Disrespect from the Athletic

[maxw]

NYTimes' sports coverage is now at the Athletic. NYT had nice coverage of UConn and treated them fairly.

The person who mostly covers NCAAW at the Athletic (Sabreena) is a young sportswriter based in LA and seems to have a strong Pac-10 bias. In their latest rankings (I'm sure they have a vote in the AP poll), they placed UConn around 16th (or 18th), behind Gonzaga!

Sabreena just announced her coach of the year, and it's Dawn Staley! I'm sure she did a lot of research in coming up with that choice If having a no-loss season or dominating the rankings with a strong team was the criteria, Geno would have several more COY awards.

Women’s College Basketball News - NCAA Women’s Basketball Scores, Schedule, Standings, Stats, and Rumors - The Athletic

Breaking Women's College Basketball news and in-depth analysis from the best newsroom in sports. Follow your favorite clubs. Get the latest injury updates, player news and more from around the league.

theathletic.com

Paige isn't in their first AA list, again it's dominated by Pac-10.

Really hope UConn gets to the final four this year to show these morons that they don't know women's basketball.

 

[ochoopsfan]

Finally. some West Coast Bias!!

 

[Centerstream]

Finally. some West Coast Bias!!

Might as well enjoy it while you can because no one knows what is going to happen next season. (FWIW I intend this to be an attempt at comedy, not anything else.)

 

[Zanzman]

SC lost alot of talent from last year and are undefeated and improved offensively , I think Dawn deserves the award.

 

[ochoopsfan]

Might as well enjoy it while you can because no one knows what is going to happen next season. (FWIW I intend this to be an attempt at comedy, not anything else.)

It was my impression that the purple emoji has always meant sarcasm, on the BY

 

[visitingcock]

NYTimes' sports coverage is now at the Athletic. NYT had nice coverage of UConn and treated them fairly.

The person who mostly covers NCAAW at the Athletic (Sabreena) is a young sportswriter based in LA and seems to have a strong Pac-10 bias. In their latest rankings (I'm sure they have a vote in the AP poll), they placed UConn around 16th (or 18th), behind Gonzaga!

Sabreena just announced her coach of the year, and it's Dawn Staley! I'm sure she did a lot of research in coming up with that choice If having a no-loss season or dominating the rankings with a strong team was the criteria, Geno would have several more COY awards.

Women’s College Basketball News - NCAA Women’s Basketball Scores, Schedule, Standings, Stats, and Rumors - The Athletic

Breaking Women's College Basketball news and in-depth analysis from the best newsroom in sports. Follow your favorite clubs. Get the latest injury updates, player news and more from around the league.

theathletic.com

Paige isn't in their first AA list, again it's dominated by Pac-10.

Really hope UConn gets to the final four this year to show these morons that they don't know women's basketball.

Did Geno ever (1) lose 5 starters to graduation (2) go undefeated the following year and (3) NOT win the COY?

ESPN HATES US!

 

[WiseWillie]

Did Geno ever (1) lose 5 starters to graduation (2) go undefeated the following year and (3) NOT win the COY?

ESPN HATES US!

Simple. It's just business. ESPN lost covering most BE games to Fox so they are not motivated to push teams that Fox covers.

 

[Charliebball]

As long as the Athletic reporter isn't determining the actual brackets for the big tournament, I could care less.......South Carolina was barely even a consideration for the NC this season by most of the "experts" so Dawn is as deserving as any coach I can think of......if UConn had gone undefeated or even lost one or two games, I'd say Geno would have been in serious contention.....

 

[hoophuskee]

As long as the Athletic reporter isn't determining the actual brackets for the big tournament, I could care less.......South Carolina was barely even a consideration for the NC this season by most of the "experts" so Dawn is as deserving as any coach I can think of......if UConn had gone undefeated or even lost one or two games, I'd say Geno would have been in serious contention.....

They were presason 4th weren't they? How is that "barely in the conversation?"

 

[Scooter]

That same writer Sabreena Merchant has consistently ranked UConn significantly lower than the AP/Writers rankings and Massey/NET rankings. She has UConn at 15 this week with Gonzaga (!) ahead of the Huskies.

