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2021-2022 WBB Team

I hope you are right come Tournament time.

On Sunday, they played a tough and physical team. We played a crippled Oregon team that had three starters out. Their top 9 players played that entire game on Sunday. By contrast, everybody on our roster played against Oregon and our starters rested in the 4th.

We destroyed them in the 4th quarter. Reason or coincidence? I think we will have the clear advantage at home in January. But what matters is March - if we meet again.
Nah. January. Bring it
 
Six games into the season, 3 top ten games, 2 other teams that will probably win their conference and our lone cupcake Tillman tech.
Let’s compare stats to end of season from stats last year

2020-2021 is listed first

Fg% 44% to 49%
Opponents 36.4 to 34.5
3 pt% 34% to 39.3
Opponents 27.6 to 26.5
Ft% 68% both years
Rebound margin 14.4 to 17.6
Blocks 7 to 7.9
Scoring per game 75 to 76
Opponents scoring 58 to 51.4
Scoring margin 17.3 to 24.7
Assists 14 to 16

Across the board improvement and against better competition EXCEPT

TOs 14.1 to 16.6
 
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NC State destroyed Maryland 78-60, that @NC State win looking better and better. Funny how the ELO rankings still have Tennessee ahead of us, what kind of crap is that? Tennessee barely beat Texas and USF, and hasn't beaten a top 10 team while we beat 3 away from home convincingly. Whoever in charge of the ELO rankings must be a big time vol lover because that's horrible.
 
NC State destroyed Maryland 78-60, that @NC State win looking better and better. Funny how the ELO rankings still have Tennessee ahead of us, what kind of crap is that? Tennessee barely beat Texas and USF, and hasn't beaten a top 10 team while we beat 3 away from home convincingly. Whoever in charge of the ELO rankings must be a big time vol lover because that's horrible.
Charlie Creme had us as the #1 overall seed playing State in Greensboro in the regional. Only after we beat UCONN did he place Iowa in our regional as #2. What a joke.

He may be correct that the committee will be eager to place both of us in Greensboro. Hopefully both State and Carolina will keep winning and not allow that to happen.
 
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NC State destroyed Maryland 78-60, that @NC State win looking better and better. Funny how the ELO rankings still have Tennessee ahead of us, what kind of crap is that? Tennessee barely beat Texas and USF, and hasn't beaten a top 10 team while we beat 3 away from home convincingly. Whoever in charge of the ELO rankings must be a big time vol lover because that's horrible.
It appears Maryland is allergic to playing D and just falls apart when somebody actually defends them. This loss to State coupled with their loss to Texas in sweet 16 paints them as A paper tiger.
Give Tennessee props, have beaten two top 25 teams without Burrell and have the second hardest OOC schedule in Sec. They have games left with Stanford, VaTech and UCONN. Clearly Harper believes this team can compete and is toughening them up for conference and post season
 
Also important to note that Maryland is down two starters, still a good win for NC State. I just wish UConn could have stayed down for number 3 for a few weeks.
 
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Charlie Creme had us as the #1 overall seed playing State in Greensboro in the regional. Only after we beat UCONN did he place Iowa in our regional as #2. What a joke.

He may be correct that the committee will be eager to place both of us in Greensboro. Hopefully both State and Carolina will keep winning and not allow that to happen.
He's probably thinking State will be a 1 seed in another region.
 
Charlie Creme had us as the #1 overall seed playing State in Greensboro in the regional. Only after we beat UCONN did he place Iowa in our regional as #2. What a joke.

He may be correct that the committee will be eager to place both of us in Greensboro. Hopefully both State and Carolina will keep winning and not allow that to happen.
I think you are a little too hard on Charlie. He updates bracketology weekly. Because of that the seeds fluctuate, sometimes wildly in early season. That is especially true this season with so many top teams playing each other.

He knows his stuff particularly non power five and teams on the fringe
 
It will be interesting how the brackets will end up in March. Usually they try to avoid having the same teams play each other multiple times. But with many top teams facing each other this season it might not be as easy to prevent. Considering we play them twice before the tournament, I'm pretty confident we won't face UConn no sooner than the Final Four, no matter what their seed will be.
 
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Have we seen enough of how Dawn uses Boston and Cardosa to see a trend? Both on the court together or playing Cardosa to rest Boston?
 
I think you are a little too hard on Charlie. He updates bracketology weekly. Because of that the seeds fluctuate, sometimes wildly in early season. That is especially true this season with so many top teams playing each other.

He knows his stuff particularly non power five and teams on the fringe
I didn't mean to imply that Creme hates us. He actually picked us to win it all in his pre-season picks. I think his predictions are based off what he believes the committee will do. My concern is that they might be eager to put us and NC State both in Greensboro. But if State keeps playing the way they are, then that will be hard to justify.
 
