Are SC, Baylor, ND, Stanford & MD bad for WBB?

[oldude]

We all know UConn is bad for WBB , and with a loaded team next year, bent on bringing home their 12th NCAA championship, the chorus from trolls like Shaughnessy and others will resurface again next season.

While the Huskies are an easy target, I submit that in recent years a collection of the “Usual Suspects” have dominated the P-5 conferences. Despite losses to graduation, transfer and injury, that make SC, Baylor, ND, Stanford & MD all appear vulnerable next season, there is no clear end in sight to their dominance.

SC/SEC – SC has won each of the last 3 SEC regular and postseason championships, and they finally won their 1st national championship, but they lose 3 of the top 10 WNBA draft picks with the losses of Coates, Davis & Gray. The SEC is a brutally tough conference. MS St has a great coach and their own Big 3 all return next year. TN may have more talent than any team not located in Storrs, CT, so if they finally get their act together…OK never mind about TN. On the other hand, SC returns Wilson and a solid supporting cast, and at the end of the day, it just doesn’t seem likely that MS St, TN or anyone else in the SEC will be able to dethrone the Gamecocks.

Baylor/Big 12 – Baylor has won the last 7 regular and/or postseason Big 12 Championships, but the Bears lose 3 key G/W’s in Davis, Prince and Jones along with frontcourt reserve Cave. While Baylor has a number of talented bigs, they face a similar challenge to SC in trying to play with 2 or more post players on the court at the same time. Despite the challenges the Bears face next season, only TX has remotely challenged them for the top spot in the conference. There was a point this season when it looked like the Longhorns had finally arrived beating Baylor in Waco, but then TX stumbled into the conference tournament and in the NCAA’s. With some key losses of their own, it’s difficult to envision TX taking the top spot over Baylor next season.

ND-ACC – ND has won every regular and postseason championship in the 4 years since they joined the ACC. The Irish graduate star PG Lindsay Allen. Two key returning players have announced they will transfer and AA center Brianna Turner may miss next season due to injury. There are a number of strong teams waiting in the wings for ND to slip, including Duke, Lou, Miami & FSU, but MM will probably figure it out and ND should once again be the team to beat in the ACC.

Stanford/Pac 12 – The Pac 12 may be the most competitive conference in WBB, and yet Stanford has won the regular and/or postseason championship in 16 of the past 17 seasons. The Cardinal graduate 3 of their top 4 players (McCall, Samuelson, Roberson), and teams like UCLA, OSU & Oregon appear poised to challenge for supremacy in the Pac12, but Tara didn’t get to 1000 coaching wins by accident. She can coach. Stanford engineered come-from-behind wins in the conference championship against OSU and then in the NCAA’s against TX & ND. It’s foolish to bet against Tara and the Cardinal finding their way to the top of the conference again next year.

MD/Big10 – The Terps have won/shared every regular & postseason championship in the BIG since they joined the conference 3 years ago, but no top team has suffered greater losses. MD graduates their two best players, Walker-Kimbrough & Jones. Three players have announced their intention to transfer, including super frosh Destiny Slocum, but outside of OSU, the BIG is the weakest of the P-5 conferences, and the Buckeyes have their own losses to graduation & transfer to deal with, along with having a coach that has underperformed with talented players. MD is certainly vulnerable next year, but it would hardly be a surprise to see the Terps win the BIG again.

While there has been some indication over the past few seasons that WBB is moving in the direction of parity, it appears that the more things change, the more things stay the same, at least as far as the teams at the top are concerned.

 

[eebmg]

I think the teams you cite will fill up the rankings 2-10 or so with good competition. UConn is and will in the forseeable future be #1 with a big gap. I don't think anyone really wants the top 20 teams to be "even". Leagues need powerhouses to sustain interest and act as targets to topple. Otherwise, it is just a coin flip.

 

[huskeynut]

All of the teams mentioned will be prominant in the Top 10 all season.

SC is probbly a better team playing only 1 post at a time. WIlson is the real deal. How the rest of the team compliments her will determine how far they go. SC is going to find out what its like to have the target on their backs. Miss State will be there all year. Tennessee, despite their talent on paper, will flounder again. I don't see Tennessee as a legit contender.

