It's an ESPN women's/men's double header to kick off the opening of the college basketball season. They will be followed by the CFB Playoff show.
2021-2022 WBB Team
- Thread starter Cocky 45
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It's a pretty big night for ESPN - our WBB game with NC State is followed by MBB between Kansas-Michigan St., the CFB Playoffs show, then followed with the Kentucky-Duke MBB game at 9:30 pm.....
Good points. I did not mention Hart or Bryant because they are just not physically capable for Cardoso or Boston. Obviously she may be forced to steal minutes with them, but they will play zone
Good points!!! DS has REPEATEDLY said we are not a tough team. I have found that curious, now I know what she talking about! She is amping them up for tomorrow
I vote for separate. I prefer this thread not get junked up with posters' reactions to missed layups and free throws.
It will be fun watching Henderson vs Diamond Johnson, two PG’s in the 5’5” range. Johnson averaged almost 18 PPG as a freshman last season at Rutgers, she and Henderson both have the quicks. Gonna be a great matchup.
I was really impressed with her play with USA basketball over the summer.
Charlie Creme's observations about last night's game are a diplomatic way of asking: why is Victaria Saxton playing so much? Fair question.
But considering it was the first game of the season and the opponent is ranked in the top 5, I'm not sure why he expected the freshman to play very much.
www.espn.com
Charlie Creme: It still concerns and confuses me why more of South Carolina's offense isn't run through Boston. That was one of the reasons I was so anxious for this game -- to see if that would change. But using their highly successful defensive approach, the Gamecocks wore down NC State. They are going to do that to a lot of teams. The fact that South Carolina can beat another top-five team on the road without a stellar offensive performance speaks volumes to just how good this season should be in Columbia.
Aside from how Boston was utilized, I was also extremely curious about the rotation Dawn Staley would use. With her entire team back, plus the addition of the nation's best recruiting class and 6-foot-7 Syracuse transfer Kamilla Cardoso, the reigning ACC co-Defensive Player of the Year, the distribution of minutes could be tricky. Instead, Staley stuck to the same formula that worked a year ago, aside from sliding Cardoso into the game for 16 minutes (she only took one shot and had two points). The freshmen -- Raven Johnson, Bree Hall, Saniya Rivers and Sania Feagin -- totaled just 12 minutes (Rivers and Feagin didn't play) and didn't score.
This looked very much like the Gamecocks of 2020-21 as far as playing time is concerned, and South Carolina might not go as deep as many of us thought.
But considering it was the first game of the season and the opponent is ranked in the top 5, I'm not sure why he expected the freshman to play very much.
Everything we learned on the opening day of the women's college basketball season
A top-five clash, a 95-point victory and new faces in new places gave us plenty of takeaways to dissect as women's college basketball returned Tuesday.
Charlie Creme: It still concerns and confuses me why more of South Carolina's offense isn't run through Boston. That was one of the reasons I was so anxious for this game -- to see if that would change. But using their highly successful defensive approach, the Gamecocks wore down NC State. They are going to do that to a lot of teams. The fact that South Carolina can beat another top-five team on the road without a stellar offensive performance speaks volumes to just how good this season should be in Columbia.
Aside from how Boston was utilized, I was also extremely curious about the rotation Dawn Staley would use. With her entire team back, plus the addition of the nation's best recruiting class and 6-foot-7 Syracuse transfer Kamilla Cardoso, the reigning ACC co-Defensive Player of the Year, the distribution of minutes could be tricky. Instead, Staley stuck to the same formula that worked a year ago, aside from sliding Cardoso into the game for 16 minutes (she only took one shot and had two points). The freshmen -- Raven Johnson, Bree Hall, Saniya Rivers and Sania Feagin -- totaled just 12 minutes (Rivers and Feagin didn't play) and didn't score.
This looked very much like the Gamecocks of 2020-21 as far as playing time is concerned, and South Carolina might not go as deep as many of us thought.
DS addressed some of that in post game media. Complimented State in how they took away low post play. Said entry passes were not there some because of D and some because guards and posts timing is just not where it should be.
Noted that she was a bit surprised that Johnson and Hall did not play better. Noted that Raven several times called for the wrong play. Did not say if it was a misread or didn’t hear DS.
Also Said the point is to win so she shortened up rotation. Pointed out that Wes Moore did the same thing with Diamond Johnson and Madison Hayes
Noted that she was a bit surprised that Johnson and Hall did not play better. Noted that Raven several times called for the wrong play. Did not say if it was a misread or didn’t hear DS.
Also Said the point is to win so she shortened up rotation. Pointed out that Wes Moore did the same thing with Diamond Johnson and Madison Hayes
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The entry passes to Cardoso in particular were off. To be expected in her first game and the opponent is ranked in the top 5.
