First Night Tourney Thoughts

[Fairfield Fan]

I was very impressed by the performances of the lower seeds. Bucknell was in front of Florida State in the 4th quarter, and barely lost by a trey. Mercer almost beats Iowa? Florida Gulf Coast almost beats Miami? Rice almost beats 5-seed Marquette. And Buffalo does beat Rutgers. I'm not sure about previous years, but it seems to me a lot of unknowns, as opposed to mid-majors, are demonstrating that there's better basketball being played in obscure places than anyone could have guessed.

Having said that, it was a very poor performance by the only other AAC team in the tournament- UCF. They were not competitive against Arizona State. Made the AAC as a conference look bad.

Interesting to see a strong win by former Big East St John's coach's Michigan team. Wonder if this signals that she's doing the same thing in Ann Arbor that she did in Queens: creating the foundation for a long-term winning program?

Bad loss for Texas. I understand they lost Higgs to an ACL. But shouldn't Charli Collier have contributed more? She's dominance waiting to be developed. Wonder if she wishes she were playing somewhere else...

Having said that, the top teams proved why they're top teams: Louisville blow-out, Mississippi State blow-out, UConn blow-out.

I know it's "first night thoughts," but the "Evil Empire's" game is front and center this morning. I believe we're split down the middle: half of us want them to be dealt an embarrassing first-round exit loss; the other half of us want them to win so that we can deal them an embarrassing defeat to make up for- well, everything.

 

[warbler1055]

I saw most of the games mentioned. Couldn't agree more with your observations. I found myself rooting for Mercer, Rice and Drake ( lost by 1 point to Missouri). They were great games to watch. It's going to be a very competitive and exciting tourney!!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[HuskyMJ]

I was very impressed by the performances of the lower seeds. Bucknell was in front of Florida State in the 4th quarter, and barely lost by a trey. Mercer almost beats Iowa? Florida Gulf Coast almost beats Miami? Rice almost beats 5-seed Marquette. And Buffalo does beat Rutgers. I'm not sure about previous years, but it seems to me a lot of unknowns, as opposed to mid-majors, are demonstrating that there's better basketball being played in obscure places than anyone could have guessed.

Having said that, it was a very poor performance by the only other AAC team in the tournament- UCF. They were not competitive against Arizona State. Made the AAC as a conference look bad. The only consolation was that their coach's dirty play against Connecticut was repaid with a bad loss.

Interesting to see a strong win by former Big East St John's coach's Michigan team. Wonder if this signals that she's doing the same thing in Ann Arbor that she did in Queens: creating the foundation for a long-term winning program?

Bad loss for Texas. I understand they lost Higgs to an ACL. But shouldn't Charli Collier have contributed more? She's dominance waiting to be developed. Wonder if she wishes she were playing somewhere else...

Having said that, the top teams proved why they're top teams: Louisville blow-out, Mississippi State blow-out, UConn blow-out.

I know it's "first night thoughts," but the "Evil Empire's" game is front and center this morning. I believe we're split down the middle: half of us want them to be dealt an embarrassing first-round exit loss; the other half of us want them to win so that we can deal them an embarrassing defeat to make up for- well, everything.

Charli Collier had 10 rebounds and a block in 15 minutes. Amazing? No, but pretty solid for a freshman. Now, she only made 2 shots out of 7 but its not uncommon to see freshmen post players struggle a little against the physicality they never saw in high school. Actually, I take that back. 10 rebounds in 15 minutes is pretty amazing for a freshman. But the 2-7 shooting was not. Overall I would not say she was a net negative. She did not have a single turnover when the team as a whole had 23. So Charli did pretty well for herself in the final game of her season.

 

[HuskyMJ]

One more thing, UCF losing to Arizona State, 12 vs. 5, is not a referendum on the AAC. Maybe the non conference win loss record may be since that is a much bigger pool of games to analyze. But 1 neutral site game against a favored team, hard to draw enough information to stereotype an entire league.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

One more thing, UCF losing to Arizona State, 12 vs. 5, is not a referendum on the AAC. Maybe the non conference win loss record may be since that is a much bigger pool of games to analyze. But 1 neutral site game against a favored team, hard to draw enough information to stereotype an entire league.

