#8 in new AP Poll

[Cuango]

South Carolina is good this year. Worthy of a number one ranking this year? Yes.

BUT

We are not some unstoppable juggernaut. We have not blown everybody away. Duke, UNC, Utah, and LSU have pushed us to the final minutes this year. UConn is better than those teams.

LSU didn’t have a “closer”. UConn does. Paige has already proven she can wield the final minutes dagger against a Dawn coached team. If y’all can hang around the whole game, Geno will prevent the mistakes that LSU made in the stretch run on Thursday.

I don’t think Kamilla will be there. And I think her primary backup, Watkins, will be in foul trouble down the stretch. Even if she is in the game at the end, she has been known to make mistakes when under pressure

We both have sim games to play before we meet. Good luck!

No. It will not be a miracle upset if you beat us. It will just be a mild upset.

Right!,,,

 

[maple]

C’mon. The (NET) number 2 beating the NET number 1 would be only a mild upset.

Agreed. UConn might have a depleted roster but they’re still one of the handful of teams that the casual fan would “expect” to be able to beat SC.

It would be an upset but most people would not be completely shocked.

 

[Cuango]

Not even close. UConn is a Top 10 team with the 2021 National player of the year, an All American HM, and a bunch of top 15 ranked players. The greatest upset of all time would be Butler beating SCarolina, not UConn

Yeah, call me when another team is playing 5 on 12 on the road with the undefeated #1 team in the country. It’s not the talent disparity in this case but rather the fact that we’re playing the #1 team in the country, on the road, with effectively five players, only one of which is above 6 foot, while they have 12, five of which are over 6’2” And whose guards, traditionally their weak spot, are now number one in the country on three point percentage! You say we have “a bunch of top 15 players” but I’m only seeing five that are likely to have any kind of major effect in this game.

Yes, we have played way beyond the sum of our parts, because as good as those parts are, there are not very many of them. We’ve been able to avoid the one mishap that would negate the skill of our players and the unbelievable job that Geno and his staff have done. What is that, you ask? Well, it’s foul trouble, especially on Aaliyah and/or Paige! How have we managed to avoid the foul problem? Because, since Geno went to the current lineup, we really haven’t had to face any highly skilled bigs, much less five of them on one team and of course, our players are relentlessly trained to avoid fouls!

That is exactly why, imo, this would be such a huge upset. Not the skill, we have the best player I’ve ever seen on our team! I just don’t think our undermanned team, as good as they are, as courageous as they are, will be able to avoid foul trouble against such an overwhelming advantage in skilled numbers! Obviously, most of the teams we’ve played, and beaten, also had more players than us. None of them, however, were South Carolina! I think Dawn, as she should, will attempt to make this into a very physical game that will directly attack our biggest weakness, which of course, is our depth.

She already showed us this strategy in the recent game with LSU where they were able to foul out Angel Reese which effectively won the game for them. We have way less margin of error than LSU did, so I think it’s pretty clear Aaliyah is going to be in for a tough night. Now, she is very good at avoiding foul trouble but I‘m just not sure she’ll be able to overcome the sheer numbers they will throw at her.

I want us to win, I desperately hope we win, but realistically, it’s just not very likely. I am somewhat encouraged though, by the fact that our South Carolina friends here are trying very hard to present this game as if it were very close and could go either way. So, they are either legitimately concerned or, more likely imo, just covering their bases on the off chance of an upset. (I’m hoping for “legitimately concerned” obviously)
Either way, I still say it would be a huge upset were we to beat SC in this game. Glorious for us of course!

 

[Drfla]

Good defense while Muhl was in. Her dumb fouls really hurt. Defense awful once Ice Brady in for Nika.
This team will not sniff the Top 10 the rest of the year, no matter how many 30 point Big East wins they get

 

[Darwin]

South Carolina is good this year. Worthy of a number one ranking this year? Yes.

BUT

We are not some unstoppable juggernaut. We have not blown everybody away. Duke, UNC, Utah, and LSU have pushed us to the final minutes this year. UConn is better than those teams.

LSU didn’t have a “closer”. UConn does. Paige has already proven she can wield the final minutes dagger against a Dawn coached team. If y’all can hang around the whole game, Geno will prevent the mistakes that LSU made in the stretch run on Thursday.

I don’t think Kamilla will be there. And I think her primary backup, Watkins, will be in foul trouble down the stretch. Even if she is in the game at the end, she has been known to make mistakes when under pressure

We both have sim games to play before we meet. Good luck!

No. It will not be a miracle upset if you beat us. It will just be a mild upset.

Uconn is not better than LSU.

 

[maple]

Agreed. UConn might have a depleted roster but they’re still one of the handful of teams that the casual fan would “expect” to be able to beat SC.

It would be an upset but most people would not be completely shocked.

Actually, after tonight's performance, maybe it WOULD be a shocking upset.

 

[bbsamjj]

I think tonight's game also shows why the NET is not the be all end all.

ND, ranked #14 in NET, tonight beat UConn, ranked #2 in NET, shortly after losing their second game of the year to Syracuse, ranked #40 in NET.

 

[Skeets]

I think tonight's game also shows why the NET is not the be all end all.

ND, ranked #14 in NET, tonight beat UConn, ranked #2 in NET, shortly after losing their second game of the year to Syracuse, ranked #40 in NET.

No measurement is perfect. If there was such a measurement there would be no such thing as gambling because everyone would know the winner before the game was played. Heck, the game wouldn't even need to be played. So NET, and everything else, can't tell you what is going to happen tomorrow. At best, NET tells you about yesterday.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Yeah, I agree Kneepkens was a big loss for Utah. I’m a little unsure of the context of this comparison of her with Pili?, but she is not even in the conversation with Pili, who is a player that can and has put that team on her shoulders and won games they had no right to win. Kneepkens is a nice player but Pili is a/the star on that team.

Women’s college basketball is a guards game, Geno has always said that, and if you want to disagree with the greatness coach in the history of women’s college basketball then I don’t know what to say. Case in point, UConn’s loss to ND yesterday. We had two big bodies on the floor yesterday (Ice and Edwards) and it didn’t matter. That little freshman guard for ND ran circles around us. If you think Utah (minus Kneepkens) could beat Iowa or even the UConn team we saw get blown out yesterday then I have a bridge to sell you.