Non-Lady Vol Basketball News 2023-24

[lvocd]

Yeah, losing someone many analysts were predicting would be the eventual SEC Player of the Year is a blow very few teams could absorb smoothly. But it has been a particularly awful nightmare for A&M because they are more dependent on their star than any team I’ve seen in years.

 

[Amb3096]

Yeah, losing someone many analysts were predicting would be the eventual SEC Player of the Year is a blow very few teams could absorb smoothly. But it has been a particularly awful nightmare for A&M because they are more dependent on their star than any team I’ve seen in years.

They came back nicely to cruise to a 27 point win.

They have a strong wing and post game. In the absence of Carter, they need one of the guards to become a scoring threat.

 

[djtee]

Stanford freshman standout Jones injured in win

 

[NeedOrange]

I think Tara and Muffet might disagree

Muffet has won a lot of games, but a good coach doesn't throw her team under the bus or break down in tears during the presser. I had a higher opinion of MM, but now think a lot of coaches could have had her success if they had ND as a recruiting tool. If you look at her recruits over the years they consistently fit a profile of midwestern kids who went to a Catholic high school.

Tara does a fabulous job because her recruiting pool is limited. She can only recruit players with 4.0+ grade point averages. She gets some good ones, but most players can't qualify for Stanford and before you say it Stanford makes no athletic exceptions.

Kim is the most accomplished CURRENT WBB coach by a long shot. I also think you guys have a good one (and the right one) in KJH.

 

[NeedOrange]

I admire your enthusiasm but where were you during Holly’s last 3 to 4 years amidst that not giving any best shot against the most dismal of opponents ?

Holly was able to recruit all of the talent she had because of the LV legacy. If the legacy wasn't starting to slip as teams that had never beaten the LVs started to win regularly, she would still be the coach.

 

[mike099]

Stanford freshman standout Jones injured in win

Hopefully she will be ok. Is Stanford still missing one or two key players to injury? Stanford and S.C. are 2 of the teams that will be in the hunt for the final 4.

 

[NewDog]

UConn is below their standard of excellence this season IMO.

Their “core 4” are inconsistent. Neither Williams nor Walker show up night in night out. Dangerfield seems consistsnt except she is hung over from surgery. ONO seems back to being meek They don’t start Irwin as a Senior because she is that much improved. She has gone from 4 of 4 on treys to being afraid to pull the trigger. She starts because she is the best of the remainder. The second coming of Gabby Williams see’s little playing time. Now that your guys are into conference play will Geno use these games to develop her for post season? Her defense is clearly better than Irwins. The “great” shooter from Poland doesn’t seem to be that great

Lastly I watch a fair amount of UConn on ESPN 3 and this years individual personalities don’t seem to translate to good Team chemistry. There seems to be a lack of happiness. Are Williams or Walker transfer candidates?

After that 4th quarter meltdown against Baylor this team looks beatable by many. Granted Geno put them through a grueling few days but he does that every season as prep for post season NCAAT

What player "Shows up night in night out"? Every player has a stinker once and a while. Walker has been as consistent as anyone in the country.

She has 20+ points in 9 games, 19 points 3 times. In the other 5 games, she had 14, 15, 15, 17 and 18 points. Pretty darn consistent.

Dangerfield is looking great. I'm not sure where you are seeing a hangover for her from the surgery.

ONO is a work in progress but she has really good skills. Looking forward to the match up with Keys.

Second coming of Gabby Williams? I guess you mean Griffin. She had a nice game today against Tulsa with 11 points. Her stats are similar to Williams's freshman season.

Can't argue about Irwin. But she does things on the court that Geno really likes.

The great shooter from Poland, Makurat, is just fine. She had 21 points in the Tulsa game and her three point shooting is at 38% after starting 0-11. Watch out for her. She is a star in the making.

Transfers? You're a funny guy. They all look so miserable.

 

[NeedOrange]

UConn is below their standard of excellence this season IMO.

