HuskyNan
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Gamecocks 2022, part III
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Let's see if we can fill this one up by New Years Day with "OOC Season" Talk and need a new one for starting conference play.
Pleased thus far with the exception of Raven's injury.
Pleased thus far with the exception of Raven's injury.
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Interesting from G'ville news:
Cooper is second only to legendary forward A'ja Wilson ins the ESPN recruiting rankings of players from South Carolina that Staley has signed since her tenure began in the 2008-09 season.
► Wilson (Heathwood Hall) was the nation's top overall recruit by ESPN in 2014.
► Power Forward Alaina Coates (Dutch Fork) was ranked 28th overall and fourth at her position in 2013.
► Point guard Khadijah Sessions (Myrtle Beach) was seventh at her position and 40th overall in 2012.
► Forward Aleighsa Welch (Goose Creek) was 26th at her position and 88th overall in 2011.
► Guard Asia Dozier (Spring Valley) was 33rd at her position and 90th overall in 2012.
Of course, Ashlyn, Fulwiley and Joyce Edwards are still in the chute.
Cooper is second only to legendary forward A'ja Wilson ins the ESPN recruiting rankings of players from South Carolina that Staley has signed since her tenure began in the 2008-09 season.
► Wilson (Heathwood Hall) was the nation's top overall recruit by ESPN in 2014.
► Power Forward Alaina Coates (Dutch Fork) was ranked 28th overall and fourth at her position in 2013.
► Point guard Khadijah Sessions (Myrtle Beach) was seventh at her position and 40th overall in 2012.
► Forward Aleighsa Welch (Goose Creek) was 26th at her position and 88th overall in 2011.
► Guard Asia Dozier (Spring Valley) was 33rd at her position and 90th overall in 2012.
Of course, Ashlyn, Fulwiley and Joyce Edwards are still in the chute.
triaddukefan
Tobacco Road Gastronomer
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Nothing yet.
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I have never been so uninterested in an upcoming match against Clempsun IN ANYTHING. This is unhealthy.
Somebody slap me out of it. Make me want to crush them like gnats.
Somebody slap me out of it. Make me want to crush them like gnats.
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As far a native born ladies. Teresa Geter was #3 overall nationally and I think Shazuki Gortman was higher. Then you have to go back to lady that transferred back to Carolina to play for coach Wilson from Maryland. [Mclain ?] She was #1 overall and a kid from Charlestons. Now all of this pre-dates ESPN but the recruting services were more accurate back then in my opinion . Why ? No AAU
You are talking about Beth Hunt. She played for Socastee.(Myrtle Beach area)
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This seems to be the consensus attitude for much of Gamecock Nation regarding the upcoming game against Clemson. But perhaps this is become we don't know the truth behind the series history, being clouded by all the recent success of the South Carolina program.
But this is the South Carolina Gamecocks team thread in the General Women's Basketball forum of The Boneyard. And Boneyardites don't appreciate nothing, if they don't appreciate some good women basketball history.
Wednesday's game between South Carolina and Clemson is THE official ".500 Game" for the series: South Carolina is currently 32-33 all-time against Clemson in the rivalry series. We're currently on a 10-game win streak against the Tigers, and are 14-4 against the Tigers going back to the 2002-03 season. Three of the four losses to Clemson in that run were overtime games. This may explain some of the current apathy towards the rivalry.
The last time South Carolina was .500 with Clemson in Women's Basketball was prior to the 1975-76 season, when the all-time series was 0-0. Early in the series in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the teams often played twice and even three times a season, back when there were fewer college programs around to schedule games with. The Tigers opened up the series with 4 straight wins - the closest the Gamecocks got in the series was during the 1982-83 season, when the Gamecocks won 73-58 to pull the all-time series record to 9-10.
This included the 1980-81 season, in which the Gamecocks technically defeated the Tigers 86-67 under head coach Pam Parsons. That would have brought the series up to Clemson leading 8-6, and with Clemson winning their 9th game 78-70 later that season, and then South Carolina winning the next 4 games in a row, would have tied up the series 9-9 in the 1981-82 season and even moved ahead 10-9 in 1982-83. But the first eight (8) wins of the 80-81 season were forfeited due to a transfer player - All-American Guard Frani Washington - having found to have academic discrepancies at her previous school Ohio State, and the win became officially a loss, making the series 9-5 in Clemson's favor.
So the best the Gamecocks could do winning 4 of the next 5 games was get within 1 game, 9-10 to Clemson, and then the Tigers would run off six straight wins in the series beginning in the latter part of 1982-83, to pull ahead again.
So with little fanfare to the history of the longtime rivalry, Wednesday's game is actually an all-time precedent-setting milestone game for the South Carolina Gamecocks in the all-time rivalry series......
