Ionescu, Stewart agree: Ducks would've won title

[Carnac]

Mechelle Voepel ESPN.com

"Sabrina Ionescu said she took a deep breath in the week after being the WNBA's No. 1 draft choice by the New York Liberty on April 17. Thursday, she talked about it on a live chat with Seattle's Breanna Stewart on Nike Basketball's Instagram page, and the fact that they both thought Ionescu's Oregon Ducks would have won the national championship if the NCAA tournament had not been cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic."

I don't know who would have won, but it would have been a great "must see" final four.

Ionescu, Stewart agree: Ducks would've won title

WNBA stars Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart discussed their shared experience of being a No. 1 pick and their hopes for a '20 WNBA season, among other topics in a live chat on Nike's Instagram page Thursday.

www.espn.com

 

[triaddukefan]

What else would Ionescu say?

 

[donalddoowop]

Does the fact that the both of them thought Oregon would have won really mean anything? No more meaningful than what Staley thought. If anyone wants meaningful thoughts, thoughts that make sense on who would have won, all they have to do is ask the boneyard.

 

[UConnCat]

That settles it. Who tells Dawn?

 

[Orangutan]

Nike athlete Stewie told Nike's new signing Ionescu that Oregon (the school most associated with Nike) would have won the national championship in a chat on Nike's Instagram page.

Wow. How shocking

And ESPN presents this as news because in the absence of actual sports they have decide to force feed us more Sabrina worship. Cool!

 

[eebmg]

Nike athlete Stewie told Nike's new signing Ionescu that Oregon (the school most associated with Nike) would have won the national championship in a chat on Nike's Instagram page.

Wow. How shocking

And ESPN presents this as news because in the absence of actual sports they have decide to force feed us more Sabrina worship. Cool!

Hope they catch the ESPN employee's who forced you to read the article.

 

[MainefanSC]

That settles it. Who tells Dawn?

Thanks to mandatory social distancing, whoever tells her will NOT be within striking range.

 

[eebmg]

Thanks to mandatory social distancing, whoever tells her will NOT be within striking range.

I think Dawn could chuck a basketball a long way with good accuracy.

 

[Orangutan]

Hope they catch the ESPN employee's who forced you to read the article.

I got to be honest. I laughed out loud reading this. That's a great visual.

 

[newfrontier]

OK...ESPN, gotta luv all the imagination they use to come up with yet ANOTHER article on Ionescu....because, you know, we need more.

today: Which women's basketball prospect could be the next Sabrina Ionescu?
Tomorrow: Which women's basketball prospect could be the last Sabrina Ionescu?
next day: Which women's basketball prospect could be the next to last Sabrina Ionescu?
day after the next day: How we know there will never be another Sabrina Ionescu.
and the day after that: The one thing you never knew about Sabrina Ionescu.
and the day after that: The world as seen through the eyes of Sabrina Ionescu.
and the day after that: Why we will never stop writing trivial stories about Sabrina Ionescu.
and so on, and so on.....

 

[Carnac]

Nike athlete Stewie told Nike's new signing Ionescu that Oregon (the school most associated with Nike) would have won the national championship in a chat on Nike's Instagram page.

Wow. How shocking

And ESPN presents this as news because in the absence of actual sports they have decide to force feed us more Sabrina worship. Cool!

Normally I would not post dribble like this, but, as you say, there is no real sports of any kind, or news of interest in WCBB except for players transferring, this is the kind of low appeal items we get. Sports columnists are still getting paid, and are expected to produce. It beats having nothing to read.

 

[Mdoggie]

@ newfrontier lets enjoy any and all articles. Women will still never match the amount for men. I mean how many MJ or LeBron articles can you take?
Signed,
Dad of 3 daughters

 

[domerduck]

What else would Ionescu say?

Well Breanna brought it up in the article.: Said Stewart: "I thought you guys were going to win." Ionescu responded: "I'm with you on that." Did you expect Sabrina to argue with the GOAT on that proclimation?

 

[Orangutan]

Normally I would not post dribble like this, but, as you say, there is no real sports of any kind, or news of interest in WCBB except for players transferring, this is the kind of low appeal items we get. Sports columnists are still getting paid, and are expected to produce. It beats having nothing to read.

Absolutely. To be clear I was eye rolling at ESPN and not you for posting it. I'm sure Voepel would rather be writing something more substantial than that article. But hey, it beats unemployment.

Sadly SB Nation furloughed many of their writers including Natalie Weiner and Matt Ellentuck, who have both done excellent work on women's basketball.