Their “core 4” are inconsistent. Neither Williams nor Walker show up night in night out. Dangerfield seems consistsnt except she is hung over from surgery. ONO seems back to being meek They don’t start Irwin as a Senior because she is that much improved. She has gone from 4 of 4 on treys to being afraid to pull the trigger. She starts because she is the best of the remainder. The second coming of Gabby Williams see’s little playing time. Now that your guys are into conference play will Geno use these games to develop her for post season? Her defense is clearly better than Irwins. The “great” shooter from Poland doesn’t seem to be that great

Lastly I watch a fair amount of UConn on ESPN 3 and this years individual personalities don’t seem to translate to good Team chemistry. There seems to be a lack of happiness. Are Williams or Walker transfer candidates?

After that 4th quarter meltdown against Baylor this team looks beatable by many. Granted Geno put them through a grueling few days but he does that every season as prep for post season NCAAT

So you must have done really well in your creative writing course or is it that you have been infected with the fake news bug. Either way, if you are desiring credibility, posts like this are not the way to achieve it.

 

[Darth_Vol]

A&M is tied 8 - 8 vs Florida after 1 Qt. Just shows you how losing a player that takes and makes so many shots hurts you.

Or shows how you should probably wait until after the first quarter to write off a team...

 

[MSUDuo]

UCLA was without one of its top players, Onyenwere, who is third in the Pac-12 in scoring with 18.9 points per game. She sprained her ankle during practice earlier in the week.

Missouri State lost because they really aren't that great a team. I doubt that they win their conference or wind up in the Top 25.
Their ranking was based on their NCAA Tourney performance last year and their win at pre-season ranked Minnesota in the first game of the year (I doubt that Minnesota will be in the Top 25 by the end of the year). They lost to Gonzaga, and Oregon State, barely beat Boise State, Missouri and Drake. Their vaunted RPI will start dropping like a stone, they don't play another Top 50 team the rest of the season.

I root for all the Missouri teams, but I call it like I see it. MoSt went 1 for 11 on three pointers. That usually won't get you a win against even a mediocre team.

We are going to get every team's best shot, especially on the road and yeah, if we have an off-shooting night (we're top 15 in 3pt %) we're likely to get beat, just like any other team.

If we were ranked based on our NCAA Tourney run, we would've have started there; not taken 5 weeks to get ranked. This team won 25 games, the MVC tournament, and made the Sweet 16, lost only 1 senior and you know how many preseason All-MVC players they had? 0.
Barely beat Boise? An NCAA team, on the road.

Barely beat Mizzou? A rivalry game. Anything goes.

Barely beat Drake? The MVC preseason favorite? Face palm there.

You're forgetting wins AT OU (who has beat LSU and WVU); AT South Dakota (top 25 team). Moral victories are worthless but for the record, we were leading Oregon State in the 3rd quarter by 8 before running out of gas playing our 3rd road game in a week in the Preseason WNIT.

UNI and Drake are both in the top 50 RPI.

You're right, our RPI did drop. To #2...

People want to act like non-P5 conferences are weak, so be it. At least do some research first. #7 conference right now. Teams who have be historically bad have turned this around, at least for this year. The conference earned 10 wins over P5 schools in the non-conference.

But hey, you keep calling them like you see it...

 

[MSUDuo]

Undefeated (preciously) UCLA goes down to Cal 68-70. This is a a case of an unranked team in conference (8-8 record) knocking off the #7 team in the country!

For those who are interested #19 Missouri State also goes down to S. Illinois with a score of 68-70. S. Illinois record was 9-6 coming into the game.

Both of these games could be considered “cupcake games” in the conference but turned out to be good ones.

@Raebo here is some of the parity in women’s basketball that you were so desperately searching for.

@MSUDuo anything from the Mizzu St crowd or fan boards as to what happened in this game?

Off shooting night (1-11 from 3). We're top 15 in 3pt %. It was bound to happen, we're not a perfect team and we still have a first year HC.

