Night Cap Games

[Icebear]

VG, did you ever consider we weren't talking about you.

 

[Vowelguy]

My point is simply to call a loss for one half an exposure is complete nonsense and bullgeschite.

The same MD team that you regularly trash now becomes a 'quality' loss?

And hanging your argument on this travel thing is hilarious. Their either a top 25 team and a 3-hour plane trip (if that) doesn't matter, or their not and it does. I have no problem with either, but you can't have both.

Kansas played EDD physical, and they dared the rest of DE to beat them. It worked; she was dead tired and the rest of the team did nothing. They got exposed.

 

[Icebear]

I knock how MD plays defense. It is specific and regularly confirmed in their play. I even noted they played good defense in crunch time the other night. I knock their fans because they are the crudest most vulgar fans I have heard and that has been confirmed by others on the board.

That you don't understand the reality of how dealing with an entirely new experience of air travel and the added logistics adds to the complexity of playing a game is not a condemnation of the team nor me. I have not said that Delaware lost because of any given excuse I said it is no kind of exposure. Good teams with adequate budgets build those experiences like travel into the season exactly because they do have an impact.

Delaware is a team with flaws that are obvious. They are overly dependent upon EDD but have brought along some added talent but not enough to overcome the need for EDD to play 40 minutes. That was their obvious flaw all season. They lost their second game of the whole year. Exposed, nah!

 

[DobbsRover2]

Find one post of mine where I say anything negative about EDD or her departure. Take your time, you'll be busy for a while.

Nah, we'll just wait for another team that doesn't live up to expectations to be exposed to the acid test. Clearly Georgia, Purdue, and Miami got exposed as frauds to their top 4 seeds since they bowed out early. Delaware just lost a hard-fought game by 6 points, not exactly a multi-digit blowout, and acquitted themselves well after a fantastic year, though they weren't able to pull of the win expected of a team assigned a #3 seed. But I don't remember anyone on the BY saying that UConn was exposed by Sylvia Fowles and her team in 2007, or that the Iowa State team exposed the #1 seed Huskies in 1999. Those teams just lost before their time. It is true that the Blue Hens lost to the 6th place team of the top-rated conference. I guess that's a disgrace, just like last year the men's field were humiliated by the 9th place team of the Big East. Lose to UConn, with it's 9 losses? That's pathetic! Might as well go watch WCBB games.

The Blue Hens had a winning formula this year that involved letting one of the top players in the nation take one-third of the team's shots and push them to a 31-2 season. They did have another player on team, Lauren Carra, in double-digits ppg, plus Danielle Parker in the post shooting 51%, but clearly EDD was the center of all the action. The strategy kept them pretty much even with Kansas for 27 minutes, but in the end it wasn't enough. Carra had a bad game and her shooting was way off (1-9 on threes), just like DT was in 2001 (another one of those players who got exposed at the wrong time). Any Wednesday morning point-guards will say Delaware should have gone away from the winning formula that got them to the tournament. That's crap. You go with what you know and hope that the players supporting EDD can get those big buckets and knock down the FTs like they have all season. Didn't happen, just like it didn't happen for UConn in ND #4 last season.

Kudos to Delaware for a great year, and with EDD, Parker, and Carra back next year for senior seasons, maybe they'll push it to another level, maybe even one that doesn't allow for acid-drippers to expose them, though it may take an NC to insure that status.

 

[DobbsRover2]

The same MD team that you regularly trash now becomes a 'quality' loss?

And hanging your argument on this travel thing is hilarious. Their either a top 25 team and a 3-hour plane trip (if that) doesn't matter, or their not and it does. I have no problem with either, but you can't have both.

Kansas played EDD physical, and they dared the rest of DE to beat them. It worked; she was dead tired and the rest of the team did nothing. They got exposed.

A team that is in the Sweet 16 is likely a team that merits the quality-loss tag, especially when they get a #2 seed, even if someone on the BY doesn't always like their play. Opinions matter less than facts. I might consider SJU a quality loss too even though they're only a #3 seed, but hey what do I know?