 

[BBallF]

SC lost alot of talent from last year and are undefeated and improved offensively , I think Dawn deserves the award.

Disagree. it's not who you lose it's who you have. She has 12 players on her roster. 11 were high school All Americans. She also had no major injuries and picked up another AA in the transfer portal. I think there are at least 25 D 1 coaches who would be undefeated at this point of the season if they had the same team.

 

[Charliebball]

Disagree. it's not who you lose it's who you have. She has 12 players on her roster. 11 were high school All Americans. She also had no major injuries and picked up another AA in the transfer portal. I think there are at least 25 D 1 coaches who would be undefeated at this point of the season if they had the same team.

Not sure I'm buying that one, but I'll let the SC fans here defend Dawn.....

 

[Zanzman]

Disagree. it's not who you lose it's who you have. She has 12 players on her roster. 11 were high school All Americans. She also had no major injuries and picked up another AA in the transfer portal. I think there are at least 25 D 1 coaches who would be undefeated at this point of the season if they had the same team.

If roles were reversed I’m sure you and many others would be touting Geno for the award, to many national flag blue tinted glasses here

 

[visitingcock]

They were presason 4th weren't they? How is that "barely in the conversation?"

6th.

 

[visitingcock]

Not sure I'm buying that one, but I'll let the SC fans here defend Dawn.....

Nah. We’ll just let people belief she’s a second rate coach

 

[hoophuskee]

6th.

Before I made the post I didn't notice AP/ESPN/NCAA --- - one popped up of the below 3 first then I ran with it. These 3 have SC 4th. I doubt it was so clear that there was "barely a consideration" for SC. Let's not go overboard.

Outlooks for the preseason Top 25 of the women's college basketball preseason poll

The race for this season's women's basketball national title is full of star power. Previewing each of the teams in the Top 25 of the preseason poll.

www.usatoday.com

Women's college basketball top 25: LSU, UConn, UCLA lead 2023-24 rankings

Our top 25 with team breakdowns, starters, key bench players, strengths and questions marks.

theathletic.com

Indiana Women's Basketball Ranked No. 9 in Preseason Top 25 by The Athletic

The Athletic published its preseason top 25 rankings for the 2023-24 women's college basketball season on Wednesday, and they ranked coach Teri Moren and the Indiana Hoosiers as the No. 9 overall team in the country.

www.si.com

Granted different opinions.

 

[luminosity]

Some UCONN fans really have to realize that there are other good teams and programs in college basketball, that not everything is a slight against UCONN and to get over this victim complex. Dawn Staley absolutely deserves COTY for having an undefeated team who has been dominate all year.

 

[MilfordHusky]

In addition to being undefeated, S.C. greatly changed their style of play this year. Dawn deserves credit for that. They have the most talent, in my opinion, but getting talented players to work together isn’t always easy. They are 4 games better than everyone else. I’m not a huge fan, but I think Dawn deserves COY. She has really improved over the last 8 years or so.

 

[omshanti]

I love Dawn Staley. She’s an amazing coach. I do believe Geno deserves the Coach of the Year though. To lose the five players UConn has lost and still be in the mix is amazing also. If any other team lost five key players they would be toast. Award’s don’t always go to the ‘best’ or ‘most deserving.’ Of course everyone fan thinks their coach is the best and most deserving. That doesn’t make it so. SC was projected to be good, they just blended together all season long. Can’t wait to see the tournaments!

 

[Dillon77]

In addition to being undefeated, S.C. greatly changed their style of play this year. Dawn deserves credit for that. They have the most talent, in my opinion, but getting talented players to work together isn’t always easy. They are 4 games better than everyone else. I’m not a huge fan, but I think Dawn deserves COY. She has really improved over the last 8 years or so.

Excellent post. There's always the unstated fact that Dawn got those excellent players, much like Geno did (and mostly continues to). To me, the argument that "she's got a great roster" misses one of the key aspects of being a good program: talent procurement. Look at how many threads are dedicated to it on the Boneyard! And that's gotten harder, with the transfer portal, NIL, etc.

Interestingly, Dawn's grown on me over the years -- what I used to perceive as brusqueness I now see as a clipped, straight-forward answer. And she obviously cares immensely for her charges.

