Lady Vols vs Texas

[easttexastrash]

Baylor fans may be dumb and dumber, but we know not to predict that anyone will ever be as good as Griner or Sims...at least not anyone that is currently on the team.

 

[meyers7]

The last 4 recruiting classes, with UConn's highest rated recruits in each. Tenn is doing OK.

2012
1. Breanna Stewart
2. Moriah Jefferson
3. Alexis Jones - Duke
4. Jewel Loyd - ND
5. Bashaara Graves - Tenn

2013
1. Mercedes Russell - Tenn
2. Kaela Davis - GA Tech
3. Diamond DeSheilds - Tenn
4. Taya Reimer - ND
5. Linnae Harper - KY
75. Saniya Chong

2014
1. A'Ja Wilson - So. Carolina
2. Brianna Turner - ND
3. Ariel Atkins - Texas
4. Jordin Canada - UCLA
5. Kelsey Mitchell - Ohio State
14. Gabby Williams

2015
1. Katie Lou Samuelson
2. Asia Durr - Louisville
3. Jessica Shepard - Nebraska
4. Cecilia Zandalasini - no college, playing in Europe
5. Angela Salvadores - Duke

Hoopgurlz Recruiting Rankings

2012 - UCONN #1, TN #5
2013 - TN #3, UCONN >#20
2014 - UCONN #4, TN #6
2015 - UCONN #2, TN #12

Add in 2016 - UCONN #14, TN > #20

So the separation is gonna get bigger the next couple of years (except for the Xfers).

 

[DobbsRover2]

Baylor fans may be dumb and dumber, but we know not to predict that anyone will ever be as good as Griner or Sims...at least not anyone that is currently on the team.

Um deliberately misreading the term "replace" as "be equal to" is something I would predict for a Baylor fan, though to be fair, there are always BYers who fall into the same habits. And I am seconding your prediction that no one will ever be as good as Griner or Sims for the Bears, but I'm hoping you can make the expiration date on that prediction to be some time late in the current century, maybe around 2099 or so.

 

[Icebear]

Who's hating? Except maybe Bears fans who make snarky remarks about Husky players who may need to step into the same position as departed superstars.

Baylor fans are giving the Boneyard bears a bad name.

 

[Zorro]

Chong = Sue Bird?

That is one helluva stretch of my words, and has a leaven of malice. All I have said of Saniya is that she will be MUCH more than adequate.

 

[watanabe]

I think we get your point; Saniya is not and will not be as good a point guard as is Moriah. Agreed. But neither is or was anyone else, past or present. OK?

Thanks for saying I made a point! Was just saying how I feel
I think sometimes a Husky player or coach, reaches a certain pinnacle that makes any criticism of them a touchy subject. IMO MoJet has made it there.
I certainly respect your opinion tho. No offense was intended.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Thanks for saying I made a point! Was just saying how I feel
I think sometimes a Husky player or coach, reaches a certain pinnacle that makes any criticism of them a touchy subject. IMO MoJet has made it there.
I certainly respect your opinion tho. No offense was intended.

An interesting view, but certainly not a usual one for anyone who has come into contact with Geno. The higher up that "certain pinnacle" a player goes, the more is expected from them and the more critical he gets if they are not performing at the 100% level, a la the benching of Stewie and Tuck in the Memphis game before USCar last year. I think what he and a lot of fans get more ticked off about is cheap shots, like saying in Nov. 2011 "That freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis or junior Kelly Faris can never replace Maya Moore." Well no, of course not, and no one would be enough of an idiot to think that they could. But you can still be a good ball player, fill a position, and have a nice Husky career, and hopefully you won't get too much bile hurled at you while doing so, though that probably is asking way too much.

 

[j66kicker]

As to picking on poor DD, let the stats and team play speak for itself. The BY isn't the site that's in meltdown mode about Holly and Co. We all heard that DD was supposed to be well integrated into the Vol offense this year and Holly could get her working smoothly with the other players. So far it kind of looks like 2013-14 UNC deja vu all over again, only clunkier and worse.

Haha - that's why this is an 8-page/232-post (and counting) thread on the BY about a non-UCONN game played just yesterday afternoon, where we are busting all over their players, coaches, athletic director, administration, fans and admission standards

 

[DobbsRover2]

Haha - that's why this is an 8-page/232-post (and counting) thread on the BY about a non-UCONN game played just yesterday afternoon, where we are busting all over their players, coaches, athletic director, administration, fans and admission standards

That's certainly not a meltdown, though. For a good many Husky fans it's more like some schadenfreude joy bubbling up as certain comments and actions of the yesteryear are remembered. Down south it is a frackin' cataclysmic meltdown. In any case, sure we can keep it going for 10/300.

 

[j66kicker]

That's certainly not a meltdown, though. For a good many Husky fans it's more like some schadenfreude joy bubbling up as certain comments and actions of the yesteryear are remembered. Down south it is a frackin' cataclysmic meltdown. In any case, sure we can keep it going for 10/300.

I'm sure we can, especially now that we just laid a MOV of 48 on a team who lost to TN by 2

 

[UcMiami]

This thread has been enlightening and amusing, and it got me thinking about rankings (individuals & team), coaching, and a few other things. These might be more rhetorical questions than anything else.

1 - When is the #4 & #8 team not really that? Similar to college FB and BB, are WBB teams ranked based on perception and history? I'll bet that Dayton and others considered mid-majors (I hate that they rank them separate), are probably better than some of the "named" programs in the top 25 right now.

2 - How hard is it to be a WCBB coach and sustain excellence YOY? It's known that Geno (and DT, and others) have a supreme fear of failure, and work hard every year to be the best. He and the assts instill a base of team, system, responsibility, and it doesn't change much each year. He may change the offense based on his personnel, but isn't that what a coach is supposed to do? Ran the triangle for a while, then moved on. Tara also moved on from the triangle last year based on her team makeup. I'm betting that installing an offensive system is hard, and even harder to stay with it, in bad times.

3 - When is the $1, #4, #25 HS player not that at all? Is it just as important for a player to be in an environment that suits her skills, or should a highly ranked player be able to transfer that skill, no matter where she plays?

Nice post, and even if it is rhetorical in nature, I will answer with a few points

1. Yes, especially early in a new season, rankings are more based on previous performance than current performance - UNC got ranked to start this year even though they were decimated by transfers for example. And teams that are not showing well and are losing games but who were expected to be very good on paper fall much more slowly in rankings than surprisingly good teams rise. Happens across sports, especially at the college level where you have 100s of D1 teams that seldom play each other or even common opponents (especially in BB where league play starts 2 months into the season.

2. Women's coaches have a much easier time than men's coaches as they generally can depend on their athletes to remain at school and on the team for the full four years - that lends a continuity to their teams that top men's coaches can only dream about.

3. Rankings are always a crap shoot - there are a few players each decade that are obvious superstars (e.g. Maya, Parker, Griner) but the rest is eye-of-the-beholder stuff. A number 5 ranked player is likely to be clearly better than a #25 player at the same position but distinctions between the #5 and #10 player are likely fairly nebulous. Add in that we are talking about progressions between 18 and 22 years of age when both men and women are still maturing physically and mentally and the results coming out of college compared to those entering college can be wildly different even for players in 'ideal' situations. And yes, coaching and teammates (chemistry) play a huge part in what happens during those 4 years, just as they do for general student populations, work environments, and any human development situation - it is more public and more intense on a basketball team, but it is the same process. Put someone in an environment with good mentors and supportive companions and they will generally thrive vs a person in the opposite environment. Some special people can rise above whatever environment they are in, most cannot.