There’s one factor Columbia ladies’s basketball by no means traveled with out this season.
It’s a poster board that coach Megan Griffith has coined the crew’s “potential board.” The objective of it’s to provide gamers a tangible tracker of their progress as a crew all through the season, utilizing little Lions head stickers as markers to indicate development.
As soon as every week, Griffith pulls the board out and checks in with the crew.
“It’s been a great marker for us to see, like, it’s not always about wins and losses but how are you responding to certain things, how are you responding to adversity in practice, not just games,” senior Cecelia Collins stated Wednesday.
In line with the potential board, Columbia nonetheless hasn’t reached its ceiling.
The crew is hovering round 85 % of how good Griffith and her employees consider the Lions might be.
“That 15 is what everybody’s looking for right now,” Griffith stated. “We all have it.”
Discovering a solution to faucet into it’s the objective, and there’s no higher time than the NCAA Match to get there.
Columbia set a objective at the start of the season to change into the primary Ivy League crew to succeed in a Candy 16.
After securing an at-large bid Sunday, Thursday’s sport towards fellow Eleventh-seeder Washington within the First 4 is the following step to creating that dream a actuality.
There was a way of calmness to Columbia earlier than Wednesday’s follow.
“It does feel very familiar,” Griffith stated. “Felt very confident and having another night of sleeping in your own bed really helped us. It helped us reset, helped us move forward. Honestly, I woke up this morning and I was ready to play.”
Washington (19-13, 9-9 Large Ten) and Columbia (23-6, 13-1 Ivy) are evenly matched groups.
The Huskies offense has been described as “methodical” and “surgical” in the best way it assaults its opponent.
They’re one of many nation’s high 3-point capturing groups, averaging 7.9 makes from deep per sport whereas changing at a 37.3 % clip on 3s.
However Columbia has executed loads of homework on its opponent since Sunday’s reveal.
“It’s knowing their tendencies,” senior Kitty Henderson stated. “When they’re closing out, you know they want to shoot it. It’s an adjustment we’ve got to make. We’ve been practicing for the last two days and will continue to do that today. I think knowing that is a big advantage in making them shoot the shots they don’t want to shoot.”
The Lions didn’t make it previous the First 4 in final 12 months’s match. However this time, Columbia is raring to shock some individuals.
“Watching us should be like watching a force that just plays together the entire time and any adversity that hits, it doesn’t matter,” Henderson stated. “We still look the same team. We’re consistent throughout. I’d love them to be able to see what a winning culture can do.”
