Another take on "Cupcakes."

[msf22b]

The coach of the Mercer Bears was non too please of the demolition of her team at the hands of Notre Dame, the other eve. At least this one coach has second thoughts. (On ESPN)

"I've learned my lesson," Gardner said. "Our program is just not ready for this, at this level."
She said she doesn't think such lopsided affairs benefit either team or help them prepare for their conference schedules.
"We're not like anyone in their league and they're not like anyone in our league," Gardner said. "It's just a game on the schedule."

 

[Phil]

Sometimes there is value. The Holy Cross coach seemed to think so, although his thinking may have been changed recently. I think they can be useful if they serve a purpose, or there is a connection. Sadly, sometimes the "purpose" is financial. I don't know much about Mercer, what was the rationale behind the scheduling?

 

[UConnCat]

Sometimes there is value. The Holy Cross coach seemed to think so, although his thinking may have been changed recently. I think they can be useful if they serve a purpose, or there is a connection. Sadly, sometimes the "purpose" is financial. I don't know much about Mercer, what was the rationale behind the scheduling?

I seem to recall that Mercer was scheduled as a homecoming game for one of the ND players last year. I think the Mercer coach also had some things to say about the beat-down in Georgia last year which was worse than this year's rout. I'll see if I can find her quotes.

 

[UConnCat]

The coach of the Mercer Bears was non too please of the demolition of her team at the hands of Notre Dame, the other eve. At least this one coach has second thoughts. (On ESPN)

"I've learned my lesson," Gardner said. "Our program is just not ready for this, at this level."
She said she doesn't think such lopsided affairs benefit either team or help them prepare for their conference schedules.
"We're not like anyone in their league and they're not like anyone in our league," Gardner said. "It's just a game on the schedule."

Au contraire. I bet your team would defeat Seton Hall.

 

[doggydaddy]

Holy Cross coach after an EIGHTY point loss two years ago -

On how his team played:
“I thought we really played well in the first half. I thought our freshman showed some good things, some good signs. Defensively we weren’t great, we didn’t communicate. I spent the whole halftime telling them that they were going to play zone in the second half. It was the same defense we played against in the first half and we all of a sudden lost our composure. I guess it’s a good lesson from that stand point.”
On his team’s defensive play:
“I’m disappointed with our defense because we decided we wanted to play a man to man but we played a little bit zone to sprinkle it in, and in our man to man defense we didn’t talk. We aren’t going to beat anyone if we don’t talk and communicate and have five people playing as one and that’s the biggest disappointment.”
On his team’s second-half play:
“For the first time I blasted them, I didn’t think we competed in the second half, regardless of the blowouts I think we’ve always competed. We competed in the first half and our young guys competed, but I thought we went into our shell a little bit and lost our competitive nature and that’s not Holy Cross Basketball. We have to have amnesia on this one and go down to Quinnipiac and get a win because we played well against Yale and then just lost our composure and made some freshman mistakes and tonight we did the same thing and didn’t compete. I’m just going to try and just keep our freshman with us, Geno even said our freshmen are going to be good and I do believe that but we need some leadership from our older guys in letting them know that we have to talk and make five players one in the offense and defense if we’re going to get to where we want to get. I still think that we’ll get better as the season goes on.”


No whining here. No "woe is me and our team" here.

I'll ask you again, what do you want to do about it? You can't play all ranked teams. And what is the difference between a 30-40 point loss and an 60-80 point loss?

 

[pinotbear]

Gee, first lasagna, now cupcakes, and all this Thanksgiving turkey-talk. Y'all are making me hungry.

As for cupcakes, give me yellow cake with chocolate frosting. mmmmmm!

 

[msf22b]

Doggy
Not suggesting any rememdy
Just wanted to make the point that the issue is not clear cut
After our previous discussion, this quote jumped out.
FYI only.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Last year I provided a list of what I called the "whores", the little sisters (3 teams stood out) who played incredible tough OOC schedules, presumably for the money. Not so much of that going on this year.

I think there are benefits if the team finds them, it depends on the coach's purpose. Prairie View, under Cooper-Dyke, played a tough OOC but translated it into almost undefeated conference records. Old Dominion, when they were a "tweener" (still winning the CAA but no longer a "national" power), probably viewed the tough games similarly.

 

[RadyLady]

So some try it and don't like it. I still stand by the reasons I cited in the other thread:
Us:
$$ for the game
Opportunity to try out combos and plays in a game situation

Them:
Experience - playing against a team that is much higher ranked
Teaching - learning new things from the much experience team

the coach can manage the expectations of the team so that they know what they are getting into - approach is everything

As a side note and not that this is relevant, and I am only mentioning it - I don't really like the term "cupcakes". I do, however love to eat them.

 

[Jim]

One reason for a lesser-ranked team might like to play UConn is that 25 years from now their players can tell their kids "I once played against WNBA star _________". Getting blown out by ND doesn't provide a similar benefit.

 

[EricLA]

one other benefit for the other teams - usually when UCONN comes to town, they get a huge bump in attendance. it's a nice way to get the students to the game and any other fans to come out and see their team go against the best program in the nation over the past 15 years.

 

[ndmb]

One reason for a lesser-ranked team might like to play UConn is that 25 years from now their players can tell their kids "I once played against WNBA star _________". Getting blown out by ND doesn't provide a similar benefit.

Skylar Diggins?