WBB Game Thread: USC vs, Auburn
- Thread starter GeoCocky
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Absolutely she is good. She needs more game time. She is going to a monster. Dawn said that she may have the highest ceiling as far as potential. I think she is still a little timid because of the knee brace. Coates was an absolute clod as a freshman. Aja had rough moments too. I have no doubts that Amihere is going to be great. But right now she has a case of freshmanitis. Give her time. Not all freshman are as good as the three we have starting.
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I see more upside in Beal. She has the defense and rebounding and ball handling. She just needs to work on her shots.
Exactly right! She is the one highly rated freshman in our class that plays like a freshman. Some of our fans can supercritical to the point of silliness. Amihere is shaking off 2 major injuries in 3 years. She is going to a terrific baller for us. Might not get there until next season. But it sure would be nice to see her step up by March.
With her jumping ability and wingspan she is already a nightmare to shoot over. She has hit threes this year. Some folks forget how long it took Kiki to become a good player. Having three freshman that are as good as they are has spoiled a few.
We could have used Amihere last year when we got killed on the boards against teams with superior size (Baylor, Maryland, M State, etc). She is a presence out there.
I think we've been spoiled by Boston, who is freakishly advanced for a young post player. I'm confident that Amihere will learn over time and make better decisions with the ball.
I think we've been spoiled by Boston, who is freakishly advanced for a young post player. I'm confident that Amihere will learn over time and make better decisions with the ball.
Isn't it nice to have a class of players to fight over as to who will have the most upside in the end. LOL
I like Beal to. She has size, speed, gets rebounds, great defensive mind. She hit 2 of her three throws last night. Her shot making ability will come
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Did anyone catch the announcer say that this year's team is "better at all 5 positions" than the 2017 team?
That's crazy talk there. A'ja and Gray would clearly start for this year's team. Let's don't get carried away.
That's crazy talk there. A'ja and Gray would clearly start for this year's team. Let's don't get carried away.
2017 with Coates: (5) Coates (4) Wilson (3) Gray (2)Davis (1) Fr. Harris
2017 without Coates: (5)Wilson (4)Gray (3) Davis (2) Cuevas (1) Fr. Harris
2020 (5) Boston (4)Harrigan (3)Beal (2) Cooke (1) Sr. Harris
With Coates: 2017 team is better at the 4 and 3. It is a tossup at the 2 because Davis was a matchup problem although she was not consistent. 2020 is better at the 5 and 1. Boston is more versatile that Coates and of course senior Ty is better.
Without Coates: 2017 team is better at the 5,4, and 3. A'ja is better than Boston at this stage in her career, Cooke is better than Cuevas, and again senior Ty is better than Freshman Ty.
The thing that makes 2020 better is not the starting 5 but the bench.
The other thing that's better about the 2020 version is that we're a better defensive team (e.g., lower opponent's shooting %, more blocks / game) and we're much better on the boards (way more per game and much better rebounding differential).
No, when it comes to Amihere, there are 1-2 trolls who are DEFINITELY NOT South Carolina Gamecocks, and the only thing they do on this site, is trash every coach, every player, every key person involved with USC athletics. You don't need to take a single thing from me - just find the 1 or 2 posters who out of nowhere started trashing Amihere every game thread, then check out their posting history.
Clemson fans are kinder to our athletics than these trolls. If this site had any relevant moderation, those trolls wouldn't have much of a posting history here.....
Yep, at this point, the foursome of Wilson, Coates, Davis, and Gray are better than our top 4 of Boston, Cooke, Herbert-Harrigan, and Harris. But only slightly.
The difference is, once you get past those 4 from 2017, the offensive contributions drop off substantially than what the rest of the 2020 team is providing. This season's team does not have as big of holes in the overall team dynamic, as many of those A'ja Wilson teams had. For the most part, those teams had holes in the starting unit offensively. Asia Dozier was a very heady overall player, but she did not really bring a lot to the table offensively or defensively.
Khadijah Sessions was a good ball manager in transition offense - she was never that great at ball distribution, especially in getting the ball into our bigs Coates, Ibiam, or Wilson for much of her career: both Tiffany Mitchell and Dozier were better ball passers than Sessions ever was. And while Sessions would ultimately become a very reliable on-man defensive player at the end of her career, where she was being given the assignments against the top offensive guards for opponents - and did well in the job - she was never even a solid offensive contributor to the team.
Both Dozier and Sessions were primary starters after their freshman seasons. They were all we had - after the years of Sutton, Grant, and Walker leading the SEC and in the top 5 nationally in perimeter and scoring defense, it was a tough job to follow up on. But in 2013-14 we went 29-5, and those 5 losses were to our 4 toughest opponents (UNC twice). They deployed a simple, common defense:
That season we had 4 players for 3 positions: Mitchell, Aleighsa Welch, and Elem Ibiam and Alaina Coates playing the 5. Out of that group, Tiffany was the only dependable perimeter shooter - she still owns the SEC all-time single-season record for 3-pt FG %. We know where Ibiam and Coates would get their points, and Welch may have had a little 10-15 ft. jumper, but she was more of a fast, athletic dribble-driver to the basket for layups. So the opponents would face-guard Mitchell, and make it very hard for the Gamecocks to get her the ball, then the rest of the team would crash down hard on the paint, and blanket whoever of the bigs were in there.
This put pressure on Welch, who already had to go into that blanket defense waiting for her to get most of her pts, or become a preimeter jump-shooter, which she was not. Or, it forced either Dozier or Sessions, or whoever came in off of the bench, to hit perimeter shots to break up that defense and pull it back out.
Those 5 losses, Dozier and Sessions shot less than 24% and averaged around 3 ppg. We just had huge holes.
Then when Davis and Gray joined WIlson and Coates, our starting 5 carried the team the whole way to the title. The bench produced very little that year - Bianca Cuevas-Moore struggled earlier in the season and lost her starting job to freshman Harris, who at best averaged around 4-5 ppg all season. But after Coates went down, Cuevas-Moore became a strong defensive companion with Harris, and had some good scoring games. They (Cuevas-Moore and Harris) added enough to Wilson, Davis, Gray to help take the team all the way.
So this season, what we have is a slightly less starting 5 from the 2017 team, but it's a much more better balanced starting 5 with Harris and Cooke being just as dominant a pair of offensive sources as anyone else on the team. And we still have Boston and Herbert-Harrigan who also are very strong offensive players, and Beal is providing enough of everything to be more of a contributor than hole on the floor.
BUT THEN, what completes the whole thing, is our bench is as talented and productive of any bench Dawn Staley ever had, minus 2014-15, when both Wilson and Coates came off the bench to be the team's 2nd and 3rd-leading scorers, rebounders, and shot-blockers.
It's this great balance of consistent contribution from BOTH the starters AND reserves that's making this team so strong. It's the best OVERALL team that Coach Staley has had at USC. Whether they match the 2016-2017 version's results, we'll have to wait and see......
It's been an impressive regular season. I would love to know what percentage of time we've lead our opponents by double digits this season (75-80%?). We get off to fast starts and opponents have seldom been able to get the game back to single digits.
But, you're right, ultimately how the team performs in the post-season is what matters most.
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