Baylor played a game against Iowa State in January in which they got totally exposed. Brittney Griner had to take 40% of her team's shots and scored 26 of the team's 57 points while playing 40 minutes. Her teammates did nothing to help her, just as with EDD and Delaware. But hey, no prob for the exposed Bears, because they won. In the game of exposure, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

 

[DaddyChoc]

A team that is in the Sweet 16 is likely a team that merits the quality-loss tag, especially when they get a #2 seed, even if someone on the BY doesn't always like their play. Opinions matter less than facts. I might consider SJU a quality loss too even though they're only a #3 seed, but hey what do I know?

Baylor played a game against Iowa State in January in which they got totally exposed. Brittney Griner had to take 40% of her team's shots and scored 26 of the team's 57 points while playing 40 minutes. Her teammates did nothing to help her, just as with EDD and Delaware. But hey, no prob for the exposed Bears, because they won. In the game of exposure, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

bottom line...

when a team is "exposed" its because they LOSE... when their "weakness shows" they squeak out a WIN.


anyways maybe next year the Blue Hens will take a few plane rides to other time zones before the Big Dance... and do better!

 

[choochoo]

UConn beat Stanford, Notre Dame, Duke, TX A&M and lost on a last second shot to a very good St John's team.

Delaware was solidly beaten by the sixth-best team from the Big 12.

Amen!!!

 

[choochoo]

exactly. I used exposed in my email to mean that they were a top 10 team who should not have been a top 10 team. they played the 80th rated SOS this year and aside from the PSU win, had no other wins against anyone ranked in the top 25 (and maybe the top 50). they are a one trick pony with one uber-star and a bunch of other players who are average skill-wise in relation to other WCBB teams. if Del had lost to PSU as well as Maryland, they'd probably have ended up ranked about 20 or so, but they played their A-game vs. PSU and PSU probably played their B or B- game.

Put Delaware in the Big East and honestly where do you think they end up? they were completely gassed in the 2nd half. the Big East if much more physical and athletic. i'd probably put them 9th in the league - ahead of Marquette, Pitt, Seton Hall and Providence, Villanova, and maybe Cinci. i'd bet they are about even, or a step behind Syracuse. if they played in the Big East, even if they were better than Syracuse, there's a chance they'd not even have made the NCAA's as USF is in the NIT, not the NCAA's. they lost to Kansas, for goodness sake, and it wasn't a fluke. Kansas ran them up and down the court and completely wore them down. note to UD's coach - work on conditioning for next year.

their win vs. PSU was the 2nd game of the season. Maggie Lucas was 4-17. PSU committed 24 fouls to UD's 12. i bet if UD played PSU 10 times, they lose 8 of them. i realize Lucas and Richards transferred from Florida and WVU respectively, but there's probably a reason they left. neither of them averaged over 7 PPG for the year so it's not like you can compare them to a Samarie Walker, Destiny Hughes, or Markel Walker transfer.

they actually lost by 9 to maryland but if one wants to point to that as a "strong loss" how about a 7 point win over James Madison? a 9 point win over NC Wilmington, a 10 point win over Hofstra, a 1 point win over Drexel, but to be fair, they did have early wins over Villanova, St. Bonaventure, and Princeton. so who knows. but either way the loss to Kansas was a pretty bad loss...

Edd looked like she was running in mud even in the first half. Geno would have benched her. Uconn would have scored before EDD crossed half court.

 

[choochoo]

The same MD team that you regularly trash now becomes a 'quality' loss?

And hanging your argument on this travel thing is hilarious. Their either a top 25 team and a 3-hour plane trip (if that) doesn't matter, or their not and it does. I have no problem with either, but you can't have both.

Kansas played EDD physical, and they dared the rest of DE to beat them. It worked; she was dead tired and the rest of the team did nothing. They got exposed.

