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Message: [QUOTE="ConwayGmck, post: 4118951, member: 10442"] I think after the conclusion of last season, the fanbases for both teams were similar in the thinking that their teams needed some depth in key areas of their rosters, to make their teams truly championship contenders. Perhaps it was how deep Stanford's roster seemed to be last season, and they then went and won the whole thing. Both teams (SC and CT) added what was thought to be that needed depth and then some, to their respective rosters. They also were returning their entire starting units from last season's Final Four appearances. So, both fanbases were really excited - and even a bit wary - as to how their teams would utilize those deep rosters, and how they would help improve on last season's results. But there was also another dynamic at play here: Dawn Staley has shown a more openness to letting her full rosters have larger participation during seasons, with only games that started tight, and finished tight being exceptions. She's had games where her teams have had sizable leads at the end of the 3rd quarters, and then she emptied her benches and by the end of the game, those sizable leads were whittled down to just moderate leads. But a win is a win. She's also done this regardless of who the opponent is: top-25 ranked OOC, top-25 SEC opponent, or cupcake opponents. It seems that the score mattered more than the quality of opponent, as to how and when she'd let reserves participate. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that Geno Auriemma has more often through the years played a group of 7-8 players for most of the OOC schedule: the starting 5 plus 1-2 first-responders off the bench. Reserves further down the bench get in for the final 2 minutes or so, and this is regardless of whether they are winning by 15 pts or by 25 pts, and regardless of opponents. They typically get more opportunities during the conference schedule, which CT has never lost a game and have won those games total by an average MOV upwards of 40 ppg since joining the AAC. THEN you can see the ends of the benches, the walk-ons, get upwards of a quarter of play. So, I don't know if it's due to the difficulty of the type motion offense that Auriemma runs, if it's he just doesn't like sloppy basketball, or combinations of both. I feel Staley is more willing to accept a bit of lack of discipline and sloppiness - turnovers, fouls, shooting %s dropping off a cliff, player miscommunications - because the actual in-game experiences that are gained make up for that in the long term, and it's serves as better teaching tools than just watching from the bench. But the bottom line here is that at this stage of the season CT hasn't benefited from it's improved depth of roster close to where SC has from its own deeper cast. Mostly it's been Juhasz and Fudd, and that's it. For SC, Cardoso is a regular front rotational player, Hall has developed into a solid regular rotation defender and perimeter scorer, and even Johnson was slated to be the top PG off the bench until she was lost to injury. Other players such as Amihere, Russell, and Littleton have stepped up to become consistent rotational players, and even freshman Feagin - who was expected to get the fewest minutes of the freshmen due to the depth ahead of her - is going to have to get some additional court time figured up, as she isn't missing any shots (she's shot 9-12 thus far and is averaging 4.2 ppg in 5.0 mpg). USC came into 2021-22 with 16 players - 15 that were immediately active for play, and now only 14 are until Lele Grissett returns from her injury. All 15 active players have played, with Johnson getting 8 minutes in 2 games. They are now down to 14 active players. CT came in with 14 players - now with 13 since Poffenbarger transferred out. Only 11 have played thus far. SC have 0 players currently with 30+ mpg on the roster. Henderson is right at the door there, with 29.4 mpg, and Cooke is next with 26.1 mpg. No other Gamecock has averaged 25.0+ mpg, and only 4 have averaged 20.0+ mpg. A total of 11 of their 15 current/formerly active players are averaging 10.0+ mpg - they are all still active. Nine (9) of those 14 available Gamecocks have appeared in all 7 games, with Feagin, Russell, and Wesolek appearing in 5 gms thus far. CT has 3 players averaging 30.0+ mpg, with Bueckers and Williams averaging 35.0+ mpg. Five (5) Huskies are averaging 20.0+ mpg, with Fudd the only reserve. Edwards is averaging 19.9 mpg. Seven (7) of CT's 11 players who have played are averaging 10.0+ mpg, and eight (8) Huskies have appeared in all 4 games, with nine (9) appearing in more than 1 game. So, the distribution of games and minutes played are different for each team. The question will be, will those differences also realize different rates of development and player maturation, and how will that impact those teams when the very difficult opponents return to their schedules...... [/QUOTE]

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