South Carolina @ Mississippi St - 2/05/18

[Charliebball]

Well if that’s your view of SC, what about MSU, they ain’t much better...

MSU is one of those teams that forces you to play at their level..........it's all a matter of match ups and they play solid defense so while UConn should blast them on paper if they do play again it may be closer then we would think............I do hope it happens...........

 

[MSGRET]

The girl was shifting to the right at right before contact. But it won't matter in the end. SC wins. Big win of course because they haven't been able to beat them.

The person who establishes position is allowed to move side to side, just not forward.

 

[HoopsFan21]

MSU is one of those teams that forces you to play at their level.....it's all a matter of match ups and they play solid defense so while UConn should blast them on paper if they do play again it may be closer then we would think..I do hope it happens......

I think any of Miss St., Baylor, ND, and Texas could beat us. Teams that force you to muck it up and slow the game down to a grind especially if there's an imposing big, tend to cause problems. If UConn is cold from outside, you end up with the Miss St. game from last year.

 

[mhshuskies]

I think any of Miss St., Baylor, ND, and Texas could beat us. Teams that force you to muck it up and slow the game down to a grind especially if there's an imposing big, tend to cause problems. If UConn is cold from outside, you end up with the Miss St. game from last year.

...uh, no.

 

[MSGRET]

Miss St just wrapped up the regular season title, the only team left to play that might give them a is Texas A&M.

 

[Blueballer]

The person who establishes position is allowed to move side to side, just not forward.

Not like she was. Hey, I'm the last one to defend Wilson (No pun) but in that case it was the right call.

 

[Charliebball]

I think any of Miss St., Baylor, ND, and Texas could beat us. Teams that force you to muck it up and slow the game down to a grind especially if there's an imposing big, tend to cause problems. If UConn is cold from outside, you end up with the Miss St. game from last year.

Miss State and Baylor are going to be tough, I'm less concerned with ND or Texas as I think Geno would have a better understanding about dealing with them a second time...............going forward, Baylor and Texas are both going to be even tougher in the next few years...........

 

[HoopsFan21]

...uh, no.

We barely beat ND and Texas, and you don't think they can beat us in a rematch? And Miss St. already has beaten us 10 months ago, so we know they can.

 

[MSGRET]

Don't think SC will be ranked in the top 10 next week.

 

[Bayareahusky]

Loved watching this game.... a good hard fought game

 

[mhshuskies]

We barely beat ND and Texas, and you don't think they can beat us in a rematch? And Miss St. already has beaten us 10 months ago, so we know they can.

...uh, no

 

[bballnut90]

Really good win for Mississippi State. They showed major toughness and badly outplayed South Carolina down the stretch.

The offense was not very good most of the game for Mississippi State until Holmes came in and got them going. Once they started going to McCowan, looks opened up for Schaefer/Bibby. I always love seeing William play, but Holmes is a great backup who made the difference tonight.

I was pretty underwhelmed by McCowan until the 4th quarter. You could tell that she was tentative playing South Carolina--she wasn't posting hard or aggressively going for rebounds until the 2nd half. She also missed a bunch of chippies she normally hits and was getting a bit anxious. Once she settled down, she played a lot better. Defensively I thought she did a really poor job the first half. She didn't provide any help side defense and she has the size and length to block a lot more shots than she did. In the second half, she was more active and more aggressive on the glass. Once she fired up and started battling, Mississippi State pulled away. Wilson is a matchup nightmare for her. If A'ja is on either elbow, she can blow by McCowan if Teaira closes on her, but she can also stick the 15 foot jumper. Wilson is also tall and long in her own right, so McCowan can't use her length to block the shot easily if Wilson beats her. If they meet again in the SEC Championship, look for this to be exploited.

Lots of unsung heroes for Mississippi State today--obviously Holmes was huge. Bibby was a big difference maker off the bench too. Her statline isn't great, but she was extremely physical and played with high energy chasing down loose balls. It's amazing how a high energy player can get everyone going. Same with Schaefer--lots of good activity and she hit open shots. She plays a very similar role on Mississippi State that Nurse does for UCONN--smart player who hits open shots and plays tough defense. She's been very good in every game I've seen this year.