ND may have some bigger problems that we know. Turner is questionable at best. I real hope, for her sake, that she doesn't play next season. ACL surgery is very serious. They don't have much else up front and their offensive flow this past season was not s polished as in past years. Duke, FSU, NC State and Louisville (for a while) will challenge ND's dominance. It may be the year ND falls in the ACC.

Big 10 is weak. Both MD and OSU have lost key players. The Big 10 looks like it could be more competitive with the likes of Michigan.

Big 12 is Baylor, Texas and WV. I am not a fan of both Baylor and Texas with the playing of 2 post players at the same time. It just doesn't work. The low post area gets clogged up fast and leaves no room for passing and driving of wings and guards. I am also not a fan of post players who do not develop a consistant 10 - 15 foot jumper. It makes defending range limited post easier.

Pac - 12 is a pretty well balance conference. Washington, no Kelsey Plum and new HC, and OSU will be down this coming season. Stanford will be there but the not so sleeper Oregon could make the breakout from the pack.

Bottom line - UConn is still the leader of the pack by a decent margin.

 

[the Q]

If I had to look for "sleeping giants" I'd say Tenn (with new leadership) and Texas (who seems to be recruiting rather well) as teams who can bust into contender status.

 

[Longtime fan]

We all know UConn is bad for WBB , and with a loaded team next year, bent on bringing home their 12th NCAA championship, the chorus from trolls like Shaughnessy and others will resurface again next season.

While the Huskies are an easy target, I submit that in recent years a collection of the “Usual Suspects” have dominated the P-5 conferences. Despite losses to graduation, transfer and injury, that make SC, Baylor, ND, Stanford & MD all appear vulnerable next season, there is no clear end in sight to their dominance.

SC/SEC – SC has won each of the last 3 SEC regular and postseason championships, and they finally won their 1st national championship, but they lose 3 of the top 10 WNBA draft picks with the losses of Coates, Davis & Gray. The SEC is a brutally tough conference. MS St has a great coach and their own Big 3 all return next year. TN may have more talent than any team not located in Storrs, CT, so if they finally get their act together…OK never mind about TN. On the other hand, SC returns Wilson and a solid supporting cast, and at the end of the day, it just doesn’t seem likely that MS St, TN or anyone else in the SEC will be able to dethrone the Gamecocks.

Baylor/Big 12 – Baylor has won the last 7 regular and/or postseason Big 12 Championships, but the Bears lose 3 key G/W’s in Davis, Prince and Jones along with frontcourt reserve Cave. While Baylor has a number of talented bigs, they face a similar challenge to SC in trying to play with 2 or more post players on the court at the same time. Despite the challenges the Bears face next season, only TX has remotely challenged them for the top spot in the conference. There was a point this season when it looked like the Longhorns had finally arrived beating Baylor in Waco, but then TX stumbled into the conference tournament and in the NCAA’s. With some key losses of their own, it’s difficult to envision TX taking the top spot over Baylor next season.

ND-ACC – ND has won every regular and postseason championship in the 4 years since they joined the ACC. The Irish graduate star PG Lindsay Allen. Two key returning players have announced they will transfer and AA center Brianna Turner may miss next season due to injury. There are a number of strong teams waiting in the wings for ND to slip, including Duke, Lou, Miami & FSU, but MM will probably figure it out and ND should once again be the team to beat in the ACC.

Stanford/Pac 12 – The Pac 12 may be the most competitive conference in WBB, and yet Stanford has won the regular and/or postseason championship in 16 of the past 17 seasons. The Cardinal graduate 3 of their top 4 players (McCall, Samuelson, Roberson), and teams like UCLA, OSU & Oregon appear poised to challenge for supremacy in the Pac12, but Tara didn’t get to 1000 coaching wins by accident. She can coach. Stanford engineered come-from-behind wins in the conference championship against OSU and then in the NCAA’s against TX & ND. It’s foolish to bet against Tara and the Cardinal finding their way to the top of the conference again next year.

