Gamecocks 2022, part three (merged thread)

[JDuro]

LOL, non-Gamecock fans using this thread as a game thread. Posts #7-25 need to be moved to South Carolina Survives UCLA thread, or just deleted.

 

[Talon]

Hope the close game wakes the team up, intensifies defense and rebounding. They've dropped off in the last couple of games, don't bring it for a full 40 minutes.

 

[azfan]

Hope the close game wakes the team up, intensifies defense and rebounding. They've dropped off in the last couple of games, don't bring it for a full 40 minutes.

Maybe the Bruins had something to do with this, in this game?

 

[Coburn]

Generally, when SC starts a game off slow on offense against a team with talent, they seem to always play close or even fall behind. It should not shock anyone who has watched this version of our team since the 32-1 Covid yr. of KiKi & TH leading the super frosh.

IMO, it’s not the guard play that causes SC to sometime struggle offensively, it’s the lack of a scoring wing forward since Mad K graduated. I love Beal and her intangibles, but this is two games in a row with zero points. That lack of scoring production from the Wing is the main factor in many of our slow starts. The good news is DS has a deep bench with many options to counter a slow start to find what will work for that particular matchup. Non-starter Bree Hall, who starred off the bench at Stanford, was barely a factor last night while Cardoso, who struggled at the Cardinal, was a force against UCLA with points, rebounds, & blocks. Plus our defense and bench wears teams down over the course of the game. Fatigue matters & how many times did UCLA have to settle for a deep three late in the shot clock in the second half due to pressure? Let's all remember that Games are 4 quarters & not won at the half. Despite the slow start, from the point of the game where the Bruins led 31-21, SC outscored UCLA by 19. As much as I wish we had a pretty offense like some teams, DS has built SC to play as a bulldozer. Some games, it takes time for that machine to get rolling. Will SC lose a game or two this season - possible/probable. But I don’t see us getting blown out in any game we might. with that being said, UCLA is a good team, was motivated, & played hard. Hats off.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

I do. Players stay the same but the roles don’t. I also think our returners are in a sort of “slump” mode. Personally I wouldn’t have minded seeing more bench players in the game.

I wish we were a little less focused on winning these games in favor of developing players.

I think you have to play Raven more than 4 minutes…

 

[SCspur]

I wish we were a little less focused on winning these games in favor of developing players.

I think you have to play Raven more than 4 minutes…

I agree, and other than Starting and a little minutes here and there, Feagin and Watkins should be getting Saxton minutes. She’s no different than last year and she’s blocking their development. I love Saxton but as I said in April she shouldn’t have came back. Those minutes could be going to them and they already can do everything she can’t so I don’t understand what the issue is.

 

[TC22]

I agree, and other than Starting and a little minutes here and there, Feagin and Watkins should be getting Saxton minutes. She’s no different than last year and she’s blocking their development. I love Saxton but as I said in April she shouldn’t have came back. Those minutes could be going to them and they already can do everything she can’t so I don’t understand what the issue is.

Cardoso got most of Saxton’s minutes. Dawn uses those bench players in the first half to save fouls and get some experience in a big game. We have a ton of games where those young ones are going to get to play. I don’t fault Dawn at all for doing whatever she needs to do to win the game against a ranked opponent. That’s the whole point of the season. As talented as those young ones are they don’t play defense the way Dawn demands. Until they do she’s not going to play them in a tight game. If you really Focus on those 2 in a game you will note that Ashley, especially, doesn’t switch on a screen so it leaves somebody wide open at times.

 

[triaddukefan]

I agree, and other than Starting and a little minutes here and there, Feagin and Watkins should be getting Saxton minutes. She’s no different than last year and she’s blocking their development. I love Saxton but as I said in April she shouldn’t have came back. Those minutes could be going to them and they already can do everything she can’t so I don’t understand what the issue is.

