Big Sunday slate

[JDuro]

South Carolina playing on dead legs. Third game in 7 days, two of which on the road. Hopefully they can pull through and steal this one. Also Arkansas is for real. Vastly improved.

 

[Jmsdawg]

South Carolina playing on dead legs. Third game in 7 days, two of which on the road. Hopefully they can pull through and steal this one. Also Arkansas is for real. Vastly improved.

SC shots not falling and Ark are, if SC loses this game it will really hurt their tournament seeding.

 

[SECbbfan24]

Arkansas looks a bit fatigued now, SC taking advantage

 

[Plebe]

SC just took their first lead of the game, early in 4Q. Timeout Arkansas.

 

[jumpstart]

Wow...35 points in the 4th quarter. South Carolina win.

 

[Jmsdawg]

SC took the ball inside and the long ball stop dropping for Ark. SC picked up the defense and controlled the boards, good win.

 

[JDuro]

Phew. Scary game. Got to hand it to the freshman, Henderson and Saxton. They're going to be beasts. Wonder why Kiki Herbert-Harrigan barely played and didn't start. If it was a disciplinary thing or if she's under the weather. Great win keeping the Gamecocks in the hunt for the SEC regular season.

 

[SCspur]

It’s quite the luxury to have some of your starters not play well and have freshmen step up. Henderson and Saxton showed a glimpse of SC’s bright future! Career highs for both. We looked like ourselves in the 4th.

 

[Plebe]

South Carolina's freshmen Destiny Henderson and Victoria Saxton made huge contributions to this win today. Saxton has length and tons of athleticism. They led the scoring for SC with 19 points apiece.

Chelsea Dungee, the redshirt sophomore transfer from Oklahoma, had 32 points in the loss.

 

[SECbbfan24]

The nice thing for South Carolina is they have some good depth


The intensity was great in the 4th quarter

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Saxton was way underrated as a recruit. Barely top 50, but very tough inside as a freshman.

 

[eebmg]

SC will not be push-overs. They have some good balance on offense and just enough defense. They are a real threat. We better bring our A game and not feel overconfident because it is a home game.

 

[LoTrader]

To tack onto @jonson , Oregon might be better defensively than they are generally given credit for. Held Colorado to 2 points in the first quarter. Did something similar to Arizona. Shut Utah down in the 4th quarter. They have no problem scoring and apparently are capable of holding opponents scoreless for long stretches of time.

Over the next 2 weekends, we are going to unearth the real contenders for the PAC-12 title.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Over the next 2 weekends, we are going to unearth the real contenders for the PAC-12 title.

I think Utah got exposed as good but not there yet. 4 games matching the top 3 in standings against each other in the next 2 weeks, should tell us everything.

 

[DefenseBB]

Well, one of those is actually sitting on top of the conference standings, so maybe she can still coach a little bit.

LET me use a quote my dad used to say “Justin because you’re the tallest midget in the circus, doesn’t mean you’re tall”. The Big10 is the very definition of parity. Look at CVS last 5 years and oh, BTW she lost yesterday to an average Minn team. Not sure she will win the Big10. I do know I will be very happy if RU keeps her, as I will be if UNCheat keeps Hatchell, Tenn keeps Warlick, Duke keeps McCallie and to keep your conferences perspective, we should hope Cal keeps Gottlieb as non end of those programs will Ben real threats to win either their conference titles or gain any real success in the NCAA...

 

[Plebe]

I think Utah got exposed as good but not there yet. 4 games matching the top 3 in standings against each other in the next 2 weeks, should tell us everything.

They got exposed? A bit harsh. They played two bad 4th quarters. If those two games were played at Utah, perhaps one or both would’ve ended differently.

 

[nwhoopfan]

They got exposed? A bit harsh. They played two bad 4th quarters. If those two games were played at Utah, perhaps one or both would’ve ended differently.

Well, finishing off the 4th quarter of a game is critical wouldn't you say? Against UO it was a disaster, and although not as bad they didn't finish strong against OSU either. May have won one or both if it was in SLC, but don't forget the lead they coughed up in the last minute against ASU.

