Re-evaluating the top 10

[bballnut90]

After watching a few games and seeing box scores/recaps, here's my reshuffled top 10 after 1 week of basketball:


1. South Carolina-they've only played one game, but they beat a dangerous Ohio State team and have 2 new potential stars in Davis/Gray. Wilson didn't have a good opener, but she's the best 2 way player in college basketball IMO. Most importantly, reports are that Cuevas looks much more controlled. If she is steady at the point, South Carolina should be the team to beat with the horses they have on their roster.

2. Connecticut-two wins over highly ranked teams is a great way to start the year. The roster and style reminds me a lot of 2011-12. They are quite solid at every position, but don't appear to be spectacular at any. They already have exhibited very good passing/chemistry, and everybody on the roster plays hard. I think Dangerfield will be a somewhat streaky freshman this year but has potential to be a difference maker like she was tonight, Nurse will be the steady presence, KLS looks like the player fans were hoping Ann Strother would develop into, and Williams/Collier/Butler are all so improved. Williams/Collier specifically are players that make UCONN a championship contender because they can defend multiple positions, play hard, have elite athleticism, can finish inside/outside and rebound extremely well. Their hustle makes up for lack of height, and tonight was a perfect example of how a 5-11 and 6-1 player were able to outplay their 6-3 and 6-7 counterparts.

3. Notre Dame-they've had 3 wins to start the year but their close win vs GB was eye opening tonight. Ogunbowale seems to have elevated her game to a new level, and they have as much talent as anyone in the country, but based on recaps/box scores they don't appear to be a #1 team at this point in the season. Their standout freshmen of Boley, Young, and Patberg haven't emerged as big contributors like I expected they would. It was 1 close game, but for better or worse, UCONN's will be ND's first big test.

4. Maryland--two big blowouts against medicore teams. Frese appears to have a very good roster this year, they might be the team that can stop UCONN's streak.

5. Bayl0r--so what exactly happened to Nina Davis? 2 years ago she was hands down the best sophomore in the country. Tonight she didn't score against UCONN, wasn't on the floor late and wasn't really involved in offensive sets. Their offense tonight looked awful. Part of that had to do with UCONN's defense, but their sets were Jones dribbling the ball for 80% of the play, then maybe passing it off to Wallace to jacks up a bad shot. They looked for their posts but UCONN did a good job of denying entry passes, and the posts didn't seal their defenders well. That said, Baylor is quite formidable. Jones is one of the better guards in the country, Davis is a star when she is involved, and Brown appears to have elevated her play this year. Baylor definitely has Final Four potential, but they have a long way to go developing cohesion on the court. And as a side note--Cox looks way too timid out there. She'll come into her own and will gain confidence playing bunny teams, but she looked soft/scared against UCLA and again tonight.

6. Louisville--haven't seen them play, but it looks like they have a 3 headed monster in Durr, Moore and Hines-Allen. They'll give Notre Dame a run for their money in the ACC.

7. Syracuse--haven't seen them play, but 2 huge blowouts for the runner ups. I think they'll be better than their current ranking.

8. Florida State-they have really good guard play, Thomas is a beast and Imani Wright looks like a difference maker on the wing. They also are the only team to come within 10 points of UCONN in over 2 years.

9. Stanford--they looked solid against Texas, but I don't think they have as much upside as many other teams in the nation. They have a pretty soft OOC schedule, with their only tough game coming against Tennessee.

10. Ohio State--they have been shaky to start the year but have Final Four caliber talent. They'll improve over the course of the season.

 

[SCspur]

My top 5
#1 UCONN - two quality wins over 2 top 12 teams
#2 SC- Good win over #7 Oh St.
#3 ND- talent everywhere just not that impressive so far.
#4 Baylor- lost to a very good UCONN team.. still have tough matches and time to prove it's self
#5 Maryland- impressive team.. we'll see how good they are against good competition.

 

[ASweet3781]

I haven't been following too closely but anyone have any reason why ND would only beat Green Bay by 4? They lose anyone big off of last years team? Anyone injured?

Gonna be a fun year. Lots of teams in the top 10 seem evenly matched.

 

[DaddyChoc]

 

[tonehill68]

I haven't been following too closely but anyone have any reason why ND would only beat Green Bay by 4? They lose anyone big off of last years team? Anyone injured?