The MVC is vastly improved this season (top 7). We are going to have to play our best ball each night to get it done.

The next 7 will truly tell us where we are.

 

[Raebo]

I am not arguing nor am I naive that parity in the women’s game has been slower than the men’s. However I am also not naive enough to think that the sports had equal footing as far as exposure, money dumped into it, etc to have the sport grow as fast.

Well it sounds like we pretty much agree but worded it differently. You say parity has been slower than the men’s. I said it is still a problem. I do believe it is a whole lot better than when UConn/UT blewout almost everyone by 40 or 50 points and they won the NCAA every year. I hated men’s basketball when UCLA won something like 7 in a roll. When their dominance ended, men’s basketball got better, at least for me.
I did not say that I would probably get flamed because I wanted an argument. I said it because I know how some posters are. If I said it was a sunny day and if there was one tiny cloud that momentarily covered the sun, some poster would come in and say I was wrong and that it is a cloudy day. Oh well.

 

[VA_VOLFAN]

Well it sounds like we pretty much agree but worded it differently. You say parity has been slower than the men’s. I said it is still a problem. I do believe it is a whole lot better than when UConn/UT blewout almost everyone by 40 or 50 points and they won the NCAA every year. I hated men’s basketball when UCLA won something like 7 in a roll. When their dominance ended, men’s basketball got better, at least for me.
I did not say that I would probably get flamed because I wanted an argument. I said it because I know how some posters are. If I said it was a sunny day and if there was one tiny cloud that momentarily covered the sun, some poster would come in and say I was wrong and that it is a cloudy day. Oh well.

Uh huh

 

[VolBall09]

Hopefully she will be ok. Is Stanford still missing one or two key players to injury? Stanford and S.C. are 2 of the teams that will be in the hunt for the final 4.

It looked like probably a significant knee injury last night. She did return to the bench with ice on her knee which might be a good sign though, maybe just a bad sprain. Looked like an ACL though and she laid on the court for a long time before going back to the locker room.

And yes, they have two other players who would be playing heavy minutes out. Carrington might return any day from the sound of things, she is a player that they really miss right now, aside form Kiana Williams she is their best creator. She can get to the bucket and score even when the play breaks down. Maya Dodson has been in a boot all season, not exactly sure what’s wrong but I’m kinda thinking at this point shell try to redshirt even if she could come back to play the last part of the season.

 

[mike099]

Or shows how you should probably wait until after the first quarter to write off a team...

Noted

 

[VolBall09]

I’m having a hard time buying 4 big 10 teams in the top 25 above us. I think as a whole that conference is considerably worse than last season. Just because they all keep beating each other doesn’t make them good.

Rutgers currently sits second in the Big 10 and has only two losses total and one conference loss to Indiana but isn’t ranked? Maryland (4 losses), Iowa (3 losses all to unranked teams), Indiana (4 losses) are all ranked above them and us. Michigan, Minnesota and Michigan State have also been ranked at times this season and fell out. Come tournament time I’ll be shocked if there is more than one Big 10 team in the sweet 16. No way they deserve to have 7 teams in the top 25 at some point this year. Obviously putting a lot of stock in SOS and RPI, the Big 10 teams aren’t passing the eye test for me though.

 

[LVsinceJV]

I’m having a hard time buying 4 big 10 teams in the top 25 above us. I think as a whole that conference is considerably worse than last season. Just because they all keep beating each other doesn’t make them good.

Rutgers currently sits second in the Big 10 and has only two losses total and one conference loss to Indiana but isn’t ranked? Maryland (4 losses), Iowa (3 losses all to unranked teams), Indiana (4 losses) are all ranked above them and us. Michigan, Minnesota and Michigan State have also been ranked at times this season and fell out. Come tournament time I’ll be shocked if there is more than one Big 10 team in the sweet 16. No way they deserve to have 7 teams in the top 25 at some point this year. Obviously putting a lot of stock in SOS and RPI, the Big 10 teams aren’t passing the eye test for me though.

