S. Carolina vs. Miss. State game thread...

[DaddyChoc]

Be nice if she beat him first.

Miss State did it for her!

 

[DaddyChoc]

I have to agree with a previous poster who said it was tough love Geno-style. Of all people, it should be UConn fans who understand this, but now seem to be getting all sentimental about the Morgan William story line. When Geno gives tough-love treatment to his players, such as when he benched Morgan and Stewie in a game last year (?) that immediately preceded a game with South Carolina, fans were quick to rush to his defense and support this style of coaching.

wasnt a championship game and it was against Lady Of The Poor U

 

[Gus Mahler]

I remember in the final, I think it was against Notre Dame in 2014, Bria Hartley was having a terrible game, so Geno sat her down for a very long stretch. Such play could cost the team the game if the player is allowed to continue. By your logic, if a player is playing poorly or just not giving the effort, you have to keep them in the game because they are a key player and it's a national championship game. I think the MSU coach's sitting of Morgan was like what Geno did when he sat Bria.

The situations were not the same. If you're talking about the 2014 championship, UConn was in control of that game virtually the entire time. Bria had a really bad shooting game, till late. I don't remember her having such a bad game overall that she might cost her team the game. And that year Geno often moved Kaleena up to the 2.5 spot and went with the huge front line (adding Stokes). And Bria was on the court late until she came off to that tearful hug.

 

[VA Huskie]

I don't know if itty bitty said or did anything inappropriate, but I did feel that, for the most part, MSST played better without her. Personally, I think she was just spent - mentally and physically. It'll be interesting to see if the coach makes any comments about what was going on. I do wish though, that we'd faced this MSST team...we might be National Champions now...or not.

 

[ReadR00ster]

Proud of our Gamecocks. And much respect to Mississippi State. They were an underrated team, but not by us. We have fortunately not loss to them, because we respect their game. If not they would have beaten us by 20 at some point. I was surprised they Let Aj'a have so much space and did not double teamed her more. Some questionable coaching by Vic tonight but he got a great learning experience and national respect for their run and incredible upset.

 

[ReadR00ster]

I don't know if itty bitty said or did anything inappropriate, but I did feel that, for the most part, MSST played better without her. Personally, I think she was just spent - mentally and physically. It'll be interesting to see if the coach makes any comments about what was going on. I do wish though, that we'd faced this MSST team...we might be National Champions now...or not.

Personally I just think UConn had a bad game, like when the played Tulane. It almost never happens for this team but every once in a while everyone has an off night and you hope the other side can't do anything with it.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

Starting off Congrats to SoCar on winning the NC!
Now that that's been said IMHO the game was over at the end of the first 1/2! Hand SoCar the trophy with a piece going to the refs along with some Championship hats & T-shirts for changing the whole tone of the game!
By calling 15 fouls on Miss St to 6 fouls for SoCar it took the Bulldogs out of any aggressive play to protect getting called for more. If I'm not mistaken on 3 straight trips down the court Miss St got called for 3 fouls, 2 were blocks in the lane!
They played completely different than the aggressive attackers that took it to our Huskies for 4 periods!
It seemed like everyone connected to Miss St had 2 fouls, the players 2 coaches and 5 fans entered 1/2 time with 2 fouls! Richardson even got called for her 3rd foul right before the 1/2!
I truly feel William's game changed for the negative after she saw foul after foul called and she felt she couldn't be as aggressive as she was in the UCONN game even with only 1 foul vs her. It threw her off her game and she couldn't recover mentally in the 3rd period so Coach Schaefer after begging her to attack and be more aggressive decided to bench her for the whole 4th period, since the 2 replacements were at least offering some attack to fight back. Don't you think it killed him to sit her? But if she brought any semblance of her UCONN game she would have still be in the game!
Even though only 4 more fouls were called in the 2nd 1/2 for a total of 19 the damage had been done as SoCar had a big lead and the pace of the game was in their favor.
In Dec. 2001 at the Hartford Civic Center, #3 OKLA played #1 UCONN and Bill Titus and the 2 munchkins called 52 fouls, 29 in the first 1/2, and what should have been a barn-burner turned into a snoozer! UCONN winning but God what a disappointment! Both Geno and Sherri were livid in the post game press conference for the refs taking the ball out of the players hands!
UCONN won the 2002 NC vs the same OKLA Sooners in a great final that was not dominated by incompetent refs more interested in hearing their whistles than letting the game have a pace to it.
For the 1st 5 minutes of this game it looked as if it wasn't going to be a usual SEC snoozer but a competitive contest, then BAM, foul after foul!
The refs got their lb of flesh from Miss St and ruined what should have been a close contest all the way through!
Just my 2 cents worth! My impression of what changed the game!