I don't always agree with ESPN's editorial choices but I am glad the content faucet is still open and I will gladly lap up whatever trickles out.

 

[domerduck]

That settles it. Who tells Dawn?

South Carolina is an Under Armour school so my guess they don't get invited for their thoughts on the Nike Instagram page. Mayke Arike could talk to Tyasha and get her opinion on the UA feed since ND is also UA and they are both Dallas Wings.

 

[newfrontier]

@ newfrontier lets enjoy any and all articles. Women will still never match the amount for men. I mean how many MJ or LeBron articles can you take?
Signed,
Dad of 3 daughters

I have no problem with articles about women basketball players. Enough is not being written and I would like to see a lot more. I simply think ESPN needs to broaden its focus and strengthen the topic matter. There are many other great female players and undoubtedly great stories about them we should hear/read about. The writers and editors are being a bit lazy IMO.

 

[SCspur]

When was the last time a team that ranked 75th in scoring defense and 78th in RPG won a championship?

 

[domerduck]

When was the last time a team that ranked 75th in scoring defense and 78th in RPG won a championship?

Interesting stat choices. In 2018 Notre Dame won the championship being 239th in scoring defense. They scored a lot. What I believe is far more important was scoring margin where they were 9th at 17.3.

As for 2020, Oregon was 2nd in scoring margin in 2020 at 28.1, only behind Baylor who was 30.2. Both were ahead of SC at 25.9. Considering both the PAC12 (#1) and Big12 (#3) were considered tougher conferences than the SEC (#4), those were not small feats. Still SC (#3) and Oregon (#4) both played tougher overall schedules than Baylor (#35 in SOS). All 3 were great teams.

As for RPG, that has more to do with how many shots you miss which increase offensive rebound opportunitities. Oregon was #1 in the country in Field Goal % at 50.9 while SC was 47%. Baylor was the only other team in the country with over 50% shooting at 50.1.

I would say all 3 were teams that could win it all and it's too bad they couldn't play the NCAA tourney. SC lost 1 less game than Oregon and Baylor. Oregon beat Team USA which was no small feat. All three beat UConn, Oregon with a record 18 point win in Storrs, Baylor with a 16 point win in Hartford, and SC with an 18 point win in front of 18,000 in Columbia. . SC & Oregon won their conference tourneys so they were both on winning streaks, while Baylor missed out on playing their tourney so they ended the season with that 1 pt loss at ISU.

 

[LCConnFan]

Unfortunately, we'll never know who would have come on top. Geno once stated: "At this time of year, everything is about confidence—about your ability to make the play that needs to be made at the time it needs to be made".

 

[SCspur]

Interesting stat choices. In 2018 Notre Dame won the championship being 239th in scoring defense. They scored a lot. What I believe is far more important was scoring margin where they were 9th at 17.3.

As for 2020, Oregon was 2nd in scoring margin in 2020 at 28.1, only behind Baylor who was 30.2. Both were ahead of SC at 25.9. Considering both the PAC12 (#1) and Big12 (#3) were considered tougher conferences than the SEC (#4), those were not small feats. Still SC (#3) and Oregon (#4) both played tougher overall schedules than Baylor (#35 in SOS). All 3 were great teams.

As for RPG, that has more to do with how many shots you miss which increase offensive rebound opportunitities. Oregon was #1 in the country in Field Goal % at 50.9 while SC was 47%. Baylor was the only other team in the country with over 50% shooting at 50.1.

I would say all 3 were teams that could win it all and it's too bad they couldn't play the NCAA tourney. SC lost 1 less game than Oregon and Baylor. Oregon beat Team USA which was no small feat. All three beat UConn, Oregon with a record 18 point win in Storrs, Baylor with a 16 point win in Hartford, and SC with an 18 point win in front of 18,000 in Columbia. . SC & Oregon won their conference tourneys so they were both on winning streaks, while Baylor missed out on playing their tourney so they ended the season with that 1 pt loss at ISU.

None of what you said explained Oregon’s trouble defending or rebounding. ND wasn’t elite defensively but they were one of the best on the glass which was a big reason why they won in 2018. You’re basically insinuating Oregon’s ability to put the ball in hoop would would mask their inability to defend and rebound which would be false if they’re faced a team just as good offensively and better defensively. SC and Baylor both averaged north of 80 ppg this year and same for Oregon. But both of those squads were elite defensively as well. That to me is what puts teams on top. Defense and Rebounding. Look no further than the 2019 Baylor Lady Bears.... They faced two of the most elite offenses in the country in the FF that year in ND (with 5 1,000 point scorers in the lineup) and Oregon with Ionescu and co. Yet Baylor made both look pedestrian, and that was because of their relentless defense and ability to own the boards, something I thought Oregon lacked this year.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I just don't see the defensive deficiencies with Oregon. Look at their season schedule. Held a lot of teams in the 50s, including Stanford twice, Arizona and UConn. Did you actually watch them? I saw plenty of teams struggle to score against them.

