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Stat Stuffing in So Cal

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I just saw a Vid about the Trojans game against Elon today, whoever the heck Elon is. At 5:00 left in the 4th Quarter, USC up by FIFTY, and JuJu Watkins rolled over her ankle really bad!
 
it didn’t look that bad. She’s a tough woman. I can’t imagine her not taping it up and playing.
 
Sorry, but in a huge blowout, what was she doing in the game with 5 minutes left? Goodness. I know injuries can come at any time, but I'm not sure UCONN had any starters in the 4th quarter against Georgetown. Part of the reason Q4 ended up 15-15... GTown had many of their starters still in against our bench...
 
I just saw a Vid about the Trojans game against Elon today, whoever the heck Elon is. At 5:00 left in the 4th Quarter, USC up by FIFTY, and JuJu Watkins rolled over her ankle really bad!
Elon - small college in North Carolina, 7K students
 
Sorry, but in a huge blowout, what was she doing in the game with 5 minutes left? Goodness. I know injuries can come at any time, but I'm not sure UCONN had any starters in the 4th quarter against Georgetown. Part of the reason Q4 ended up 15-15... GTown had many of their starters still in against our bench...
It's all about the stats. POY
 
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I just saw a Vid about the Trojans game against Elon today, whoever the heck Elon is. At 5:00 left in the 4th Quarter, USC up by FIFTY, and JuJu Watkins rolled over her ankle really bad!
Elon is a small school in Burlington, North Carolina very close to the UNC, Duke, NC State triangle. I believe they are currently coached by Charlotte Smith, who played her college ball at UNC and won their national championship on her last second shot.She’s also known for being the second woman ever to dunk in a college basketball game.
 
Sorry, but in a huge blowout, what was she doing in the game with 5 minutes left? Goodness. I know injuries can come at any time, but I'm not sure UCONN had any starters in the 4th quarter against Georgetown. Part of the reason Q4 ended up 15-15... GTown had many of their starters still in against our bench...
Sadly, we are in a poor position to judge after what we saw happen to our star player in a game with 30 seconds left and a 20 point lead :oops:

Hopefully J Watkins' injury is nothing serious and she's ready to go in 6 days.
 
Sadly, we are in a poor position to judge after what we saw happen to our star player in a game with 30 seconds left and a 20 point lead :oops:

Hopefully J Watkins' injury is nothing serious and she's ready to go in 6 days.
To be fair, though you are right that Paige should have been on the bench, there’s a helluva difference between 20 and 50! I’m pretty sure Paige would have been on the bench if we had been up 50.
 
To be fair, though you are right that Paige should have been on the bench, there’s a helluva difference between 20 and 50! I’m pretty sure Paige would have been on the bench if we had been up 50.
50 points with 5 minutes remaining or 20 points with 30 seconds left -- I don't see the difference there. Equally garbage time.
 
Stat stuffing, what about Tennessee? Come on now, throwing up 63 3-point shots against a team that is so shorthanded that they resemble a D3 team. We get it, that's their game, but MOST good coaches would be working on other stuff in the second half. How is their half-court offence without shooting 3's or is that the only offence this new coach knows. She has them going, but when they play real competition, we will see what she does when the 3's aren't falling. Missed opportunity to work on other parts of their game.
 
Stat stuffing, what about Tennessee? Come on now, throwing up 63 3-point shots against a team that is so shorthanded that they resemble a D3 team. We get it, that's their game, but MOST good coaches would be working on other stuff in the second half. How is their half-court offence without shooting 3's or is that the only offence this new coach knows. She has them going, but when they play real competition, we will see what she does when the 3's aren't falling. Missed opportunity to work on other parts of their game.
I've been holding my tongue because I want to see Tennessee play a top 10 team but I feel similarly. I think their current strategy will be highly effective against young teams and teams that cannot match their athleticism but overall I think they'll run into trouble when their full court press is not effective. Masked in their success is a lack of rebounding / development of bigs and shot selection hasn't been great. As Dawn says, not all open shots are good shots. They seem to value speed over quality. It hasn't bitten them in the rear yet but I suspect it's coming. I don't see good fundamentals when I watch them play.
 
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I think it's unfortunate. I prefer coaches who understand their opponent and utilize bench players as soon as possible in a game. It not only gives them time on the court, but it strengthens the team overall in both an experiential and emotional way. Chasing records isn't surprising, but it's hollow when built on cupcake blowouts imho.
 
Stat stuffing, what about Tennessee? Come on now, throwing up 63 3-point shots against a team that is so shorthanded that they resemble a D3 team. We get it, that's their game, but MOST good coaches would be working on other stuff in the second half. How is their half-court offence without shooting 3's or is that the only offence this new coach knows. She has them going, but when they play real competition, we will see what she does when the 3's aren't falling. Missed opportunity to work on other parts of their game.
Tennessee took their foot off the gas and only scored 28 in the 4th quarter and attempted 9 shots from deep.

In the 3 quarters prior they averaged 37 points and took 18 3-pt shots per quarter.
 
