Despite their two wins this weekend, women’s basketball head coach Dave Wilson is unsatisfied.
Over the weekend, his team improved their record to 15-3 with wins against the Laurentian Voyageurs and Nipissing Lakers. Despite winning both games by large margins — by 34 and 24 points — Wilson was candid in regards to the Gaels’ recent play in an interview with The Journal on Monday morning.
“There’s things we could have done a lot better,” Wilson said. He noted oftentimes the positive aspects of the Gaels’ play gets overshadowed by their shortcomings.
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No, you’re not seeing double
Two-straight triples from Morris has the Gaels up 11 on @LUVoyageurs #OUA #USPORTS #BellLetsTalk pic.twitter.com/FQTGTrEtj8
— Queen’s Gaels (@queensgaels) January 26, 2018
“We’ll go and win a national title and I’ll still be looking at things we could have done better,” Wilson joked.
The past few weeks have been a period of exploring new strategies for the Gaels after a disappointing weekend at home against Carleton and Ottawa two weeks ago.
Despite the Gaels being on a four-game winning streak, Wilson said he’ll continue to refine the team’s systems that broke down against their Ottawa rivals. Recently, their main point of focus has been Queen’s defensive play.
“We’ve put some offensive things to give us a variety of ways of doing things but there’s no question that our best offence has been generated by our defense,” Wilson said.
Although the coach isn’t pleased with his team’s defensive efforts, Wilson applauded fifth-year guard Abby Dixon’s play as of late. Currently, Dixon is averaging 3.6 steals per contest, tying her for first in the country. Wilson was quick to note the statistic is far from being the defining characteristic of her game.
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This one is in the books Gaels win it
Alarie 17p | de Goede 12r | Dixon 6s | Ritcey 5a#OUA #USPORTS #BellLetsTalk pic.twitter.com/sFvZjg4SOk
— Queen’s Gaels (@queensgaels) January 27, 2018
The perfect place to be on a rainy Saturday night in #ygk! Decked in #tricolour to cheer on @queensgaels WBB #VeeBall #LoveMyGaels #ChaGheill #OUA #USPORTS pic.twitter.com/QZyHfLrVem
— QUAApresident (@QUAApresident) January 27, 2018
“It’s a bit of a misleading stat because she causes so many other ones,” Wilson said. “Her pressure on the ball [has] allowed us to get into transition offence which is a higher percentage offence.”
For Wilson, the team’s focus on defense has actually allowed their offence to be more effective.
“When we have all five playing defense, it makes it really difficult for offences to move the basketball and it gives us good opportunities to score out of our defense,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s main source of positivity from this weekend was the team’s effort. In early January, the Gaels convincingly defeated Laurentian 90-58. Despite the large margin of victory, Wilson thought the Voyageurs out-hustled the Gaels over the course of the game.
“The difference [on Jan. 6], I thought they out-hustled us. That didn’t occur [this weekend],” Wilson said.
The Gaels catch a bit of a break this weekend with just one game on Saturday against York. Similar to Queen’s, the Lions are currently riding a four-game win streak. After a pair of games against U of T and Ryerson the following weekend, the Gaels will get a chance for redemption against Ottawa and Carleton in their final two regular season games.
Queen’s currently sits second in the OUA East, trailing Carleton by six points.
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