Pheesa's Homecoming Game

[RockyMTblue2]

It's 14 hours old, so it may be buried in a thread.

The Bristol Press - UConn women's basketball will play homecoming contest for Collier next season

"The UConn’s women’s basketball team will play homecoming games for seniors Gabby Williams (at Nevada) and Kia Nurse (in Toronto vs. Duquesne) and junior Katie Lou Samuelson (at UCLA) this season.

Napheesa Collier will be taking notes.

“The thing I’ve already picked up on is how they have been asking everyone for tickets for those games,” Collier said. “So I’m going to be sure to get a head start on that for next year.” *****

“It means a lot to me that the coaches would do this for me, and it means a lot to my family,” Collier said. “Because I go to school so far away from home, they don’t get to come to any games unless they make a big road trip. This will be one time they won’t have to travel far and I’m happy my friends and family will get to see me play.”

 

[rt bb fan]

It's 14 hours old, so it may be buried in a thread.

The Bristol Press - UConn women's basketball will play homecoming contest for Collier next season

"The UConn’s women’s basketball team will play homecoming games for seniors Gabby Williams (at Nevada) and Kia Nurse (in Toronto vs. Duquesne) and junior Katie Lou Samuelson (at UCLA) this season.

Napheesa Collier will be taking notes.

“The thing I’ve already picked up on is how they have been asking everyone for tickets for those games,” Collier said. “So I’m going to be sure to get a head start on that for next year.” *****

“It means a lot to me that the coaches would do this for me, and it means a lot to my family,” Collier said. “Because I go to school so far away from home, they don’t get to come to any games unless they make a big road trip. This will be one time they won’t have to travel far and I’m happy my friends and family will get to see me play.”

I thought all homeconing games were played when players were seniors? Lou has her game this year.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I thought all homeconing games were played when players were seniors? Lou has her game this year.

Rumor has it that Geno is treating Lou like a senior in the hopes that she'll act like one. You raise a good point. I don't know if the UCLA thing is a home and home or a one off, or it had to be this year to make it fit. Also game is on ESPNU, which is nice.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I think the choice of Lou's junior year is odd. Maybe Geno foresees a scheduling issue next year and wanted to grab UCLA this year while he could. Or maybe he wanted to play them while Canada and Billings are still there. He may still try for a So. Cal. game next year, or will be be playing at Stanford?

 

[oldude]

One thing to note about Pheesa's homecoming game next year. Technically, Pheesa would be eligible to declare for the WNBA draft after this coming season as she will turn 22 next year. While she has always indicated that she planned to be a Husky through her senior year, I guess the homecoming game pretty much clinches it.

 

[eebmg]

I think it would have been much better if they could have set up a game with Mizzou and Sophie Cunningham. Naphessa and Sophie were good friends and competitors in the area. That would have been a great matchup. Oh well.

 

[oldude]

I think it would have been much better if they could have set up a game with Mizzou and Sophie Cunningham. Naphessa and Sophie were good friends and competitors in the area. That would have been a great matchup. Oh well.

Maybe they tried. Not every school wants to get their butt whipped at home just to set up a homecoming game for one of UConn’s star players. Case in point, Syracuse was unwilling to play the Huskies for Stewie’s homecoming, so the game ended up at Colgate.

 

[TitleTown]

I think it would have been much better if they could have set up a game with Mizzou and Sophie Cunningham. Naphessa and Sophie were good friends and competitors in the area. That would have been a great matchup. Oh well.

Not many teams want to play a team like UConn and get beat by 40 in their OOC schedule.

 

[Alydar]

If I remember correctly UConn was unable to get a "homecoming game" for Mosqueda-Lewis in S Cal. & had to play UC Davis, which is NE of Frisco.

 

[donalddoowop]

I think it would have been much better if they could have set up a game with Mizzou and Sophie Cunningham. Naphessa and Sophie were good friends and competitors in the area. That would have been a great matchup. Oh well.

Not necessarily better competition wise seeing how St. Louis beat Missouri the last time they played. That was either last season or the season before. However, Mizzou should be really good the next two seasons, as should SLU.

 

[eebmg]

Not necessarily better competition wise seeing how St. Louis beat Missouri the last time they played. That was either last season or the season before. However, Mizzou should be really good the next two seasons, as should SLU.

Since I have no real feeling for either team, I was going by preseason rankings (#15)

UConn is back on top in Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2017-18

Also looking at Massey Rankings, Mizzou is 31 while StL is 92

Massey Ratings - CBW

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I have always been partial to routs, if not outright pilagings, for homecoming games.

 

[JordyG]

Not many teams want to play a team like UConn and get beat by 40 in their OOC schedule.

Make that AT HOME by 40 in their OOC.

 

[eebmg]

Make that AT HOME by 40 in their OOC.

Looking at Missouri's OOC schedule, the BY is right. No chance they would want to face a top team OOC. I guess the SEC is tough enough.

 

[donalddoowop]

Since I have no real feeling for either team, I was going by preseason rankings (#15)

UConn is back on top in Way-Too-Early Top 25 for 2017-18

Also looking at Massey Rankings, Mizzou is 31 while StL is 92

Massey Ratings - CBW

I agree with what you said about Mizzou. I was just getting in a plug for my SLU team. A game with Mizzou would have been very interesting and much more competitive than a game with SLU. However, SLU is a lot closer to Collier's home than Mizzou is.

 

[Carnac]

I think the choice of Lou's junior year is odd. Maybe Geno foresees a scheduling issue next year and wanted to grab UCLA this year while he could. Or maybe he wanted to play them while Canada and Billings are still there. He may still try for a So. Cal. game next year, or will be be playing at Stanford?

There are several other Division One schools Geno can choose from for Lou's homecoming game. Lou lives in Huntington Beach California. That's in Orange County. There are two schools in Orange County they can choose from. The closest is U.C. Irvine = 12 miles away. Also Cal-State Fullerton = 20 miles away. There's also UC Riverside = 50 miles away, Univ of Southern Calif (USC - just so. of downtown LA), Loyola-Marymount (in Westchester, about 2 miles north of LAX) and of course UCLA in Westwood.

Pepperdine University is also in Southern California up the coast in Malibu (on a hill over looking the pacific ocean), the furthest campus from Lou's home, 64 miles away. No doubt any of those schools would love $$$ to host UConn. It would be their biggest game of the year. I don't think they would be too concerned about the loss. The the large amount of ticket sales and the publicity (excitement) would more than make up for it. Like the Univ of Nevada, these schools don't get to host the #1 school in the country very often.

They could play Stanford then come down the coast to play one of the LA area schools, or visa versa. Stanford can't be a homecoming game for Lou, too far, 395 miles away. In the past, on a west coast road trip, UConn usually likes to play the other west coast school first, then Stanford, then go home. The last two trips west, they've played two schools that are in close proximity to the Stanford campus. Pacific (Stockton - 83 miles away) and UC Davis (Davis, CA 103 miles away).

 

[ocoandasoc]

Mizzou will play the defending National Champion twice this year and the runner-up once. They finished third in the SEC behind those two teams last year (they beat the National Champ!) and could challenge for the SEC title this year. They had some big injuries early in the year -- dropping three out of four games during a tough stretch including to St. Louis, before rallying late in the year.