Just seems to me that the #2 team in the entire conference should have been more competitive against a lower Top 25 team. Look at all the other strong performances by teams in even "weaker" conferences. Seems that while the Drakes and Florida Gulf Coasts and Rices of the tourney were showing a lot of fight, UCF just didn't rise to the occasion.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Charli stayed home to play for a poorly coached, under-achieving 7 seed that lost in the first round. She could have been part of the fun at Gampel last night. Oh well!

 

[HopJim]

Charli stayed home to play for a poorly coached, under-achieving 7 seed that lost in the first round. She could have been part of the fun at Gampel last night. Oh well!

Living in Texas, I get to watch all Texas sports and would find Women's Basketball frustrating if I was a fan. They consistently underperform against disciplined teams.

 

[connie]

I'm not sure about previous years

Also seems to me that generally there is more talent across more teams, and more teams are just getting better and better each year. I mean I haven't scrutinized every game, but from what I saw damn near every seeded team -- from the top seeds to the bottom -- are playing great basketball, with talented and very athletic players, capable shooters and playmakers, hard work inside, gritty team work. I mean, this is just great to see.

By the way, MS looks very impressive. At times yesterday, Tiera (who does have a shooter's touch from outside) did not appear even necessary. They look very much capable of going all the way, with numerous ways of scoring, great hustle and just suffocating defense. Up 26 points on Southern at the half, MS then proceeded to hold them to 5 points in the third quarter.

 

[HuskyMJ]

Charli stayed home to play for a poorly coached, under-achieving 7 seed that lost in the first round. She could have been part of the fun at Gampel last night. Oh well!

Its so petty to bash a kids decision on college. Maybe she wanted to be close to her family, or for a specific major. Just because this is a basketball forum doesn't mean these kids are robots who can't have other reasons for a decision.

 

[HopJim]

Its so petty to bash a kids decision on college. Maybe she wanted to be close to her family, or for a specific major. Just because this is a basketball forum doesn't mean these kids are robots who can't have other reasons for a decision.

Milford's comments seemed factual and did not mention on the motivations for Collier's decision. Not sure I want to fill the board with regret but a short comment seemed fine. I had the same thought after watching Texas.

 

[hussybulldog]

One more thing, UCF losing to Arizona State, 12 vs. 5, is not a referendum on the AAC. Maybe the non conference win loss record may be since that is a much bigger pool of games to analyze. But 1 neutral site game against a favored team, hard to draw enough information to stereotype an entire league.

Well, AAC is weak and not much better than any mid-major(if you exclude UCONN) and it does not need a referendum to draw that conclusion.

 

[hussybulldog]

Charli stayed home to play for a poorly coached, under-achieving 7 seed that lost in the first round. She could have been part of the fun at Gampel last night. Oh well!

She might have transferred like many others had she chosen UCONN. I wonder why people are so obsessed woth people who transferred out, now even for someone who did not choose UCONN.

 

[azfan]

I was very impressed by the performances of the lower seeds. Bucknell was in front of Florida State in the 4th quarter, and barely lost by a trey. Mercer almost beats Iowa? Florida Gulf Coast almost beats Miami? Rice almost beats 5-seed Marquette. And Buffalo does beat Rutgers. I'm not sure about previous years, but it seems to me a lot of unknowns, as opposed to mid-majors, are demonstrating that there's better basketball being played in obscure places than anyone could have guessed.

Having said that, it was a very poor performance by the only other AAC team in the tournament- UCF. They were not competitive against Arizona State. Made the AAC as a conference look bad. The only consolation was that their coach's dirty play against Connecticut was repaid with a bad loss.

