News on South Carolina vs Mississippi State

[Centerstream]

I don't think it is that unusual for William to sit. She's not quite the player that the NCAA run might have suggested to folks.

I am glad that you mentioned this about her as a player. From games that I watched, it seems to me that if she isn't handling the ball, she just stands around waiting to see if she is gonna get it back. I think this is why she's been on the bench quite often.

 

[DefenseBB]

I was thinking about that this morning. The other “consensus” NPOY candidate that is equally flawed is Kelsey Mitchell.

A number of players merit serious consideration including: Durr, Ionescu, Brown, Vivians, McGowan, Gabby & Lou IMO.

I think you can narrow it down by eliminating Brown & McCowan. Brown disappears and is plagued by constant foul trouble and McCowan also disappears from scoring.
To me, the race comes down to the leading conference POYs

• Durr (ACC POY) is anyone else close-Thomas, Ogunbawle? I don't think so
• Ionescu (PAC12 POY), McPhee put on a game Sunday but she lags significantly behind Sabrina in all categories-hell the PAC12 website doesn't list McPhee because she missed 9 non-conference games! Jordin Canada/Billings good but not great.
• Wilson/Vivians (SEC POY) and this could come down to the wire with the history of pedigree towards Wilson (my vote is Vivians).
• Gabby/KLS (AAC POY) with my lean towards KLS as scoring still matters even if every other category has lots of crooked numbers. I see DPOY for Gabby
• Mitchell will win Big10 POY but as noted, her flaws and her teams struggles minimize it.
• Brown is the clubhouse Big12 leader at this point as McCarty has struggled all year. I think Brown's stats look better than she does as Wallace looks like the best player on the court far too much.

I think SC losing these games and Wilson sort of disappearing in crunch time hurts her chances -for those voters that actually watch the games vs. just stat hunting.

Should be an interesting last month...

 

[Los24]

I think you can narrow it down by eliminating Brown & McCowan. Brown disappears and is plagued by constant foul trouble and McCowan also disappears from scoring.
To me, the race comes down to the leading conference POYs

• Durr (ACC POY) is anyone else close-Thomas, Ogunbawle? I don't think so
• Ionescu (PAC12 POY), McPhee put on a game Sunday but she lags significantly behind Sabrina in all categories-hell the PAC12 website doesn't list McPhee because she missed 9 non-conference games! Jordin Canada/Billings good but not great.
• Wilson/Vivians (SEC POY) and this could come down to the wire with the history of pedigree towards Wilson (my vote is Vivians).
• Gabby/KLS (AAC POY) with my lean towards KLS as scoring still matters even if every other category has lots of crooked numbers. I see DPOY for Gabby
• Mitchell will win Big10 POY but as noted, her flaws and her teams struggles minimize it.
• Brown is the clubhouse Big12 leader at this point as McCarty has struggled all year. I think Brown's stats look better than she does as Wallace looks like the best player on the court far too much.

I think SC losing these games and Wilson sort of disappearing in crunch time hurts her chances -for those voters that actually watch the games vs. just stat hunting.

Should be an interesting last month...

Again can support either outcome between Gabby and Lou. I do want to throw some perspective on "other numbers being slanted."

- Everyone uses Assist to Turnover ratio as a measurement. Lou leads UConn and is #12 in the country
- However I like turnover to steals better as it really nets possessions value (similar to net +/- turnover in football.) Lou leads team with a +5 & Gabby is a -3
- Also Lou has less than 1/2 the fouls 19 vs 42. Even with the lesser amount of games played that is a big difference of putting (or pushing along the chance of) opposing players getting to the charity stripe.
- In my opinion Lou can avg as many assists as Gabby, meaning she can pass as good, but Lou is a much better scoring option (finisher) and her primary role is to score.

I can list a bunch of great Gabby attributes and she is a worthy candidate, one that again I could support. The reason I posted the above is we all talk about things that the (MAIN) stats do not show, I tried to use some less observed stats to show that Lou is a truly well rounded player and not just a scorer (not that DefenseBB was stating that.)

 

[cbraarj]

I don't think it is that unusual for William to sit. She's not quite the player that the NCAA run might have suggested to folks.

She only scored 13 pts against Uconn last year but hit the big one!

 

[cbraarj]

Let us see what Durr does Monday against Nurse!

 

[dogged1]

I had written out a detailed post but will now just say that I think:
1) She exemplifies UConn Women's Basketball.
2) She is a tremendous competitor.
3) A true leader.
4) I think she deserves any award and honor she ends up receiving.

However (and this will not earn me any likes : - ), I do not think that she is a top NPOY candidate. I can tell you 2 guards right off the bat with out much thought that contributes more to their team's success, Durr and Sabrina do more for their respective teams hands down. Typically this is where folks now discount their numbers and contributions as if they do not count because they do not have a UConn uniform on. I watched a few of their games and not just going on "stats." Another hurdle for Kia is that many folks would not count her as the best player on her own team, so how are outsiders going to say she is the best in the country?

Totally agree with your 4 points, but....
It isn't the Uconn uniform. It's that Kia plays on a team with other outstanding players. If she were on a lesser team then she would be "contributing more to" that teams success. It's easy to be the brightest star in a dim constellation. It's tougher when the stars around shine nearly as bright.

But consider for a moment: She is probably the best defending guard in the nation and she has the highest 3 point average in the nation. m Just on those 2 counts alone that doesn't put her squarely in the conversation for NPOY?

Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage | DI Women's Basketball Statistics - NCAA.com