I don't necessarily fault the coaching staff at UD for not putting together a better schedule. As we all know, those things are decided a few years in advance, and I am betting most of the top schools might be reluctant to put Delaware on the schedule with EDD, because it's a no-win situation for them. Win, and well...they were supposed to. Lose, and it's a big upset to lose to a mid-major. Similar to the Uconn situation when they played Tennessee, though of course UConn was ranked much higher and their coach just a tad better. That said, it was very obvious that Delaware couldn't keep up with a KU team that was much better conditioned. And again, the Big XII was down this year, and they finished sixth. With the argument that Delware wouldn't fare any better in the BE, that may or may not be true. It might have forced them to adapt to a style where other players contributed, it might have shown EDD earlier on what level her conditioning needed to be at to compete...who knows. I saw the Jackie Stiles team play twice the year they went to the FF, and they were in GREAT shape. She was a much different type player, though. Still, conditioning is something their coach needs to work on for next season.
I'm sure this is exactly part of the logic that led Rene Portland to refuse Geno long ago when he sought a game with PSU. Fortunately, Rene is gone and a new relationship can be built.
This is indeed all a very new experience for the Blue Hens, and not one they could necessarily have expected to be up against when putting together the schedule for the OOC games during the last few years. If you had told the coaches before the season that they would need to push the players to a top-10 team level of fitness (whatever that is) and focus on getting their players ready for cross-continental trips because they were going to be a #3 seed and had those type of expectations on them, they would probably have been a little surprised. Last year Delaware was considered maybe the 86th best team in the country. So this year they stepped up the program hugely behind a dominating EDD, had a dream season with incredible stats, and won both the respect and likely the jealousy of many. And what do we say about them at the end of the day? Well, of course we say that the Blue Hens were "exposed," that they were slow and unprepared, even though they had a fairly narrow loss. Can't we just say they lost? Do we have to say that Griner and the Bears were exposed in 2010 when they lost by 20 to UConn in BG's freshman year? Again, they lost. Now you may think that this is a down year for the B12 with only four teams in the top 25, but it is still rated well ahead of the other conferences. Kansas has had to painfully claw its way back after losing top scorer Carolyn Davis 10 games ago, and its lurching route back has included road wins at OK and Texas Tech along with the tourney win over Nebraska, so though they may not be a conference 9th place men's UConn team from last year, citing conference placement at this time of year doesn't mean all that much when a team is playing with heart and energy. UConn was a 3 seed in the BET in only the second-rated conference, but that really doesn't matter any more when we are deep in the tourney. Anyway, that's all I have to say on the Delaware story. I believe they showed themselves unexpectedly well, even if certain other critics just think they were exposed.
Sorry, one more for choochoo. Yeah, only having the nation's MVP on her team in her junior year was a real downer for Maya, and beside Tina Charles having other ordinary players like Tiffany Hayes and WNBA 13th pick Kalana Greene on the team didn't help either. Thinking before posting is usually a smart way to go. And I kind of doubt that Geno would have 7 rings if he benched players when they are shooting 9-18 and scoring 34 points with 10 rebounds. If he did that he probably would have been hired away by Boston College or Providence.
easy to forget that she's 6'5", isn't it. and what she's doing is called"pacing yourself". when you have to carry your team for 40 minutes, you learn to do that.
ex·pose verb (used with object), -posed, -pos·ing. 1. to lay open to danger, attack, harm, etc.: 4. to present to view; exhibit; display 5. to make known, disclose, or reveal Any team that has not played many good teams is vulnerable to this. DE played 3 decent teams, none since December. Then they finally came up with a team with some size and athleticism to challenge them. And they were beaten. KS made known that if you played EDD physical you could wear her down. KS presented for all to view that even a mediocre team from a power conference could stop anyone else on DE from doing anything. And if this travel theory has any merit, then it showed that being on their first trip left DE open to harm. None of these were known before since they had not played any teams that could test them in 3 months. They were exposed. And they were exposed as not being a top 10 team.
Coach Auriemma never forgave Coach Portland for that flat out refusal. Icebear, since you are well alware of the refusal, do you also recall which coach Coach Aureimma called next who immediately extended an invitation?