I think it's unfortunate. I prefer coaches who understand their opponent and utilize bench players as soon as possible in a game. It not only gives them time on the court, but it strengthens the team overall in both an experiential and emotional way. Chasing records isn't surprising, but it's hollow when built on cupcake blowouts imho.
If this is in reference to Tennessee, all 12 players played 12+ minutes with no one playing over 24. Tennessee also utilizes its bench more heavily than anyone in the country aside from maybe South Carolina.
 
It's all about the stats. POY
Sports Illustrated had an op-ed piece online this morning speculating that Lindsey is positioning Juju to break Caitlin Clark's NCAA scoring record, which apparently she's on pace to do. It reported that there was another game earlier in the year when USC was up 40+ in the 4th quarter, and Juju stayed in the game when the other four starters sat. I just hope she's okay.
 
If this is in reference to Tennessee, all 12 players played 12+ minutes with no one playing over 24. Tennessee also utilizes its bench more heavily than anyone in the country aside from maybe South Carolina.
No, it wasn't....actually it was regarding USC. I don't know anything about Tennessee really....haven't watched them play this season.
 
Sports Illustrated had an op-ed piece online this morning speculating that Lindsey is positioning Juju to break Caitlin Clark's NCAA scoring record
Actually, the piece's author didn't speculate; he simply alluded vaguely to "some" fans who speculate.

"The assumption from some is that Watkins and her head coach Lindsay Gottlieb are chasing the NCAA all-time scoring record that Caitlin Clark set last season ..."

A classic case of "weasel words":
 
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As an aside, given the discussion about scoring disparities, yesterday when I was asking a fellow fan about why we played a school like Austin Peay that's clearly not a D1 threat I found out playing teams like Cal helps these teams fund their programs, etc. I just found it interesting...and I guess helps the team for their conference play:

Guarantee games highlight inequity in college basketball
 
Stat stuffing isn't unique to certain schools/programs. Do I like it? Not really, but it is what it is. That's why I don't put much stock into most stat records because there are so many variables involved that will ultimately devalue the record itself (in my eyes) for the recent record breaker.
 
JuJu left the game with 5 minutes left, yet played 32 minutes according to the box score. Yup, that could be considered stat stuffing.
Also, USC was up 40-12 at the half and 69-23 after the 3rd. Again, this supports the OP. IMO.
 
Elon is a small school in Burlington, North Carolina very close to the UNC, Duke, NC State triangle. I believe they are currently coached by Charlotte Smith, who played her college ball at UNC and won their national championship on her last second shot.She’s also known for being the second woman ever to dunk in a college basketball game.
Some of us in the Triad Piedmont area of NC prefer to think of Burlington as being very close to Greensboro and Winston-Salem, not the RTP. :)
 
Some of us in the Triad Piedmont area of NC prefer to think of Burlington as being very close to Greensboro and Winston-Salem, not the RTP. :)

Tell em. Elon is part of the Piedmont Triad CSA. Heck... the Elon School of Law is located in Downtown Greensboro.
 
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Some of us in the Triad Piedmont area of NC prefer to think of Burlington as being very close to Greensboro and Winston-Salem, not the RTP. :)
I am sorry if you feel offended, but when giving reference to someone that has no idea where something is, 32 miles (chapel Hill) or 25 miles (Raleigh) is “fairly close.” I chose the triangle as opposed to Greensboro (22 miles) because it seemed more relevant for a basketball conversation. For a state that is 500 miles across, I think it’s pretty safe to say that 32 miles is “fairly close.” of course, if any Carolinians had enlightened us, you could have referenced Greensboro or Lexington, or Charlotte or Lizard Lick.
 
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Tell em. Elon is part of the Piedmont Triad CSA. Heck... the Elon School of Law is located in Downtown Greensboro.
I can't believe I posted Triad Piedmont instead of the correct Piedmont Triad...heck the local airport is PTI. DOH!
 
I am sorry if you feel offended, but when giving reference to someone that has no idea where something is, 32 miles is “fairly close.” I chose the triangle as opposed to Greensboro because it seemed more relevant for a basketball conversation.For a state that is 500 miles across, I think it’s pretty safe to say that 32 miles is “fairly close.”
No problem, I wasn't offended. And you are correct, I live 33 miles from downtown Greensboro and 32 from Winston-Salem and both are close.
But Burlington is considered part of the Piedmont Triad area according to the local news.
 
Sports Illustrated, a once venerable magazine, is now an online media source only that specializes in “clickbait.” Having said that, the question they raise of why Lindsay Gottlieb had her star player on the court in the 4th qtr of a 50 pt blowout is a legitimate question.

In comparison, UConn just blew out Georgetown by 30+ the other night. In that game, Paige had 24 pts with a couple of minutes remaining in the 3rd qtr, and could easily have reached 30. But Geno subbed in for her before the end of the 3rd qtr, ending Paige’s night.

A few years ago, Geno left Paige in too long in a blowout win, and she was injured. Evidently he has learned from that decision. Hopefully, Lindsay Gottlieb will learn from hers as well.
 
UConn is up by 30 with 8 to go and has 4 of its 5 starters in, including Paige.

I assume you will be criticizing geno for stat stuffing?
 
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