Team USA aka Mississippi State Bulldogs.... Napoli, Italy in July

[SECbbfan24]

Miss St leads China 52-41 at half. Rickea Jackson leads scorers w/ 16 points. Matharu has been really good off the bench w/ 8 points and Hemmingway has played well.

 

[DaBball]

Mississippi State won 87-79 over China. China had a really hot hand from three too. Vic went with newcomers a lot. Rickea Jackson is really good.

 

[SECbbfan24]

Mississippi State won 87-79 over China. China had a really hot hand from three too. Vic went with newcomers a lot. Rickea Jackson is really good.

I'll be honest, the strength of this team right now is its freshmen class. Hemmingway and R. Jackson have been major impacts so far. Today Matharu grew up a lot and was really good on both sides of the ball. Morris had a double double which is encouraging. Carter seemed a bit timid today for whatever reason.

One positive today was AEH was much more proactive when it came to rebounding. Mingo Young had some very good minutes defensively.


M. Taylor's play has been disappointing so far. I really don't see it with her right now. She is good defensively but her shooting and decision making with the basketball is not very good at this point. I think Matharu will take over at the point at some point this season. I don't know if Vic has ever had a true freshmen PG but that might be the case this year.

 

[Jmsdawg]

Mississippi State won 87-79 over China. China had a really hot hand from three too. Vic went with newcomers a lot. Rickea Jackson is really good.

I was able to watch Cliff Story’s stream of the game. What impressed me was the depth of this team. Vic played a lot of different groups and I did not notice any drop off when the young guys were in the game. This team really surprised me, I really did not think they would make the metal round after watching the friendly against Japan. They are playing together and the defense is much improved. Agree with you Rickea Jackson is good, believe she will be great when she leaves MSST. I can hardly wait for the season to begin!

 

[SECbbfan24]

Box Score vs China

 

[Jmsdawg]

I'll be honest, the strength of this team right now is its freshmen class. Hemmingway and R. Jackson have been major impacts so far. Today Matharu grew up a lot and was really good on both sides of the ball. Morris had a double double which is encouraging. Carter seemed a bit timid today for whatever reason.

One positive today was AEH was much more proactive when it came to rebounding. Mingo Young had some very good minutes defensively.


M. Taylor's play has been disappointing so far. I really don't see it with her right now. She is good defensively but her shooting and decision making with the basketball is not very good at this point. I think Matharu will take over at the point at some point this season.

I was pleased with Myah’s play. I think she is becoming the PG we can rely upon, have to say I was pleased with Matharu and Young also. This teams looks to me as if they can compete for SEC title.

 

[militarydog]

I’ve been surprised with how much and well Hemingway has played. She is a solid all around player. Mingo-Young and Matharu aren’t far behind. However where they play well in spurts Hemingway is playing like an upperclassman.
Jackson was simply amazing today especially offensive rebounding. Her only problem right now is her decision making and free throw shooting. Sometimes she will force a shot in the lane and get her shot blocked.
I was pleasantly surprised with how well M Taylor played. She quietly ran the offense when J Holmes wasn’t playing well and continued to play excellent defense. She was a key to bringing us back from the 8 point hole late in the game. She had two of three key steals in a big pressure situation.
I’m kind of glad J Carter struggled a little today and Y Morris was able to play so well. Honestly Carter looked like the Carter from last year being timid and unsure. Morris is incredibly physically gifted. She needs to understand that she is able to compete at this level. Further, Carter needs to feel the heat so she doesn’t get complacent that she is the hier apparent. Everything will get further ramped up when Promise Taylor starts back playing this fall. She is a beast.
Also, not to understated is the play of the returning players. I was really pleased with Espinoza-Hunter’s rebounding.

 

[SimpleDawg]

Stats so far. Looks like Rickea Jackson is really not fooling around. Looks to impose herself even on a team this stacked.

 

[GDawg]

I watched the 2nd half and was really impressed with Jayla Hemingway. And Mingo-Young is just gonna be one of those hard-nosed, gritty players (think Dom Dillingham). And of course, Rickea is really talented. This is the best freshman class Vic has ever had. And yes, that includes Morgan, Tori, and Blair.

 

[DanishBulldog]

MSU moves on to the Finals with an 89-84 comeback win vs Japan in the semis. Rickea Jackson had 28 pts today.

 

[Jmsdawg]

MSU moves on to the Finals with an 89-84 comeback win vs Japan in the semis. Rickea Jackson had 28 pts today.

