Iowa beats South Carolina!

[maple]

And I know that the majority of the members here on The Boneyard will not want to hear this, but Caitlin Clark is hands down the BEST Collegiate Player in WBB today, and that includes a healthy Paige Bueckers.

It’s true.

 

[Blakeon18]

Is this a reasonable take....or crazy...or even worse...Boneyard crazy?

I think Cardosa will have a better wnba career than Boston. Also more
likely to be on future USA teams...including the 2028 Olympics.

Boston will be very good,,,and may well be on the 2028 team with Cardosa...
but I think Cardosa's ceiling is higher....and she is younger.

 

[Geesworld]

Not unless she develops a game beyond 2’ from the basket.

If they get better perimeter shooting/play, no correction if Dawn lets her perimeter players play to their strength Cardoso would be unstoppable.

 

[Geesworld]

And I know that the majority of the members here on The Boneyard will not want to hear this, but Caitlin Clark is hands down the BEST Collegiate Player in WBB today, and that includes a healthy Paige Bueckers.

Nice try. But we know better.

 

[Linart]

It’s true.

What we're really comparing here is a healthy junior Clarke to a half-healthy sophomore Bueckers. Not a fair comparison.

 

[Kaizen]

Boston will be very good,,,and may well be on the 2028 team with Cardosa...
but I think Cardosa's ceiling is higher....and she is younger.

Paige, Azzi and Edwards will be ahead of them on 2028. Just my opinion.

 

[Blakeon18]

How sweet it could have been...if we had maintained good health.

November 27 on neutral court

UConn 86
Iowa 79.

A healthy Azzi and Caroline...of course no Paige or Ice.
Azzie 24 points...10-19 from the floor...including 4-10 from trey land.
Curiously... zero foul attempts....overall team 2-6.

Caitlin 25 points...9 for 24 from the floor...including 2-11 from three-land.

 

[Geesworld]

The Bird and Taurasi show was terrific. Had Doris Burke on for the entire 4 quarter.

At one point:

Diana: It's tough because they're [South Carolina] going to have to do something they're not good at to win this game.

Doris: Which is?

Diana: Make a shot.

Glad someone said it. It's a astute observation and I hope that it does not get blown out of proportion.

 

[Soxx]

But DT was a freshman when that happened not a senior..and Geno told her it would never happen again...3 titles later he was right

DT is not the only one it has happened to. I’m just reacting to the claim that the easier of a great player is being able to put yr team on yr back and win this type of game.

You could say that about Iowa as well. Other than Clark & Czinano, the Hawkeyes didn’t get much of anything from the rest of their lineup, all of whom are deadly shooters from the arc. This is exactly what happens sometimes in Big games, when the game moves a little faster and the pressure is enormous.

I don’t view the others on Iowa as deadly shooters. It’s Clark and her big who score must of their points, game in and game out. The key is that the Iowa stars came through as they consistently have—the two Iowa needed to play great—and SC’s did not. SC’s bench has been huge all year with scoring contributions. Wondering if they were down average-wise last night as well.

 

[Zarathustra]

How sweet it could have been...if we had maintained good health.

November 27 on neutral court

UConn 86
Iowa 79.

A healthy Azzi and Caroline...of course no Paige or Ice.
Azzie 24 points...10-19 from the floor...including 4-10 from trey land.
Curiously... zero foul attempts....overall team 2-6.

Caitlin 25 points...9 for 24 from the floor...including 2-11 from three-land.

"THANKS FOR THE MEMORY"!

 

[UConnCat]

What we're really comparing here is a healthy junior Clarke to a half-healthy sophomore Bueckers. Not a fair comparison.

Definitely some recency bias. Understandable. As DT said last night, "You haven't seen Paige play in so long, you forget how great she is." That is so true.

I love Clark's game but there really isn't anything Clark does on the court that Paige can't do. Is Clark a better % 3-point shooter? Paige made a remarkable 46% of her 3-pointers as a freshman. Can Paige make 3s from the logo? We don't know for sure since she hasn't really done that in games, but I bet she could. Is Clark a better passer than Bueckers? No. Clark has more assists given the offense Iowa runs, but Paige is also a remarkable passer with fewer turnovers. Have they both made big shots in big games? Yes.

The biggest difference between the 2 players is, well, health for starters. The second is that Clark dominates the ball more than Bueckers ever will playing at UConn.

Perhaps when all is said and done Clark will have the better and more productive career, but I'd sure like to watch a healthy Paige play another full season before I'm ready to say Clark is better.

And btw, it doesn't really matter. They're both great players and great for the game.

 

[bovwa10]

Cardoso will make up for Boston's loss.