Thank you for publishing this expose. It helps again to remind us of all the teams that have been totally exposed over the years, like UConn 1999, Stanford 1999, Miami 2011+2012, FSU 2011+2009, Texas A&M 2010, West Virginia 2010, Ohio State 2010, North Carolina 2009, Auburn 2009, and on and on and on. Mid major Delaware as you wisely observe has not played a big power team since December (um, isn't that usually the definition of a low mid major like Delaware in the CAA?), but they can keep company with a lot of power teams that had high hopes going into the tourney but just exposed themselves as bad teams that their fans should be ashamed of. But as Dylan astutely observed, "Everybody must get exposed." What do you want Delaware to do for you VG to make up for their pretensions as the little team that tried to compete with the major conference teams? Did you get a bad egg from Delaware once, or is there something else that makes you have such a hate on EDD's team. You say: Teams know they can stop EDD by playing her "physical," the usual tired euphemism for beating up the star player on a team, same as the treatment Maya and DT often got. Pound her, give her back spasms. Right we know that can work very well if allowed, and please tell PSU that so they can go clothesline Tiff. UConn fans are well aware of the thug tactics and don't really like to be reminded of their effectiveness in uncontrolled situations. Again we know that sometimes players have bad games, but many of the Blue Hens players had some very good games coming into the tourney, and maybe I missed your fond congrats to them when they beat tourney teams such as Princeton, PSU, St. Bonaventure, and Nova before hitting the CAA schedule. But you being who you are, throw out the ineffective performance as the example for the whole season and say that proves your point that the team was a fraud. Beautiful logic, as always. Back in 2001, ND "knew" they could leave DT alone to do nothing and exposed her for ever. And that laughingstock men's Kentucky team proved once and for all that the 9th place Big East team can take out the top SEC team every time. This is indeed my brain on crack. Traveling long distances should never have any effect on any team. I totally agree, and the next time some college student from a high-seed complains about the rigors of flying all over the country to play games, I'll do my ViGorous best to slap her silly. Every team on the East Coast was dying to fly out to Little Rock with a legion of fans instead of being stuck closer to home like Chapel Hill. You don't see UConn complaining about the brutal trips to Bridgeport and Kingston. Traveling is fun, and good teams like UTenn and UConn are always imploring the committee to be sent far away from home, because that's where they play their best. The UConn men's team keeps asking for another tourney game in North Carolina or Texas. Crack turns to chasm. Wow, as always, just wow. Keep dropping the acid on Delaware, and I assume our two remaining mid-majors.
VAUConnFan said: ↑ Coach Auriemma never forgave Coach Portland for that flat out refusal. Icebear, since you are well alware of the refusal, do you also recall which coach Coach Aureimma called next who immediately extended an invitation? Take some more time. The invitation allowed UConn to exact immediate revenge that Coach Auriemma truly savored.
Not Immaculatta, but kind of in the same ballpark as far as the geographical connection. Assuming you have Coach Auriemma's books, the answer can be found just before the epilogue in Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection. A number of us here are likely to be surprised.
Oh for heaven's sake....it was Lady in Orange herself, who told ESPN she would do it "for the good of the game." And she did. And we should thank her, because much history has been made from that moment on. PS - VG -and you, too, Dobbs - please take a moment and calm yourself. This cannot be good for your blood pressure....but I must say I have enjoyed your exchanges....
Hell Hell, I've got a 5 mile run through the muck on Sunday morning, so flinging mud and getting the blood pressure up is good prep work. But yeah, time to get on to doing expostulating about PSU and the other games.
All right Icebear, it was C. Vivian Stringer at Iowa to whom Coach Auriemma requested to participate in a tournament back in 1989 when Rene Portland refused to schedule UConn. Coach Stringer was immediately accomodating. Ironically, UConn was paired with Penn State in that tournament and beat them in overtime, a victory Coach Auriemma savored. However, UConn lost by 32 the following night to Iowa. I have never believed there was ever more than a competitive feud between Coach Stringer and Coach Auriemma. A couple of years ago, Coach Auriemma had his players stay out on the court after a game at the RAC when Rutgers honored its seniors.
