Elsewhere today (12/20): Christinaki debuts for MD; Miss St, Tx A&M, USF, Oregon St

[Plebe]

Games in progress or already completed:

• #5 Mississippi State is currently playing its first true road game of the season, at the "Duel of the Desert" hosted by UNLV. The Bulldogs are up by 33 on UNLV in 3Q. Vivians and McCowan both have 19 points already. Miss St will play unbeaten Syracuse tomorrow.
  
  
• Earlier today in Las Vegas, #19 Texas A&M crushed Hawai'i, 103-59. Carter had a modest scoring day (10 points) but posted 11 assists and only one turnover. The last time the Aggies scored 100+ points in a game was the 2012 season when they won it all. A&M will play Oregon tomorrow.
  
  
• Also earlier today, Eleanna Christinaki announced herself in her debut for #15 Maryland with a 32-point performance against Coppin State. I believe she will be a major boost to Maryland's chances of retaining its Big Ten supremacy.

Games upcoming later day:

• #22 South Florida faces a decent Dayton team in New Orleans at 8:30 pm ET. This game and tomorrow's contest vs. Michigan State are important as USF tries to shore up its OOC resume. The good news for USF is that Alyssa Rader, the transfer from NAU, is now available.
  
  
• #17 Oregon State will host 9-1 UC Davis at 9 pm ET (6 pm on the left coast). UC Davis was undefeated until they suffered a cold shooting day against UCF the other day. They have an excellent center in Morgan Bertsch, and the matchup between her and Gulich will be a good one.

 

[nwhoopfan]

#5 Mississippi State is currently playing its first true road game of the season, at the "Duel of the Desert" hosted by UNLV. The Bulldogs are up by 33 on UNLV in 3Q. Vivians and McCowan both have 19 points already. Miss St will play unbeaten Syracuse tomorrow.

Despite all their troubles this year, Stanford thrashed UNLV 74-33 last weekend. Hopefully MSU's game against Syracuse will be somewhat more entertaining.

#17 Oregon State will host 9-1 UC Davis at 9 pm ET (6 pm on the left coast). UC Davis was undefeated until they suffered a cold shooting day against UCF the other day. They have an excellent center in Morgan Bertsch, and the matchup between her and Gulich will be a good one.

I was kinda disappointed w/ that game, would have been better to see an undefeated UC Davis coming into this matchup. Gulic has been terrific so far this year. She's not the shot blocker Ruth Hamblin was, but otherwise I'd say she is a better player at this point than Hamblin developed into.

 

[triaddukefan]

Go Beavers.... I'll be pulling for them all year

 

[ASweet3781]

Honestly, based on what I've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised if Mississippi State wouldn't once again be our toughest challenge of the year should we meet.

 

[Plebe]

I was kinda disappointed w/ that game, would have been better to see an undefeated UC Davis coming into this matchup. Gulic has been terrific so far this year. She's not the shot blocker Ruth Hamblin was, but otherwise I'd say she is a better player at this point than Hamblin developed into.

UC Davis put themselves in a huge hole with frigid shooting in the first half. I think they trailed by as much as 21 early in Q3 but then came storming back to make it fairly close in the end.

I'm sure Oregon State will win this game but it will easily be their toughest opponent outside of Duke and ND so far.

 

[Plebe]

Go Beavers.... I'll be pulling for them all year

Ha ... you mean just to boost Duke's resume?

 

[Plebe]

The Oregon St-UC Davis is being shown on live stream:
Oregon State Live Stream

 

[triaddukefan]

Ha ... you mean just to boost Duke's resume?

Of course.... plus a Beaver is a much better mascot than a Duck.

How can you not root for such a creature

 

[nwhoopfan]

Looking at box score, UC Davis can't shoot or rebound, but OSU turnovers are keeping the game really close so far. OSU not shooting so great either.

 

[nwhoopfan]

34-30 Oregon St. at halftime.

 

[Plebe]

Oregon State outscored UCD 16-6 in 3Q to gain some separation.

UC Davis is missing a lot of makeable shots, but OSU is clearly the better team.

 

[USFMB]

UNBULLIEVEABULL WIN!!!

USF 93 - Dayton 87!!!

We were down by 12 in the 4th and it went to OT!