Gonna be a fun year. Lots of teams in the top 10 seem evenly matched.

Green Bay just had a good game plan and hit a lot of shots to stay close to ND. They slowed it down a little bit (not like what Fordham did), but it worked for them. Arike O. Is a very good player for the Irish. Green Bay is no slouch.

 

[CocoHusky]

UCONN should go to #2 in the spot previously occupied by Baylor. Baylor should drop behind South Carolina. Too early to tell about everything else.

 

[SCGamecock]

I'm with my Gamecock compadre here as far as #1... based off of what I watched so far..

1. UCONN - I think their offense still has a WAYS to go.. but they have the defense to slow down ANYBODY.

2. SC - Gray, Davis and Cuevas work well in the backcourt and all three can create their own shot. Frontcourt has to get in gear before Louisville. Defense not at SC standard yet. Harris, Harrigan play valuable minutes as freshmen off the bench.

3. Notre Dame - we will learn more about them soon enough.

4. Louisville - they've looked pretty good to me so far.. Moore is great.

5. Baylor - Jones and Wallace are very skilled, but it seems like Jones is the only guard that can create her own shot. Frontcourt completely evaporated versus UCONN.

 

[Kaizen]

UCONN should go to #2 in the spot previously occupied by Baylor. Baylor should drop behind South Carolina. Too early to tell about everything else.

UConn will be #1 next week, they just knock out #2 ....

 

[UcMiami]

I think you see in Baylor's play against Uconn how important seasoned PG play is. They have better outside shooting than they have had in a while, but they have no one controlling the flow and figuring out who should be shooting when. Davis is really, really going to miss Johnson, because Jones is not going to get her the ball in positions where she will be successful.

SC (and I haven't seen them play yet) is i suspect going to have the same issue. Against a defensively challenged Ohio State, they become a perimeter team as well. Wilson is going to seriously miss the entry passes she used to get because Davis and Grey are going to be too busy shooting. Can Dawn impose the discipline to get the team 'balanced' and keep Wilson and Coates happy?

So ND had a wobble - they do several times every year, and Green Bay is a seriously disciplined team that can cause issues for teams more highly skilled when they have an off night. They remind me of DePaul in that respect - very good coaching of lesser talents who will run through a wall not to disappoint their coach.

I would not be surprised to see Uconn get the #1 this coming week - it will be tight between them and ND - followed by the other and SC, then Baylor.

 

[SCGamecock]

You can't just look at the box score and assume SC and Baylor are the same without watching the actual games themselves.

The difference between the SC/OSU and the UCONN/Baylor game is that SC's post game wasn't taken out of the game by good defense... fouls took A'ja out of the game and allowed Coates to be double teamed. Both Coates and Wilson got the passes they wanted inside when they were in the game... we're an inside-out team.. on more than one occasion the ball went inside and went back out for a Davis 3 or a Gray dribble drive. When it became obvious in the game that A'ja isn't going to be effective (soon after halftime when the 3rd foul came), that's when the game plan changed and our backcourt took over. That's an adjustment based off of what the opposing team is giving you defensively (and if you notice, that's when the score opened up).. there was movement, and they gave us midrange, dribble drives and perimeter shots all day. It's not about "Wilson missing those passes inside".. If you look at the assist numbers for Davis, Gray and Cuevas you'll see that the assist were there.. Wilson wasn't.

Baylor on the other hand, they were completely taken out of their inside game by good defense, they had the bodies all day down low but UConn's defense was too good... then there was nobody else (besides Jones) capable of creating their own offense without the "inside/outside" approach and they just stopped moving on offense..

 

[CocoHusky]

You can't just look at the box score and assume SC and Baylor are the same without watching the actual games themselves.

The difference between the SC/OSU and the UCONN/Baylor game is that SC's post game wasn't taken out of the game by good defense... fouls took A'ja out of the game and allowed Coates to be double teamed. Both Coates and Wilson got the passes they wanted inside when they were in the game... we're an inside-out team.. on more than one occasion the ball went inside and went back out for a Davis 3 or a Gray dribble drive. When it became obvious in the game that A'ja isn't going to be effective (soon after halftime when the 3rd foul came), that's when the game plan changed and our backcourt took over. That's an adjustment based off of what the opposing team is giving you defensively (and if you notice, that's when the score opened up).. there was movement, and they gave us midrange, dribble drives and perimeter shots all day. It's not about "Wilson missing those passes inside".. If you look at the assist numbers for Davis, Gray and Cuevas you'll see that the assist were there.. Wilson wasn't.