I'll be at the Indiana @ Maryland game tonight, will have the honor of eyewitnessing Big 10 & Brenda's mediocrity (lol hating). Keeping my eye on the Lady Vols and the SC/MSST games too.

 

[PointGuard]

So you must have done really well in your creative writing course or is it that you have been infected with the fake news bug. Either way, if you are desiring credibility, posts like this are not the way to achieve it.

Thanks for the tip on being credible And here I thought you guys, after the meltdown in the last 5 min or so with Baylor and got your arses beat went on to barely beat the next 3 bottom feeders in the AAC. So did I misread - you beat them more than 30 each like prior seasons?

Nah, I stand by my statement. UConn ain’t the team it’s been. And that my friend is a credible statement They may get better before NCAAT time. But my comment is before your Tulane game

 

[mike099]

Watching the SC-MS game and really entertaining game. Lots of dribble drives by both teams. Really like Ty Harris and Boston for S.C. and Jackson for MS.

 

[VolBall09]

PS I hate Alabama.

 

[VolBall09]

Will have to watch after this, but I see SC gave up 29 points in the second quarter. They have been solid defensively. Surprised MSST got that much going on them.

 

[mike099]

Will have to watch after this, but I see SC gave up 29 points in the second quarter. They have been solid defensively. Surprised MSST got that much going on them.

I am watching this game. Watching Tennessee play stresses me out too much. This game is back and forth in the 3rd qt

 

[Rooster1]

SC won a close game vs. MSU tonight, it could have gone either way in closing minutes/seconds. Both squads made clutch shot after clutch shot. Those are the two best teams in the conference right now by a good margin.

 

[NeedOrange]

Thanks for the tip on being credible And here I thought you guys, after the meltdown in the last 5 min or so with Baylor and got your arses beat went on to barely beat the next 3 bottom feeders in the AAC. So did I misread - you beat them more than 30 each like prior seasons?

Nah, I stand by my statement. UConn ain’t the team it’s been. And that my friend is a credible statement They may get better before NCAAT time. But my comment is before your Tulane game

Agreed UConn is not the team it's been. But who has ever lost just 6 games in 5 years (that's 228 wins). No one has ever had such a dominating won lost record while playing a top 5 schedule every year. So saying we are not what we have been just means we may not be a nationally dominant team, just one of the best in the country. We don't expect to dominate ike that ever again. But the 2020, 2021, and 2022 classes do have commits that may prove this year's team is an aberration.

Before the Tulane game I was worried if we would right the ship. I almost put a post on here that I thought we could lose on Thursday and we are still very capable of putting up a stinker. The LV length is intimidating and could help swing the game to the orange side. And if you can come out and fire some 3's we could be in trouble. But your guard play is too weak. If UConn is hitting it's shots so that you have to take the ball out of bounds our pressure D will be a real problem for your guards getting into an offensive flow. That will put a premium on your offensive rebounding. If you miss on the offensive glass, that opens the transition game for us.

Geno will play 4 guards outside. They are all quicker than the LV guards. It will be lots of motion with multiple picks and hard cuts. Leave a 3 point shooter open? Megan shoots 44%, Crystal shoots 42%, Kyla shoots 52%, Anna has shot 54% in the last 5 games and is at 38.5% after starting 0-11. Those stats are against at top 5 RPI.

One thing that may surprise you is that you will probably find a hospitable crowd there. I read today that there are still 500 tickets left so the crowd is guaranteed 15,500. Most UConn fans look at the parallel paths of the LV's and our men's team and really want you to become great again. Oh some are stuck in the Taurasi/meeks era, but you guys have some of those too.

I want a great game. I want a challenge. When the dust is settled I expect a 15 point win. Something in the 75-60 range. You will come out of the game better and so will we.

Good Luck

 

[Rooster1]

UConn doesn't scare many opponents this year, like in year's past.