MD/Big10 – The Terps have won/shared every regular & postseason championship in the BIG since they joined the conference 3 years ago, but no top team has suffered greater losses. MD graduates their two best players, Walker-Kimbrough & Jones. Three players have announced their intention to transfer, including super frosh Destiny Slocum, but outside of OSU, the BIG is the weakest of the P-5 conferences, and the Buckeyes have their own losses to graduation & transfer to deal with, along with having a coach that has underperformed with talented players. MD is certainly vulnerable next year, but it would hardly be a surprise to see the Terps win the BIG again.

While there has been some indication over the past few seasons that WBB is moving in the direction of parity, it appears that the more things change, the more things stay the same, at least as far as the teams at the top are concerned.

Thanks. This is a well done perspective.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Oregon St. has won or shared the Pac 12 regular season crown 3 years in a row and also won the conference tourney one of those years. The year they shared the regular season title it was w/ Arizona St., not Stanford. If anyone has been dominating the Pac 12 recently it's been OSU. Stanford's domination of the conference ended when they ran out of Ogwumikes. That narrative is no longer accurate. Also inaccurate is calling Roberson one of their top 4 players from this season. They'll miss McCall and Samuelson, but any number of players can easily replace Roberson's production.

 

[triaddukefan]

yes

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Oregon St. has won or shared the Pac 12 regular season crown 3 years in a row and also won the conference tourney one of those years. The year they shared the regular season title it was w/ Arizona St., not Stanford. If anyone has been dominating the Pac 12 recently it's been OSU. Stanford's domination of the conference ended when they ran out of Ogwumikes. That narrative is no longer accurate. Also inaccurate is calling Roberson one of their top 4 players from this season. They'll miss McCall and Samuelson, but any number of players can easily replace Roberson's production.

True, but not true at the same time. Um, which team was in the FF? Stanford, if not dominant, continues to hold (for me) a firm top 3 Pac12 position. When they can't be called a Pac12 contender year in and year out I'll think they slipped.

 

[oldude]

Oregon St. has won or shared the Pac 12 regular season crown 3 years in a row and also won the conference tourney one of those years. The year they shared the regular season title it was w/ Arizona St., not Stanford. If anyone has been dominating the Pac 12 recently it's been OSU. Stanford's domination of the conference ended when they ran out of Ogwumikes. That narrative is no longer accurate. Also inaccurate is calling Roberson one of their top 4 players from this season. They'll miss McCall and Samuelson, but any number of players can easily replace Roberson's production.

OSU has had a nice run and Rueck is a heck of a coach, but the Beavers were taken down in the Pac12 conf championship by Stanford in both 2015 and this year when the Cardinal made it to the FF. We'll see how OSU does next year without Wiese & Hanson.

Roberson was tied for 2nd in games started (37), 4th in minutes (25.1) and was a team captain in both her jr & sr seasons. We can dispute whether or not she was one of Stanford's top 4 players, but not that she was an important part of Stanford's team.

 

[nwhoopfan]

OSU beat Stanford 2 out 3 games they played this year. OSU was picked to finish 5th this year after losing 3 starters from the previous season. They won the conference again. Next year many pundits will be picking them to make a big slide. I'll take a wait and see approach. Yes Stanford was in the Final 4 this year, but the year before Oregon St. and Washington were. Stanford is still a really strong program, but they are not dominating the Pac 12.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Roberson was tied for 2nd in games started (37), 4th in minutes (25.1) and was a team captain in both her jr & sr seasons. We can dispute whether or not she was one of Stanford's top 4 players, but not that she was an important part of Stanford's team.

Okay, those are all true statements. She was 5th on the team in scoring (about 6.5 ppg). To me Sniezak was more important. A true PG, better distributor, offense tended to run better when she was in. Fairly close to splitting minutes w/ Roberson. Stanford was able to easily shrug off losing Lili Thompson previously. Roberson is easily replaceable.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

yes

I forgot the question. Was there a question? Did you eat breakfast today? Or was that a double entendre?

 

[triaddukefan]

I forgot the question. Was there a question? Did you eat breakfast today? Or was that a double entendre?

where is that double finger salute emoji when you need it

 

[flncfan]

All of those teams should be joing the pack next season because of major hits to their rosters.

 

[Hope]

I'm with Harvey.

 

[geneticrex]

Tennessee is bad for WBB.

Legions of high school AA types, including multiple No.1s, yet nothing more than a decades worth of playground basketball to show for it.