Shocking! ESPN's Way Too Early has UConn 7th! | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Shocking! ESPN's Way Too Early has UConn 7th!

Shades said:
They lost Collier and Samuelson, who have been pillars to the team the last few years.
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2011 they lost NPOY Tina Charles--> Final Four
2012 they lost an all time great in Moore -->Final Four
2015 they lost pillars Dolson and Hartley-->Championship
2017 they lost the top 3 WNBA picks (including Stewart)--> Final Four
2019 they lost 2 DPOY and their only post presence (all 1st round picks)-->Final Four

See a trend?
 
After top eight, maybe top four, this is throwing darts blindfolded. That Oregon wins it all is almost a given. Baylor could make it to 2nd but I wouldn't be surprised if they lost in elite eight. Stanford should rattle a lot of cages. Other teams ranked above UConn or just below come with as many questions as Huskies. This is fun but let's play a half dozen games first.
 
Saying that Danielle Cosgrove is going to become a starter for ND while failing to mention Danielle Patterson or Mikayla Vaughn shows the level of care and knowledge (shockingly little!) that goes into the production of this article.

I would rank UConn 4th.
 
HuskyFan1125 said:
I got my eye on Middle Tennessee. Anastasia Hayes, Rellah Boothe, and Eternati Willock. I think they will make some noise.
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Will definitely tune in to some of their games next year. Curious to see if coach Insell can get those players to play as a cohesive unit. The C-USA race should come down to MTSU or Rice, which returns Ogwumike, Mulkey and some other experienced contributors.
 
Orangutan said:
Saying that Danielle Cosgrove is going to become a starter for ND while failing to mention Danielle Patterson or Mikayla Vaughn shows the level of care and knowledge (shockingly little!) that goes into the production of this article.
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Perhaps the omission of Patterson was prescient? :cool:
 
HuskyFan1125 said:
I got my eye on Middle Tennessee. Anastasia Hayes, Rellah Boothe, and Eternati Willock. I think they will make some noise.
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Dont forget about RaShika White... transfer from Elon will be eligible this season. 6'4" and was the Colonial Six Player of the Year in 2017-18. Averaged almost 13pts... 6 rebounds... and 1.3 blocks coming off the bench.
 
HuskyFan1125 said:
I got my eye on Middle Tennessee. Anastasia Hayes, Rellah Boothe, and Eternati Willock. I think they will make some noise.
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I'm not sure how many games they'll win but any team with Rellah Boothe will definitely make some noise...............:rolleyes:
 
Plebe said:
Perhaps the omission of Patterson was prescient? :cool:
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Maybe :(.

Man, she appeared to have friends outside of the basketball team and had just started a podcast that was promoted by the Athletics department. Would never have figured her to want to transfer.

Then again, it seemed like McGraw would pull her anytime she made a single mistake. Maybe she wants a coach with a bit lighter touch. It seemed like this would be the year that Muffet would finally be forced to let her just play through the mistakes.

Anyway, Creme is still wrong. Brunelle will start instead of Cosgrove.
 
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PAC-12 will continue as top conference, improving top to bottom, even bottom Colorado who struggled after losing top player to injury but nearly beat Stanford. They add New Zealand's 6'4" Charlotte Whittaker at post. Remember that name.
 
I am fine with UConn at #7. All 6 teams ahead of them were in the good-to-great range AND return most of their firepower.

I say Notre Dame is too low at #17. I don't care that they graduated all their starters and I don't care that they just lost Patterson. They may drop some games early with their inexperienced lineup, but I predict that Peoples and/or Brunelle will be a force as freshmen, and Vaughn and Nixon will also make leaps. By February they will be a top 10 team.
 
Plebe said:
And here I thought you were the social media maven!
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You scooped me this time...rough finding out one of your team's players wants to transfer via sunglasses guy emoji.
 
This Way to Early forecast is as good as any I have seen. Oregon is going to be very talented next season. Stanford & Oregon State will also compete for the PAC-12 championship, and Ducks are not a lock by any means. This is the 1st way to early forecast I have read that had Texas A&M in top 5, and, I agree that Texas A&M will be extremely talented next season.
 
Orangutan said:
You scooped me this time...rough finding out one of your team's players wants to transfer via sunglasses guy emoji.
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Eh, you got D. Walker and lost Patterson. Net gain, I'd say.
 