It is easy to shine when you are on the olympic team. Maya did it with a pretty ordinary crew for the last 2 years.Who do you want on your team?

 

[Icebear]

bottom line...

when a team is "exposed" its because they LOSE... when their "weakness shows" they squeak out a WIN.


anyways maybe next year the Blue Hens will take a few plane rides to other time zones before the Big Dance... and do better!

Playing some games on longer road trips would certainly be a good idea. Maybe playing in the early season tournament out west would be a great solution. A lot of effort from good coaching staffs goes into preparing teams for these things. It has been a year at Delaware like they have never experienced before. It is all new for the coaching staff, too. There is definitely learning curve involved.

 

[Icebear]

It is easy to shine when you are on the olympic team. Maya did it with a pretty ordinary crew for the last 2 years.Who do you want on your team?

Both.

 

[sarals24]

I don't necessarily fault the coaching staff at UD for not putting together a better schedule. As we all know, those things are decided a few years in advance, and I am betting most of the top schools might be reluctant to put Delaware on the schedule with EDD, because it's a no-win situation for them. Win, and well...they were supposed to. Lose, and it's a big upset to lose to a mid-major. Similar to the Uconn situation when they played Tennessee, though of course UConn was ranked much higher and their coach just a tad better.

That said, it was very obvious that Delaware couldn't keep up with a KU team that was much better conditioned. And again, the Big XII was down this year, and they finished sixth.

With the argument that Delware wouldn't fare any better in the BE, that may or may not be true. It might have forced them to adapt to a style where other players contributed, it might have shown EDD earlier on what level her conditioning needed to be at to compete...who knows. I saw the Jackie Stiles team play twice the year they went to the FF, and they were in GREAT shape. She was a much different type player, though. Still, conditioning is something their coach needs to work on for next season.

 

[Icebear]

As we all know, those things are decided a few years in advance, and I am betting most of the top schools might be reluctant to put Delaware on the schedule with EDD, because it's a no-win situation for them. Win, and well...they were supposed to. Lose, and it's a big upset to lose to a mid-major. Similar to the Uconn situation when they played Tennessee, though of course UConn was ranked much higher and their coach just a tad better.

I'm sure this is exactly part of the logic that led Rene Portland to refuse Geno long ago when he sought a game with PSU. Fortunately, Rene is gone and a new relationship can be built.

 

[sarals24]

Yep. Kudos to Pat Summitt for scheduling Geno. Will always respect her for that.

 

[DobbsRover2]

I don't necessarily fault the coaching staff at UD for not putting together a better schedule. As we all know, those things are decided a few years in advance, and I am betting most of the top schools might be reluctant to put Delaware on the schedule with EDD, because it's a no-win situation for them. Win, and well...they were supposed to. Lose, and it's a big upset to lose to a mid-major. Similar to the Uconn situation when they played Tennessee, though of course UConn was ranked much higher and their coach just a tad better.

That said, it was very obvious that Delaware couldn't keep up with a KU team that was much better conditioned. And again, the Big XII was down this year, and they finished sixth.

With the argument that Delware wouldn't fare any better in the BE, that may or may not be true. It might have forced them to adapt to a style where other players contributed, it might have shown EDD earlier on what level her conditioning needed to be at to compete...who knows. I saw the Jackie Stiles team play twice the year they went to the FF, and they were in GREAT shape. She was a much different type player, though. Still, conditioning is something their coach needs to work on for next season.

This is indeed all a very new experience for the Blue Hens, and not one they could necessarily have expected to be up against when putting together the schedule for the OOC games during the last few years. If you had told the coaches before the season that they would need to push the players to a top-10 team level of fitness (whatever that is) and focus on getting their players ready for cross-continental trips because they were going to be a #3 seed and had those type of expectations on them, they would probably have been a little surprised.