Utah has had a very good season, good story. I think for all practical purposes they are out of the conference race now. I can't possibly see them making up 3 games on Oregon. Ducks might not lose 3 games, and almost no chance Utah runs the table from here (UCLA twice, at the Arizona schools).

 

[LoTrader]

I will tell you that I was very impressed with UTAH yesterday. A very well coached, and solid team. OSU just ratcheted up the defense in Q4, and, got stops. UTAH, on the other hand, looked a bit inexperienced in the closing minutes. I believe that the PAC-12 schedule will prepare UTAH very well for the NCAA Tournament. I will be rooting very hard for this team, because they showed me a lot yesterday (and Friday vs UO). When UTAH learns how to close a game in Q4, watch out.

 

[Plebe]

Well, finishing off the 4th quarter of a game is critical wouldn't you say? Against UO it was a disaster, and although not as bad they didn't finish strong against OSU either. May have won one or both if it was in SLC, but don't forget the lead they coughed up in the last minute against ASU.

Utah has had a very good season, good story. I think for all practical purposes they are out of the conference race now. I can't possibly see them making up 3 games on Oregon. Ducks might not lose 3 games, and almost no chance Utah runs the table from here (UCLA twice, at the Arizona schools).

If they had looked outclassed and trailed the entire game, I'd say sure, they were exposed. But they held leads in the second half of both games. Of course finishing is a major part of the deal. In that sense, yes, they're "not there yet." But I don't think anyone expected them to win either of those two games, either. In that sense, I'd say Utah earned respect with how well they competed on the road against a pair of top-10 teams. That doesn't mean they're the best team in the league; clearly they're not.

I put very little stock in the Pac-12 regular season race other than as a mechanism to determine seeding for the conference tournament. With the unbalanced schedule, Utah plays Stanford, Oregon and Oregon State only once each. Arizona State has to play each of those schools twice each.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I agree, Utah has earned a lot of respect this year. They might have had a similar season last year if Huff hadn't gotten injured.

Next year will be interesting. This should be by far their best finish in conference since joining the Pac 12. They have that really nice Fr. class that should be mainstays for years. They will have some significant losses with Huff of course but also Bean, Provo (I think she played in too many games to be able to get a RS) and Porter.



edited--looking at their roster, I had no idea they were so international--5 Canadians (2 of those transferred from other U.S. colleges) + Spain and Poland. They've had a Canadian connection for years.

 

[Plebe]

Next year will be interesting. This should be by far their best finish in conference since joining the Pac 12. They have that really nice Fr. class that should be mainstays for years. They will have some significant losses with Huff of course but also Bean, Provo (I think she played in too many games to be able to get a RS) and Porter.

Provo played in 13 games this year. Probably 4 too many to seek a medical hardship waiver. Always breaks my heart to see a player's final season truncated by injury . They really needed her this past weekend. Their overreliance on Huff is their greatest weakness.

Utah has by far the most productive freshman class in the conference: two starters (Edwards and Gylten), a 6th man (Torres), and a fourth freshman, Niyah Becker, who also averages double-digit minutes.

 

[newfrontier]

Over the next 2 weekends, we are going to unearth the real contenders for the PAC-12 title.

Yeah, this weekend and next are HUGE for the Pac-12, with 3 of the 4 top teams all playing each other (including OR and ORST meeting twice). Stanford is lucky because they get OSU and Oregon at home with no road trip to Oregon or OSU this year.

For this weekend, I like that OSU plays Stanford first. The Beavs can focus their Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday practices mostly on Stanford, and Saturday on Cal. If OSU was to play Cal first, it might almost be a trap game, plus OSU would have had to focus the weekday practices on both teams. With the Stanford game first and Cal second, the Beavs can better focus on each team one at a time.

In contrast, Stanford can't afford to spend all week just on OSU, so their focus will be split. Plus, by playing OSU first, they may be peaking a little ahead to Oregon on Sunday...then again maybe not. Tara is a great coach.