since Big East teams know that (or at least they should), Stringer needs a solution.
Fast.
“I’ve tried 1,000 times,” Stringer said. “The best thing for me to do is not to be upset.”