Plebe said:
Eh, you got D. Walker and lost Patterson. Net gain, I'd say.
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I don't know - I really liked Patterson's potential and was excited to see what she could do with more minutes.

Also, ND is now incredibly thin in the post (only Cosgrove to backup likely starters Brunelle and Vaughn).
 
LoTrader said:
This Way to Early forecast is as good as any I have seen. Oregon is going to be very talented next season. Stanford & Oregon State will also compete for the PAC-12 championship, and Ducks are not a lock by any means. This is the 1st way to early forecast I have read that had Texas A&M in top 5, and, I agree that Texas A&M will be extremely talented next season.
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Also, Charlie Creme emphasizes Oregon State's great front line height "Oregon State will have size to spare with incoming freshman 6-6 Kennedy Brown and 6-3 Taylor Jones to go along with 6-9 Andrea Aquino, who redshirted this season, and 6-7 Patricia Morris..." But, he wrote this before 6-9 Jelena Mitrovic signed as yet another big incoming freshman! What would he say now?? Oregon State will have way, way, way more size to spare?? (how good or not they will be individually is the question)
 
I was surprised when one of the other “too early” polls had Mississippi State at 12. To have MSU at 8 is extremely generous. Two players that are key to the season (Bibby and P Taylor) are coming off knee and foot injuries respectively. Even if both are healthy Bibby and maybe Espinoza-Hunter are the only players any analyst could reasonably predict as a shoe in for starting positions.
 
newfrontier said:
Also, Charlie Creme emphasizes Oregon State's great front line height "Oregon State will have size to spare with incoming freshman 6-6 Kennedy Brown and 6-3 Taylor Jones to go along with 6-9 Andrea Aquino, who redshirted this season, and 6-7 Patricia Morris..." But, he wrote this before 6-9 Jelena Mitrovic signed as yet another big incoming freshman! What would he say now?? Oregon State will have way, way, way more size to spare?? (how good or not they will be individually is the question)
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Because it's Scott Rueck, I'll give him some tremendous benefit of the doubt, but I'm really curious to see how his team gels together next year. He has a 5'7" point guard (Slocum), three shooting guards at or below 6' (Goodman at 5'9", Pivec at 5'10" and Tudor at 6'), and then like 5 players at 6'5" or taller. And Slocum in particular likes to push the pace, which probably would be hard to maintain with several very tall, lumbering posts. And IMHO, I thought part of Grymek's problem last season was that her plane of ball movement was not even close to being at the same level as her teammates, so lob passes to her were very diagonal, it was hard to get the ball inside to her off a bounce pass because it'd end up at her knees half the time, and she wasn't effective at kicking it back out for inside out opportunities. I'm not sure why, but somehow Gulich's 6'5" seemed like a much more manageable size to get the ball in and out.

So despite some impressive roster stats It's not obvious to me how these players are all going to fit together, but I'm sure Rueck will figure it out, and it'll be fun to watch.
 
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TheFarmFan said:
Is Brunelle definitely settled on as a post? She seemed to play more of a wing role in the McD's and JBC games; more of a sharpshooter and less of a presence in the paint - across both games I don't remember her taking a single shot within 15 feet of the basket, and she didn't have a block in either game. And at 6'2" isn't exactly a dominating inside presence (I realize Pheesa was only 6'2" also, but Pheesa was both more athletic and had much better presence and movement inside the paint.). Just wondering cause I could see her in more of an Erin Boley like role with better defense and speed. But maybe that's not what ND will need next season?
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On signing day, McGraw emphasized her 3-point shooting and how important it was to get a shooter with Mabrey graduating. So I think they'll find a way to get her behind the three-point line. But I've always thought she was a 4 in ND's system.

I think Vaughn and Cosgrove will handle the low post duties but Brunelle will have to play the 4 out of necessity. With Patterson at 4, she could possibly have logged some minutes at 3.
 
Shades said:
Is UConn at #7 more shocking than ND at #17?

Not sure why people are ripping MIN at #18. His rationale isn’t bad. They were down a starter all season. Whalen should be a little savvier this year.
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We’ve got 2 question marks in our starting lineup next season. ND has 5. Plus, we have 3 returning starters with experience, they don’t. Until they post some wins (plural) over top 15 teams, I’ll take a wait and see approach.

Right now, I don’t think #17 is unreasonable. Water always seeks its own level. If they are a good team early on, they will rise quickly in the rankings.
 
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