Charlie Creme aside, what I think we learned
• NCSU is a very good team and well coached
• We took care of business in a tough environment. Didn’t get rattled and calmly responded to every challenge thrown our way.
• Henny and Cooke are all grown up.
• We have at least 4 elite defenders Amihere, Beal, Boston, and Cardoso. 9 blocked shots, they had none. Come into the lane at your own risk
• Amihere is a nightmare matchup. She played strong, focused and under control. MAY THE BASKETBALL GODS CONTINUE THIS TREND, AMEN. DS may start Saxton but Amihere played more minutes and that trend will continue. DS may want to bring her off the bench as a jolt to the system.
• Did you notice, we actually pressed some. It was not all out but it made State use clock.
Amihere will play the point on this, i look forward to this.
As a bit of a look ahead, our first three games(NCSU, S.Dak, and CU) are all slow tempo, well coached, physical and very disciplined. All three are frustrating teams to play. They want a rock fight with the score in the 50’s.
DS has repeatedly said we are not tough enough. We will win the next two maybe even handily but large portions of each game is going to be physical and at times ugly basketball
• NCSU is a very good team and well coached
• We took care of business in a tough environment. Didn’t get rattled and calmly responded to every challenge thrown our way.
• Henny and Cooke are all grown up.
• We have at least 4 elite defenders Amihere, Beal, Boston, and Cardoso. 9 blocked shots, they had none. Come into the lane at your own risk
• Amihere is a nightmare matchup. She played strong, focused and under control. MAY THE BASKETBALL GODS CONTINUE THIS TREND, AMEN. DS may start Saxton but Amihere played more minutes and that trend will continue. DS may want to bring her off the bench as a jolt to the system.
• Did you notice, we actually pressed some. It was not all out but it made State use clock.
Amihere will play the point on this, i look forward to this.
As a bit of a look ahead, our first three games(NCSU, S.Dak, and CU) are all slow tempo, well coached, physical and very disciplined. All three are frustrating teams to play. They want a rock fight with the score in the 50’s.
DS has repeatedly said we are not tough enough. We will win the next two maybe even handily but large portions of each game is going to be physical and at times ugly basketball
Surprise, thought i’d get it out early
Game is televised on ESPNnews
South Dakota WBB PREVIEW
Clearly we have much better talent just like the last two years. We won by 10 and 13. No blowouts.
Both years they dogged us to the final buzzer like we had stolen their favorite bone.
They are very well coached, disciplined in their offensive and defensive principles, tough with no back down in them.
We will win, maybe even win big, but we WILL be bruised and get nothing easy.
They return their whole roster and add three freshmen.
5’10 guards Chloe Lamb 15 ppg and Liv Korngable 16 ppg were all conference C 6’2” Hannah Sjerven 17 ppg and 10 rpg was CPOY
They are all 5th year seniors!
Maddie Krull was all freshman and averaged almost 10ppg. She is a Hoopgurlz top100 recruit #67.
Those four are the heart and soul of the team.
Jen Ugofsky 6’0” is the fifth starter. The bench gave spot minutes. It has some size on it, Williston a solid 6’4” transfer from Oklahoma. Pretty big drop off when they sub
They run a motion O with lots of screens, not a good 3 point team. They have a good assist to TO ratio(hell of a lot better than ours)
On D, man to man normally but I doubt so against us. Very disruptive on ball handlers, caused almost 20 turnovers per game.
Surprisingly they are not a strong rebounding team
Game is televised on ESPNnews
South Dakota WBB PREVIEW
Clearly we have much better talent just like the last two years. We won by 10 and 13. No blowouts.
Both years they dogged us to the final buzzer like we had stolen their favorite bone.
They are very well coached, disciplined in their offensive and defensive principles, tough with no back down in them.
We will win, maybe even win big, but we WILL be bruised and get nothing easy.
They return their whole roster and add three freshmen.
5’10 guards Chloe Lamb 15 ppg and Liv Korngable 16 ppg were all conference C 6’2” Hannah Sjerven 17 ppg and 10 rpg was CPOY
They are all 5th year seniors!
Maddie Krull was all freshman and averaged almost 10ppg. She is a Hoopgurlz top100 recruit #67.
Those four are the heart and soul of the team.
Jen Ugofsky 6’0” is the fifth starter. The bench gave spot minutes. It has some size on it, Williston a solid 6’4” transfer from Oklahoma. Pretty big drop off when they sub
They run a motion O with lots of screens, not a good 3 point team. They have a good assist to TO ratio(hell of a lot better than ours)
On D, man to man normally but I doubt so against us. Very disruptive on ball handlers, caused almost 20 turnovers per game.
