When I played basketball we were taught that it's better to take a good shot in offensive rhythm rather than throwing up a crazy shot and hoping for a foul call. Bowling into the defense and throwing up a hail mary almost never works for her (and by almost I mean 95% of the time lol). It's really ridiculous how often she does the latter in a typical game. What is that about?
UConn has not impressed me at all. But there's not a dominant team(s) out there so anything is possible if a team gets on a roll.
I think there is starting to be more parity in the women's game due to increased talent over the years and its being dispersed more to other good programs
Agree that there’s not a dominant team. But I do think UConn is peaking at the right time. I certainly think they’re a team that could win it all.
UConn with Edwards playing tons of minutes can be hard to beat unless you can shoot (Arkansas). Because their weakness was their lack of post presence on offense and defense. Defensively. Edwards neutralize a lot of teams post players. Offensively. Nelson Ododa can pull you out the paint and pass. Still not much separating them from other top teams but they can be very tough in the tournament.
I'm more confident in A&M as overall number 1 than any other team. They look complete to me, with an inside and outside game and they play solid physical defense. I feel you need to be able to be multidimensional and beat teams in multiple ways during the tournament. A&M can do that. I think NC State can as well, but I'm not ready to call them my overall 2. Stanford looks complete as well. Everybody else in the top 10 is lacking something in some way IMO. I think UConn is a good team but that engine is way too reliant on one player, which is unusual for a UConn team.
Sort of reminds me of Courtney Paris, who was killing it as a Freshman at Oklahoma until teams started to run the ball against them. Poor Courtney couldn't keep up and her production dropped way down her last few years in college. Perhaps Boston body is undergoing a metabolic change. That often happens to women at this age. They naturally gain weight and it affects their game.
The true issue for SC is that their only true great player is Boston, and as a center, she needs other players to get her the ball. SC guards have struggled with shot selection all year and, while not incompetent, aren’t deadeyes. Beal does many little things but has yet to emerge as a consistent scorer, and Saxton isn’t as dynamic offensively as MHH was.
She’s my favorite player in the country and you’d be hard-pressed to find five others who are better, but I do see where some of the posters here are coming from. Her FG% is <50.0, her blocking numbers have fallen the last few weeks, and her rebounding—while consistent at 10-11 per game—sometimes need to be closer to 15-16 for SC to win.
Couldn’t have said it better. Totally agree. It was kinda the same way Aja Wilson’s senior year, but Aja was so dominant she could always find ways to score.
Aliyah is a better rebounder than A’ja and at times a better shot-blocker, but the mobile and dominant forward she is not (yet). If she gets there, SC may be near-impossible to beat. In the interim, this is a team that will be exploited in the halfcourt.
I know the ultimate goal is for SC to look more like last season and less like this season... but in order for that to happen you need guards that are respected as shooters. Boston is also a better passer/facilitator than Wilson, but she can’t facilitate if she’s being triple teamed constantly whenever she’s on the block. As good as Boston is, we’re really not going to see how great she can be at the college level unless Cooke learns better shot selection, Amihere spreads her game out and Henderson continues her upward trajectory as an offensive and playmaking threat. Those 3 things seem key to me.
Uconn has not impressed you but Louisville has? That's a joke.
The talent around Paris got better, Danielle Robinson went on to be an All American, Whitney Hand gave them outside shooting the team needed her final 2 years so of course her numbers would do down some, but still 19PPG, 14RPG, 3BPG, isn’t really that bad.
Paris was a 4 time All American, 3 time Big12 POY, 2 time Big12 DPOY and she won the AP POY her sophomore year, that was all while being in college with players like Candace Parker, Candice Wiggins, and Maya Moore. Yes Paris had a lackluster WNBA career, but she’s definitely 1 of the best College centers to ever play the game, and IMO had a better career than Sylvia Fowles.
Bueckers puts them over the top but UConn has 4 starters averaging double figures and the 5th starter is at 9.8.
I never said that she became a bad player, she was still a very good center. However, she was not as effective as her Freshman year. After her freshman year they expected Oklahoma to dominate college basketball. But teams learned that if they sped up the game the coach would be forced to put her on the bench. Her playing time decreased and as such so did her impact on the game. In the half court she was unstoppable.
Cooke’s shot selection is a MAJOR issue for SC. Dawn once talked about wanting Zia to be the best 2-player in the country—she’s a long ways from it. Certainly not the best in her own conference (Arkansas and A&M guards say hello). She cannot launch 17, 19, 22 shots on >40% efficiency. SC is not productive enough in the halfcourt to make it work.
Paris was a terrific college basketball player, who carved out a 10 yr. WNBA career. However, a four time college AA, who only averaged 4 pts (and never averaged double digits) over that 10 years is telling. Conditioning and being "in shape" was always a concern for her, and it limited her professional success,
