A bit Half-Cocked? Sporting News Picks South Carolina as Preseason #1

[CaliHuskyFan]

Sporting News scouting report is out and up with its Preseason Top 20 - and sitting at the top of the roost is . . . USC East! While great exposure for a great program & coach, I think this makes for some mighty fine bulletin board material in the Husky locker room. SN doesn't play coy in predicting the next NC, stating emphatically, "The Gamecocks will be the 2016 NCAA Women's Basketball Champions"; citing their very abundant talent, depth, and leadership. You know, we got a lot of that in Storrs too. Here's their Top 20:

1. South Carolina
2. Connecticut
3. Notre Dame
4. Baylor
5. Ohio State
6. Florida State
7. George Washington
8. Duke
9. Tennessee
10. Oregon State
11. Arizona State
12. Louisville
13. Texas
14. UCLA
15. South Florida
16. Princeton
17. Chattanooga
18. Northwestern
19. Texas A&M
20. Maryland

 

[SCGamecock]

Link? I would LOVE to read this article hahaha...

FWIW, I'm a Gamecock and don't necessarily agree with this. We'll be good but I have no idea how good. And even then I still don't think there's anybody getting in the way of Breanna Stewart and her fourth title.

 

[sarals24]

Ha. Wut.

 

[triaddukefan]

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Wow, me too Kermie. Crash positions engaged.

 

[calpedaler]

Meh, whatever. One or two publication take a flyer every year. Plus, it's not like they went really crazy and picked Duke to win.

 

[UConnCat]

Good. The AP and Coaches' preseason polls will get all the attention and no one will remember or care what the SN's poll said. Still, it'll be good to have something Geno can mention to get the team's juices flowing. Making history with 4 straight national championships will provide a lot of motivation but it never hurts to point to doubters for that extra edge.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Does TSN still sell a print edition? Cause I can't find anything about NCAAWB on their online site.

 

[Alydar]

This is the same publication that ranks Joyner Holmes over Cox.

I remember back in the early 60's that the Sporting News made an almost annual prediction that the Celtics were too old to win a championship. The Celtics ended up winning 8 in a row.

 

[Alydar]

Heads must be exploding in Knoxville. Two spots below GW?.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

I'd love it to be true, but we'll have to see.

 

[Bayareahusky]

Yeah GW and Ohio State above Tennessee? Not taking this poll 2 seriously. I am going now to check these rosters.....!!!

 

[j66kicker]

Congratulations SC fans!

(Don't know why we're even going to bother with playing the season now...)

 

[2Husky]

Heads must be exploding in Knoxville. Two spots below GW?.

This is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. Clearly UT should be behind Chattanooga. As for the number 1 spot someone was bound to get it completely, utterly, laughably wrong at some point.

 

[alexrgct]

No biggie. Everyone knows that the three-time defending national champions with the key personnel returning are the #1 team unless/until proven otherwise. Stewie wants four and needs no further motivation, so stuff like this won't even make the bulletin board. Uconn knows what it needs to do.

 

[Kibitzer]

BFD

 

[CaliHuskyFan]

Link? I would LOVE to read this article hahaha...

FWIW, I'm a Gamecock and don't necessarily agree with this. We'll be good but I have no idea how good. And even then I still don't think there's anybody getting in the way of Breanna Stewart and her fourth title.

Does TSN still sell a print edition? Cause I can't find anything about NCAAWB on their online site.

The TSN still does sell a print edition. The college basketball issue is the only edition I buy of theirs. I tried to upload a scanned JPEG image of the two page article onto the Boneyard but I kept getting an error message.

South Carolina does scare me in 2016 -2017, Aja Wilson and others in her terrific recruiting class will be juniors. Perhaps Dawn will also have developed a reliable three point shooter by then. That seemed to be their biggest liability last season.

 

[CaliHuskyFan]

I apologize for the poor quality. I ended up taking a photo of the Sporting News Article as it is not available online.

[mod edit - Please do not post copyrighted material/articles in full on this site. Short quotes/excerpts are allowed. Links must be used to copyrighted material.]

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Thank you for the all the effort in putting that up. I guess working in four new players is about as good a reason as one can find to move UConn to 2nd. I kinda like it when the media doesn't think UConn is indestructible.

Just an off topic memory: I used to subscribe to the Sporting News in the 90's and one of the first issues I got was one with a big piece on UConn's incoming TAASK class. That was big news to me as I didn't have a computer at the time and didn't live in Connecticut.

 

[meyers7]

Does TSN still sell a print edition?

Just an off topic memory: I used to subscribe to the Sporting News

I think Sluconn has demonstrated the "Why" behind putting S. Carolina first.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

That blurb about SC's frontcourt group almost certainly being the best in the nation is a dynamite lighter as well.

 

[stwainfan]

The fact that GW is #7 tells me all I need to know on this poll.

 

[Frodo]

That blurb about SC's frontcourt group almost certainly being the best in the nation is a dynamite lighter as well.

Can you post the quote about SC front court? We had to deal with the same BS last year as well, when it was Ibiam, Welch, Coates and Wilson. Turns out that group was no match for Stewart, Tuck, Stokes and Mosquera-Lewis...and it wasn't close. I don't see any reason to believe that Coates, Wilson and White will be able to match up with Stewart, Tuck, and Butler, not to mention how SC will be able to match up with Collier or Samuelson.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Can you post the quote about SC front court?

It just said that SC's frontcourt rotation is likely to be the best in the nation; mentioned Wilson, Coates, White, and Imovbioh. The UConn section was pretty glowing as well, particularly about the freshmen.

 

[Carnac]

Sporting News scouting report is out and up with its Preseason Top 20 - and sitting at the top of the roost is . . . USC East! While great exposure for a great program & coach, I think this makes for some mighty fine bulletin board material in the Husky locker room. SN doesn't play coy in predicting the next NC, stating emphatically, "The Gamecocks will be the 2016 NCAA Women's Basketball Champions"; citing their very abundant talent, depth, and leadership. You know, we got a lot of that in Storrs too. Here's their Top 20:

1. South Carolina
2. Connecticut
3. Notre Dame
4. Baylor
5. Ohio State
6. Florida State
7. George Washington
8. Duke
9. Tennessee
10. Oregon State
11. Arizona State
12. Louisville
13. Texas
14. UCLA
15. South Florida
16. Princeton
17. Chattanooga
18. Northwestern
19. Texas A&M
20. Maryland


I agree with some other posters. The author of this article may have been on medication. Unless some of the historically lesser talented teams listed here have secretly built a juggernaut, and we don't know about it, I seriously question some of the schools listed in their top 20.

I too am going to look up some of the rosters of several of these programs. I know there was a exodus of several players from Maryland, but they've got to be better than 20th.

Interesting to see that UConn plays four of the top six teams listed here. That will be a real test of the strength and resolve of this year's team.
If you want to be the best, you've got to play the best.