Streaming did not work for me. I did follow the score on MSST twitter site. Every time I got an update Japan was ahead. That was the case for most of MSST games, guess we are a 4th qtr team! Rickea has been great in this tournament. Any word on who we play for the Gold Medal?

 

[MSSportsGuy]

Granted it's not the best indicator but Rickea Jackson has been putting up good numbers this tournament. I hope it is a sign of things to come.

 

[DaBball]

https://results.universiade2019napoli.it/assets/pdf/BKBWTEAM5-------------SFNL000100--_73%201.3.pdf

 

[msupinebelt]

I watched the last 5-minutes. It was a 1 or 2 point game and Japan ran two high pick and roll and the defense didn’t react and I had flash backs of Oregon... Japan didn’t go back to it and had trouble scoring the rest of the game. Rickea Jackson is going to be the best player to ever wear the Maroon and White if she stays healthy. Espinoza hit a big three to push the lead out to four. Hemingway & Morris has been a pleasantly good surprise.

 

[DanishBulldog]

Jackson is averaging 23 points per game in 27 minutes per game.

Australia beat Portugal to move to the finals as expected. They were the pre-tourney favorites. It was a close game that the Aussies pulled out towards the end.

The average age of our players is 19. The average age of the Japanese team is 21.5.

The defense today was horrid until the 4th quarter. We were really lazy getting back on defense after made baskets. I am sure Vic wanted to pull out his hair.

 

[SECbbfan24]

Myah Taylor was wonderful today. Really happy with her performance handling the ball and distributing it. If she can build on that, I'm excited.

Hemmingway, Morris, Jackson and Ming-Young were terrific as well. They may be young but the talent and ability is there. T

The biggest need for improvements based off the games so far is obviously the defense and shot selection. The team is essentially a bunch of freshmen and sophomores so we have seen a lot youth mistakes with kids forcing things offensively.

 

[SimpleDawg]

Allow me to fanboy over Rickea Jackson.

She was the missing piece of last year. No wonder we needed a dominant center last year, because our best offensive creator apart from T was Jordan Danberry. Nobody will dare clog the lanes this year. Rickea looks like a machine out there. She stops, reloads, changes course, keeps the defense guessing, and finally puts up the shot anytime she gets any daylight. This is a program changing talent. Call me a Mississippi State slobberer but my eyes don't deceive me here... she's probably even going to be bigger than Vivians once she's finished.

I truly think we can survive without a dominant center this year. And it helps that based on early glimpses there's not that much separating our #1 and #2 (Carter and Morris). Morris is not T, but it looks like with her in the game she can create some loose ball situations, have the ball bounce around hands, and at least impact where people go. So we don't need to worry about foul trouble next year in the Center position, going 3 deep. I think Carter can do a little more with the ball than Morris, but Morris impacts the game more or changes it more... especially on defense.

I'm also surprised how much Hemingway looked to impose. Pretty much every play ended up being either Jackson finishing the play or Hemingway. Hemingway looks comfortable with contact. It seems like that's how she likes to play, but Japan can't play any contact ball at all. They play away with it. We had that advantage in this game, and a lot of it was because of Hemingway. Just saying. Hemingway is probably not Anriel Howard yet, but her strength seems to be contact ball in the paint (not Anriel's game at all)..... I wonder how she'll challenge better players in Divison I.

Overall, quite pleased with this group of new talent. They look really skilled and varied. There were only 4 players who played against Oregon in the Elite 8 that's playing in this tournament. Holmes, Carter, Scott, and Espinoza-Hunter. Holmes will not be here much longer, Scott has been injured (not sure if she'll play in the final game), Espinoza hasn't been used a lot at all, and Carter has seen a leap but didn't do much against Oregon. So we're doing this without most of our key contributors last year.

These are just my thoughts at this point. Nothing much more than that.


...

 

[Jmsdawg]

Allow me to fanboy over Rickea Jackson.

She was the missing piece of last year. No wonder we needed a dominant center last year, because our best offensive creator apart from T was Jordan Danberry. Nobody will dare clog the lanes this year. Rickea looks like a machine out there. She stops, reloads, changes course, keeps the defense guessing, and finally puts up the shot anytime she gets any daylight. This is a program changing talent. Call me a Mississippi State slobberer but my eyes don't deceive me here... she's probably even going to be bigger than Vivians once she's finished.

I truly think we can survive without a dominant center this year. And it helps that based on early glimpses there's not that much separating our #1 and #2 (Carter and Morris). Morris is not T, but it looks like with her in the game she can create some loose ball situations, have the ball bounce around hands, and at least impact where people go. So we don't need to worry about foul trouble next year in the Center position, going 3 deep. I think Carter can do a little more with the ball than Morris, but Morris impacts the game more or changes it more... especially on defense.

