Russell down to 2

[SARG 2011]

MR reportedly down to Louisville and Tenn

 

[MilfordHusky]

Louisville seems like a good choice.

 

[speedoo]

"reportedly".... who is reporting this?

 

[SARG 2011]

Sue Favor (they're playing basketball blog) posted today

 

[EricLA]

No surprise there. Now maybe people will finally believe those who said UNC was not in the picture. It will be devastating for Tennessee if they don't land her. Go L'ville!

 

[alexrgct]

If those are her final two school choices, I'd suggest she'd be well-served to defer her decision to the spring. Both programs have something to prove this season. Jeff Walz has gotten a lot of accolades, but the reality is Louisville hasn't had a top-four seed in the tourney, and only one (somewhat surprising at that) Sweet 16 appearance since Angel graduated. Meanwhile, the transition at Tennessee is well-documented.

 

[Coler]

Anywhere but Tennessee.

 

[Bayareahusky]

If you have choice of being developed by Jeff Walz or Holly Warlick, who would you choose?!

(I think this has been stated on this forum in past few days)...... even if TN gets her..... they still have a long way to come back..... it would be a good building block for them, but they couldn't do anything with their super seniors last year.

I suspect she will choose to play alongside her fellow Oregonians Schimmel sisters.....

 

[alexrgct]

To play devil's advocate here, how well has Shoni really been developed? Watching her is painful. She's a ball stopper who's never met a shot she didn't like.

Jeff Walz is a year away from being certifiably overrated. Last year was a mess by Tennessee standards, but maybe with clarity of role and a rough year under her belt, Holly can show some signs that Tennessee isn't falling off the map just because Pat stepped down. Even if they don't make it back to the E8, they can develop and foster more of an identity than "we have more talent than most teams we face, and Glory is a warrior." And if they do, they have a terrific fan following, and most of their games are televised.

In short, Mercedes has nothing to lose by staying uncommitted through early signing period and letting this season play out.

 

[Coler]

Yeah, I think Walz just lets Shoni run wild, and it's good she chose L'ville instead of Rutgers. CVS wouldn't let her shoot every bad shot known to man.

I too think Mercedes should see how this season goes.

 

[Bayareahusky]

Yes point well taken on Walz, but he did an ok job last yr with 2 key injuries..... I guess I was downplaying Holly's abilities, at least basing it on what I saw of her talent last year..... Pat totally gave her the reins for game management, and she didn't do anything with it, even with her senior class...... didn't know how to use Simmons, and at end of year, decided after many different iterations, that 5 seniors were her best starting lineup..... I am lukewarm on her ability to coach, but this year is another swing at bat for her. Maybe it will be better.

 

[UcMiami]

Alex - valid points - to some degree Jeff has lived off Angel's legacy. And what happened last year at TN was always going to be a disaster - just an impossible situation for any coach. Holly was part of a committee approach that never was going to work.

 

[HuskyMJ]

Yes point well taken on Walz, but he did an ok job last yr with 2 key injuries..... I guess I was downplaying Holly's abilities, at least basing it on what I saw of her talent last year..... Pat totally gave her the reins for game management, and she didn't do anything with it, even with her senior class...... didn't know how to use Simmons, and at end of year, decided after many different iterations, that 5 seniors were her best starting lineup..... I am lukewarm on her ability to coach, but this year is another swing at bat for her. Maybe it will be better.

It has to be a hard situation for Warlick because she did not want to step on Pat's toes and overstep her boundaries. Give her a chance to recruit her own players now that she is head coach and see how she does. It is way too early to say whether she can or can not coach and she deserves a clean state. Walz has been a head coach for years so comparing the two is not really equal and who knows Warlick could hit the ground running once she begins getting her players in starting with her first recruiting class in 2013.

 

[Artifact]

I wish the best to Mercedes. After watching a number of tall girls play in college & olympics. their is no assurance that with height, a player will become outstanding. Look, it took Tina Charles, who was rated as # 1 coming in, 2 to 3 yrs, to get her going & that by the best coach in women's basketball!

 

[DobbsRover2]

Yeah, I think Walz just lets Shoni run wild, and it's good she chose L'ville instead of Rutgers. CVS wouldn't let her shoot every bad shot known to man.

I too think Mercedes should see how this season goes.

I actually thought Jeff and Louisville did very well last year after what happened with the lineup. They lose the two high percentage shooters who are the starting C and a F from the back court, and Reid was the part of the 1-2 scoring punch for a team that could play off her and Schimmel. With a severely undersized but scrappy team, they made a decent run at the end of the season with mainly Schimmel as a scoring threat. It's not as though the rest of the players left shot a much higher percentage. But Schimmel just jacks up way too many 3s at too low a percentage, and you can't have far more than half of your shots be 3s, even if a lot are late in the possession heaves to beat the shot clock. Her 2-pt FG% is decent, and she was shooting okay early on with the senior Reid around, so she can be explosive with the right personnel around her. Granted Louisville should probably still have beaten MD in the NCAAs at MD but fell a little short, but I can remember a few Huskies teams that had some issues after they lost a couple of key players in a season, so I don't know that knocking on a Geno or Jeff after those jury-rigged seasons is the way to go.