Vivians was outstanding in the first and struggled in the second, but I didn't think she took many bad shots and kept them in the game when no one was doing anything offensively for Mississippi State.

I may have been influenced by the crowd, but I thought the refs made a number of really bad calls that went against Mississippi State. They waved off McCowan's basket, I thought the retaliation foul was a bad call, Wilson got just about every call in her favor, etc. There was one call against Bibby where Wilson just elbowed Bibby in the head and Bibby was called for the foul. I was also rooting for Mississippi State, so I'm sure I'm overlooking calls that went in South Carolina's favor. The one really bad call against South Carolina was Harris's 5th. From what I saw, I didn't think she touched her and it ended up being her 5th. I don't think it would've made a difference as Mississippi State had all the momentum at that point, but I thought I'd mention it.

For South Carolina, I thought Wilson was phenomenal in 3 quarters and then she just sort of gassed out. Missed a few chippies she normally makes and she was getting frustrated. South Carolina does not have a good supporting cast though. They don't have good shooters besides Spann, who doesn't produce against good teams, and the other guards are good, but can only consistently score 15 feet and in. Jennings is good but can also be neutralized, and besides that you're left with Wilson carrying a very large load. She needs more help.

In regards to how Mississippi State stacks up against UCONN....I think UCONN has an edge, but it really comes down to which team shows up for both squads. If it's the confident Mississippi State team that shows up most nights, it'll be a good game. If they play timid and jack up a lot of perimeter shots like they did to start the game today, it could be a comfortable UCONN win. Mississippi State plays good defense and has a ton of experience, so I don't expect a blowout by UCONN.

It's a bit of a weird triangle in that Mississippi State seems to play timid against South Carolina but was fearless against UCONN, South Carolina was timid against the Huskies but seemed confident most of the game against Mississippi State, and UCONN always plays confidently against South Carolina, but was timid against Mississippi State last year.

 

[j66kicker]

I think there is a real benefit of winning streaks. We have that advantage of confidence over Mississippi State and you have it over everyone.

Everyone except Mississippi State - ha

 

[HopJim]

Loved watching this game.... a good hard fought game

Suspect there are most Husky's posting about this game than those from either school.

 

[Mdoggie]

We barely beat ND and Texas, and you don't think they can beat us in a rematch? And Miss St. already has beaten us 10 months ago, so we know they can.

What the heck is "barely beat"? Is that like Almost lost?

 

[HoopsFan21]

What the heck is "barely beat"? Is that like Almost lost?

Both games were very close and were not decided until very late and by a slim margin.

 

[enigmatic]

One thing that starts to concern me about Miss St is how they tend to kick it up a notch as the game goes on. They pulled away from TN in that 4th quarter, held their ground against Missouri after that vital 3rd qtr, and the 4th quarter KO punch against SC. I definitely see them as the biggest contender to UCONN right now. I'm still not convinced with Baylor yet in all due respect and ND is starting to click at the right time

 

[donalddoowop]

They got to make a rule that if the winning team is up more than 10 with less than 1:00 min to play the opposing team can't intentionally foul. I've seen like 10 games this year that's taken 5 minutes to play the last 1 minute of gameplay. The fouling team didn't win any of them.

The original reason the NCAA went to two shots after the tenth foul was to keep teams from fouling so much in the last minutes of a game because it was causing games to last too long. It did not work because teams fouled anyway. The women changed their rules last season to two shots after the fifth foul, eliminating the one and one foul situation.

 

[shizam]

not so sure that they are all that talented, certainly not compared to last year's team..

Dawn is extremely overrated as a "game day coach". She will continue to get elite transfers though which will keep her as a top 10 program

 

[shizam]

SC is really missing Cuevas-Moore and her offensive shooting

I thought the same thing after the game. I forgot all about her. Her injury really hurt this team

 

[shizam]

What happened to Coach Vic? Why did he need help getting up?

I like Vic. He's a unique character that's for sure. So funny when they had him mic'd and he's screaming NO NO! five times at his player "Jazzy" Holmes when she makes a pass he didn't want. Great job having him mic'd. At least he was entertaining. Thank goodness they didn't mic Dawn.

 

[shizam]

I am slowly coming to the conclusion that SC isn’t all that great this year. So much talent, but only 52 points in 39 minutes?

