Your unfamiliarity with the Pac-12 is on display here.
Well Utah isn’t in the mix for being a number 1 seed by any means, but they do have some impressive points on the resume with wins over USC and UCLA now.
Lol first of all, there's no rule against scouting your opponents more than a game in advance. Teams do this all the time anyway.
Yes, I read the post just above this explaining such. You’re correct, I haven’t followed the PAC 12 closely in my life. I’m a sports fan in North Carolina who has developed an interest in women’s basketball over the last 3 or 4 years. So while I know overall themes and story lines of the past on a national scale, I only can attest to being more acutely familiar with the triangle schools here in NC as well as the ACC.
Ok
Glad you appreciate these qualities. And I appreciate how most of the visitors to this forum from other fan bases tend to respect other teams without making negative assumptions about topics they're uninformed on.
I am not so sure you are paying attention here. #1 Alyssa Pili is Utah’s best player and was selected as Conference POY last year in the PA. Gianna Kneepkens was lost due to injury in early December and she was the Utes second best player and best outside shooter. Utah got royally hosed by the PAC12 refs in both their losses to Stanford and Arizona. So despite Arizona not being top 25 ranked, as of this posting they are in the mix for an NCAA bid. And as our favorite Duke colleague often says, throw out the book in the rivalry games (think about St. John’s beating UConn last year at UConn) as it happens so don’t be looking down so condescendingly on Utah, this is a very good team who has overachieved.
I’m not intending to be negative or disrespectful. I didn’t know the reason for the Friday/Sunday scheduling in the Pac12 and while now I have learned the logic behind it and can understand that, I still hold my opinion that it isn’t an ideal situation. I also know that I’m just one person and not any sort of authority on the subject, I could be wrong. Maybe the coaches in the pac 12 prefer playing 2 games in 3 days throughout the season and wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t know.
Consider the likelihood that if all the coaches hated it, they wouldn't be doing it.
| 1 | South Carolina (17-0) | 800 | 1 | 32 |
| 2 | Kansas State (19-1) | 724 | 7 | 0 |
| 3 | Colorado (16-2) | 678 | 3 | 0 |
| 4 | UCLA (15-2) | 673 | 5 | 0 |
| 5 | Stanford (17-2) | 657 | 8 | 0 |
| 5 | Iowa (18-2) | 657 | 2 | 0 |
| 7 | North Carolina State (16-2) | 560 | 5 | 0 |
| 8 | Connecticut (16-3) | 556 | 10 | 0 |
| 9 | LSU (18-2) | 551 | 9 | 0 |
Kneepkens is only a junior and will be back next year, was PAC 12 FOY, Shot 39% from 3. Her loss is huge. Pili is just as important, depending on the oppositions defense. All things considered, Kneepkens is a bigger loss. Tall, fast guards who can hit the three are harder to come by than a slow big body with decent footwork.
I agree, playing so many 2 games in 3 days will put you in a rhythm of familiarity that it certainly could help come March.
Uconn was a different team than...They are a lot better
I feel Utah is a top 5 team when Alissa Pili has a good game. And she usually does 90% of the time. They have a very difficult schedule.
NET:
Thing with Utah is their learning to adjust without Kneepkens. She was a big part of their offense. They are a good team and not having their starting PG Palmer as well. She is making it back but I think Viera has done a really nice job for them in a pinch. When Palmer is full go they could go with a 2-PG attack. No one should look over Utah.
True but a top 5 team with a strength of schedule at 46 is hard to take.
That's not egregious. It's comparable to, or better than, the current SOS rank of many other top 25 teams, e.g.:
I wouldn't worry. UConn has a starting 5 of 3 seniors and 2 freshies. The bench is 2 freshies and 2 cheerleaders and 5 out for the season. You get any of the starting 5 in foul trouble and it's over.
Yes, and Catlin Clark had a field day with us last year. We had 5 WNBA players from last years team. No one gave IOWA a chance. Catlin single handedly showed American what it takes to beat Goliath. You don't think Paige along with Edwards could pull it off?
UConn doesn't have anyone like Caitlin Clark. You will never in your lifetime see a UConn player go for 45+ whereas Clark has done that a few times just this season alone. It's not that we don't have players capable of it, but the system and the coaches will never allow it.
That is not necessarily a good thing. - Watched her play against Rutgers - She was not very efficient that game. Paige is very efficient this year
I forget the exact percentages now but Clark v the rest of the team shot about the same against SC. The team as a whole had been together for three years and had a higher shooting percentage than Clark last year, as a team they were 51+%, top two or three best offense with Clark’s teammates being even more efficient than her. In other words, without either Clark or very good shooting from her teammates Iowa would have lost. Pair Clark with, say, “only” the tenth best offensive team and they would have lost to SC.
How many did Paige score the last time you beat us?
It was 31 points on 14-26 shooting, 1-6 3pt, that one was the dagger, and 2 of 2 from the line. She was also the only player from either of the teams to play all 45 minutes.