 

[husky8273]

I don't know if itty bitty said or did anything inappropriate, but I did feel that, for the most part, MSST played better without her. Personally, I think she was just spent - mentally and physically. It'll be interesting to see if the coach makes any comments about what was going on. I do wish though, that we'd faced this MSST team...we might be National Champions now...or not.

from the Clarion-Ledger:
"Vic Schaefer said the decision to leave William on the bench came down to reserve guard Jazzmun Holmes playing well at the time, and William not playing particularly sharp.

William, a junior, scored eight points on 2 of 6 shooting from the field. She had four assists and one turnover, but never got into a rhythm on either end of the floor in 23 minutes.

“Jazz played good today. Morgan, she had some struggles early,” Schaefer said. “Again, y'all, it's a long, hard grind of a year, of a season. We got in so late Friday night. We've been trying to almost play catch-up since then.”

Schaefer suggested that William may have lacked the energy she played with in Mississippi State’s thrilling upset over UConn on Friday night.

“I thought we had a couple kids today that just didn't quite have the energy level that we needed,” Schaefer said. “When you combine that with their energy level seemed to be really good, I think that made for a bad recipe for our not being able to handle dribble-penetration.”

 

[SCGamecock]

She just won a championship and she's the Olympic coach. The parallel is there.

And in her 9th season.. Geno won his first in his 10th season I believe. More parallels.

 

[SCGamecock]

There's an argument for South Carolina ranked #1 at the start of next season, and they won't be knocked out of #1 until they lose.

Lol.. we're not going to be preseason #1.

 

[SCGamecock]

What did she do (or didn't do) to be benched? Clearly, I missed something.

She played horribly. William tends to have miserable games versus SC/Cuevas-Moore for some reason... perhaps because Cuevas is the only person that can actually defend her.

 

[SCGamecock]

South Carolina is on the Irish schedule next season? I did not know that.

As of now, we're not. And I would be surprised if we were next year, especially after what supposedly happened earlier this season...

 

[SCGamecock]

My favorite thing was seeing A'ja get emotional. She really wanted this for her state, school and coach. She plays the game with so much passion. I don't understand why so many people despise her. She's really the sweetest person.

 

[shinobimono]

The situations were not the same. If you're talking about the 2014 championship, UConn was in control of that game virtually the entire time. Bria had a really bad shooting game, till late. I don't remember her having such a bad game overall that she might cost her team the game. And that year Geno often moved Kaleena up to the 2.5 spot and went with the huge front line (adding Stokes). And Bria was on the court late until she came off to that tearful hug.

My point is that when a player is having a bad game, a coach has to make adjustments and substitute. However, some of the armchair coaches here at the BY were saying that the MSU coach was all wrong for sitting Morgan William, that she should have been in the game the whole time. If a player is not performing, maybe you need to rest them for a short time or substitute. I think the MSU coach is in a better position to know the situation than basketball fans sitting at home. So, Geno sat Bria during the National Championship game because she was playing really badly (as I watched the game, I thought, "good god, he really needs to sit her"), and it was a close game at the time (UConn 45, Notre Dame 38 at the half) and the bench was not very deep (Chong and Banks [who I think was injured] were back ups). The same with the MSU coach, he sat Morgan for the same reason. And that's my point, they were both forced to sit because they were playing badly. Although Morgan was on a hot streak for two games scoring wise, she lost her steam. Her scoring average is 10.9 points per game for the year. She reverted to the mean in the NC game. The coach tried to make adjustments to compensate, as most coaches would do.

