SEC 2019-2020 discussion

[Gamecockfan77]

Looking at the remaining schedule for South Carolina and Mississippi State, USC finishes with two potential difficult games at Kentucky and home versus Texas A&M. The key will be if the freshmen continue their consistent play as the season drags.
Mississippi State has those same teams back to back earlier in the season. After that the schedule gets much much easier. If they can win those two then I guess Mississippi State can always hope South Carolina’s youth causes a hiccup late in the conference season.

For me rating the most likely conference losses goes something like this:

1. @arkansas - I just think Arkansas can score with anyone and it is a road game sandwiched between home contests vs Tennessee and UCONN. FWIW, I think the Miss State-Arkansas game will be very entertaining as well.

2. TAMU (if Carter is back and at full strength): Never know what an experienced killer with a good supporting cast might be able to do.

3. Tennessee - I don't care how ugly they look, forcing ugly games might be their super power. You can always lose an ugly game and I totally believe that South Carolina can have an ugly offensive day.

4. @Kentucky - Howard on the road. I'm not real high on the rest of the UK team, but they've been known to give South Carolina trouble as a team.

5. @ UGA - I have seen them give Miss State and UCLA some problems in Athens.

6. LSU - Hard to imagine LSU scoring enough in Columbia (did I just say that about Miss State?), or holding South Carolina down too far, but they're dangerous.

7. @ Florida
8. Vandy
9 . Auburn
10. At Ole Miss

 

[MSUFan2003]

Arkansas worries me the most. They can put up a lot of points in a hurry.

 

[JstVisiting]

I only said the Gamecocks would break 100 if Vic plays man the whole game. We dropped "lady" from our WBB mascot a couple of decades ago.

I don't know the exact year, but it was much more recent than decades ago. I think it was a unilateral decision by Coach Staley after she arrived. Some media still used "Lady Gamecocks" in reporting on the national title.

 

[stwainfan]

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

I don't know the exact year, but it was much more recent than decades ago. I think it was a unilateral decision by Coach Staley after she arrived. Some media still used "Lady Gamecocks" in reporting on the national title.

It was in the early years of Susan Walvius' tenure. I've been going to USC WBB games for almost 40 years.

Here's an article from 2002 on the USC website that refers to the team as the Gamecocks. South Carolina Falls to Duke in NCAA Elite Eight Battle, 77-68 - University of South Carolina Athletics

It was following the 2000-2001 season, which was the last reference to "Lady Gamecocks". 2000-2001 Season Review - University of South Carolina Athletics

 

[JDuro]

 

[JstVisiting]

It was in the early years of Susan Walvius' tenure. I've been going to USC WBB games for almost 40 years.

Here's an article from 2002 on the USC website that refers to the team as the Gamecocks. South Carolina Falls to Duke in NCAA Elite Eight Battle, 77-68 - University of South Carolina Athletics

It was following the 2000-2001 season, which was the last reference to "Lady Gamecocks". 2000-2001 Season Review - University of South Carolina Athletics

THANKS! I honestly didn't know when it happened, but thought it was much more recent. Weird that media were still calling them Lady Gamecocks for years afterwards

 

[cockhrnleghrn]

THANKS! I honestly didn't know when it happened, but thought it was much more recent. Weird that media were still calling them Lady Gamecocks for years afterwards

It is weird, but we still have older fans that do the same. I'm not a fan of using a different nickname for each gender's sports unless it's somewhere with a human nickname like Centenary or Okie State. Even worse, our earliest teams were called the "Chicks".

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Tennessee has painfully bad half court offense, but there is a good chance they win this game.

 

[DaBball]

Tennessee has painfully bad half court offense, but there is a good chance they win this game.

There is no way their non-conference schedule will allow them to win a game against a team like UConn that has an elite non-conference schedule, right?

 

[Gamecockfan77]

There is no way their non-conference schedule will allow them to win a game against a team like UConn that has an elite non-conference schedule, right?

impossible.

 

[MSUFan2003]

Georgia and Arkansas tied at halftime. I don't know what it is, but Georgia makes teams play ugly. They seem to always give us fits, and we escape with a win.

 

[MSUFan2003]

Tennessee could be leading by more is they didn't have so many self-inflicted wounds.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Win or lose what a recruiting gift ESPN has handed Tennessee by hyping this game to the moon.

 

[SECbbfan24]

Tennessee would be in great shape if they would stop turning the ball over. 15 is too much, the fact that they committed that many are still up at half is encouraging for them.

If they continue to turn it over a lot they likely aren't going to win in the 2nd half.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Tennessee could be leading by more is they didn't have so many self-inflicted wounds.