I didn't mean to imply that Creme hates us. He actually picked us to win it all in his pre-season picks. I think his predictions are based off what he believes the committee will do. My concern is that they might be eager to put us and NC State both in Greensboro. But if State keeps playing the way they are, then that will be hard to justify.
I may be wrong, but I think the selection committee went to a true S curve last year. IF I am correct that would mean geography would not factor into site assignment, except for the #1 seeds
They could have done that just for last year as the tourney was centrally located.🤷‍♂️
 
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Have we seen enough of how Dawn uses Boston and Cardosa to see a trend? Both on the court together or playing Cardosa to rest Boston?
Cardoso's minutes are not very good right now. We continue to lose points off the lead when she's in there. Again today. Dawn is giving her minutes to try and figure it out. She's got a lot of upside.
 
The bad stuff first:

We jumped out to a 10-0 lead, and led by as much as 16 20-4 in the 2nd half, thanks to a Henderson 3-ptr. at the 2:12 mark. A few seconds earlier at the 2:55 mark, Dawn puts in Cardoso, Amihere, and Hall to play with Henderson and Beal. At the 1:23 mark, they both come out for Rivers and Littleton. Elon makes their 1st 3-ptr to pull within 13 20-7 at the end of the 1st Period.

During those 8 minutes until the 5:12 mark when Saxton comes back in for Cardoso (Cooke comes back in for Rivers at the 9:14 mark, Henderson comes back in, and Russell also comes in, for Littleton and Hall at the 7:46 mark, and Boston comes back in for Amihere at the 6:11 mark) Elon out-scores us 11-5. USC goes 1 for 6 from the field, with 5 turnovers, 2 fouls (both by Rivers), and only out-rebounds the much shorter Elon 6-5.

As it was, we must thank the heavens above we started the game 10-0, because the scoring was dead even 23-23 the rest of the half. We had 9 turnovers for the half, and our bench only contributed 2 pts, both on free throws by Rivers and Cardoso.
Both teams were tied in bench points contributed at the end of the 3rd qtr., with 4 each.

The good stuff:

The Gamecock starters were always in control of the game - again, they jumped out to a 10-0 lead to start, had it to 20-4 until the reserves started coming in, and then returned after the Elon run to score 11 of the 13 2nd qtr. pts and keep the Phoenix at a distance. They then came back out for the entire 3rd Qtr. and essentially doubled Elon's scoring, 19-10, to stretch out the lead to 52-33.

The 4th Qtr. was ALL Gamecocks bench, as they out-scored the Elon bench 27-5. Feagin with 9 pts on 4-4 shooting in 7 minutes was great. Amihere's shooting was not so great, but she hit her first 3-ptr. since her freshman season, and finished with 7 pts. Cardoso also had 7 pts and 5 boards.

Beal and Saxton combined for 15 pts on 5-7 shooting - 2-3 from the 3-pt. line for Beal - with 14 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks.

We had only 4 turnovers after the half, and out-rebounded Elon 45-21 for the game. The team overall shot 6-11 from behind the arc, with 5 players hitting at least one. Olivia also hit a three!

The next opponent - NC AT - is even a poorer team than Elon was. I don't think they've won a game yet this season....
 
The bad stuff first:

We jumped out to a 10-0 lead, and led by as much as 16 20-4 in the 2nd half, thanks to a Henderson 3-ptr. at the 2:12 mark. A few seconds earlier at the 2:55 mark, Dawn puts in Cardoso, Amihere, and Hall to play with Henderson and Beal. At the 1:23 mark, they both come out for Rivers and Littleton. Elon makes their 1st 3-ptr to pull within 13 20-7 at the end of the 1st Period.

During those 8 minutes until the 5:12 mark when Saxton comes back in for Cardoso (Cooke comes back in for Rivers at the 9:14 mark, Henderson comes back in, and Russell also comes in, for Littleton and Hall at the 7:46 mark, and Boston comes back in for Amihere at the 6:11 mark) Elon out-scores us 11-5. USC goes 1 for 6 from the field, with 5 turnovers, 2 fouls (both by Rivers), and only out-rebounds the much shorter Elon 6-5.

As it was, we must thank the heavens above we started the game 10-0, because the scoring was dead even 23-23 the rest of the half. We had 9 turnovers for the half, and our bench only contributed 2 pts, both on free throws by Rivers and Cardoso.
Both teams were tied in bench points contributed at the end of the 3rd qtr., with 4 each.

The good stuff:

The Gamecock starters were always in control of the game - again, they jumped out to a 10-0 lead to start, had it to 20-4 until the reserves started coming in, and then returned after the Elon run to score 11 of the 13 2nd qtr. pts and keep the Phoenix at a distance. They then came back out for the entire 3rd Qtr. and essentially doubled Elon's scoring, 19-10, to stretch out the lead to 52-33.

The 4th Qtr. was ALL Gamecocks bench, as they out-scored the Elon bench 27-5. Feagin with 9 pts on 4-4 shooting in 7 minutes was great. Amihere's shooting was not so great, but she hit her first 3-ptr. since her freshman season, and finished with 7 pts. Cardoso also had 7 pts and 5 boards.

Beal and Saxton combined for 15 pts on 5-7 shooting - 2-3 from the 3-pt. line for Beal - with 14 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks.

We had only 4 turnovers after the half, and out-rebounded Elon 45-21 for the game. The team overall shot 6-11 from behind the arc, with 5 players hitting at least one. Olivia also hit a three!