Saxton should have done a grad transfer to Duke

 

[ConwayGmck]

South Carolina will always be a 2nd half team under Staley and her staff, as well. One could either say this represents a staff that doesn't know how to prepare their teams for big opponents, or one could say it represents a great knowledge of how to prepare a team: you can look at game film of an opponent all week long and lose sleep doing it, but you never truly know how your team matches up and plays against that opponent until you tip the ball up and play. Dawn Staley has developed a reputation as a great mid-game "adjuster" of how her teams compete, and you can see the results in the stat sheets of games. The only times when her teams do NOT have substantial 2nd-half improvements, are games where they dominated their opponent so much, that reserves play the majority of the 4th periods, which often muddies up the waters.

UCLA came out with a strong effort - they shot 53% from the field compared to USC's 32%. But they only led by 3 pts at the end of the 1st Period. In the 2nd Period, the Gamecocks started to enforce their defensive will, holding UCLA to only 24% from the field. But the Gamecocks shot only 29% themselves: Boston was blanketed in dbl and triple teams playing on a gimpy ankle, and Cooke was struggling to hit her shots.

The Gamecock bench only scored 8 pts in the 1st half - both teams were tied in rebounds and pts off turnovers. UCLA had twice the fouls that USC had, but the Gamecocks only hit 2 of their 7 FT tries, which was terrible.

Then came the 2nd half: The Gamecocks shot 50% for the half, holding the Bruins to just 27% themselves. The Bruins kept fouling, but the Gamecocks shot 16-20 from the line in the 2nd half. Cardoso got into a rhythm scoring 14 of her 16 pts after halftime, and the Gamecock bench out-scored UCLA's bench 19-2 in the 2nd half. And the Gamecocks out-scored the Bruins overall 46-33, on a pace that would have been an easy 26-pt win over a top 15 ranked opponent had it been that way for the whole game.

And people want to talk about how the Gamecocks looked so "ugly", "boring", and didn't look like the top WCBB team? The same things they said about the Gamecocks last season, too. That's OK.


Takeaways from the game:

- PG Raven Johnson had perhaps her worse showing of the season thus far, with 2 turnovers in the 1st Qtr., but her tandem running mate Kierra Fletcher had her best yet with 12 pts on 5-10 shooting and 10 rebounds - 7 of which she got in the 1st half.

- Boston had her first game after tweaking her ankle against Hampton, and while at times she showed a slight limp or favoring of her foot, she was able to put up solid Boston numbers against a top 15 opponent with 18 pts on 5-7 shooting, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 3 assists.

- Cardoso also had a strong game, scoring 16 pts on 8-11 shooting, with 9 rebounds and 5 blocks. 14 of her pts and 8 of her rebounds came after halftime. This coming off of her 11 pts on 3-5 shooting, 14 rebounds, 3 block effort in 16 minutes versus Hampton, when Boston went down with her injury.

Remember, Cardoso - along with Feagin - did not play against Cal Poly prior to these past 2 games. So in the last 2 games, she's shot a combined 11-16 from the field for 27 pts, 23 rebounds, and 8 blocks. Not too shabby a way to get out of a doghouse.

- Last season, the Gamecock bench averaged 21 ppg for Dawn Staley's national champion team. Through 7 games thus far they are averaging 41 ppg, or 49% of the total team offensive production. This will most likely change once the SEC schedule starts up, but that's a ton of experience and production for a team that returned 4 of its 5 starters - plus the NPOY - to get from its reserves. Dawn Staley always builds her teams for improvement as the season progresses, so to get this effort early in the season will pay huge dividends come postseason time.....

 

[hoopsnloops32]

South Carolina will always be a 2nd half team under Staley and her staff, as well. One could either say this represents a staff that doesn't know how to prepare their teams for big opponents, or one could say it represents a great knowledge of how to prepare a team: you can look at game film of an opponent all week long and lose sleep doing it, but you never truly know how your team matches up and plays against that opponent until you tip the ball up and play. Dawn Staley has developed a reputation as a great mid-game "adjuster" of how her teams compete, and you can see the results in the stat sheets of games. The only times when her teams do NOT have substantial 2nd-half improvements, are games where they dominated their opponent so much, that reserves play the majority of the 4th periods, which often muddies up the waters.

