Baylor or SC ? | The Boneyard

Baylor or SC ?

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browns

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Between Baylor an SouthCarolina which team do you think Uconn is most likely to beat.I would have said SC because it's a home game but this year with covid home court is less a factor..with Baylor coming up I worry who is going to guard Smith..last year Uconn hung with Baylor for 3 quarters then Smith took over the game
 
Both. The difference last year with Baylor was Tea Cooper distributing. Our guards will dominate and frustrate the Baylor offense. The same with SC. 47% of their assists graduated and, while I haven't checked, I don't think they have completely replaced Ty Harris at the point. Most times the key is not the player who scores, but the player who put them in position to score. That's not considering the difference in Liv and the new presence of Aaliyah.
 
I have watched SC play 3 or 4 times. I think we stand a good chance to win this game. They are not the team they were last year. Baylor seems more dangerous. When they get in a flow they can put a ton of points on the board. They are big and athletic and seem more together than SC. If we are aggressive and confident I like our chances. Like SC - stop there fast break and make it hard for them to score in the half court. We will learn who wants to take the big shots. What our mindset is. Looking forward to the game.
 
I think SC struggles at the guard position. I'm not a big fan of cooke. But their bigs could improve and give us trouble if Liv gets into foul trouble. If AE emerges and I think she will, this gives us more size and I think we win going away.

I worry about Baylor but then again, I haven't seen them play yet. I am fairly sure what their players bring to the table however from prior years.

I know it is early, but I don't see the level of play out their that we usually see, especially with guard play. If the UCONN guards and wings can improve their shots (and they have too because they really can't get much worse) and improve their perimeter defense to be at least adequate, I think we have an outstanding chance of winning it all this year!
 
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SLY63 said:
Both Baylor and SC's size and athleticism scare me from a defensive/rebounding perspective. Both of these games should come down to our ability to hit outside shots.
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Yes, I concur with you to an extent. My main concern is our rebounding, especially 'offensive' rebounding. The Gabby and Pheesa aggressiveness and crashing in to grab it are mostly gone. They were also very good at 'reading' where the ball would bounce to. Although AE replaces one of them, she's still learning. Liv is too slim to stand up to Baylors 'bigs' especially if they are able to muscle her around. Our only other possibilty would be, IMO, Aubrey, since she has speed and is seemingly unafraid to 'dance' with most anyone!
 
Neither team is as good as they were last year and UConn is much better. I believe UConn has a good shot at beating both although their odds are better against Baylor.
 
As stated, neither of those two teams are as good as last year and we are better. But also true is we were not really that close to them last year. In fact the top three teams including Oregon were a significant notch above every one else, including us, so we have a fair amount of ground to make up.

Baylor and South Carolina had graduation losses that were roughly similar to ours, but of course Oregon's losses were huge. Our recruiting class was the best of this group, with South Carolina following their great freshman class last year with a relatively weak one this year, returning to another big class next year. Baylor brought in a highly recruited duo in Andrews and Guster, which I would consider a pretty good recruiting year.

The one think I am surprised by so far is South Carolina's great sophomore class hasn't made a big leap in their second year. Maybe that is because of the change at point guard. Harris might have made a bigger difference than I thought.

We are better, but very young and our freshmen have no big game experience. Baylor and South Carolina are not as dominant as last year, so clearly we have made up significant ground against them, but there was a big spread to make up so who knows. Also our small ball lineup has so far not faced a team that could make us pay for it like Baylor or South Carolina.

In many ways we may find out more about this team in those two big games than we do in the rest of the season that offers few challenges. The starting lineup debate may also be put to the test. Traditional big or small ball? Whatever strategy works best against the best teams, is the strategy I think should be continued for the rest of the season.
 
Baylor looked slow and sloppy against TCU. BIGS are a problem that can be addressed with relentless speed, and the maturity of Liv, as well as the addition of AE. Playing away does not matter as much without meat in the seats.
 
SLY63 said:
Both Baylor and SC's size and athleticism scare me from a defensive/rebounding perspective. Both of these games should come down to our ability to hit outside shots.
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Aaliyah should help calm your fear.
 
If all teams played their A games, UCONN would win by 10+ vs. SC IMHO, and 15+ against Baylor. Baylor lost 3 to graduation - Landrum (PG), Cooper (SG) and Cox (forward). SC lost their PG Harris and top 10 draft pick Herbert Harrigan. And yes UCONN lost Danger and Walker.

I've said before that as good as Walker was last season (AA), she did not coexist well with Williams on offense. UCONN's current biggest problem on the offensive end is 3-point shooting. Our defense IMHO is better already than last year and we still have a ways to go to work on it.

If our shooters go 4-24, or some such number, on 3-pointers against any good team, it will be problematic. So when I say "bring our A game", that means Paige hitting her 3's, Anna going 2-5, and Christyn/Evina both going 2-6. That's actually B or B+ shooting, but certainly enough to 10-26 if Paige goes 4-9 or something similar.

My point is Baylor lost quite a bit more than we did. And what they bring back / bring in is just not as good as what we have. Aaliyah and Paige are NOT playing like freshmen at this time. SC lost about what we did. But their sophomores are really good. Still, are they as good as our 2 juniors and new red shirt junior? I just don't think so. And even tho Paige is a freshman, I like her matchup against Henderson any day of the week and twice on Sunday come march.

People had SC ranked #1 to start the season and while I'm not surprised they lost, my ranking was UCONN and Stanford at the top, followed by SC and then Baylor a bit lower. IMHO Baylor does not make the final 4 and SC is about 60-40.

That's my assessment right now. Obviously still 2 months of basketball to play before tourneys even start. Plenty of time for teams to gel better and improve. But again, Even if UCONN plays A- and Baylor/SC played their A game, I think we win. Anything less and we likely lose.
 
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I think we stand a better chance of beating SC rather Baylor. SC looks beatable. Baylor...if they lock in and focus, they can cause a lot of damage.
 
I think UCONN is favored in both matchups. Baylor should be a better match up for the Huskies though since I think they'll swarm Nalyssa Smith and the supporting cast just isn't that strong for Baylor. Carrington is dangerous but none of Ursin, Oliver or Richards are big scoring threats. I also think ONO has an advantage going up against foul prone Egbo and wins that matchup. Gusters is a good back up and provides more strength than Egbo but she's just a freshman. This will be a big chance for ONO to prove she can have a big game against players with similar size and physicality.

South Carolina is better inside with Boston/Saxson/Amihere but their guard play I think will have trouble feeding the ball inside and they'll end up getting baited into taking excessive perimeter shots.
 
In my opinion, UConn needs to get better at the outside shot. With Anna missing everything and too slow to guard anyone (shes been getting torched out there), if she starts against Baylor, I think that's a problem. IF we are cold from outside, I think UConn loses both of these. My .02.
 
Please God, let Anna go off for 30 against Baylor! (With Paige getting 10 assists)
 
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