Pac-12 opening day

[nwhoopfan]

Lucky them! I must have been thinking of Erin Boley then. If she stayed in the ACC I believe she would have lost a year.

I think the Pac had that rule years ago, but got rid of it. I remember a player that transferred from Stanford to UW during Romar's heyday and he lost a year of eligibility. Can't remember the name.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Any road win is a good win, so Washington St., Utah and UCLA all get a bonus today. I think we'll quickly see the middle of the pack cannibalizing itself and a few teams rise to the top. And a few teams sink to the bottom.

 

[triaddukefan]

I guess having Devil as part of your mascot name makes you play ugly basketball

 

[Plebe]

Massey ranks Arizona's SOS at #261. The only Arizona opponent to score fewer than the 39 points scored by the #17 ranked team was South Carolina State. The University of Portland figured out how to score 70 points against Arizona.

ASU seems to be where players go to shoot bricks.

Never underestimate the power of a rivalry game.

And yet ASU was still good enough to put a serious scare in Baylor and Louisville.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Massey ranks Arizona's SOS at #261. The only Arizona opponent to score fewer than the 39 points scored by the #17 ranked team was South Carolina State. The University of Portland figured out how to score 70 points against Arizona.

ASU seems to be where players go to shoot bricks.

First, I'm happy. I wasn't there, my wife just had her liver transplant Friday and we are in Phoenix - and will be for a while, even if things continue to look good.

Arizona's schedule was dreadful and that could bite them at some point - but Adia said that there was no point in playing good teams until the team was competitive, but she wants to upgrade in the future.

We have always liked ASU in WBB - the only ASU team we tolerate - ever since they supported Rutgers in the Imus situation. But they are as scoring challenged as Rutgers at times - streaky at best. I think it is the style she generally plays. But, like Rutgers, with the right players ASU does well.

 

[MilfordHusky]

ASU went into the game as the #17 team and did the following:

Lost by 12 to an unranked team

Scored all of 39 points.

Shot 23%.

Had an A:TO ratio of 10:17.

Had only 2 players (1 of them a starter) with more than 1 made FG.

The word abysmal seems to apply.

 

[oldude]

ASU went into the game as the #17 team and did the following:

Lost by 12 to an unranked team

Scored all of 39 points.

Shot 23%.

Had an A:TO ratio of 10:17.

Had only 2 players (1 of them a starter) with more than 1 made FG.

The word abysmal seems to apply.

Also note that former Husky Courtney Ekmark scored 3 pts in 28 minutes on 1-10 shooting. Ouch!

 

[ochoopsfan]

IMO, there are no monster players on ASU. So if a regular has an off game they can be replaced by another regular. Cant recall an ASU player in the WNBA, at least not in the past 10 years. Play Charlie's system and the team will succeed often. Not yesterday, but often. This is why ASU always plays at a certain level. They wont make final 4 like a Stanford, OSU, or Washington did in recent years. There is no up for them, just a decent status quo.

 

[Plebe]

Massey ranks Arizona's SOS at #261. The only Arizona opponent to score fewer than the 39 points scored by the #17 ranked team was South Carolina State. The University of Portland figured out how to score 70 points against Arizona.

ASU seems to be where players go to shoot bricks.

I believe people give too much credence to Massey's SOS ranking. One major flaw in it is that it takes into consideration the exhibition games of some teams but not of others. Arizona's two exhibition games, for example, figured into the Massey ranking. But UConn's didn't.

But we should also notice that Massey ranks Arizona's defense #19 in the country, a ranking that takes into account the strength of opposition.

 

[Plebe]

IMO, there are no monster players on ASU. So if a regular has an off game they can be replaced by another regular. Cant recall an ASU player in the WNBA, at least not in the past 10 years. Play Charlie's system and the team will succeed often. Not yesterday, but often. This is why ASU always plays at a certain level. They wont make final 4 like a Stanford, OSU, or Washington did in recent years. There is no up for them, just a decent status quo.

Briann January, known for her stellar defense (and also an ASU assistant coach).

 

[ochoopsfan]

Briann January, known for her stellar defense (and also an ASU assistant coach).

She played 10 years ago on ASU, and I did miss her. But none since.

 

[Plebe]

She played 10 years ago on ASU, and I did miss her. But none since.

Your point is well taken. ASU is always making more with less. They've been very consistently ranked in the top 25 over the past several years, but even when they were in the top 10 they didn't have anyone who was even in the discussion for All-American.

 

[LoTrader]

Arizona really exposed ASU's lack of offensive creators in their lineup. And, on the occasion that ASU's offense created an open look, ASU shooters couldn't convert. I contrast that to Stanford, OSU, and even UO who have a plethora of sharp shooters in their lineups. ASU will recover, and still put the hurt on a lot of PAC-12 teams.

 

[triaddukefan]

Never underestimate the power of a rivalry game.

.

Even in WCBB

 

[nwhoopfan]

This is why ASU always plays at a certain level. They wont make final 4 like a Stanford, OSU, or Washington did in recent years. There is no up for them, just a decent status quo.

Elite 8 in '07 and '09. Only one Sweet 16 since then, a bunch of 2nd round knockouts. Seems like they were nipping at Stanford's heels in the mid 2000's, but since then have fallen to the next tier down in the conference.

 

[Plebe]

Pretty good article from the Arizona paper about the Pac-12 WBB landscape:

Pac-12 women strong again, but can a team break through to win 1st NCAA title since 1992?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Thanks Plebe, nice article.

 

[jonson]

Arizona really exposed ASU's lack of offensive creators in their lineup. And, on the occasion that ASU's offense created an open look, ASU shooters couldn't convert. I contrast that to Stanford, OSU, and even UO who have a plethora of sharp shooters in their lineups. ASU will recover, and still put the hurt on a lot of PAC-12 teams.

"even UO?" You mean the team that currently ranks first in field goal percentage, first in effective field goal percentage, first in free throw percentage, and fifth in 3-point field goal percentage?

 

[UConnCat]

But we should also notice that Massey ranks Arizona's defense #19 in the country, a ranking that takes into account the strength of opposition.

Massey's offensive and defensive ratings do not rank a particular team's defensive (or offensive) strength relative to other teams. Do you really think Drexel with a SOS ranked 209 is the 9th best defense in the country? According to Massey, "[t]he Off/Def breakdown is simply an estimate of how much of a team's strength can be attributed to good offensive and defensive play respectively." Obviously, both Arizona and Arizona State rely a lot more on their defense than their offense. But the Massey defensive ratings don't tell us how effective Arizona's defense will be against the much better competition it will face in the PAC 12. What it does tell us is that its overall performance in those games will be the result of its defense more than its offense.

 

[Pinhead]

Utah's senior Huff is the centerpiece, while freshmen bigs Torres and Edwards looked very solid against the Buffs. Their work's cut out for them but I'm looking forward to what transpires against the Pac 12 heavies. Go Utes!