May bite us in the butt further down the line? These ladies are good, but so is everyone else that makes a final 4. I'm slightly concerned
Anybody else think these slow starts
- Thread starter 1SGgamecock
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No we are going to face teams every time out that will battle us. Long as we finish good im ok with it
I think this may be the thing. It's not that USC starts slow, it's that they take the best shot from everyone at first, but talent/coaching wins out.
Even when we get off to slow starts, our defense keeps us in it until we figure things out. Until I see a team light us up offensively, I won’t be too concerned. We gave up 45 points today. No team is beating us with that. The second half was a masterclass on swarming on ball defense.
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Not really. Watching the tourney- both men and women- lots of higher seed teams look a bit iffy at times (and some have lost).
I understand we can lose at any point pretty much but the slow starts don't bother me when we dominate like we did as the game went on.
Even the best teams have games that seem like a hard day at work more than a fun day at work.
Today, the first half seemed like a hard day at work, but we took what I think was their best possible shot and we still had the lead at halftime. The 2nd half was all us.
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Over 500 years ago, Michel de Montaigne said ,,, " My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened."
85% of what we worry about, never happens.
And that needs to hold true the next couple of weeks. There are four teams out there which worry the dickens out of me.
USF played a lot of high ball screens on offense which I dont recall us playing against much this year. It took the ladies a quarter to get their feet under them.
Yes. Miss. State ran interference for us the first year we won it, and Ole Miss did the same last night. But Stanford was not my biggest of the four worries. I just didn't expect them to lose at home to an eight-seed. Iowa bothers me. Indiana bothers me. LSU on a neutral court bothers me. UConn bothers me. Good news is we won't have to play them all.
All those teams have shooters. However, I don't see any of them being able to guard us and make us play differently. Stanford has been the only team over the past three years that can match our size and make us be more guard reliant on offense.
And your opinion is shared by many of our more knowledgeable fans - across three different Gamecock boards I post on and social media as well. I want to believe this.
I'm the nervous type. Too many wrenching Gamecock athletic disappointments in the most recent 53 years I've been a fan.
I think I'm influenced by my own opinion that this is the greatest athletic team South Carolina has ever fielded and that failure to win the national championship would be historically tragic. Who knows when we will ever have a team this great again? So, for the next two weeks, I worry.
I actually think the COVID team was better. Our stars now were freshman starters then and you had senior leadership at the PG and with Kiki. I wouldn't see this team losing as tragic and great teams have lost in survive and advance tournaments all the time. However, Stanford was the only team out there that could force us to go to Plan B. Not saying Iowa, Indiana, or any of the other teams out there can't beat us. However, they won't stop us inside and they won't stop us from crashing the offensive boards. They will have to beat us offensively. They will have to spread us out and be hot shooting from the outside to get it done. ....and they can't turn it over which is a difficult task against our defense.
Probably. They are a smallish team. So, you could match Zia and Raven with their 2 or even their 3. The biggest player that they play a lot is 6-3 and they are not overly athletic with the exception of Caitlin. However, they run good offense and all of their players can shoot.
Caitlin is in range when she crosses mid court. She’s unreal. Maybe Beal will wear her down.
Indeed. Teams have found we are a bit susceptible to give and go’s, hard screens for lane cuts, and back door cuts. I’m particularly worried about a much-improved UCONN because they do those things really well — and only Boston can handle Edwards in the lane. Edwards eats up LA and Kamilla in the lane.
It would be tragic here - which is all that matters - here.
What happened with the Covid team was extremely unfortunate, but there was no agony of defeat, hence no tragedy.
It won't be that way this year, should we lose. It would be the unquestioned nadir of Gamecock sports history to date.
We'd be using multiple people to maximize the pressure on her, in my opinion. We'll be all over her for 60 minutes.
I understand how strident my statements on this have been, but we're in extremely rarified air here, and especially in the context of who we have been athletically. Who knows when we will ever stand on such an auspicious precipice again?
It would be colossal and irremediable failure if this team does not grab the brass ring. No other interpretation would be possible. If we had three or four losses, that interpretation would not be sustainable and I would not advance it.
Ever heard of 1992 UNLV? 1985 Georgetown? 1974 UCLA? Prohibitive favorites can lose in these one and done style tournaments. Now, I hope it won’t happen, but colossal failure is a little strong. I hope the team is not listening to this type of talk because they would be wound so tight that they wouldn’t be able to perform. How about let’s focus on UCLA. They had a good game plan when they played us earlier in the year and we didn’t get control of the game until the 4th Quarter.
Take any team you want in history that was undefeated at this stage but wound up losing. How do you think THEY felt about coming up short? It was ignominious failure for them, and should it happen to us, it won't be any different.
All five of UCONN’s starters can mail 3-pointers with consistency — we only have two who can. Hate to say it but with almost everyone healthy again I’d give the edge to UCONN.
We only had two last year and we beat UCONN with ease. It will be their shooting and offensive system against our size, defense, and offensive rebounding. I would much rather play UCONN than Stanford. Not scared of UCONN at all. Not saying it would not be a tough game. However, UCONN will have the same problem that most other teams have with us. Boston and Cardoso had big games at their place.
Edwards destroyed everyone who tried to guard her last time we played — including Boston. With Dorka Juhause (sp?) ) and Ducharme back it will be much easier for them to score in the paint.
Edwards played well (25 and 4 Rebs), but she also got in foul trouble and Boston had 26 and 11 and Cardoso had 17 and 11. The tall transfer (I think Dorka) played and was not much of a factor. I actually like UCONN having all their players back with the big exception of Bueckers. That means they will give minutes to Azzi Fudd that should go to the Lopez girl. Lopez attacks the basket much better than Fudd. Also, we played at their place the last time. This will be on a neutral floor. So, I would much prefer a UCONN in a rematch (our team usually plays a team much better the second time around) than an unknown like Iowa.
Edit: Dorka played and had 5pts, 7 Rebs. Also, Zia, was pretty bad in that game and UCONN can't really depend on that again.
If we lose to ANYONE this particular year, it would be an irremediable disaster, specially now that we have come this far. How do you think Boston and the other four-year players would feel about it?
One game at a time King. Let's deal with UCLA. They have a good team. Led us for 3 quarters in our place. The girls don't need to be thinking about history, an undefeated season, or how they would feel if they lost. I guess fans worry and look ahead. However, I believe our fans should approach this to put as little pressure on our team as possible. One game at a time. One win at a time. Then, we can think about what it means historically when it is all over.
My 2 cents is yes it could. We have had home court and even though Greenville is “neutral” we will have a huge advantage there. We will have a home advantage in the Final 4 but it won’t be as big as the earlier rounds. If we mess around the neutral crowd will become our opponents fans.
Having said that we get everyone’s best shot. We are their national championship. It’s incredible we have been undefeated as long as we have. Hopefully we see it through to the finish but there are no easy games left. None.
Having said that we get everyone’s best shot. We are their national championship. It’s incredible we have been undefeated as long as we have. Hopefully we see it through to the finish but there are no easy games left. None.
I've already figured it out, whichever way it falls. People are running scared because this thing is getting real. They are girding themselves.
We appear to figure out what the opposition is doing by Q2, and our bench strength shows up.
Ok, maybe we found out the answer. My reverse psychology has worked though. Great 2nd quarter.
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