I'm also surprised how much Hemingway looked to impose. Pretty much every play ended up being either Jackson finishing the play or Hemingway. Hemingway looks comfortable with contact. It seems like that's how she likes to play, but Japan can't play any contact ball at all. They play away with it. We had that advantage in this game, and a lot of it was because of Hemingway. Just saying. Hemingway is probably not Anriel Howard yet, but her strength seems to be contact ball in the paint (not Anriel's game at all)..... I wonder how she'll challenge better players in Divison I.

Overall, quite pleased with this group of new talent. They look really skilled and varied. There were only 4 players who played against Oregon in the Elite 8 that's playing in this tournament. Holmes, Carter, Scott, and Espinoza-Hunter. Holmes will not be here much longer, Scott has been injured (not sure if she'll play in the final game), Espinoza hasn't been used a lot at all, and Carter has seen a leap but didn't do much against Oregon. So we're doing this without most of our key contributors last year.

These are just my thoughts at this point. Nothing much more than that.


...

Love the post and agree with most but I believe Bibby and P. Taylor will both be starters (assuming recovery from injury). The only weakness I have seen so far is 3 point shooting and hopefully Bibby can help solve that issue. Just wondering how Bibby feels about the matchup with Australia, hopefully she more Dawg than Australian!

 

[Coler]

Reading these tidbits about Jackson makes me really bummed that she'll be wearing any color other than scarlet. Nice to hear she's playing so well, though.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

Definitely a good looking line for Rickea Jackson.

I thought she was one of the top 3-4 players in the class and might well end up being the best player in the class.

Miss State is going to have a lot of size. Might be a year away defensively and I am curious about the offense this year. But I think they're definitely a threat in the SEC.

 

[j66kicker]

Allow me to fanboy over Rickea Jackson...

...Call me a Mississippi State slobberer but my eyes don't deceive me here... she's probably even going to be bigger than Vivians once she's finished.

I truly think we can survive without a dominant center this year. And it helps that based on early glimpses there's not that much separating our #1 and #2 (Carter and Morris). Morris is not T, but it looks like with her in the game she can create some loose ball situations, have the ball bounce around hands, and at least impact where people go. So we don't need to worry about foul trouble next year in the Center position, going 3 deep. I think Carter can do a little more with the ball than Morris, but Morris impacts the game more or changes it more... especially on defense.

I'm also surprised how much Hemingway looked to impose. Pretty much every play ended up being either Jackson finishing the play or Hemingway. Hemingway looks comfortable with contact. It seems like that's how she likes to play, but Japan can't play any contact ball at all. They play away with it. We had that advantage in this game, and a lot of it was because of Hemingway. Just saying. Hemingway is probably not Anriel Howard yet, but her strength seems to be contact ball in the paint (not Anriel's game at all)..... I wonder how she'll challenge better players in Divison I.

Overall, quite pleased with this group of new talent. They look really skilled and varied. There were only 4 players who played against Oregon in the Elite 8 that's playing in this tournament. Holmes, Carter, Scott, and Espinoza-Hunter. Holmes will not be here much longer, Scott has been injured (not sure if she'll play in the final game), Espinoza hasn't been used a lot at all, and Carter has seen a leap but didn't do much against Oregon. So we're doing this without most of our key contributors last year.

These are just my thoughts at this point. Nothing much more than that.


...

 

[GDawg]

If I didn't know better, you are becoming a closet Bulldog fan ;-)

Myah Taylor was wonderful today. Really happy with her performance handling the ball and distributing it. If she can build on that, I'm excited.

Hemmingway, Morris, Jackson and Ming-Young were terrific as well. They may be young but the talent and ability is there. T

The biggest need for improvements based off the games so far is obviously the defense and shot selection. The team is essentially a bunch of freshmen and sophomores so we have seen a lot youth mistakes with kids forcing things offensively.

 

[GDawg]

Allow me to fanboy over Rickea Jackson.
...

FANBOY???? So that's not you in the picture?

 

[SECbbfan24]

Miss St trails Australia 23-15 after one

A really terrible decision by M. Taylor gave Australia a free layup to end the quarter. Morris, Young and Hemmingway have been very impressive so far. Jackson has had some nice moments as well. Too many missed layups and a lot of unnecessary fouls.

 

[SECbbfan24]

Miss St trails Australia 37-34

R. Jackson has been on the bench most the game w/ foul trouble. J. Young leads the team with 9 points.