SC Gamecocks 2023-2024 in season thread

[visitingcock]

They’re not the same team they were expected to be without Palmer and Kneepkens (assuming Palmer doesn’t return for the SC game). SC guard play is a load regardless, but they don’t have the depth to make up for those two significant losses IMO.

Kneepkins and Palmer together average about 32 points per game. Nevertheless, I expect Pili and crew will be sky high for this game. Thank goodness we don't have to play them in their sky high gym.

 

[Darwin]

Kneepkins and Palmer together average about 32 points per game. Nevertheless, I expect Pili and crew will be sky high for this game. Thank goodness we don't have to play them in their sky high gym.

It will be another great test for the SC ladies, and I expect Utah to play very well, over the past two seasons they have shown their mettle every game against top level competition. They are the reigning PAC12 co-champs for a reason, should be a highly entertaining game, Pilli is amazing and will be a hard assignment for the SC players. I’m guessing SC by less than 10 but who really knows.

 

[southie]

Sorry to report that 2024 signee, Adhel Tac has suffered a knee injury.

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[JDuro]

Sorry to report that 2024 signee, Adhel Tac has suffered a knee injury.

MSN

www.msn.com

No ACL or MCL. Well we had a similar situation with Amihere getting a second knee injury that needed surgery. USC’s team doctor is a renowned orthopedic surgeon who did LA’s knee and she was able to rehab on or very near campus. Would be a good option for Tac if her high school situation lines up and she can graduate early.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

If yall don't win by at least 20, I will be flabbergasted.



I saw an article about her talking about the "trash" talking Sunday, and glad that she addressed it. Another reason that Staley is a first class coach.

It's why our starting lineup changed last nght.

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

Sorry to report that 2024 signee, Adhel Tac has suffered a knee injury.

MSN

www.msn.com

I hate to hear that.

 

[triaddukefan]

Love to see this

 

[GCKSFN4L]

@triaddukefan
What happened? Y'all had one job.

 

[JDuro]

”The medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) is a part of the complex network of soft tissues that stabilize the knee. The MPFL attaches the inside part of the patella (kneecap) to the long bone of the thigh, also called the femur. Together, the patella and femur compose the patellofemoral joint.”

”Patients undergoing MPFL reconstruction receive regional anesthesia – a spinal nerve block that numbs the lower half of the body – and sedation through an IV. The orthopedic surgeon then replaces the injured ligament with a portion of a tendon taken either from the patient’s own hamstring or from donor tissue.

An arthroscope is used to view the inside of the knee, and the ligament reconstruction is conducted using two small incisions. The entire surgery takes about an hour, and patients return home the same day, with their knee stabilized in a brace.

MPFL reconstruction produces excellent results and has a very low rate of complication. Rare complications, however, can occur including fractures, infections or blood clots.”

Medial Patellofemoral Ligament (MPFL) Reconstruction | HSS

www.hss.edu

 

[Viallanelle]

It's why our starting lineup changed last nght.

Don't think that is the reason the lineup changed. Kitts was involved in a "kissing" incident as well at Duke and she started. Coach Staley said Raven and Kamilla "broke a team rule" and that is why they did not start. I'm not going to speculate on what rule they broke. They missed about half of the first quarter. Second half started with the same players she's started all season. Just a guess based on the wording and being at both Tobacco Road games.

 

[Viallanelle]

Do u think the starting lineup was different because of the trash talk against Duke? Obviously not a permanent thing but it sounded a bit disciplinary from Dawn's presser. I could be wrong though.

No, sounds like they broke some sort of team rule and she said as much. Personally, I don't think it was related to anything about the Tobacco Road trip. Coach Staley started the usual suspects at the start of the second half. Disciplinary action was not to start the game.

 

[Viallanelle]

I'm not that familiar with Utah with exception to Pili. Looking at their stats, they seem to be under ranked at #11.

I feel like Utah is good, hard for me to tell exactly how good based on their schedule thus far - only loss is to current #10 Baylor (another good team). Pili is fantastic (I love watching her play) and very efficient. Losing Kneepkens hurts them a bit. Entire team shoots 54.8% from the field and 43.6% from 3, SC as a team shoots 51.9% and 40% from 3. Announcers during the Utah game against St. Joseph's last night stated he's not sure SC has seen a team as fast as Utah - I'm not sure Utah has seen a team as fast as SC! Looking forward to the game. Another good test away from home for SC.

 

[Creature]

@JDuro
It sucks to hear the news about Adhel Tac

 

[sharris25]

I feel like Utah is good, hard for me to tell exactly how good based on their schedule thus far - only loss is to current #10 Baylor (another good team). Pili is fantastic (I love watching her play) and very efficient. Losing Kneepkens hurts them a bit. Entire team shoots 54.8% from the field and 43.6% from 3, SC as a team shoots 51.9% and 40% from 3. Announcers during the Utah game against St. Joseph's last night stated he's not sure SC has seen a team as fast as Utah - I'm not sure Utah has seen a team as fast as SC! Looking forward to the game. Another good test away from home for SC.

One big reason Utah is ranked where they are is that there only game that would match similar levels of talent was Baylor which they lost. Every other game they had was against teams that were lower level in terms of talent and that they should have been able to blow out, but in more than a few of those gimme games, the score has been closer than desirable. Those issues along with the lost to Baylor has dropped them in the pollsters eyes.