 

[bballnut90]

None of what you said explained Oregon’s trouble defending or rebounding. ND wasn’t elite defensively but they were one of the best on the glass which was a big reason why they won in 2018. You’re basically insinuating Oregon’s ability to put the ball in hoop would would mask their inability to defend and rebound which would be false if they’re faced a team just as good offensively and better defensively. SC and Baylor both averaged north of 80 ppg this year and same for Oregon. But both of those squads were elite defensively as well. That to me is what puts teams on top. Defense and Rebounding. Look no further than the 2019 Baylor Lady Bears.... They faced two of the most elite offenses in the country in the FF that year in ND (with 5 1,000 point scorers in the lineup) and Oregon with Ionescu and co. Yet Baylor made both look pedestrian, and that was because of their relentless defense and ability to own the boards, something I thought Oregon lacked this year.

Oregon was an elite rebounding team. RPG is a useless stat--it's rebound differential that matters and Oregon was 8th in the country in margin. Oregon was out rebounded twice all season, by 2 rebounds each game. South Carolina was outrebounded by opponents 3x during the year. Against their only mutual opponent, UCONN, South Carolina was actually outrebounded by 2 while Oregon outrebounded UCONN by 8. Summary: Oregon had no trouble rebounding the ball.

They were also a strong defensive team despite your claims. I'm not sure where you got your stats, but Oregon gave up 57.9 ppg defensively, which ranked 41st in the nation, not 75th. South Carolina gave up 56.4 against a comparable SOS. 57.9 vs 56.4 is not a distinguishable difference.
Their only head to head opponent, UCONN, scored 52 vs. SC and 56 vs. Oregon while losing by 18 to both teams. 4 teams cracked 70 on Oregon all season, and only 1 after their loss to Arizona State. 4 teams cracked 70 vs South Carolina.

There's no way you can make a cohesive argument that Oregon was a bad defensive or rebounding team because they weren't. They were very good at both.

 

[bballnut90]

I just don't see the defensive deficiencies with Oregon. Look at their season schedule. Held a lot of teams in the 50s, including Stanford twice, Arizona and UConn. Did you actually watch them? I saw plenty of teams struggle to score against them.

Your eyes weren't lying, they didn't have defensive deficiencies.

 

[SCspur]

Oregon was an elite rebounding team. RPG is a useless stat--it's rebound differential that matters and Oregon was 8th in the country in margin. Oregon was out rebounded twice all season, by 2 rebounds each game. South Carolina was outrebounded by opponents 3x during the year. Against their only mutual opponent, UCONN, South Carolina was actually outrebounded by 2 while Oregon outrebounded UCONN by 8. Summary: Oregon had no trouble rebounding the ball.

They were also a strong defensive team despite your claims. I'm not sure where you got your stats, but Oregon gave up 57.9 ppg defensively, which ranked 41st in the nation, not 75th. South Carolina gave up 56.4 against a comparable SOS. 57.9 vs 56.4 is not a distinguishable difference.
Their only head to head opponent, UCONN, scored 52 vs. SC and 56 vs. Oregon while losing by 18 to both teams. 4 teams cracked 70 on Oregon all season, and only 1 after their loss to Arizona State. 4 teams cracked 70 vs South Carolina.

There's no way you can make a cohesive argument that Oregon was a bad defensive or rebounding team because they weren't. They were very good at both.

It is a difference in Rebounds per game and Rebounding differential and both definitely matter stat wise or else they wouldn’t be counted as a stat. I never said Oregon was bad defensively or that they couldn’t rebound. I said they weren’t elite defensively, which is true, while Baylor and SC were. The point I made in my initial post was that Oregon could score at a high level but could they or rebound against an elite team that could.

 

[nwhoopfan]

They were also a strong defensive team despite your claims. I'm not sure where you got your stats, but Oregon gave up 57.9 ppg defensively, which ranked 41st in the nation, not 75th. South Carolina gave up 56.4 against a comparable SOS. 57.9 vs 56.4 is not a distinguishable difference.

I never said Oregon was bad defensively or that they couldn’t rebound. I said they weren’t elite defensively, which is true, while Baylor and SC were.

So the difference of 1.5 ppg is the difference between an elite defense and an okay defense? Got it.