 

[nwhoopfan]

61-47 Oregon St. final. Seems like a throwback to the way they played last year. Low scoring, poor shooting by both teams, but much worse for UC-D (24% overall, 21% from 3). Bertsch scored 20 for Davis but 8-28 from the floor. Beavers had 3 in double figures. Big rebounding advantage 57-35. 18 turnovers is a throwback to last year as well. Wiese did a lot of things well, but hanging onto the ball wasn't necessarily one of them. Can't pin the TO's on her since she isn't there anymore.

 

[USFMB]

UNBULLIEVEABULL WIN!!!

USF 93 - Dayton 87!!!

We were down by 12 in the 4th and it went to OT!

We were down by 8-0 starting out and Laksa couldn't make anything in the first three quarters, but woke up and played great when it counted.

Dayton vs. South Florida - Game Summary - December 20, 2017 - ESPN

Stats: StatMonitr Stat Feed

Next up is Michigan State. I hope we can get off to a fast start for a change.

 

[Plebe]

We were down by 8-0 starting out and Laksa couldn't make anything in the first three quarters, but woke up and played great when it counted.

Dayton vs. South Florida - Game Summary - December 20, 2017 - ESPN

Stats: StatMonitr Stat Feed

Next up is Michigan State. I hope we can get off to a fast start for a change.

Thanks for providing the link to the stat sheet. For some reason it wasn't linked from the USF site.

I see that Laksa was 0-6 in the 1st half with only 2 points. Jespersen only had 2 first-half points as well. It was Ferreira and Rader, with 10 points each, who kept USF afloat in the first half.

But Laksa really came to life after that, finishing with 29 points and a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line.

 

[Plebe]

61-47 Oregon St. final. Seems like a throwback to the way they played last year. Low scoring, poor shooting by both teams, but much worse for UC-D (24% overall, 21% from 3). Bertsch scored 20 for Davis but 8-28 from the floor. Beavers had 3 in double figures. Big rebounding advantage 57-35. 18 turnovers is a throwback to last year as well. Wiese did a lot of things well, but hanging onto the ball wasn't necessarily one of them. Can't pin the TO's on her since she isn't there anymore.

Oregon State, like last year, will be a bit turnover-prone and vulnerable to teams that can apply heavy ball pressure. Pivec is basically playing the point, but she doesn't have great handles or great speed. I think she is much better playing off the ball as a 2 or 3.

Getting Slocum eligible next year will be a huge help for the Beavs.

 

[USFMB]

Thanks for providing the link to the stat sheet. For some reason it wasn't linked from the USF site.

I see that Laksa was 0-6 in the 1st half with only 2 points. Jespersen only had 2 first-half points as well. It was Ferreira and Rader, with 10 points each, who kept USF afloat in the first half.

But Laksa really came to life after that, finishing with 29 points and a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line.

After Laksa put up 40 points and hitting 11 3's in a row last week, she followed that up with a very poor showing in both our last game and early in this game where she was a combined 0-11 from beyond the arc.

This game article better explains it.

Dayton vs. South Florida - Game Recap - December 20, 2017 - ESPN

BTW, I know you follow USF WBB, thought you should know that Jazz Bond (CD's HS teammate) has transferred out. The separation was mutual. I don't think that she wanted to bulk up as our coach required. She was thin as a rail and didn't put on much weight over the past year. Perhaps, we wanted her to take a red shirt, and she did not want that. Either way, she is going somewhere else to play.

 

[Plebe]

After Laksa put up 40 points and hitting 11 3's in a row last week, she followed that up with a very poor showing in both our last game and early in this game where she was a combined 0-11 from beyond the arc.

This game article better explains it.

Dayton vs. South Florida - Game Recap - December 20, 2017 - ESPN

BTW, I know you follow USF WBB, thought you should know that Jazz Bond (CD's HS teammate) has transferred out. The separation was mutual. I don't think that she wanted to bulk up as our coach required. She was thin as a rail and didn't put on much weight over the past year. Perhaps, we wanted her to take a red shirt, and she did not want that. Either way, she is going somewhere else to play.

Yes, I had seen Kallina tweet about Bond transferring out. (Btw what happened to that guy? His Twitter has been shut down.) It's too bad that she didn't work out at USF.

It's great to see Rader contributing immediately. But I hope that Jose has his recruiting wheels in motion, because he will be needing to replace some key players after this year.

 

[USFMB]

Yes, I had seen Kallina tweet about Bond transferring out. (Btw what happened to that guy? His Twitter has been shut down.) It's too bad that she didn't work out at USF.