Baylor on the other hand, they were completely taken out of their inside game by good defense, they had the bodies all day down low but UConn's defense was too good... then there was nobody else (besides Jones) capable of creating their own offense without the "inside/outside" approach and they just stopped moving on offense..

 

[Bgillon]

You can't just look at the box score and assume SC and Baylor are the same without watching the actual games themselves.

The difference between the SC/OSU and the UCONN/Baylor game is that SC's post game wasn't taken out of the game by good defense... fouls took A'ja out of the game and allowed Coates to be double teamed. Both Coates and Wilson got the passes they wanted inside when they were in the game... we're an inside-out team.. on more than one occasion the ball went inside and went back out for a Davis 3 or a Gray dribble drive. When it became obvious in the game that A'ja isn't going to be effective (soon after halftime when the 3rd foul came), that's when the game plan changed and our backcourt took over. That's an adjustment based off of what the opposing team is giving you defensively (and if you notice, that's when the score opened up).. there was movement, and they gave us midrange, dribble drives and perimeter shots all day. It's not about "Wilson missing those passes inside".. If you look at the assist numbers for Davis, Gray and Cuevas you'll see that the assist were there.. Wilson wasn't.

Baylor on the other hand, they were completely taken out of their inside game by good defense, they had the bodies all day down low but UConn's defense was too good... then there was nobody else (besides Jones) capable of creating their own offense without the "inside/outside" approach and they just stopped moving on offense..

Excellent analysis and a great reason why having fans of other teams post here on a regular basis.

 

[UcMiami]

SCGamecock - nice. And we'll see if this holds true as the season progresses - as i said, I only looked at the box score, but I will be curious to see how it plays out because Davis has a reputation for being trigger happy. It is also an extremely small sample size, but I do think SC will miss the experience in the backcourt that graduated.

 

[reno tony]

I haven't been following too closely but anyone have any reason why ND would only beat Green Bay by 4? They lose anyone big off of last years team? Anyone injured?

Gonna be a fun year. Lots of teams in the top 10 seem evenly matched.

I didn't see the game but Green Bay went 12 for 25 from behind the arc and made more buckets than N.D. They lost because N.D. made 15 more free throws than Green Bay. Otherwise, it looks like Green Bay played a better offensive game than N.D.

Green Bay vs. Notre Dame - Box Score - November 17, 2016 - ESPN

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I think you see in Baylor's play against Uconn how important seasoned PG play is. They have better outside shooting than they have had in a while, but they have no one controlling the flow and figuring out who should be shooting when. Davis is really, really going to miss Johnson, because Jones is not going to get her the ball in positions where she will be successful.

SC (and I haven't seen them play yet) is i suspect going to have the same issue. Against a defensively challenged Ohio State, they become a perimeter team as well. Wilson is going to seriously miss the entry passes she used to get because Davis and Grey are going to be too busy shooting. Can Dawn impose the discipline to get the team 'balanced' and keep Wilson and Coates happy?

So ND had a wobble - they do several times every year, and Green Bay is a seriously disciplined team that can cause issues for teams more highly skilled when they have an off night. They remind me of DePaul in that respect - very good coaching of lesser talents who will run through a wall not to disappoint their coach.

I would not be surprised to see Uconn get the #1 this coming week - it will be tight between them and ND - followed by the other and SC, then Baylor.

And not to forget regarding Green Bay that way back they gave UConn a run in one game - talked to Kevin Borseth after that game (in passing, saw him at the FF) and he said only the lack of someone like Kia Vaughn prevented that upset. In any case - he's been back there for a number of years and always puts a solid product on the floor, as you say.

 

[cayenne]

Watched all of Green Bay’s games last year on ESPN3, became a fan. They should have beaten the Vols in the NCAA last year. With four starters back from last year and some good young players I could see a close game with ND in the cards. They play with no fear. I don’t think ND will be playing them again soon.