The next opponent - NC AT - is even a poorer team than Elon was. I don't think they've won a game yet this season....
Good review, thanks! A&T lost to Elon by 23
 
Some weird upsets today
Stanford lost to #23 S Florida
Got beat on the boards by 14! Had a very weird substitution pattern Wilson and Pretchel started and played a total 10 minutes.
Brink had a very good day. Something hinky there

UCLA lost to Kent
Va Tech lost to Missouri St

Lot of top teams losing
 
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Some weird upsets today
Stanford lost to #23 S Florida
Got beat on the boards by 14! Had a very weird substitution pattern Wilson and Pretchel started and played a total 10 minutes.
Brink had a very good day. Something hinky there

UCLA lost to Kent
Va Tech lost to Missouri St

Lot of top teams losing
South Florida is very athletic. Stanford's lack of athleticism is going to be a problem for the Cardinal.
 
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I finally got to watch the whole game. Some of the less talked about players impressed me today. Saxton had a few good tough rebounds that were key early on and she had a great shot through a triple team. Beal doing what we need as being a threat from the outside and continuing to play tough. Russell showing her maturity and got a lot of rebounds and made mostly good passes.

Overall our biggest issue still remains to be turnovers. No matter if it's traveling or sloppy passes, we really need to clean them up and not give our opponents any momentum. Having said that, I think the ball movement with this team is beautiful at times especially when they involve Cardoso. She's been good at times with both her reception and dishing of those passes. Clean up the turnovers and shorten the dropoff when mixing in players off the bench and I think we have ourselves a team they everyone else should be afraid of.
 
I finally got to watch the whole game. Some of the less talked about players impressed me today. Saxton had a few good tough rebounds that were key early on and she had a great shot through a triple team. Beal doing what we need as being a threat from the outside and continuing to play tough. Russell showing her maturity and got a lot of rebounds and made mostly good passes.

Overall our biggest issue still remains to be turnovers. No matter if it's traveling or sloppy passes, we really need to clean them up and not give our opponents any momentum. Having said that, I think the ball movement with this team is beautiful at times especially when they involve Cardoso. She's been good at times with both her reception and dishing of those passes. Clean up the turnovers and shorten the dropoff when mixing in players off the bench and I think we have ourselves a team they everyone else should be afraid of.
You're right about Saxton. I've been critical of her at times, but she has been very impressive in the last 5 games. Her +/- is consistently in the 20+ range. The team plays well when she's on the court and that's without her shooting very much.

I agree that Russell has some really impressive moments, but at the end of the day we were -9 with her on the court in a 40 point blowout. That's kind of hard to do. Too many poor decisions with the ball.

Feagin worked herself up from 4th quarter minutes to 3rd quarter minutes. Maybe she can get some 1st half minutes now. She strong around the basket and doesn't miss layups.
 
I finally got to watch the whole game. Some of the less talked about players impressed me today. Saxton had a few good tough rebounds that were key early on and she had a great shot through a triple team. Beal doing what we need as being a threat from the outside and continuing to play tough. Russell showing her maturity and got a lot of rebounds and made mostly good passes.

Overall our biggest issue still remains to be turnovers. No matter if it's traveling or sloppy passes, we really need to clean them up and not give our opponents any momentum. Having said that, I think the ball movement with this team is beautiful at times especially when they involve Cardoso. She's been good at times with both her reception and dishing of those passes. Clean up the turnovers and shorten the dropoff when mixing in players off the bench and I think we have ourselves a team they everyone else should be afraid of.
You hit on some very key points. Saxton and Beal are not primary scorers but they do the all the dirty work; defend, screen, box out, and run the floor. They have worked hard to not be a liability on offense. If they can do enough to keep double teams away from the others we win handily most games.

Turnovers seem to be self inflicted by this team. It’s not like defenses are hounding us into bad play. I choose to call them turnovers of aggression. We are trying to score..... and a player makes a pass that is a little to late/early, thinks they can do more than they can, or over penetrates, this especially drives me crazy. Every team we play knows how hard we go to hoop and is looking to draw the charge. An open pull up 5 footer is a great shot🤦‍♂️

Scoring balance is a key in our substitution pattern. E.G. If Zia and Boston are out, Henny needs other scorers so defenses don’t cheat.

Again Gamekem, wonderful post.
 
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You hit on some very key points. Saxton and Beal are not primary scorers but they do the all the dirty work; defend, screen, box out, and run the floor. They have worked hard to not be a liability on offense. If they can do enough to keep double teams away from the others we win handily most games.

Turnovers seem to be self inflicted by this team. It’s not like defenses are hounding us into bad play. I choose to call them turnovers of aggression. We are trying to score..... and a player makes a pass that is a little to late/early, thinks they can do more than they can, or over penetrates, this especially drives me crazy. Every team we play knows how hard we go to hoop and is looking to draw the charge. An open pull up 5 footer is a great shot🤦‍♂️

Scoring balance is a key in our substitution pattern. E.G. If Zia and Boston are out, Henny needs other scorers so defenses don’t cheat.

Again Gamekem, wonderful post.
A number of these turnovers are walks. This seems to be a point of emphasis this season. Not just us.
 
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