Last year Delaware was considered maybe the 86th best team in the country. So this year they stepped up the program hugely behind a dominating EDD, had a dream season with incredible stats, and won both the respect and likely the jealousy of many. And what do we say about them at the end of the day? Well, of course we say that the Blue Hens were "exposed," that they were slow and unprepared, even though they had a fairly narrow loss. Can't we just say they lost? Do we have to say that Griner and the Bears were exposed in 2010 when they lost by 20 to UConn in BG's freshman year? Again, they lost.

Now you may think that this is a down year for the B12 with only four teams in the top 25, but it is still rated well ahead of the other conferences. Kansas has had to painfully claw its way back after losing top scorer Carolyn Davis 10 games ago, and its lurching route back has included road wins at OK and Texas Tech along with the tourney win over Nebraska, so though they may not be a conference 9th place men's UConn team from last year, citing conference placement at this time of year doesn't mean all that much when a team is playing with heart and energy. UConn was a 3 seed in the BET in only the second-rated conference, but that really doesn't matter any more when we are deep in the tourney.

Anyway, that's all I have to say on the Delaware story. I believe they showed themselves unexpectedly well, even if certain other critics just think they were exposed.

 

[DobbsRover2]

It is easy to shine when you are on the olympic team. Maya did it with a pretty ordinary crew for the last 2 years.Who do you want on your team?

Sorry, one more for choochoo.

Yeah, only having the nation's MVP on her team in her junior year was a real downer for Maya, and beside Tina Charles having other ordinary players like Tiffany Hayes and WNBA 13th pick Kalana Greene on the team didn't help either. Thinking before posting is usually a smart way to go.

And I kind of doubt that Geno would have 7 rings if he benched players when they are shooting 9-18 and scoring 34 points with 10 rebounds. If he did that he probably would have been hired away by Boston College or Providence.

 

[boontonbomber]

Edd looked like she was running in mud even in the first half. Geno would have benched her. Uconn would have scored before EDD crossed half court.

easy to forget that she's 6'5", isn't it. and what she's doing is called"pacing yourself". when you have to carry your team for 40 minutes, you learn to do that.

 

[Icebear]

easy to forget that she's 6'5", isn't it. and what she's doing is called"pacing yourself". when you have to carry your team for 40 minutes, you learn to do that.

That is exactly what she is required to do for the team to succeed.

 

[Vowelguy]

ex·pose    

verb (used with object), -posed, -pos·ing.
1. to lay open to danger, attack, harm, etc.:
4. to present to view; exhibit; display
5. to make known, disclose, or reveal

Any team that has not played many good teams is vulnerable to this.

DE played 3 decent teams, none since December. Then they finally came up with a team with some size and athleticism to challenge them. And they were beaten.

KS made known that if you played EDD physical you could wear her down.
KS presented for all to view that even a mediocre team from a power conference could stop anyone else on DE from doing anything.
And if this travel theory has any merit, then it showed that being on their first trip left DE open to harm.

None of these were known before since they had not played any teams that could test them in 3 months.

They were exposed. And they were exposed as not being a top 10 team.

 

[VAUConnFan]

I'm sure this is exactly part of the logic that led Rene Portland to refuse Geno long ago when he sought a game with PSU. Fortunately, Rene is gone and a new relationship can be built.

Coach Auriemma never forgave Coach Portland for that flat out refusal.
Icebear, since you are well alware of the refusal, do you also recall which coach Coach Aureimma called next who immediately extended an invitation?

 

[VAUConnFan]

I don't necessarily fault the coaching staff at UD for not putting together a better schedule. As we all know, those things are decided a few years in advance, and I am betting most of the top schools might be reluctant to put Delaware on the schedule with EDD, because it's a no-win situation for them. Win, and well...they were supposed to. Lose, and it's a big upset to lose to a mid-major. Similar to the Uconn situation when they played Tennessee, though of course UConn was ranked much higher and their coach just a tad better.




I understand the point being made here but not sure that UConn in 1994-1995 is an apt comparison. That UConn team came into the season as an Elite 8 team that lost to the eventual national champion the previous season with its top core returning and the number 1 recruit coming in.