 

[DaddyChoc]

OMG... the referee complainer, geesh give Wilson, Gray, BCM, Davis some credit and leave it at that. Refs are only bad when your selected team doesn't win. Did they miss calls in those 111 games

 

[OneTrickPony]

My favorite thing was seeing A'ja get emotional. She really wanted this for her state, school and coach. She plays the game with so much passion. I don't understand why so many people despise her. She's really the sweetest person.

That was a great moment...made you realize how much responsibility A'ja feels for her program. Every team could use a little essence of A'ja...

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

OMG... the referee complainer, geesh give Wilson, Gray, BCM, Davis some credit and leave it at that. Refs are only bad when your selected team doesn't win. Did they miss calls in those 111 games

DaddyChoc- - - Yes, the refs in WCBB and especially the WNBA are the worst officials in any sport in the USA!
The refs call games differently from coast to coast, there is no conformity in WBB, just like there was a difference in NL & AL umpires on the strike zone in MLB! Which has since been changed.
It doesn't matter to me that the refs are bad for my favorite teams, they're incompetent for both teams day-in-and-day-out!
They are supervised by retired refs who happen to have worked beside the current crew for years and cannot be objective when their "buddy" sucks big time and should be told so!
A main problem with the current refs is that they work 5 to 6 games a week all over 2 to 3 time zones and it has to have an adverse effect on their assignments at the end of that week.
Some of the worst calls made by a majority of refs is a hand-check foul 90' from the basket then a minute later a player runs over her opponent in the lane and no call! Or the huge number of "moving screens" that are not called then one is called with less than a minute left in the game that changes the complexion of the game.
I give Dennis DiMaio a lot of credit he saw his officiating was not up to his usual standards and he retired in mid-season, which more of his peers should follow suit!
I love WBB and wished it were officiated with as much effort, dedication, and talent as the players and coaches bring to their arena every day all season long!

 

[DaddyChoc]

stop watching cause you'll never enjoy it... and that's not good for you

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

As of now, we're not. And I would be surprised if we were next year, especially after what supposedly happened earlier this season...

Why do I not know about this? The only rumor I heard was that ND didn't want to play us on a home and home basis.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

That was a great moment...made you realize how much responsibility A'ja feels for her program. Every team could use a little essence of A'ja...

A'ja's family is very well known in Columbia, in fact a street very close to where I live is named for her grandfather. I'm sure that kind of responsibility has been instilled in her from an early age.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

I know it's not sporting to say so, but South Carolina might've had the easiest road to a title ever. They got the easiest quarter, played Quinnipiac in the round of 16, and missed playing UConn, Baylor, Notre Dame, and Maryland.

Also, can we finally stop with the Vivians hype. She was 10-32 in the final four with 1 assist and 6 turnovers.

 

[oldude]

I know it's not sporting to say so, but South Carolina might've had the easiest road to a title ever. They got the easiest quarter, played Quinnipiac in the round of 16, and missed playing UConn, Baylor, Notre Dame, and Maryland.

Also, can we finally stop with the Vivians hype. She was 10-32 in the final four with 1 assist and 6 turnovers.

Don't know about the easiest road ever, but certainly the easiest of any FF team this year. At the same time, UConn's ultimate draw was considerably easier than it first appeared once MD & Baylor were out.

As for the FF itself, UConn's draw last year vs OSU & the Cuse was pretty comforting for Husky fans.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

As for the FF itself, UConn's draw last year vs OSU & the Cuse was pretty comforting for Husky fans.

Yes, that might've been UConn's easiest road to a title. That said, they theoretically were supposed to have an easier road as the #1 overall seed.