UCLA came out with a strong effort - they shot 53% from the field compared to USC's 32%. But they only led by 3 pts at the end of the 1st Period. In the 2nd Period, the Gamecocks started to enforce their defensive will, holding UCLA to only 24% from the field. But the Gamecocks shot only 29% themselves: Boston was blanketed in dbl and triple teams playing on a gimpy ankle, and Cooke was struggling to hit her shots.

The Gamecock bench only scored 8 pts in the 1st half - both teams were tied in rebounds and pts off turnovers. UCLA had twice the fouls that USC had, but the Gamecocks only hit 2 of their 7 FT tries, which was terrible.

Then came the 2nd half: The Gamecocks shot 50% for the half, holding the Bruins to just 27% themselves. The Bruins kept fouling, but the Gamecocks shot 16-20 from the line in the 2nd half. Cardoso got into a rhythm scoring 14 of her 16 pts after halftime, and the Gamecock bench out-scored UCLA's bench 19-2 in the 2nd half. And the Gamecocks out-scored the Bruins overall 46-33, on a pace that would have been an easy 26-pt win over a top 15 ranked opponent had it been that way for the whole game.

And people want to talk about how the Gamecocks looked so "ugly", "boring", and didn't look like the top WCBB team? The same things they said about the Gamecocks last season, too. That's OK.


Takeaways from the game:

- PG Raven Johnson had perhaps her worse showing of the season thus far, with 2 turnovers in the 1st Qtr., but her tandem running mate Kierra Fletcher had her best yet with 12 pts on 5-10 shooting and 10 rebounds - 7 of which she got in the 1st half.

- Boston had her first game after tweaking her ankle against Hampton, and while at times she showed a slight limp or favoring of her foot, she was able to put up solid Boston numbers against a top 15 opponent with 18 pts on 5-7 shooting, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 3 assists.

- Cardoso also had a strong game, scoring 16 pts on 8-11 shooting, with 9 rebounds and 5 blocks. 14 of her pts and 8 of her rebounds came after halftime. This coming off of her 11 pts on 3-5 shooting, 14 rebounds, 3 block effort in 16 minutes versus Hampton, when Boston went down with her injury.

Remember, Cardoso - along with Feagin - did not play against Cal Poly prior to these past 2 games. So in the last 2 games, she's shot a combined 11-16 from the field for 27 pts, 23 rebounds, and 8 blocks. Not too shabby a way to get out of a doghouse.

- Last season, the Gamecock bench averaged 21 ppg for Dawn Staley's national champion team. Through 7 games thus far they are averaging 41 ppg, or 49% of the total team offensive production. This will most likely change once the SEC schedule starts up, but that's a ton of experience and production for a team that returned 4 of its 5 starters - plus the NPOY - to get from its reserves. Dawn Staley always builds her teams for improvement as the season progresses, so to get this effort early in the season will pay huge dividends come postseason time.....

I thought South Carolina looked great last year the whole year, and I watched most of their games from Nov-April. I actually got back into basketball because of South Carolina the last two teams. This year's really underwhelms me though and I find them lacking spark of past years teams. Maybe its the lack of a point guard not sure but they aren't fun to watch.

 

[GCKSFN4L]

I thought South Carolina looked great last year the whole year, and I watched most of their games from Nov-April. I actually got back into basketball because of South Carolina the last two teams. This year's really underwhelms me though and I find them lacking spark of past years teams. Maybe its the lack of a point guard not sure but they aren't fun to watch.

Nothing has really changed, this is mostly SC basketball. Sometimes we have shooting slumps but our strengths and weaknesses of last season are largely the same.