 

[DobbsRover2]

ex·pose    

verb (used with object), -posed, -pos·ing.
1. to lay open to danger, attack, harm, etc.:
4. to present to view; exhibit; display
5. to make known, disclose, or reveal

Any team that has not played many good teams is vulnerable to this.

DE played 3 decent teams, none since December. Then they finally came up with a team with some size and athleticism to challenge them. And they were beaten.

KS made known that if you played EDD physical you could wear her down.
KS presented for all to view that even a mediocre team from a power conference could stop anyone else on DE from doing anything.
And if this travel theory has any merit, then it showed that being on their first trip left DE open to harm.

None of these were known before since they had not played any teams that could test them in 3 months.

They were exposed. And they were exposed as not being a top 10 team.

Thank you for publishing this expose. It helps again to remind us of all the teams that have been totally exposed over the years, like UConn 1999, Stanford 1999, Miami 2011+2012, FSU 2011+2009, Texas A&M 2010, West Virginia 2010, Ohio State 2010, North Carolina 2009, Auburn 2009, and on and on and on. Mid major Delaware as you wisely observe has not played a big power team since December (um, isn't that usually the definition of a low mid major like Delaware in the CAA?), but they can keep company with a lot of power teams that had high hopes going into the tourney but just exposed themselves as bad teams that their fans should be ashamed of. But as Dylan astutely observed, "Everybody must get exposed."

What do you want Delaware to do for you VG to make up for their pretensions as the little team that tried to compete with the major conference teams? Did you get a bad egg from Delaware once, or is there something else that makes you have such a hate on EDD's team. You say:

• Teams know they can stop EDD by playing her "physical," the usual tired euphemism for beating up the star player on a team, same as the treatment Maya and DT often got. Pound her, give her back spasms. Right we know that can work very well if allowed, and please tell PSU that so they can go clothesline Tiff. UConn fans are well aware of the thug tactics and don't really like to be reminded of their effectiveness in uncontrolled situations.
• Again we know that sometimes players have bad games, but many of the Blue Hens players had some very good games coming into the tourney, and maybe I missed your fond congrats to them when they beat tourney teams such as Princeton, PSU, St. Bonaventure, and Nova before hitting the CAA schedule. But you being who you are, throw out the ineffective performance as the example for the whole season and say that proves your point that the team was a fraud. Beautiful logic, as always. Back in 2001, ND "knew" they could leave DT alone to do nothing and exposed her for ever. And that laughingstock men's Kentucky team proved once and for all that the 9th place Big East team can take out the top SEC team every time. This is indeed my brain on crack.
• Traveling long distances should never have any effect on any team. I totally agree, and the next time some college student from a high-seed complains about the rigors of flying all over the country to play games, I'll do my ViGorous best to slap her silly. Every team on the East Coast was dying to fly out to Little Rock with a legion of fans instead of being stuck closer to home like Chapel Hill. You don't see UConn complaining about the brutal trips to Bridgeport and Kingston. Traveling is fun, and good teams like UTenn and UConn are always imploring the committee to be sent far away from home, because that's where they play their best. The UConn men's team keeps asking for another tourney game in North Carolina or Texas. Crack turns to chasm.

Wow, as always, just wow. Keep dropping the acid on Delaware, and I assume our two remaining mid-majors.

 

[Icebear]

Coach Auriemma never forgave Coach Portland for that flat out refusal.
Icebear, since you are well alware of the refusal, do you also recall which coach Coach Aureimma called next who immediately extended an invitation?

Not at the moment but I did know.

 

[VAUConnFan]

VAUConnFan said: ↑

Coach Auriemma never forgave Coach Portland for that flat out refusal.
Icebear, since you are well alware of the refusal, do you also recall which coach Coach Aureimma called next who immediately extended an invitation?​

Not at the moment but I did know.

Take some more time. The invitation allowed UConn to exact immediate revenge that Coach Auriemma truly savored.

 

[Icebear]

Was it Immaculatta?