Ap Poll Due Out Tomorrow Afternoon

[MilfordHusky]

And the #1 team will be?

If it is not Baylor, I'll be surprised.

I think we'll be 3 or 4. All the better to motivate our kids. They do not want to be 3 or 4. Or even 2.

 

[VAMike23]

ND at #1 is a possibility

 

[phil sampieri]

does anyone know if the Assumption game is being on CPTV ?

 

[MilfordHusky]

ND at #1 is a possibility

I find that a little humorous. They lost 8 games last year. Let them wear the bullseye for a change. To me, they should be 4-5. I think there is an irrationally exuberant ND bandwagon out there.

 

[Vowelguy]

I find that a little humorous. They lost 8 games last year.

Yeah, so? Many teams lose games before they start to gel.

They return 5 of the 6 key players, including a POY candidate, from a team that made the NC game.

 

[Vowelguy]

And the #1 team will be?

My top 10:

(1) Baylor
(2) Notre Dame
(3) Miami
(4) Texas A&M
(5) Stanford
(6) UConn
(7) Tenn
(8) Duke
(9) Louisville
(10) Georgetown
also: Kentucky, Maryland, Penn St, LSU, Rutgers

 

[VAMike23]

I predict:

1. Baylor
2. ND
3. Stanford
4. Connecticut
5. Tenn
6. Texas A&M
7. Duke
8. Miami

 

[NCorBust]

They lost three games to UCONN, but won the one that mattered most, the last one. So they were improving while UCONN maintained status quo?

I find that a little humorous. They lost 8 games last year. Let them wear the bullseye for a change. To me, they should be 4-5. I think there is an irrationally exuberant ND bandwagon out there.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Yeah, so? Many teams lose games before they start to gel.

They return 5 of the 6 key players, including a POY candidate, from a team that made the NC game.

Yeah, so? They are improved and will go from 8 losses to 4-5 losses. They made the NC game because Stef got in foul trouble. People are voting them high because they beat us, which in my view, was an aberration. I agree they are good--but not athletic. Good as in #5 good, not #1 good.

The ND public relations machine is working OT. Skylar is very good, but she is not Nneka Ogwumike or Britney Griner.

 

[VAMike23]

They made the NC game because Stef got in foul trouble. People are voting them high because they beat us, which in my view, was an aberration. I agree they are good--but not athletic. Good as in #5 good, not #1 good.

The ND public relations machine is working OT. Skylar is very good, but she is not Nneka Ogwumike or Britney Griner.

Griner is a unique player. But I think Diggins is as good as anyone not named Griner.

 

[Vowelguy]

The ND public relations machine is working OT. Skylar is very good, but she is not Nneka Ogwumike or Britney Griner.

Excuse me, my comments are based on my own observations of Diggins, not from any PR, which I havent seen anyhow.

 

[HuskyNan]

They made the NC game because Stef got in foul trouble. People are voting them high because they beat us, which in my view, was an aberration. I agree they are good--but not athletic. Good as in #5 good, not #1 good.

In the NCAA tourney ND beat, in succession, Oklahoma, Tennessee and UConn before losing by only 6 to A&M. That doesn't indicate a fluke, IMO. And as was noted earlier in this thread, 5 of 6 key players return for the Irish.

 

[Husky68]

If you match up starting teams ND vs Uconn and then say top 2-3 reserves, how many positions would you pick the ND player? Hard not to pick Tiff, Stef and Bria vs. ND players. So they have starter better than Faris, Doty or whoever else starts and their reserves are better than KML, Banks, Kiah and Heather/Michala and Lauren?

Is Diggins so much better than any Uconn player that it makes the whole difference?

ND can win 6 games in row to win it all (like A&M), just don't see them as dominant enough team to have sterling regular season record or be top 2 with Baylor and then everyone else.

Uconn didn't win in DT freshman year, but boy was she good by the end of her freshman year. That's the kind of player KML could be and the supporting cast of Tiff, Steph, Faris and Bria would give Bird, Ashia, Swin and Tamika a run for it and I'd rather have Doty, Banks, Kiah, Heather than Shuey, Moore, Battle, Valley and Conlon on the bench. Now if was counting Shea and Svet it would be a different story.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Griner is a unique player. But I think Diggins is as good as anyone not named Griner.

Skylar had 1 good game against us. Ok, it was the most important one, but it was 1 in 4. By the end of this year, Skylar may be as good as Nneka was last year, but she was not at the same level last year.

 

[MilfordHusky]

In the NCAA tourney ND beat, in succession, Oklahoma, Tennessee and UConn before losing by only 6 to A&M. That doesn't indicate a fluke, IMO. And as was noted earlier in this thread, 5 of 6 key players return for the Irish.

I'm not impressed with a win over OU, and the LVs had clear limitations. I think the UConn game was the fluke.

 

[EricLA]

i can see ND being rewarded. i tend to agree with Milford re: ND. but they are a solid team, and haven't UCONN fans argued that in the past (we won the NC. we should be #1 till we lose)? this seems to be similar. ND made it to the NC game. aTm lost a lot. so did Stanford and UCONN. ND "only" lost their starting forward. i personally wouldn't rank them ahead of UCONN but i could see them doing so.

i think most are in agreement Baylor should be #1. i've gone round and round in my mind. i could see them going like this...