Surprisingly they are not a strong rebounding team
South Dakota lost by 2 last night to Oklahoma. SD shot 59% from the free throw line. That turnout to be the difference in the game. They won almost every other statistical category.
Will see if I can find the game on YouTube and scout. I have really been impressed with them the last two years.
Cohesive, tough, well coached and just don’t give a $hit about what name is on the front of their opponent’s jersey
Here is their preseason media day. I think somebody hires her at P5 job
Amihere is taking that next step....already an elite athlete, she is getting zeroed in this season on her BB skills and awareness, she is going to be a beast this year.
No doubt. Dawn's got some tough decisions to make about playing time, but that's why she gets paid the big bucks.
Odds and ends
After 12 turnovers in the first half, we then turned the ball over twice in the first 5 minutes of the third quarter.
NO TURNOVERS IN THE LAST 15 MINUTES OF THE GAME
CUNANE scored 6 pts 2 on Boston, 2 on Cardoso, 2 on Amihere.
We won all 4 quarters
Beal 3-5 with a 3 pointer
Saxton 1-2 with a confident knockdown 15 footer
Amihere 4-4 in the paint 0-2 on outside shots
With Henny out of the game in the first half Littleton was functioning as PG. most of the time
NCSU had 30 rebounds but oddly 9 of them were team rebounds, meaning it was basically a loose ball that went out on us. Talk about bad luck for us!
The starters for S Dak played 37, 36, 35, 30, and 28 minutes. Lot of minutes
After 12 turnovers in the first half, we then turned the ball over twice in the first 5 minutes of the third quarter.
NO TURNOVERS IN THE LAST 15 MINUTES OF THE GAME
CUNANE scored 6 pts 2 on Boston, 2 on Cardoso, 2 on Amihere.
We won all 4 quarters
Beal 3-5 with a 3 pointer
Saxton 1-2 with a confident knockdown 15 footer
Amihere 4-4 in the paint 0-2 on outside shots
With Henny out of the game in the first half Littleton was functioning as PG. most of the time
NCSU had 30 rebounds but oddly 9 of them were team rebounds, meaning it was basically a loose ball that went out on us. Talk about bad luck for us!
The starters for S Dak played 37, 36, 35, 30, and 28 minutes. Lot of minutes
Press them and tire them out. They most likely are a 3 point shooting team. Get out and stuff that.
I hope not, she is a wonderful player and that would just about sink their season!
Horston is in street clothes on the bench and the refs are just jobbing S Illinois in the fourth quarter
This may open the door for UGA to finish 2nd behind us...I was hoping it would be Carolina #1 and UT#2 in the SEC with UK #3....my hope was for UGA to finish near the bottom...of course I believe they will finish much higher due to the players they have coming back...
Tenn looked really bad. That roster has a bunch of slow players. I could see them missing the tourney this year.
They really did. In their defense they were missing Horston and Burrell.
Tamari Key all 6’6” of her was being guarded by a slow chubby 6’0” Saluki, she scored 5 points and got 6 rebounds. If Burrell has a torn ligament UT will be lucky to finish 8-8
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Interesting that Hall played while Rivers and Russell didn't play. I imagine all three with play against South Dakota, but I wonder if Hall would be the first one off the bench. I'm guessing the decision was based on defense. The tough man-to-man defense Carolina players can't afford any weak links. If players have to scramble to help, then that leaves open shooters on the floor.
The unit that finished the game -- Henderson, Zia, Beal, Boston, Amihere -- is scary good defensively. NC State didn't have any good option to go to. They are not used to Cuane getting the ball in the post and the opposing team not doubling her.
The unit that finished the game -- Henderson, Zia, Beal, Boston, Amihere -- is scary good defensively. NC State didn't have any good option to go to. They are not used to Cuane getting the ball in the post and the opposing team not doubling her.
Coach loves to press when Lele's in the game. She's so long and athletic. Don't know if she will use it without her. Henderson and Cooke are kind of short, so it's easy to pass over them. But pressing could still wear SD down over time. We'll see.
I definitely think defense was the deciding factor. She pretty good at it according to Dawn and she's a tall guard. I feel like certain rotations will be based on the opponent. I can see a scenario where the opposite is needed and we get Rivers for her offense and Hall not seeing the floor. Dawn has her work cut out for her.
What's really impressive to me to go along with defensive presence of those you mentioned is that we won and extended the lead despite Boston playing 10 less minutes than last year and she still maintained a similar output as last season as well. If we can continue to rest players and get better results, we have the potential to be dangerous.
Whe we press Amihere will be at the point. She is tall, long and fast. She will be a helluva a double team. Boston or Cardoso at the back of the press.
Amihere is the Silva of fouls. She usually gets whistled very quick and often. If South Dakota can't shoot 3's they are in trouble already.