 

[Creature]

Raven and Turnovers gotta be fixed. Her TO’s are reckless

 

[4evagamecoc]

Raven and Turnovers gotta be fixed. Her TO’s are reckless

She’s not the only one. She had 4, there are 19 more that’s uncounted for. It’s all of them, not just Raven. Pao said they are working on it. I just hope it’s sooner than later.
Y’all already know this is a young team that’s still trying to find their footing in this thing and they are working as hard as they can considering they are still undefeated. The turnovers will get cleaned up and they will be better. Like Dawn said, this is the worst this team will look. We have to be patient with them just how we were patient with the last group.

 

[GamecockFam]

I thought we played just ok last night. Turnovers were a problem and we had some players with bad games. But we still came out on top and we held Utah to 25% from 3, so there are definitely some positives to take away. Utah is a good team -- we just played what I think will be a NCAA tournament 2-3 seed in what felt like an away game (thanks UConn fans! ). Anyways, I hope we continue to learn and gel from this experience so that we're ready for anything when the NCAA tournament begins.

 

[Cockygirl]

I did think we looked sloppy at times but what I love about this team is any player on the floor can be depended on to make a shot when needed. The last couple of years it felt like when things got tight we could only really depend on Aliyah or Zia (most of the time).

 

[jumpstart]

Dawn said..."that is the worse we are going to be and it's just December.." tells you all you need to know about this young group. They are going to get better ? Geez.....

 

[Gamecockfan77]

The team is a little loose and may not be the best team in the country, who knows, but our own fans concern trolling about how the team might not win the national championship is bizarre to me.

They beat a ranked team away from home. They held them under their season averages on just about everything.

If Utah makes more layups it would have been a different game and maybe there would have been more adjustments but the explicit game plan was not to give up threes at the expense of help defense. Dawn flat said it in the pre-game presser.

 

[visitingcock]

The team is a little loose and may not be the best team in the country, who knows, but our own fans concern trolling about how the team might not win the national championship is bizarre to me.

They beat a ranked team away from home. They held them under their season averages on just about everything.

If Utah makes more layups it would have been a different game and maybe there would have been more adjustments but the explicit game plan was not to give up threes at the expense of help defense. Dawn flat said it in the pre-game presser.

Being reasonable and not claiming championships before even playing a conference game is not trolling.

Would not surprise me if we lose a game at the free throw line.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Being reasonable and not claiming championships before even playing a conference game is not trolling.

Would not surprise me if we lose a game at the free throw line.

I guess my question would be why you would assume the team would win any championship or get especially upset if it didn't.

The team is going to win a whole hell of a lot of games and have a great season regardless. The rest is just basketball.

Killing players for having a bad game or portentiously taking about how our poor coaching or Achilles heel will come to bite us in the end is just tiresome.

Yeah we might lose to a good team in the tournament. LSU might run the table and beat us at home. So what? That's basketball. That's sport at the highest level.

 

[visitingcock]

I guess my question would be why you would assume the team would win any championship or get especially upset if it didn't.

The team is going to win a whole hell of a lot of games and have a great season regardless. The rest is just basketball.

Killing players for having a bad game or portentiously taking about how our poor coaching or Achilles heel will come to bite us in the end is just tiresome.

Yeah we might lose to a good team in the tournament. LSU might run the table and beat us at home. So what? That's basketball. That's sport at the highest level.

You first question is the same as mine would be.

I agree with the rest. I don’t know who wants to “kill” our players. The Achilles problem of poor free throwing can be corrected. “Poor coaching? I haven’t heard any of our fans on here do that. Twitter and the other trash collectors . Meh. Who cares? I’m

 

[ConwayGmck]

Being reasonable and not claiming championships before even playing a conference game is not trolling.

Would not surprise me if we lose a game at the free throw line.

The team's free throw shooting has been pretty bad. But in keeping with Dawn's theme of this being the worst the team will look this season, one can use our recent improvements in FT shooting in support of Dawn's position:

South Carolina came into it's game with UNC shooting 60-98 (.612) in its first 5 games of the season. The Gamecocks had averaged 100.4 ppg through those games and had beaten those 5 by an average of 51.6 ppg, so perhaps concerns about poor FT shooting were not at the forefront. But we all knew that those blowout results were not going to continue through the conference and postseason play.

In the last 4 games, South Carolina has shot 56-80 (.700) at the charity stripe, so it looks as if the team is beginning to improve on those numbers. Further, of those 4 recent games, the Gamecocks shot 31-41 (.756) in the 2nd halves of those games, where the scores would be more critical relative to final results. So overall, they have improved their FT shooting as a team from .612 to now 116-178 (.652) - still not the best efficiency, but definite improvement. Hopefully it continues moving forward........

There were three (3) games versus Clemson, South Dakota State and Mississippi Valley State were the team shot especially poorly at the FT line: just 35-60 (.583), which accounts for most of the poor stats on that category. Minus those 3 games, the Gamecocks have shot 81-118 (.686) in the other 6 games. AGAIN, not eye-popping examples of efficiency, but when you consider the team's past FT shooting in previous seasons:

2022-23: .689
2021-22: .676
2020-21: .682
2019-20: .698
2018-19: .730

2018-19 was one of Coach Staley's better FT shooting teams, and it was also one of her worst teams since Kelsey Bone left the program. So again hopefully, that 3 game stretch was more of an anomaly than the rule, and the team shoots better at the line moving forward....

 

[4evagamecoc]

Sakima puzzles me. She cannot hang on to the ball and gets pushed around too much under the basket. I know she will only get stronger under Molly but last night was a time for her to shine against the lesser level of competition but she did not score a point :/

I never watched any of her games with her junior college ... did they use her in a different way?

It’s her confidence. She just have to work her way back into this type of play and environment. One step at a time for her. Everyone don’t learn the same way if as fast as others.