Big Story Lines to Look Out For in 2012-13 | The Boneyard

Big Story Lines to Look Out For in 2012-13

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bballnut90

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1. Will anyone be able to keep up with Baylor/UCONN? These two should be light years better than any other team in the nation-with the exception of potentially Duke, who typically looks better on paper than in person. Baylor will catch UCONN's 2002-2003 win streak should they go through the regular season/conference tournament undefeated, something else to keep an eye on.

2. Griner/EDD chasing Stiles/Donovan. Not sure if this has been brought up at all, but Griner has a great shot of catching Stiles as the all time NCAA scoring leader. She has 2425 points in her career, Stiles finished hers with 3393. EDD currently has 2240 career points. I think Baylor can only play a max of 39 games this year, which means she'd have to average 24.8 points per game. This would be about 2 points more per game on average than last year/in 2011, but I think it's definitely very doable, and probably something that would be in the back of her mind/Mulkey's mind even if it isn't addressed publicly. She also needs just 202 blocks this year to tie Ann Donovan. That would be about 5.2 per game. She had 206 this year, so another similar year would do the trick. EDD will probably play no more than 35 games this year, meaning that in order to catch Stiles she'll need to average 32.9 points per game. Not very realistic, but who knows with EDD playing at Delaware. Wouldn't surprise me if she scored 30+ a game this year, and if she made it to the final four or possibly the title game (doubtful, but who knows) and played 37 games, she'd only need 31 points per game. Even if both fail to catch Stiles, it is likely that both players will end up as #2 and 3 all time, or at the very least, join the elite 3000 point club.

3. Will Stanford/UCONN push their final four streak to 6? Seems likely that UCONN will, not so sure about Stanford, depends on how they'll adjust without Nneka who is one of the best players to ever play at Stanford.

4. How will Tennessee fare with a new coach and fairly inexperienced roster? They lose several seniors, new coach, probably the lowest starting ranking they've ever had, etc. Who will be the goto? Will Massengale/Burdick live up to their hype coming out of high school? How will they fare in the SEC?

Please add more!
 

EricLA

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Those are some good comments. I think some of the other "interesting" story lines will be individual teams and how much better/worse they will be than their preseason rankings. Rutgers, for example, seems to me a legit top 15 team but isn't ranked in most of the preseason polls i've seen. then there are teams like Miami who are ranked much higher than one would think.

ND and aTm will be interesting this year - Diggins obviously wanted to win a NC but that won't happen barring some sort of crazy miracle and confluence of the stars. But she's a compelling player and as a UCONN fan, I can't wait to play them this year. aTm will be in a new conference and Bone was a top 2 recruit coming out of HS - will she show anything worth writing about (other than her stupid pigtails)?

Plus there are some pretty interesting winning streaks this year - Baylor is obvious, but also some home court winning streaks as well.
 

Wbbfan1

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Will UConn end Stanford's home winning streak which I believe is around 79 straight home wins? If UConn doesn't end it, they could end up surpassing UConn's home winning streak of 99 games.
 

triaddukefan

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I think Miami has the 2nd longest home winning streak in the country... but it should be broken by Christmas.
 

wes33

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[ Duke, who typically looks better on paper than in person.] Williams, Henson, Jackson and Wells all top 7 or starters have medical issues that will have a large bearing on there season.
 
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With such a strong bench, is there a chance Uconn will average 100 points per game this year?
 

pinotbear

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I think that's unlikely. Not only because it's so hard to be that consistently "on" offensively, but it requires that most of your opponents are either somewhat cooperative or completely overwhelmed, and that your head coach desires you to keep pushing the offense.
 

VAMike23

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I agree that we won't average 100 but this year should challenge the UCONN record for average margin of victory. Just way too much talent even when we put the 'scrubs' (what scrubs?) in. In many instances this season, what would normally turn into a basket-for-basket affair during garbage time will still be a mismatch.
 
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Those are some good comments. I think some of the other "interesting" story lines will be individual teams and how much better/worse they will be than their preseason rankings. Rutgers, for example, seems to me a legit top 15 team but isn't ranked in most of the preseason polls i've seen. then there are teams like Miami who are ranked much higher than one would think.

ND and aTm will be interesting this year - Diggins obviously wanted to win a NC but that won't happen barring some sort of crazy miracle and confluence of the stars. But she's a compelling player and as a UCONN fan, I can't wait to play them this year. aTm will be in a new conference and Bone was a top 2 recruit coming out of HS - will she show anything worth writing about (other than her stupid pigtails)?

Plus there are some pretty interesting winning streaks this year - Baylor is obvious, but also some home court winning streaks as well.

Griner,IMHO, is not going to avg over 30 points per game given their dominance over "almost";) every team they play! Blocks are another story! EDD is going to score/avg more due to Delaware's reliance on her!