I'm surprised they are as good as they are this year . I thought they would be worse.

 

[shizam]

Really good win for Mississippi State. They should major toughness and badly outplayed South Carolina down the stretch.

The offense was not very good most of the game for Mississippi State until Holmes came in and got them going. Once they started going to McCowan, looks opened up for Schaefer/Bibby. I always love seeing William play, but Holmes is a great backup who made the difference tonight.

I was pretty underwhelmed by McCowan until the 4th quarter. You could tell that she was tentative playing South Carolina--she wasn't posting hard or aggressively going for rebounds until the 2nd half. She also missed a bunch of chippies she normally hits and was getting a bit anxious. Once she settled down, she played a lot better. Defensively I thought she did a really poor job the first half. She didn't provide any help side defense and she has the size and length to block a lot more shots than she did. In the second half, she was more active and more aggressive on the glass. Once she fired up and started battling, Mississippi State pulled away. Wilson is a matchup nightmare for her. If A'ja is on either elbow, she can blow by McCowan if Teaira closes on her, but she can also stick the 15 foot jumper. Wilson is also tall and long in her own right, so McCowan can't use her length to block the shot easily if Wilson beats her. If they meet again in the SEC Championship, look for this to be exploited.

Lots of unsung heroes for Mississippi State today--obviously Holmes was huge. Bibby was a big difference maker off the bench too. Her statline isn't great, but she was extremely physical and played with high energy chasing down loose balls. It's amazing how a high energy player can get everyone going. Same with Schaefer--lots of good activity and she hit open shots. She plays a very similar role on Mississippi State that Nurse does for UCONN--smart player who hits open shots and plays tough defense. She's been very good in every game I've seen this year.

Vivians was outstanding in the first and struggled in the second, but I didn't think she took many bad shots and kept them in the game when no one was doing anything offensively for Mississippi State.

I may have been influenced by the crowd, but I thought the refs made a number of really bad calls that went against Mississippi State. They waved off McCowan's basket, I thought the retaliation foul was a bad call, Wilson got just about every call in her favor, etc. There was one call against Bibby where Wilson just elbowed Bibby in the head and Bibby was called for the foul. I was also rooting for Mississippi State, so I'm sure I'm overlooking calls that went in South Carolina's favor. The one really bad call against South Carolina was Harris's 5th. From what I saw, I didn't think she touched her and it ended up being her 5th. I don't think it would've made a difference as Mississippi State had all the momentum at that point, but I thought I'd mention it.

For South Carolina, I thought Wilson was phenomenal in 3 quarters and then she just sort of gassed out. Missed a few chippies she normally makes and she was getting frustrated. South Carolina does not have a good supporting cast though. They don't have good shooters besides Spann, who doesn't produce against good teams, and the other guards are good, but can only consistently score 15 feet and in. Jennings is good but can also be neutralized, and besides that you're left with Wilson carrying a very large load. She needs more help.

In regards to how Mississippi State stacks up against UCONN....I think UCONN has an edge, but it really comes down to which team shows up for both squads. If it's the confident Mississippi State team that shows up most nights, it'll be a good game. If they play timid and jack up a lot of perimeter shots like they did to start the game today, it could be a comfortable UCONN win. Mississippi State plays good defense and has a ton of experience, so I don't expect a blowout by UCONN.

It's a bit of a weird triangle in that Mississippi State seems to play timid against South Carolina but was fearless against UCONN, South Carolina was timid against the Huskies but seemed confident most of the game against Mississippi State, and UCONN always plays confidently against South Carolina, but was timid against Mississippi State last year.

Speaking of high energy, I thought Miss State would really miss Dominique Dillingham. I loved the intensity and energy she brought.

 

[jaundicedeye]

I think nd would give us a better game.

That is exactly what I was thinking.
ND is better coached and their game more resembles that of UCONN.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Some pretty smart posters think MS ST could be quite the challenge for the Huskies. I don't see it. We have 6 20 point offensive players. They have perhaps 2. Only McKowan makes them bigger - and she's a load - but she is slow and if she moves out of the protected zone her player can zip by her with ease. Vic's bench is thin thin. It would take a return of last year's "panic" (Gabby's word) to have Vic's team beat UConn.