Yes, and it showed in her on court demeanor. Yet when she's on the sidelines she is explosive, dynamic, argumentative and willing to get in the face of her players.
One would think they might've learned some humility from last year, when everyone from the "best WBB conference" except SC face-planted in the first weekend, and oh yeah, Kentucky also lost to a lower seed.
I guess “It’s Rhyne Howard time “ let her down.
And LSU barely beat a 14 seed and Tennessee was in a one possession game in the second half.
The best Rhyne has played her entire career was during the SEC tournament. She felt slighted because Aliyah won SECPOY instead of her. It drove me crazy her winning it every year. She’s a talent for sure. She can shoot from anywhere but she just shows up when she has to. Wait until she gets to the pros and has to play defense. I think she’ll be a good pro if she lands on the right team. Shame she didn’t play for somebody who would push her.
They watch the ESPN hype machine too much.
Sec was 4-4 I believe. Kentucky, ole Miss, Florida and Arkansas lost. SC, LSU, GA and Tennessee won. ACC WAS 5-4.
More revealing stat: In neutral court games SEC was 1-4. Three of those losses to lower seeds.
I'd like to see it and UConn is a great environment for a player to be in. However, unless there's an academic reason involved I can't see a kid with her ability wanting to get caught up in that potential PT logjam.
I’m SEC all the way and agree with you. Give some of these other teams a chance.
ESPN has a financial stake in the SEC. Money talks.
Not sure you give Princeton or Howard enough credit. For anyone who watched the SEC playoffs, Howard carried Kentucky - one of the better playoff performances I have seen. Princeton did a masterful job of guarding Howard, putting pressure on the other KY players who did not step up.
Living in SC, I get the SEC Channel and you are spot on. While every local broadcast is preferential to their home teams, Andy Landers is the lead Women's Basketball analyst, and you would think every SEC team should be in the Top 10. Doesn't appear any of the SEC teams get balanced feedback until they get into the Playoffs - by then it's too late for many.
A lot of my bracket picks are heart over head, however this year, Princeton was my head pick, as I knew they play solid hoop, and my thoughts re KY was that they had 11 days to sustain the high of winning the SEC tourney (hard), and now they would be playing a team they knew little about. The presser tidbits above should make anyone associated with the selection committee take pause and analyze what "things" they consider when ranking teams. As I said to a friend this am re St Peter's beating Kentucky (men) - I want messy, I want upsets, I want the expert/blowhard/talking heads to realize there's a lot of good hoop out there past the historically anointed "blue bloods" (and don't get me started on that phrase). Linking the P5 football conferences to basketball is wrong. (climbing gingerly off soapbox)On the losing side, interesting responses from Howard and Edwards (at 27:00):
Q: "Being conference champions yourself, how does playing the Ivy League champions Princeton compare to other top teams in the nation like South Carolina, LSU and Tennessee that you play pretty often?"Edwards: "Um ... I mean ..." [looks to Howard]Howard: "Credit to Princeton, but I mean, we've played better teams and come out on top, so ..."Edwards: "Yeah, I mean I think the SEC is the top conference in women's basketball, so that's pretty much all I gotta say."
And Howard's final parting comment before being excused was along the lines of "Princeton's defense wasn't anything special".