Actually when comparing the data from the first 7 games of this season with the first 7 of last, I see that this year's team is averaging more points, rebounds, blocks, FG% by a decent margin. They even average more assists and less turnovers and that's without a "PG". The only area we're down on as it relates to potentially "fun" is 3 point shooting which is slightly down for a team that already isn't known for being great at that area when looking at attempts made.

 

[SCspur]

Tessa had a huge game to open her season with STMA. She had 28 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals and 6 made 3 Pointers.

Milaysia also has put up huge numbers her first two games going off for 30 in both. I was hoping to see a State championship rematch between her and Jove Edwards but it seems Keenan moved down to AA this year.

Jah has been very instrumental in Montverde’s games so far. They’re 7-0 playing nationally ranked teams and she’s currently averaging 13 ppg with 7.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. She’s playing on a loaded roster with 5 other players who has signed to play at D1 schools. They’ve beaten the likes of Duncanville, South Grand Prairie, and DeSoto so far and are set to play The Webb School as well as other tops schools around the country this year.

 

[sharris25]

I thought South Carolina looked great last year the whole year, and I watched most of their games from Nov-April. I actually got back into basketball because of South Carolina the last two teams. This year's really underwhelms me though and I find them lacking spark of past years teams. Maybe its the lack of a point guard not sure but they aren't fun to watch.

Your memory is probably a little vague. South Carolina looks just like this last year and at the same period. You can go back and check some of the early season wins. This is who they are. They normally start the season with the offense behind their defense, as teams try all kinds of exotic zones and schemes to take away Boston. They will look disjointed on offense early, but as the season progresses, they eventually get used to the crazy zones and make the adjustments that are needed to perform at their optimal offensive level. They will be just fine. Having watched them every year, since Dawn has been here, this is par for the course. They will be fine. They have point guards who are new to the players but very competent. The more games and practice, they will get more comfortable and this team will continue to do what they have always done.

 

[cancontent]

Your memory is probably a little vague. South Carolina looks just like this last year and at the same period. You can go back and check some of the early season wins. This is who they are. They normally start the season with the offense behind their defense, as teams try all kinds of exotic zones and schemes to take away Boston. They will look disjointed on offense early, but as the season progresses, they eventually get used to the crazy zones and make the adjustments that are needed to perform at their optimal offensive level. They will be just fine. Having watched them every year, since Dawn has been here, this is par for the course. They will be fine. They have point guards who are new to the players but very competent. The more games and practice, they will get more comfortable and this team will continue to do what they have always done.

Weren't they also dealing with injuries at the guard position during the early part of last season? I thought that had some impact as players like Laeticia were now handling PG duties for a bit.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

I agree, and other than Starting and a little minutes here and there, Feagin and Watkins should be getting Saxton minutes. She’s no different than last year and she’s blocking their development. I love Saxton but as I said in April she shouldn’t have came back. Those minutes could be going to them and they already can do everything she can’t so I don’t understand what the issue is.

I was not thrilled that Saxton returned either...even if she gives us the best chance.

I wouldn't want Boston or Cooke to return either. They've had their run.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

I think Henderson was tge pivotal player in the championship last year.

I think someone else will be that pivot this year and I'm Not sure yet if that's good or bad. We will find out.

Not too worried about it. South Carolina will likely be in position and that's all you can ask.

 

[SCspur]

Priority #1 for the 2024 recruiting class

 

[Bone Dog]

I was actually surprised by how close UCLA made their game. They are a second tier program, ranked somewhere in the mid-teens. They have some good talent, especially in Osborne and Rice, but the rest of the team is not at the same level. But SC is elite talent up and down the roster. When Boston left the floor in the first half, scoring immediately dried up. They went scoreless for several minutes. When they dominated in the 4th quarter, it looked like UCLA was gassed, especially Osborne, and Rice made a number of rookie errors.