 

[ucbart]

Excellent post. There's always the unstated fact that Dawn got those excellent players, much like Geno did (and mostly continues to). To me, the argument that "she's got a great roster" misses one of the key aspects of being a good program: talent procurement. Look at how many threads are dedicated to it on the Boneyard! And that's gotten harder, with the transfer portal, NIL, etc.

Interestingly, Dawn's grown on me over the years -- what I used to perceive as brusqueness I now see as a clipped, straight-forward answer. And she obviously cares immensely for her charges.

Dawn absolutely deserves COY. I think Geno deserves some love as well. If any other coach endured the injuries we have this year, they wouldn't have done this well, and I don't care what conference we are in.

HOWEVER-As a Syracuse resident, I can't just ignore the fact that FLJ took over and absolute dumpster fire on Irving Ave. two years ago, finished 3rd in the ACC, and has completely turned Syracuse around. She deserves some love, IMO. And I'm sorry, Hidalgo is great, but what has she done that's better than Fair? ND beat Syracuse twice, Fair is the heart and soul of that team, and her team finishes higher in the same conference.

Oh wait, I know what Fair didn't do, she didn't torch UCONN. The team, ya know, that gets punished because we are "not a normal UCONN" team but still wears the heaviest crown.......but everyone who beats us gets credit for "taking down mighty UCONN."

The hypocrisy in this is mind blowing.

 

[Charliebball]

Before I made the post I didn't notice AP/ESPN/NCAA --- - one popped up of the below 3 first then I ran with it. These 3 have SC 4th. I doubt it was so clear that there was "barely a consideration" for SC. Let's not go overboard.

Outlooks for the preseason Top 25 of the women's college basketball preseason poll

The race for this season's women's basketball national title is full of star power. Previewing each of the teams in the Top 25 of the preseason poll.

www.usatoday.com

Women's college basketball top 25: LSU, UConn, UCLA lead 2023-24 rankings

Our top 25 with team breakdowns, starters, key bench players, strengths and questions marks.

theathletic.com

Indiana Women's Basketball Ranked No. 9 in Preseason Top 25 by The Athletic

The Athletic published its preseason top 25 rankings for the 2023-24 women's college basketball season on Wednesday, and they ranked coach Teri Moren and the Indiana Hoosiers as the No. 9 overall team in the country.

www.si.com

Granted different opinions.

As I remember it was LSU and their super team against a stacked UConn with Iowa just a bit behind.........Stanford was way back in the preseason rankings so perhaps Tara deserves some consideration too.....

 

[MSSportsGuy]

The LSU team with Kim, Angel plus two on paper awesome portal pick ups followed closely by a UConn team that fans here were salivating over were garnering most of the attention prior to the start. I'd say everyone knew SC would be very good based on talent alone but not many would have guessed undefeated and the heavy favorites to win the NC.

 

[visitingcock]

As I remember it was LSU and their super team against a stacked UConn with Iowa just a bit behind.........Stanford was way back in the preseason rankings so perhaps Tara deserves some consideration too.....

Wow! Stanford was 15/AP and 13/USA. Maybe she does deserve it!

 

[hoophuskee]

As I remember it was LSU and their super team against a stacked UConn with Iowa just a bit behind.........Stanford was way back in the preseason rankings so perhaps Tara deserves some consideration too.....

Sure. I wasn't slighting/meant to slight Dawn. It's just that her team was considered very strong. But I know this is blasphemous but the BY is not a National publication. If we're talking about national polls etc - where South Carolina was ranked, they were considered a threat. How can you not be with such high a ranking?


COTY- great --whoever. Lots of candidates I suppose as you mention or imply Dawn-- and certainly she is. As is Stanford/Tara I guess. Maybe just look at the top 5 teams I suppose. Anyway I was just making a point that if USA Today, The Athletic, and Sports Illustrated had them 4th (i.e. picked to go to the FF in preseason), then imo that means a lot of people had extremely high hopes for South Carolina. Maybe just not so much on the BY. (Though can't blame us - because we remain potentially extremely excited for just 1 one healthy season in the last several.).