I'm not sure UCONN missed that many shots in the last three games they played against South Carolina combined.

Irwin will probably hit 6 threes against us.

I told y'all I was worried about Tennessee's size and defense.

 

[SECbbfan24]

As I speak they turn it over

 

[Gamecockfan77]

As I speak they turn it over

feels like UCONN will eventually start making shots and not sure Tennessee will.

 

[SECbbfan24]

feels like UCONN will eventually start making shots and not sure Tennessee will.

Tennessee is very good defensively and their size is a problem for any team.

Issue is Tennessee has been a team that misses a lot of layups/bunnies and turns it over a lot all year. Half these turnovers are just dumb unforced turnovers.

Key is putrid offensively. She can rebound and block but that is about it right now.

 

[HuskyNan]

no UConn game threads

 

[SECbbfan24]

no UConn game threads

I'm sorry @HuskyNan

Congrats on the win btw

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Thank you for unlocking. My fault too. Won't mention UConn while they are playing again. Evidently I missed that rule over here. My bad.

 

[JstVisiting]

It is weird, but we still have older fans that do the same. I'm not a fan of using a different nickname for each gender's sports unless it's somewhere with a human nickname like Centenary or Okie State. Even worse, our earliest teams were called the "Chicks".

I get it though. Though nicknames are mascots today, players were were once viewed as the embodiment of the “Tiger”, “Tide”, or whatever. You see it in the old press reports from which many of the names originated. For obvious reasons, it had to be challenging to fit a women’s team of Gamecocks into that environment. Idk what they would have done. I’m surprised there wasn’t an experiment with “Gamehens”.

It would be really interesting to see if the shift in perspective on team names was accelerated by the rise of women’s sports, but I don’t see how you could conduct that study absent a time machine. Sports reporting had obviously shifted away from the more literary style that spawned (or reflected?) the thinking a generation before, but that doesn’t mean that fan outlook had caught up

 

[DefenseBB]

With only 6 of the 16 Conference games played and schedule quirks (easy vs. harder teams) at this point, I am not sure the standings correctly represent the strength of the league. Tenn at 5-1 is overrated while Arkansas at 3-3 is probably underrated (although losing at home to Georgia last night????).
To me it's SC as #1, MSU as #2 and then anyone's guess for #3-7. LSU has been a surprise wit wins over Texas A&M and Kentucky dovetailed with losses to Mizzou (REALLY???) and the Dawgs. Their next game will be telling. I was hoping for a bad year for them as I am not a Nikki Caldwell fan and wanted her gone for my @SECbbfan24 friends sanity but if they are winning who am I to complain-can she maintain it? Doubtful but...
Like I said in my P5 thread, this conference will get 6 bids for sure but after SC and MSU, not sure any get past the 2nd round. A lot of competitiveness at a lower level of skill. Not like the old days of the SEC.

 

[SECbbfan24]

I have complained about Nikki and deservedly so but Nikki has done a good job this year. We still have holes like always have in the past offensively but we are closing games out better which is the biggest difference this year along with Pointer taking matters into her own hands. We will be a NCAAT this year but the question remains can she get out the first round? She has yet to do that in like 5 years which is completely unacceptable.

That said her recruiting still IMO is not good enough as a whole to compete for SEC or national titles. Until that changes we don't come close to that. I think her system will always field competitive teams that gives teams HA's with her teams defense but against the best of the best I don't believe we have the players or offensive system overall that can score at a high level. As a coach you have to adapt, LSU shot a lot of three's her first few years but has steadily went down dramatically, primarily because of personnel reasons and she doesn't seem to like the 3 point shot much anymore.


As for the SEC as a whole, SC and Miss St are your top 2 teams. Amazingly both teams have a lot of freshmen players playing big time minutes. Rest of us are going to have to deal with that the next 4 years.

I feel like Kentucky is a good gritty team but not a great team. Its a one man show with Howard. Morris and Murray were big losses and they don't have that great of a supporting cast. I think next year adding Hunt, getting Edwards eligible and their other injured freshmen back changes that team a lot.

A&M similarly, is extremely dependent on Carter. She is what makes that team a top 15 team. Without her they are just a decent team.

Tennessee, I feel like they still play Holly ball but with less play makers this year (No Westbrook, Collins, Jackson or Green). They cannot take care of the ball for crap but they play overall more sound defense. I thought they were pretty good against UCONN defensively but they are still stagnant on offense and they are careless as hell taking care of the ball. Harper's recruiting remains a big question (sounds familiar...)

A lot can happen the next 10 games so who knows where everyone ends up.