lawcalcock, I appreciate your posts-----
- Thread starter jfdubya
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It will be a faster uptempo team with great guard play... A lot of 5 star depth at the guard spot... Cuevas will be back.. The only question is will her knee heal in time for her to get on the floor before January... Te'a Cooper is the real deal... Destanni Henderson is brilliant on the fast break with mad ball handling skills.. She is a good shooter as well.. Kiki, Alexis and Lele will have to up the ante next season.. The talent is there...But they need to have a great off season...Bianca Jackson has superstar potential if she gets stronger and fitter in the off season...
I have no doubts Coach Staley will work the transfer circuit for help on the wings and in the post...Victaria Saxton an incoming freshman is the most athletic wing Dawn has recruited since Tiffany Mitchell.. Victaria is 6'2".. She rebounds like Aleighsa Welch and is a track sprinter.. She is a great scorer in the paint... If she can hit the 15 footers like Kiki, it will be glorious for our team...The question is how soon she can make the adjustment to SEC ball... Ty Harris and Bianca Jackson made the adjustment quicker than most.. We'll see
The team will be different and play much faster.. Think back to the Grant/Sutton squad that reached the sweet 16.. The program will continue it's excellence.. We'll contend for the SEC title again next season.. It's hard to think how we will fair nationally until we see what Dawn can add to the roster in terms of immediate help
I have no doubts Coach Staley will work the transfer circuit for help on the wings and in the post...Victaria Saxton an incoming freshman is the most athletic wing Dawn has recruited since Tiffany Mitchell.. Victaria is 6'2".. She rebounds like Aleighsa Welch and is a track sprinter.. She is a great scorer in the paint... If she can hit the 15 footers like Kiki, it will be glorious for our team...The question is how soon she can make the adjustment to SEC ball... Ty Harris and Bianca Jackson made the adjustment quicker than most.. We'll see
The team will be different and play much faster.. Think back to the Grant/Sutton squad that reached the sweet 16.. The program will continue it's excellence.. We'll contend for the SEC title again next season.. It's hard to think how we will fair nationally until we see what Dawn can add to the roster in terms of immediate help
“Everybody wants to be famous,but nobody wants to do the work. I live by that. You grind hard so you can play hard. At the end of the day, you put all the work in,and eventually it’ll pay off. It could be in a year,it could be in 30 years. Eventually, your hard work will pay off”
Ms Victaria Saxton
Ms Victaria Saxton
Hope you are right about BCM coming back. I have my doubts based on things I've heard, but we shall see. IF we have all those guards, there will certainly be some talent and depth that was missing this year. My bigger concern is the chemistry and if they can all get along.
I think next year will be a real drop-off. It may take another year or two before we will be contending for the SEC title. I think we make the tournament, but won't go very deep. Playing small ball requires some sharp-shooters. I don't think we have that right now.
A tidbit about Cuevas and Jennings...
https://www.postandcourier.com/spor...cle_5d755f46-31bc-11e8-a5ea-1b32dc3d0829.html
https://www.postandcourier.com/spor...cle_5d755f46-31bc-11e8-a5ea-1b32dc3d0829.html
I hope not, but I tend to agree. Significant drop-off. I don't think we've recruited nearly well enough to replace what we've lost over the last several years in Mitchell, Coates, BCM (assuming she gone), and A'ja. A'ja held this team together / carried them on her back this year. I hope to heck I'm wrong, but I don't see the success next season.
The outside game is going to have to improve dramatically to compensate for the decline of the inside game. Perimeter players are going to have to look for their shots - and hit them.
That's short sighted... The only SEC teams not losing their top players is Georgia and Texas A&M... Do those 2); squads scare you... I don't know that we'll win the SEC.. But we will be at or near the top.. This drop off theory is not rooted in roster awareness around the league...
Need is a strong word... We could use another big.. But if our returning bigs have a great off season, we'll be fine
That's a silly article... Niether will get drafted... Their best future lies in coming back... I am more concerned about Cuevas health than anything else... Dawn is making a carte Blanche remark due their age... She is not suggesting any lean.. The WNBA draft is not an option for either
I agree and would add that a guard based team is more potent than one that relies on the inside game once the tournament starts. A'ja was and always will be the best but we were at the height of our program when she had the guard play around her in 2017. Not a lot of A'jas out there.
No, we really do NEED another big. It is important to get another one in the program. Assuming Jennings is coming back next year, she will be a Sr and be gone the following year. When she leaves, the tallest player we will have in the program is 6'2" unless we bring in someone this year. Another big would need a year in the program to develop so that we don't have a big drop off in the front court after next year. In addition, Dawn needs to be recruiting a couple more next year to come in for the 2019-20 season.
I agree to a certain extent, but one of my points in a previous thread is that there is a lot of unknown and "Ifs" for next year. IF Lele and Williams can improve etc. Not concerned about what others have and don't have right now. I'm more concerned about what USC has and doesn't have right now - they don't have an All-American returning for the first time in a number of years (we've been spoiled) and we don't have consistent/proven big outside threat who is definitely coming back. Jackson certainly has potential to fill that role. We shall see.
The article states that neither will get drafted.... but with degree in hand (assuming they will graduate in May or August) and they have an opportunity to make money overseas, will they do that? Some would rather get paid to play they spend another year in college. That's their choice. Selfishly, I want them back here, but if they're done with want to go to classes etc, then I understand why they'd go play professionally.
Have you heard any rumblings about chemistry issues with Cooper and other players? That's something I've heard, and if true, it would be a concern.
exactly right... I believe Dawn has to supplement the roster with some scoring punch and defensive intensity on the wings... That's far more important than adding another post player... Right now there are more questions than answers... I kinda hope we don't have a dominant post to lure Staley back into slow it down and pound it inside mode... But I do know having great guards is the quickest way to get really good
No.. That was the label at Tenn... From what I have heard the players love her and are excited to have Herr on the team... Kind of difficult to have chemistry issues with a player that's sitting out... You have to play together to develop chemistry... Tune in around mid November
Yeah, will have to wait and see. I had heard that things were NOT all rosey with her and some of this year's players, but they were able to get a handle on it, perhaps because she was NOT playing. I guess we'll find out one way or another next season.
I guess to sum it up... it's been a heck of a ride the last 7 years, especially the last 5, and it's easy to get spoiled by championships of some kind year after year. So if the team doesn't win some sort of title OR doesn't even make the Sweet 16, some will consider it to be horrible. Those are good problems, but unless your name is UCONN, nobody sustains those kinds of runs without some hiccups here and there. Go Gamecocks!
As someone who takes my daughters to a lot of women's sports events ... graduation is tough this year with Savannah McCaskill gone from women's soccer and A'ja Wilson from basketball!
As someone who takes my daughters to a lot of women's sports events ... graduation is tough this year with Savannah McCaskill gone from women's soccer and A'ja Wilson from basketball!
Very well, then I am awaiting same on Gamecock MBB by an Irmo HS grad, so long as it is a positive piece. Almost desperately awaiting good news......
Concerning next season, I'll give you credit.. you're always positive, and that's a good trait to have even the day before the UCONN game
Euphoric hubris takes precedence over pragmatism around here. But that's OK. I can work with it, even as I always have.
Yep. It would be nice to push the tempo next year with our athleticism and ball handling, but our bigs need to be able to keep up.
