I like:
Mississippi State over Texas and
Baylor over South Carolina for the same reason, a 6-7 post player that neither opponent has an answer for.
Mississippi State (6-0) - [Stats] Miss St - has played no ranked teams to date. Only 1 major program (Virginia on the road) won 72-44. The rest of their 5 wins were at home against mid-majors.
Team scoring average: 97.5 / Opponents: 44.5 McCowan averages: 18.8/11.2 with 24 blocked shots. Four other MS players are averaging double figures in scoring.
Texas (6-0) - Five of six of the Longhorn's 6 games have been against unranked mid-majors. They beat Quinnipiac at home by 1 point 56-55. Texas' starting post is 6-4
Jatarie White (a transfer from South Carolina June 2016). Texas also features 6-5 freshman Charli Collier. I don't look for Collier to be much help against MCCowan. Collier fouled out in 16 minutes against Duquesne on Nov 8.
[Box score]. Duquesne's tallest player is 6-3. I like Mississippi State BIG in this one.
Baylor (6-0) - All 6 games to date at home. Five against unranked mid-majors. They beat #23 Arizona State 65-59. Baylor's
team avg scoring in 6 games is 85.7, their opponents is 52.8. Brown is avg 14.6/6.6. NaLyssa Smith is avg 13.3/7.7. Baylor has 4 players averaging double figures.
South Carolina has has played 6 games so far, and lost 3 of them. 85-61 to #9 Maryland, 70-68 to #9 Oregon St, and 90-85 to an unranked Drake.
Drake's tallest player is 6-2. If They couldn't beat a "height challenged" Drake team, how are they going to handle/stop 6-7 Teaira McCowan? South Carolina's tallest player is 6-3, Sr Alexis Jennings. She gives away 4 inches and probably 40 lbs to McCowan. Bad mismatch there.
Notre Dame (6-0) - [Stats]
The Notre Dame women’s basketball team won the NCAA tournament last season for the first time in 17 years, but the Fighting Irish are still hungry.
“We want to dominate every single game, every single play,” Notre Dame point guard Marina Mabrey said earlier this month.
“With the players that we have, we should be able to do that.”
With the top four scorers returning — seniors
Arike Ogunbowale (20.8 points per game) and
Jessica Shepard (15.6), junior
Jackie Young (14.5) and senior
Marina Mabrey (14.4) — plus the addition of the two-time All-American
Brianna Turner with sophomore forward
Mikayla Vaughn, who had a strong start as a freshman before getting sidelined with an ACL tear (8.0 points and 4.3 rebounds in the six games she played), there is no team in the country that bests the Fighting Irish frontcourt and backcourt.
Freshman
Jordan Nixon is the most natural point guard on the team and will see extensive action, while classmate
Katlyn Gilbert — both McDonald’s All-Americans — also has played point but will be an off guard her first season, per McGraw.
McGraw has an embarrassment of riches after scrapping through last season with merely seven scholarship players from the beginning of January.
“I have to get used to looking down the bench and realizing, ‘Hey, we have some guards!’” McGraw said with a laugh.
One of the first items on McGraw’s checklist, especially with a deeper bench, is incorporating 40 minutes of intense team defense. That will take some recalibration because of the way the Irish had to play last season, although the presence of Turner, one of the nation’s top shot blockers and inside forces, will significantly aid the defensive cause.
ND has played 2 ranked teams, # 15 DePaul (won 101-77), and # 9 Oregon St (won 91-81) after being down by 9 at the half 50-41. Ogunbowale leads the team in scoring averaging 25.2 / 5/6. She likes to drive the lane. She gets to the line a lot. She's 32-39 (82.1%) from the stripe. When Ogunbowale drives, she will either score, or get fouled. Rarely does she pass it out to open shooters once she begins her drive.
ND
is not a prolific 3 point shooting team. They are 11-46 (23%) Ogunbowale is their main 3 point shooter.
She still keeps opponents in the game by taking a lot of 3's that miss. She's shooting 8/29 behind the arc (27.6%).
UConn's BIG 3 will have to be very cautious of picking up early fouls. A problem that haunted them last year against the Irish. Neither coach looks to use their bench much in this game, similar to last year's final four meeting. Look for both teams to play a lot of zone.
UConn (5-0) UConn will play its first ranked opponent on Wednesday at 7:00 pm when they host #16 DePaul at the XL Center. You should already know all the details of the Huskies. No need for me to note them here. We've watched them for 5 games. We know what to expect at this point, and from who.
A strong starting five, a not so strong bench that Geno is at times (St. Johns) a little reluctant to use. If ND can get UConn in early foul trouble, this one could get ugly real quick. The reverse is also true. If UConn can sit a starter or two for the Irish, they can put some points on the board before halftime, forcing ND to come out blazing in the 3rd quarter trying to catch up, as they did against Oregon St. Saturday.
This game is the BIGGEST game on UConn's schedule this year. They'll be playing in front of a sold out Purcell Pavilion full of screaming over zealous Irish fans that want to see UConn go down, and go down hard, in addition to a nationally televised audience (ESPN).
UConn must play great defense for 40 minutes to have any chance of pulling this one out. No easy or uncontested layups. A couple of easy baskets given to ND could be the difference in what should be a close game. The starters should ALL be prepared to play the entire game Sunday.
I expect Geno to use his bench sparingly. The reserve players with the most minutes are Mikayla Coombs at 58 and ONO with 55. It may be a bad sign if ONO is used in the first half (for any reason). If UConn can pull this one out, on the road no less, it will provide to be a HUGE boost not only to their overall confidence, but in the hearts and minds of their fans/boosters as well. We'll see. This is the game that some "learned" basketball fans (some here in the yard) and media members predict UConn will lose.
This one is a tough one to call. Let's hope this game does not come down to a bad call (or a no call) by the referees. The last time I went out on a limb, it broke (my Boston to UConn prediction), and I suffered a lot of cuts and bruises (not to mention embarrassment). Undeterred, I'm going back out there again,
UConn 69 - ND 64. Go Huskies.
She looks like the very talented freshman she is with glimpses of a possible brilliant future and her share of freshman mistakes.
)...I just hope it’s a great game.
Baylor improves to 7-0.