It's great to see Rader contributing immediately. But I hope that Jose has his recruiting wheels in motion, because he will be needing to replace some key players after this year.

Well, we could certainly use another big player. So with Bond gone, I assume he will be looking for that.

So, far we have one early signee from Greece who is a a good ball handler and a very good outside shooter.

We have one player D Nagy who played as a true freshman last year. She had some lingering injuries and has not played yet, Perhaps, she will take a red shirt.

Another new player, from Spain only played in one or two games so far.

Then there is Enna P who is coming back from a 2nd ACL injury and has not played very much this year.

Those three players were all ranked with 4 or 5 stars by blue star Europe and are expected to come along slowly, if they can fully recover from their injuries.

In the mean time, we have some true freshmen who are doing well in seeing limited playing time.

There really is quite a bit of young talent on our team, that you have not yet seen.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Oregon State, like last year, will be a bit turnover-prone and vulnerable to teams that can apply heavy ball pressure. Pivec is basically playing the point, but she doesn't have great handles or great speed. I think she is much better playing off the ball as a 2 or 3.

Getting Slocum eligible next year will be a huge help for the Beavs.

Yeah Pivec is playing PG out of necessity, I think she'll be happy to move back to the 2 next year and play alongside Slocum. Their freshman Aleah Goodman is supposed to be a PG but I don't think she's ready to run an offense at this point. She has been excelling at knocking down 3's, I'm not sure that was expected. McWilliams started at PG for about 8 games during her freshman year while Wiese was out with a hand injury and filled in admirably, but hasn't played PG since. She's kind of a jack of all trades player for them.

Not related, but the last couple games it looks like Corosdale is stepping up and seizing the 4 spot. She seems to have much more upside long term than Washington or Thropay, but she got off to a bit of a slow start. It's still early in her freshman season though.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Amber Melgoza has scored 25 and 26 in the last 2 games for the west coast Huskies. Maybe she was taking some notes while watching Plum play last season.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Impressive debut for Christinaki, I forgot to comment on that earlier. That might help Maryland mitigate the loss of some transfers to some degree.

 

[LoTrader]

Yeah Pivec is playing PG out of necessity, I think she'll be happy to move back to the 2 next year and play alongside Slocum. Their freshman Aleah Goodman is supposed to be a PG but I don't think she's ready to run an offense at this point. She has been excelling at knocking down 3's, I'm not sure that was expected. McWilliams started at PG for about 8 games during her freshman year while Wiese was out with a hand injury and filled in admirably, but hasn't played PG since. She's kind of a jack of all trades player for them.

Not related, but the last couple games it looks like Corosdale is stepping up and seizing the 4 spot. She seems to have much more upside long term than Washington or Thropay, but she got off to a bit of a slow start. It's still early in her freshman season though.

Aleah Goodman, while a freshman, is as good a freshman that Scott Rueck has had in years. This kid will be playing the point for OSU a lot this year. What I like about Goodman is she seems to not make the same mistake over and over like a freshman does. She has terrific court vision, great passing skills, and has no fear taking the open shot. She isn't necessarily going to break down the defense like Destiny Slocum, but does have an awesome "step back" jumper that you see from other athletic shooters. She is extremely calm, unlike Sydney Weise last year. As a fan, I'm much more relaxed watching Aleah Goodman manage the offense. She will be 1st team all PAC12 Freshman this year.

 

[LoTrader]

Oregon State, like last year, will be a bit turnover-prone and vulnerable to teams that can apply heavy ball pressure. Pivec is basically playing the point, but she doesn't have great handles or great speed. I think she is much better playing off the ball as a 2 or 3.

Getting Slocum eligible next year will be a huge help for the Beavs.

Interestingly, while Pivec doesn't pass the ball like UO's Sabrina, Pivec is similar to Sabrina in that she can get to the hoop when she wants, and does it without exceptional speed. Pivec is so strong, and has multiple times scored & been fouled for the old fashioned 3-pointer. Pivec is OSU's rock, and, playing the point at times this year, has not turned over the ball, like OSU did with Weise playing the point last year. Pivec will share the point duties this year with Aleah Goodman (who has impressed me considerably). When Slocum is eligible, it will be the 1st year that Scott Rueck will have lots of depth at the point. Having said all that, still not sure how OSU will fare in PAC12 play this year. Overall, I think the PAC12 is down this year, but I still think OSU makes the tourney this year, but hosting rounds 1/2 has got to be their goal (again).

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Who is Kristinaki?