 

[triaddukefan]

No surprise there. Now maybe people will finally believe those who said UNC was not in the picture. It will be devastating for Tennessee if they don't land her. Go L'ville!

Yeah... some over at UNC were pretty confident in landing Russell..... glad to see her eliminate them as a possibility. I agree.... Go Louisville.

 

[Alydar]

Sue Favor (they're playing basketball blog) posted today

I wouldn't bet the farm on her "inside knowledge". She is a self-described "rabid" LV fan and a Summitt poster. I would go so far as to say that if you read her body of work she could be considered a "booster" for the LV program, which would make her conversation with Russell a rules violation.

quote from her profile: "I still follow the Lady Vols like a cult member" Now Russell may well have said what she claims but her admitted bias gives me pause.

Her "unbiased" view of the Olympic team - http://hoopism.blogspot.com/2012/08/another-gold-for-us-women.html

-- "I have no doubt that Auriemma wasn't being consciously biased towards his former players. But there's no doubt he was being subconsciously biased. " ( no doubt?)


An example of her journalistic "integrity" -

"Auriemma also limited Angel McCoughtry's minutes, despite her being one of the team's top producers. This included yesterday's match up, when he pulled her after a few moments after she had gone in and scored immediately" -

What Sue conveniently omits is that Angel let out a loud scream under the hoop after scoring. (you know, like the LV's like to do along with chest beating as a form of intimidation). It's disrespectful to your opponent and Geno does not allow it. So he pulled her. Unlike Paul Harvey, Sue never tells the rest of the story.

Of course I don't think Sue is conciously biased against UConn or toward Tenn but I have "no doubt" she is subconciously biased.

 

[Kibitzer]

This is some thread.

We start with an unreliable OP who uses the word "reportedly" as a means of establishing reliability when in actuality she may, as an avowed LV fan, be indulging in some wishful thinking.

Then we gravitate to evaluations of the two coaches, Walz at Louisville and Warlick at Tennessee.

Walz has been given lots of credit for recruiting the players that won an NC at Maryland. At Louisville he had the good fortune to have Angel play for him, but subsequently has had bad luck with injuries and has yet to crack that top echelon (i.e., UConn, Notre Dame) of the Big East. So his body of work rates a grade of "Incomplete."

Holly had the worst job in wcbb last year, coaching without being officially head coach and with legendary Pat Summitt hovering over the proceedings and a group of assistants chiming in. Not to mention inheriting a team of underachieving seniors plus erratic Simmons and a bunch of walking wounded.

Walz seems to keep recruiting a lot of players (is his roster at or over 15?) and he seems to always be on the verge of stepping up. Holly can't seem to catch a break as a promising recruit (Tucker) just tore her ACL.

Russell would surely answer prayers in Knoxville or Louisville.

But not in Chapel Hill. No vacancy.

 

[doggydaddy]

The Blogger's source is Maria (call the FBI) Cornelious. What a surprise.

It may be down to these 2 schools, but I wouldn't use this to "shut up others".

 

[SARG 2011]

Well I would have just linked the blog but I am not sure how to do that. I saw it and thought it was interesting. MR also verifies this on her twitter, all public for anyone to see. Didn't know this bloggers history thanks for the info. I am a Uconn fan born in Hartford , I usually just enjoy reading but decided to post.

 

[Phil]

Well I would have just linked the blog but I am not sure how to do that. I saw it and thought it was interesting. MR also verifies this on her twitter, all public for anyone to see. Didn't know this bloggers history thanks for the info. I am a Uconn fan born in Hartford , I usually just enjoy reading but decided to post.

Thanks for diving in, the more the merrier.

 

[Icebear]

Yes, thanks, Sarg.

 

[Alydar]

As more people link to her blog she rises in the blogosphere. I'll do without her wisdom.

 

[Louisville]

Mercedes is a lock for Louisville I think. I don't think she would fit in with Tennessee's style of offense at all. It is painful to watch sometimes. Hoping we can land Russell, Harris, and Henderson with a PG from the 2013 class, Chong or Epps = top 3 class and hell of a front line. Not giving up hope on Chong yet of course. Walz was able to lure Langhorne, Toliver, Hammond, and Coleman away from you guys.


Jeff is a great coach.... Much better than Warlick. He has had bad luck with injuries and transfers. Shoni's numbers were much better her frosh year because she didn’t have to do too much with Reid being the main offense. Her # will be much better this year with Reid and Gibbs back in the line-up (On a good day, those two can combine for at least 35) W

 

[HuskyMJ]

How can you bash Warlick when she just got the job and was only the interim coach? Tennessee's style of offense couldn't be that bad they were top 20 in the country in PPG. Louisville was not even top 50. No body knows how Warlick will do until she gets her own players in her system. Getting MR will go a long way in determining how her system looks.