Maybe offensively, but not defensively

 

[visitingcock]

Is this a reasonable take....or crazy...or even worse...Boneyard crazy?

I think Cardosa will have a better wnba career than Boston. Also more
likely to be on future USA teams...including the 2028 Olympics.

Boston will be very good,,,and may well be on the 2028 team with Cardosa...
but I think Cardosa's ceiling is higher....and she is younger.

Uhm. Cardosa may be on the Brazilian national team

 

[SEbluebood]

How sweet it could have been...if we had maintained good health.

November 27 on neutral court

UConn 86
Iowa 79.

A healthy Azzi and Caroline...of course no Paige or Ice.
Azzie 24 points...10-19 from the floor...including 4-10 from trey land.
Curiously... zero foul attempts....overall team 2-6.

Caitlin 25 points...9 for 24 from the floor...including 2-11 from three-land.

With the exception of the two players we knew were out for the season, UConn had all the players Husky fans hoped they would have for the OSU game, as evidenced by the BY game score predictions where the majority of fans predicted UConn would win with many expecting an easy win. Most of the team failed to show and UConn got badly outplayed on that day. Not sure why fans keep making reasons for not advancing, other than the team got outplayed

 

[UConnCat]

With the exception of the two players we knew were out for the season, UConn had all the players Husky fans hoped they would have for the OSU game, as evidenced by the BY game score predictions where the majority of fans predicted UConn would win with many expecting an easy win. Most of the team failed to show and UConn got badly outplayed on that day. Not sure why fans keep making reasons for not advancing, other than the team got outplayed

Not exactly. Two players who played very well in November against Iowa -- Azzi and Caroline -- were clearly not the same players at the end of the season. I think that is what Blake meant.

BY prediction threads should never be used to make a point.

Yes, OSU outplayed UConn and deserved to win.

 

[bovwa10]

Is this a reasonable take....or crazy...or even worse...Boneyard crazy?

I think Cardosa will have a better wnba career than Boston. Also more
likely to be on future USA teams...including the 2028 Olympics.

Boston will be very good,,,and may well be on the 2028 team with Cardosa...
but I think Cardosa's ceiling is higher....and she is younger.

Cardoso is not American, she can play for Brazil however. I think Boston and Brink will be the future bigs of the national team and eventually take the reins from Stewie and Wilson

 

[bovwa10]

Paige, Azzi and Edwards will be ahead of them on 2028. Just my opinion.

Edwards isn’t even American and Azzi has a lot of work to do defensively to get to that level imo

 

[Kaizen]

Edwards isn’t even American

Yes, Edwards is a Canadian not an American ....

 

[PJCLaw]

Of the six seniors South Carolina have, how many of them have one or two years of eligibility left? Asking anyone.

There are 7 seniors/grads on USC, and only two can't come back, i.e., have no more eligibility remaining.

 

[maple]

What we're really comparing here is a healthy junior Clarke to a half-healthy sophomore Bueckers. Not a fair comparison.

Fair. I simply meant that of this exact time obviously CC is looking better. When we have a 100% healthy Paige things might very likely change.

 

[Dynastic]

Congrats to Iowa! I was born there in the land of Corn. Almost the David vs Goliath story. Never stop pursuing greatness, keep trying, keep working and play all 40 minutes strong and yes you can win in the end. Clark is a beast, just does so much for Iowa! Bluder had a decent game plan… not sure if Staley really did , but hey Iowa won finally and its time to beat LSU!

 

[hoopsnloops32]

With the exception of the two players we knew were out for the season, UConn had all the players Husky fans hoped they would have for the OSU game, as evidenced by the BY game score predictions where the majority of fans predicted UConn would win with many expecting an easy win. Most of the team failed to show and UConn got badly outplayed on that day. Not sure why fans keep making reasons for not advancing, other than the team got outplayed

Aubrey as in a back brace, Nika was in tears dealing with ankle injuries and Lou collapsed on the court with her knee. No, UConn was not healthy for the OSU game.

 

[Cuango]

They did those things and still couldn't keep her from getting the ball. Their choice was let her have a head of steam or defend her in the half court. Clark had a gear no one thought she had until last night.

Yet we did it with essentially one player! I still think they could have denied her the ball more than they did. As I said, they still might have lost but at least they wouldn’t get beat by one player putting up 41 points!

 

[Heytherego]

Aubrey as in a back brace, Nika was in tears dealing with ankle injuries and Lou collapsed on the court with her knee. No, UConn was not healthy for the OSU game.

I’m sure every team has their injuries this time of year that you’ll never know about

 

[Cuango]

It’s true.

Hopefully, we’ll see next year!