When I think about the Stanford game, it looks clearer to me that the Cardinal probably should have won that game. They sort of gave it away in the 4th. Their lack of an elite pg is telling, as is SC's lack in the same department. The Arizona team that smothered UConn two years ago in the final four would have easily handled either of these teams. Aari MacDonald would have taken either of them apart, I suspect, if Osborne and Rice could have almost done the same this year to SC.

Maybe it will be a different story for both SC and Stanford in March. I hope so. But this is an unimpressive beginning.

 

[ConwayGmck]

Over the last 3 games since returning from not seeing any action versus Cal Poly, Cardoso has scored 45 pts on 20-28 (.714) shooting, with 33 rebounds and 10 blocks in 60 minutes of action. That's an average of 15.0 ppg, 11.0 rpg, and 3.3 bpg, in 20 mpg of action. The light seems to have come on for Kamilla.

During the same stretch of games, Boston has scored 38 pts on 11-18 (.611) shooting, with 24 rebounds and 7 blocks. Of course, Boston is dealing with an ankle sprain. But it's a great luxury to have both Boston and Cardoso when they are playing at full strength....

 

[Bone Dog]

Over the last 3 games since returning from not seeing any action versus Cal Poly, Cardoso has scored 45 pts on 20-28 (.714) shooting, with 33 rebounds and 10 blocks in 60 minutes of action. That's an average of 15.0 ppg, 11.0 rpg, and 3.3 bpg, in 20 mpg of action. The light seems to have come on for Kamilla.

During the same stretch of games, Boston has scored 38 pts on 11-18 (.611) shooting, with 24 rebounds and 7 blocks. Of course, Boston is dealing with an ankle sprain. But it's a great luxury to have both Boston and Cardoso when they are playing at full strength....

I think you’re right - Cardoso was especially active on defense against UCLA. She got back to defend breaks and had one spectacular block from behind, running down the play. It was impressive.

 

[Coburn]

Beal & Saxton are warriors and have seen/been thru it all, but their lack of offensive development over their careers is severely hampering the team at the start of games and second halves; love their heart & grit on D, but many times this season, we appear extremely stale on offense when both are in together. LA & Cardoso as ’co-sixths’ is very good strategy as a second wave, as they are arguably the two best non-starters in Women’s hoops. It won’t happen, but for a game or two, I would love to see DS switch out Beal & Saxton for some combo of Hall/Watkins/Feagin and check the results.

 

[SCspur]

Another big game for our signees

Jah’s Montverde Academy took down nationally ranked (overrated) Webb School. Jah scored 10 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists and a block.

Tessa scored 20 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and made 4 three pointers.

Lay Fulwiley had three huge games this week. They defeated Ridge View, Lower Richland, and Hoover from Alabama. She scored 35, 29, and 25 respectively in those games.

 

[Bone Dog]

Beal & Saxton are warriors and have seen/been thru it all, but their lack of offensive development over their careers is severely hampering the team at the start of games and second halves; love their heart & grit on D, but many times this season, we appear extremely stale on offense when both are in together. LA & Cardoso as ’co-sixths’ is very good strategy as a second wave, as they are arguably the two best non-starters in Women’s hoops. It won’t happen, but for a game or two, I would love to see DS switch out Beal & Saxton for some combo of Hall/Watkins/Feagin and check the results.

I agree about Watkins and Feagin -- they look very promising in the tiny glimpses of them we get. But it's hard for me to call Amihere the best non-starters in WBB. She is full of so much talent and promise, but has so infrequently put it together for sustained stretches of any season. Cardoso, on the other hand, looks like she's making a serious case for being the tallest best sixth woman in the land.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

 

[Gamecockfan77]

We tend to have a brutalist look at the best of times, but the really big lineup is notable even by our standards.

Might be the saving grace if the PG position continues to struggle.

Having 6'4 pass to 6'4 from multiple angles is a tough one.