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Wow. Thanks @ConwayGmck ! I'm not like the others because I'm excited for any Gamecock basketball game! Your information just makes it that much more meaningful.
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Raven Johnson is out for the season with a left knee injury. 
gamecocksonline.com
Johnson Out for Remainder of 2021-22 Season
gamecocksonline.com
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Terrible news regarding Raven but not unexpected hearing her screams after suffering the injury. Unfortunately this will be a mostly wasted year for Raven as she misses out on valuable experience playing behind Henny. Hopefully this injury doesn’t hamper her into next season as some knee injuries require a couple years to get back to full strength.
On court, this is an opportunity for Eniya to step up and take some of those back up ball handling minutes. While she didn’t play a whole lot last season, for me, Eniya did show moments where she could play the PG position. I’m not saying she’s on the level of Henny, Raven, Ty, or Khadijah, but she could be a more trustworthy ball handler than the likes of Doniyah Cliney or Tina Roy, SG’s who in seasons past were pressed to handle the ball when USC’s backcourt depth was lacking. Littleton‘s minutes are likely to increase as she will likely continue to be used in a ball handling role. Also, of course, Destanni’s health and well being is even more imperative than ever.
As for the Clemson game, I can’t wait for tomorrow. Hope the ladies come out and hang a 40 point win over the taters. Going to be interesting to see how full the crowd capacity will be given an early in the season match up.
On court, this is an opportunity for Eniya to step up and take some of those back up ball handling minutes. While she didn’t play a whole lot last season, for me, Eniya did show moments where she could play the PG position. I’m not saying she’s on the level of Henny, Raven, Ty, or Khadijah, but she could be a more trustworthy ball handler than the likes of Doniyah Cliney or Tina Roy, SG’s who in seasons past were pressed to handle the ball when USC’s backcourt depth was lacking. Littleton‘s minutes are likely to increase as she will likely continue to be used in a ball handling role. Also, of course, Destanni’s health and well being is even more imperative than ever.
As for the Clemson game, I can’t wait for tomorrow. Hope the ladies come out and hang a 40 point win over the taters. Going to be interesting to see how full the crowd capacity will be given an early in the season match up.
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Was Raven expected to contribute a lot this year? Before the injury who was expected to play the most meaningful minutes as a freshman? I try to follow South Carolina a little, but don’t keep tabs on them apart from here.
undersized
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She would have likely played some minutes each half backing up Henderson at the PG position and was the heir apparent to the starting position next year.
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They may need a transfer PG now.
Hard to go into a season where you are striving for national title with no experienced PGs.
They can cobble something together and hope for Raven to be good, but I think you try and find someone to carry weight there. Maybe not a ful time starter.
Hard to go into a season where you are striving for national title with no experienced PGs.
They can cobble something together and hope for Raven to be good, but I think you try and find someone to carry weight there. Maybe not a ful time starter.
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She got "meaningful" though sparse minutes against NC State and was inserting early against South Dakota. It was clear that Dawn was getting her ready to contribute this year and carry a burden next year.
Bree Hall is the frosh with the most minutes and appeared in both games. Dawn has declared her "ready" defensively and she looks pretty good offensively
Of the freshman she was probably looking at the most minutes going into the season. She's had the least amount of competition for her position compared to the other freshman and she is the presumed heir apparent for the position next season. It's a big blow for her experience going into next season but not as much for this one.
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Thank you all for your kind, detailed responses. Wishing Raven all the best and a speedy recovery.
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A shame to hear about Raven. Hopefully she heals quickly and fully.
I think most felt that Raven of all the freshmen had the biggest responsibility - perhaps that Rivers would make the biggest ultimate impact on the team the earliest - but that Raven needed to be ready to go quickest due to the responsibility the point guard has in any offense. Henderson was oftentimes gassed late in games from playing upwards of 40 minutes - she led the team last season with 34.0 mpg - or she would have to stay in games during error-prone minutes when Coach Staley would have preferred taking her out for a moment to coach her on what NOT to do.
Raven was supposed to help provide those opportunities of rest and reflection so Henderson stayed more focused in last-game situations. Against top 5 ranked NC State, Johnson played very few minutes, but she came into the South Dakota game early, and looked to be scheduled to have a larger role before getting the fluke injury.
The replay showed Raven was tightly defending a Coyote player. No one was at fault - it was a flukish kind of injury. As the Coyote player was moving towards the baseline, and Johnson was staying in her hip pocket, Raven's right foot hits against the Coyote's left foot as Raven was stepping forward with the right foot. It impeded her foot from going forward, while both player's bodies was moving forward. This created a "pisa tower" falling down affect where Raven had no foot forward to catch her body from falling. So she tries to step forward with her left foot, but her body was already lowering down to the floor, and even as her left leg was bent at the knee, her left foot only moves forward part-way, still not fully underneath her falling body. So she keeps falling.