Stanford's Home Winning Streak is going to end:)
Diggin's is going to end her career with no NCs,2 ! I look forward to our playing ND;) Do wish the last regular season game was not at ND. The last home game for Diggins. But Diggins will lose her last reg season home game of her college career.................;)
Bone will be better this year,but not near enough for A&M
Rutger's will be at least a top 12-20 ranked team
Baylor will have a 65 game winning streak entering Feb 18th;) ;) Iffffffffff they beat "whoever that team is"???;) Baylor would have a 78 game winning streak! They might just have a 13 game winning streak going into the NC game against a team with a 38 game winning streak;)
Ira
 

triaddukefan

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besides UCONN and Baylor... will any other team finish conference play undefeated among the other Big 6 conferences.
 

VAMike23

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besides UCONN and Baylor... will any other team finish conference play undefeated among the other Big 6 conferences.

Since MD's point guard is out, maybe Duke can run the ACC table? Next year UNC will be more interesting, but I honestly don't know who else will really be that strong in the ACC this year besides Duke and MD.

E Williams is probably looking to step it up a notch this year and help Duke make the splash it's been pointing to for awhile now. Certainly they are loading up on talent.
 

Coler

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Those are some good comments. I think some of the other "interesting" story lines will be individual teams and how much better/worse they will be than their preseason rankings. Rutgers, for example, seems to me a legit top 15 team but isn't ranked in most of the preseason polls i've seen. then there are teams like Miami who are ranked much higher than one would think.

ND and aTm will be interesting this year - Diggins obviously wanted to win a NC but that won't happen barring some sort of crazy miracle and confluence of the stars. But she's a compelling player and as a UCONN fan, I can't wait to play them this year. aTm will be in a new conference and Bone was a top 2 recruit coming out of HS - will she show anything worth writing about (other than her stupid pigtails)?

Plus there are some pretty interesting winning streaks this year - Baylor is obvious, but also some home court winning streaks as well.

Thank you Eric! Based on our roster alone, we should be ranked. Yeah, I suppose I get that voters could be wary of our lack of experience in the front-court but our front-court is very talented. And we have depth for the first time in years at 1 through 5.
 

triaddukefan

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Since MD's point guard is out, maybe Duke can run the ACC table? Next year UNC will be more interesting, but I honestly don't know who else will really be that strong in the ACC this year besides Duke and MD.

E Williams is probably looking to step it up a notch this year and help Duke make the splash it's been pointing to for awhile now. Certainly they are loading up on talent.

GaTech and Florida State are the next best teams in the ACC after Duke and MD. Unfortunately EW is on the shelf right now until further notice.. Hopefully she can return by the beginning of Dec when we have some tough games.
 

VAMike23

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GaTech and Florida State are the next best teams in the ACC after Duke and MD. Unfortunately EW is on the shelf right now until further notice.. Hopefully she can return by the beginning of Dec when we have some tough games.

Wow - I need to start following the sports news a little more closely...I had no idea EW was out ...:eek:
 
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To look out for:

Will Uconn give up 4th quarter leads against top opponents?

Who will make the best in-game adjustments during 2012/13 rivalries: Auriemma,McCallie,McGraw,Mulkey, VanDerveer?
 

triaddukefan

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Wow - I need to start following the sports news a little more closely...I had no idea EW was out ...:eek:

still recovering from the stress fracture she suffered in early March.
 

MilfordHusky

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I didn't realize that Griner has that many points. Any player in the Maya Moore/Chamique Holdsclaw range has had a great career.

Some others:

How will new coaches, such as KBA, do? Will their new teams or old teams be better?

Which mid-major other than Del. threatens to break into the top 10?

Who is the biggest stud--Williams, Thomas, or Ogwumike?

Who is the best player for UConn--Bria, Stef, Kaleena, Kelly, Morgan, or Breanna? How many Huskies can make All-BE? Will Bree be BE FOW more than Kaleena? More than Maya?
 
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Griner,IMHO, is not going to avg over 30 points per game given their dominance over "almost";) every team they play! Blocks are another story! EDD is going to score/avg more due to Delaware's reliance on her!

Stanford's Home Winning Streak is going to end:)
Diggin's is going to end her career with no NCs,2 ! I look forward to our playing ND;) Do wish the last regular season game was not at ND. The last home game for Diggins. But Diggins will lose her last reg season home game of her college career.................;)
Bone will be better this year,but not near enough for A&M
Rutger's will be at least a top 12-20 ranked team
Baylor will have a 65 game winning streak entering Feb 18th;) ;) Iffffffffff they beat "whoever that team is"???;) Baylor would have a 78 game winning streak! They might just have a 13 game winning streak going into the NC game against a team with a 38 game winning streak;)
Ira
Off topic, but I think the mods need to give magical2 the moniker "smiley". :cool:
 
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