Baylor
ND
Tennessee
UCONN
Stanford
Miami
Dukea
Tm
Georgetown
Louisville

i'm not one of those who thinks tennessee or ND will be ahead of UCONN at the end of the year. but i'd not be surprised to see people put them ahead of us at the start of the year. in fact, i'd not be surprised at all to see UCONN vs. Baylor in the NC game. i'd love to see tennessee drop out before the final 3, like they have done the past 3 years, but i could see them making the final 4. we'll learn more about them as they play Miami, Baylor and Stanford i think. their schedule has been decidedly less "difficult" lately as the SEC has been so awful.

 

[UConnCat]

I was bullish about Notre Dame last year despite its 8 losses and I am even more bullish this year. That's not to say I think Notre Dame will go undefeated or win the NC because I don't. I just think its guards (add McBride to the list) are so good and their size presents real matchup problems for most teams. I actually thought Notre Dame's guards were a bad matchup for UConn last season because of the loss of Doty, the inexperience of Hartley and Dixon's lack of size. But UConn played them very well except for the last game. The guard matchup is better for UConn this season, though Diggins and Novosel are very tough to guard. McBride is very good, btw.

Notre Dame is vulnerable inside, particularly without Bruiser. UConn and a much-improved Stef were able to expose that weakness in the BET, but Stef couldn't duplicate that effort in the FF largely because of her foul trouble. In fact, at one point early in the FF game Stef made 2 baskets inside and the TV announcer said that ND was going to have a tough time stopping Stef inside. Unfortunately that never happened.

 

[Kibitzer]

ND is supposedly better because they retturn five of six rotation players?

Let's see. . . .

We return five (Stef, Kelly, Bria, Tiffany, and Caroline) of seven (Maya and Lorin are gone). That's pretty close, and we have three freshmen who are very good, at least.

So how did ND get stronger while we got weaker?

And before you even think it, I will suggest that the Bruiser was as important to ND as Maya was to UConn.

 

[Vowelguy]

And before you even think it, I will suggest that the Bruiser was as important to ND as Maya was to UConn.

ROFLMAO
You cannot be serious.

 

[Wonkster]

They [ND] made the NC game because Stef got in foul trouble...

.
Did she "get" in foul trouble, or was she put in foul trouble? They looked like phantom fouls to my eyes.

.

 

[EricLA]

And before you even think it, I will suggest that the Bruiser was as important to ND as Maya was to UConn.

like Vowell, i disagree with this. i DO agree that Rebecca was a leader for the team in terms of being a senior, toughness, whatever. but from a production, x's and o's, whatever standpoint, not even in the same country, never mind same zip code.

now if you were to argue that Adams was just as important to aTm as Moore was to UCONN, i'd agree 100%. Bruiser? not so much...

 

[MilfordHusky]

.
Did she "get" in foul trouble, or was she put in foul trouble? They looked like phantom fouls to my eyes.

.

At least 1 careless foul on her part after a FT. And a phantom foul on an inbounds play.

 

[Justavisitor]

Skylar had 1 good game against us. Ok, it was the most important one, but it was 1 in 4. By the end of this year, Skylar may be as good as Nneka was last year, but she was not at the same level last year.

It seemed to me that in a couple of the early games against UConn, Diggins didn't play well. Looked like alot of nerves on display and she didn't look like the same player that excelled against many other opponents. In the NCAAs, she got on a roll and entered that game with alot of confidence. She was pretty much unstoppable. I expect her to continue this year with that same confidence. It sort of like what happened with Tina Charles. Once she turned the corner her junior year, Tina was a beast. Once great players adjust to the next level, you can expect to see it game in and game out. There will be the odd, not so great games, but for the most part, Diggins will be a major thorn in the side to opponents all year.

 

[alexrgct]

Well, we don't have to argue about ND-UConn becuase the two teams will have more than ample opportunity to prove it on the court. I'd be surprised if the two teams didn't play three times.

UConn last year had a national championship-caliber team, but it was a flawed NC-caliber team. Certainly, the 2010-11 Huskies had a memorable season, one in which they accompished the following:

-Beat #1 seed and E8 participant Baylor
-Beat #2 seed and national runner-up ND three times
-Beat the bejeezus out of S16 participant Oklahoma
-Twice obliterated #2 seed and E8 participant Duke
-Beat S16 participant Georgetown three times
-Beat S16 participants Louisville and DePaul handily
-Won the regular season and tournament championships of a conference that sent nine teams to the NCAA tourney, five teams to the Sweet 16, and made up half of the Final Four
-Featured a transcendently great player in Maya Moore

 

[alexrgct]

No one had skins on the wall over the course of the season that UConn amassed, but if UConn was going to lose to someone, it was going to be because of a lack of depth and too much youth. Those two vulnerabilities cost UConn dearly against ND in F4, but since they were known vulnerabilities, I wouldn't call the loss a fluke. It was too bad, because I think UConn would have handled A&M.

This year, ND has many of the same flaws it did last year, but still far fewer questions than UConn has. UConn has a higher ceiling than ND if a number of issues fall into place, but heading into the season, ND is the team to beat in the Big East. As we've seen, that doesn't mean that will be the case as the season draws to a close.

For the record, the 1180 character limit on posts sucks!