This created the unfortunate positioning where it was Raven's left knee that takes the full weight of her body as it falls forward and downward, and her knee - bent as it was from trying to step forward - bends at an awkward angle as she continued down to the floor. This was what caused the injury. In hindsight, it would've been far better for Raven to have just let her body fall freely, down to the floor, and she would have been spared the injury, but the entire sequence only took a second if that, and no one knew it would play out as it did.....
The question still remains as to who takes Raven's place in providing Henderson minutes of rest. I think Littleton may wind up being the #1 option - now that she seems fully healed and in good shape to laterally move and handle press defenses, she has the most experience of handling the responsibility. Russell may also be a solid candidate, but she hadn't yet shown me strong ball-handling abilities under forceful opposing defenses - she averaged less than 7 minutes last season, and had twice as many turnovers as she did assists.
Cooke is able to bring the ball up the court against press defenses, so I see her doing that a good bit, and Littleton being the de-facto #2 PG right now - in limited minutes last season, Littleton had 21 assists and only 10 turnovers, which was far and away the best of anyone on the team after Henderson: her A:TO ratio was actually better than Henny's - with Russell filling in at both guard spots and even at the 3 from time to time. We'll have to make it work.
Important thing is Raven is as healed fully as she can be for the 2022-23 season, as Henderson and Littleton will be gone, but if there's a position that Dawn Staley should be able to coach up quickly, it is at Point.....
I think most felt that Raven of all the freshmen had the biggest responsibility - perhaps that Rivers would make the biggest ultimate impact on the team the earliest - but that Raven needed to be ready to go quickest due to the responsibility the point guard has in any offense. Henderson was oftentimes gassed late in games from playing upwards of 40 minutes - she led the team last season with 34.0 mpg - or she would have to stay in games during error-prone minutes when Coach Staley would have preferred taking her out for a moment to coach her on what NOT to do.
Raven was supposed to help provide those opportunities of rest and reflection so Henderson stayed more focused in last-game situations. Against top 5 ranked NC State, Johnson played very few minutes, but she came into the South Dakota game early, and looked to be scheduled to have a larger role before getting the fluke injury.
The replay showed Raven was tightly defending a Coyote player. No one was at fault - it was a flukish kind of injury. As the Coyote player was moving towards the baseline, and Johnson was staying in her hip pocket, Raven's right foot hits against the Coyote's left foot as Raven was stepping forward with the right foot. It impeded her foot from going forward, while both player's bodies was moving forward. This created a "pisa tower" falling down affect where Raven had no foot forward to catch her body from falling. So she tries to step forward with her left foot, but her body was already lowering down to the floor, and even as her left leg was bent at the knee, her left foot only moves forward part-way, still not fully underneath her falling body. So she keeps falling.
This created the unfortunate positioning where it was Raven's left knee that takes the full weight of her body as it falls forward and downward, and her knee - bent as it was from trying to step forward - bends at an awkward angle as she continued down to the floor. This was what caused the injury. In hindsight, it would've been far better for Raven to have just let her body fall freely, down to the floor, and she would have been spared the injury, but the entire sequence only took a second if that, and no one knew it would play out as it did.....
The question still remains as to who takes Raven's place in providing Henderson minutes of rest. I think Littleton may wind up being the #1 option - now that she seems fully healed and in good shape to laterally move and handle press defenses, she has the most experience of handling the responsibility. Russell may also be a solid candidate, but she hadn't yet shown me strong ball-handling abilities under forceful opposing defenses - she averaged less than 7 minutes last season, and had twice as many turnovers as she did assists.
Cooke is able to bring the ball up the court against press defenses, so I see her doing that a good bit, and Littleton being the de-facto #2 PG right now - in limited minutes last season, Littleton had 21 assists and only 10 turnovers, which was far and away the best of anyone on the team after Henderson: her A:TO ratio was actually better than Henny's - with Russell filling in at both guard spots and even at the 3 from time to time. We'll have to make it work.
Important thing is Raven is as healed fully as she can be for the 2022-23 season, as Henderson and Littleton will be gone, but if there's a position that Dawn Staley should be able to coach up quickly, it is at Point.....
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triaddukefan
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I guess your starting PG is a senior... any chance she returns next year?
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I guess there’s always a chance but her dream is the WNBA. If she has a great year I think she’s gone but you just never know.
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She could if she doesn’t like her draft projections but I would be surprised if she weren’t a 1st rounder by the end of the season. Also, she’s been very brand focused even before NIL and has already started up a clothing line so she’ll likely want to get focused more on that and move on from SC if she doesn’t need to.
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