Interesting to see a strong win by former Big East St John's coach's Michigan team. Wonder if this signals that she's doing the same thing in Ann Arbor that she did in Queens: creating the foundation for a long-term winning program?

Bad loss for Texas. I understand they lost Higgs to an ACL. But shouldn't Charli Collier have contributed more? She's dominance waiting to be developed. Wonder if she wishes she were playing somewhere else...

Having said that, the top teams proved why they're top teams: Louisville blow-out, Mississippi State blow-out, UConn blow-out.

I know it's "first night thoughts," but the "Evil Empire's" game is front and center this morning. I believe we're split down the middle: half of us want them to be dealt an embarrassing first-round exit loss; the other half of us want them to win so that we can deal them an embarrassing defeat to make up for- well, everything.

Regarding the UCF game don't underestimate the strength of ASU's defense. Charli Turner Thorne consistently develops a top 20 defense and this group was smothering throughout the game.

That said there were number of great games yesterday in particular the Drake Missouri game. So far the tournament shows the progress that NCAA women's basketball is making to improve the overall depth and quality of teams

 

[azfan]

One more thing, UCF losing to Arizona State, 12 vs. 5, is not a referendum on the AAC. Maybe the non conference win loss record may be since that is a much bigger pool of games to analyze. But 1 neutral site game against a favored team, hard to draw enough information to stereotype an entire league.

I completely agree. as I replied elsewhere on the thread ASU is consistently known for their strong defense this year's team is another great example. Your point about the relative rankings going to the tournament is also on point.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Its so petty to bash a kids decision on college. Maybe she wanted to be close to her family, or for a specific major. Just because this is a basketball forum doesn't mean these kids are robots who can't have other reasons for a decision.

Seems a reasonable comment to me. Probably did want to stay close to home.

Wonder if she'll remain close to home. This had to be a disappointing, frustrating season for her.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Here's another take on UCF-ASU--the Sun Devils are a good team, and tough to play against, especially if you haven't met them previously. Maybe a little credit is due to the victors? They gave both Baylor and Louisville all they could handle early in the season.

 

[Gus Mahler]

First of all, @MilfordHusky is not a basher--quite the opposite. And what he said is not bashing. That's over-dramatizing what he said. As far as being obsessed with transfers, Charli did choose UConn. She made a verbal commitment and then backed out of it. Also over-dramatizing.

It's reasonable for UConn fans to wonder what if. And to the extent Charli went to Texas because of Tina Thompson, that has to be a disappointment.

She decided to stay close to home. It's her life. I wish her the best, but I'll cast my lot with Liv.

 

[MilfordHusky]

My point on Charli is that Coach Aston let her down. I like Charli.

 

[JoePgh]

First of all, @MilfordHusky is not a basher--quite the opposite. And what he said is not bashing. That's over-dramatizing what he said. As far as being obsessed with transfers, Charli did choose UConn. She made a verbal commitment and then backed out of it. Also over-dramatizing.

It's reasonable for UConn fans to wonder what if. And to the extent Charli went to Texas because of Tina Thompson, that has to be a disappointment.

She decided to stay close to home. It's her life. I wish her the best, but I'll cast my lot with Liv.

As I recall, Charli's decision to reconsider her UConn commitment and stay close to home came immediately after a hurricane hit Texas, and she mentioned that in her explanation. As I recall, she said she didn't want to be a long way from her family when they might need her. You can't argue with that.

 

[Gus Mahler]

As I recall, Charli's decision to reconsider her UConn commitment and stay close to home came immediately after a hurricane hit Texas, and she mentioned that in her explanation. As I recall, she said she didn't want to be a long way from her family when they might need her. You can't argue with that.

I won't.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Charli's father passed away when she was in high school, and her hometown was hit by a storm of Biblical proportions. She's a good kid. I don't disagree with her decision, though I would have liked to see her in Storrs. It just hasn't worked out well from a basketball perspective, at least not yet. Coach Aston appears to be an underachiever almost as much as Coach Warlick.