UCLA goes down to Utah

[nwhoopfan]

Does 6 days count as "quite a while"?

Caitlin Clark Scoring Record Watch

I’m more interested in how many butts she puts in Big Ten opponents seats this year. The total attendance record for a year is gonna fall ( not home attendance)

the-boneyard.com

Dang it. Well if I can't remember stuff, it makes it seem like a lot more time went by. Oh well. In my defense that was germane to that thread and not completely out of left field anyway.

 

[Plebe]

So...is Georgetown better than Colorado? Cuz they are giving Creighton more than they wanted at this point.

Is Arizona State better than Washington?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Is Arizona State better than Washington?

I already said Washington is dead to me, so I refuse to answer this question.

 

[Bone Dog]

That Creighton-Colorado game was nearly 2 years ago. How is that relevant to this season?

Because Creighton has almost entirely the same core roster. Has Colorado gotten that much better? Vonleh replaced Hollingshed, an active big replaced by a slow-footed one. And Maddie Nolan for Peanut Tuitele?

And the point isn’t to show that Colorado is worlds better or worse, merely that it would be a competitive matchup. That looks pretty obvious to me. If Creighton got hot from 3 they could win it on the basis of that and their aggressive, ball hawking defense. Same could be said for Colorado, minus the ball hawking defense.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Because Creighton has almost entirely the same core roster. Has Colorado gotten that much better? Vonleh replaced Hollingshed, and active big replaced by a slow-footed one. And Maddie Nolan for Peanut Tuitele?

I would say yes, Colorado has gotten better. I thought they would take a step back last year without Hollingshed, and in fact they did the opposite. 4 game improvement in conference, won 3 more games total and advanced to the Sweet 16 instead of getting knocked out in the 1st Round. And they are on pace to have a better record this year than last year.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Has Creighton improved since then? What is their best win this year, Michigan St. or Nebraska? They have wins over some solid mid majors and a couple middle of the road Big 10 teams, decent but nothing really approaching a signature win thus far. And the shellacking at the hands of UConn didn't inspire confidence.

 

[Bone Dog]

Has Creighton improved since then? What is their best win this year, Michigan St. or Nebraska? They have wins over some solid mid majors and a couple middle of the road Big 10 teams, decent but nothing really approaching a signature win thus far. And the shellacking at the hands of UConn didn't inspire confidence.

They haven't declined any. The team that beat Colorado two years ago took 6 losses in conference. They outshot Colorado, especially from 3, and out rebounded them. That's a classic Creighton win.

Again, the point is only to show that they're competitive. The fact that Creighton took 6 losses in conference and still made it to the Elite Eight also says something about the Big East.

 

[DefenseBB]

I have to say, I enjoyed reading this thread and some of the very strong even if unsupported opinions. As I have stated a few times, with Sling I get the PAC12 network and watch as many of those games on Friday and Sunday as possible and that conference is way, way, way better than any other conference (conversely, the refereeing and tv announcing is way, way worse). Colorado, UCLA are on par with UConn, Stanford and Utah are better than either Creighton or Marquette and slightly lower than CT, UT and CO. USC is on par with the two BE schools as is Oregon State.

UCLA has depth this year but unfortunately, they still have Cori Close on the clipboard who struggles with in-game adjustments and performance improvement during the year. She's a great recruiter and WCBB ambassador but there is a reason she hits the Sweet 16 ceiling and has never won a PAC12 title-regular season or Tournament title. The consolation prize of winning the WNIT title in 2015 was nice but it didn't spring board her or her team to greater heights as expected. So color me skeptical on this teams success this year in either PAC12 Tournament or NCAAT. I am in full agreement with @TheFarmFan on her assessment. My eyes also tell me that with the 3 losses in conference play already, this is NOT the same team that beat us in November nor are we the same team that they beat but I am also not naive enough to think we could easily beat them now, we couldn't but we could give them a more representative game and I would be fine being place on the same side of the bracket with UCLA.

I also want to throw out support to @triaddukefan who seems to get brought into dialogues even when his team is NOT mentioned. Of course my support is conditional that as soon as Duke is mentioned, my ears are attuned and ready for snark.

 

[Vowelguy]

Saturday nite ND at UConn. This game could get ugly fast for ND. They have not played well when pressed and their bigs are slow. The biggest factor could be NDs bigs guarding Paige and Ash. Both are quicker and good pull up jumpers.

Spot on as usual

 

[bbsamjj]

I have to say, I enjoyed reading this thread and some of the very strong even if unsupported opinions. As I have stated a few times, with Sling I get the PAC12 network and watch as many of those games on Friday and Sunday as possible and that conference is way, way, way better than any other conference (conversely, the refereeing and tv announcing is way, way worse). Colorado, UCLA are on par with UConn, Stanford and Utah are better than either Creighton or Marquette and slightly lower than CT, UT and CO. USC is on par with the two BE schools as is Oregon State.

UCLA has depth this year but unfortunately, they still have Cori Close on the clipboard who struggles with in-game adjustments and performance improvement during the year. She's a great recruiter and WCBB ambassador but there is a reason she hits the Sweet 16 ceiling and has never won a PAC12 title-regular season or Tournament title. The consolation prize of winning the WNIT title in 2015 was nice but it didn't spring board her or her team to greater heights as expected. So color me skeptical on this teams success this year in either PAC12 Tournament or NCAAT. I am in full agreement with @TheFarmFan on her assessment. My eyes also tell me that with the 3 losses in conference play already, this is NOT the same team that beat us in November nor are we the same team that they beat but I am also not naive enough to think we could easily beat them now, we couldn't but we could give them a more representative game and I would be fine being place on the same side of the bracket with UCLA.

I also want to throw out support to @triaddukefan who seems to get brought into dialogues even when his team is NOT mentioned. Of course my support is conditional that as soon as Duke is mentioned, my ears are attuned and ready for snark.

UCLA actually only has two conference losses (at USC, at Utah).

I am not an expert on PAC 12 basketball like some on this board, but my outsider view is this is probably the first year in Cori Close's tenure where UCLA has arguably the most talent in the Pac 12 [although it should be noted, Utah was selected as PAc 12 preseason favorites, which was obviously before injury]. Stanford fans might disagree on this point, which I wouldn't argue, but I think this is the year with by far the biggest expectations on the program.

 

[RodentMaven]

UCLA actually only has two conference losses (at USC, at Utah).

I am not an expert on PAC 12 basketball like some on this board, but my outsider view is this is probably the first year in Cori Close's tenure where UCLA has arguably the most talent in the Pac 12 [although it should be noted, Utah was selected as PAc 12 preseason favorites, which was obviously before injury]. Stanford fans might disagree on this point, which I wouldn't argue, but I think this is the year with by far the biggest expectations on the program.

Cori Close had the #1 ranked recruiting class in the nation in 2014. If memory serves not much came of that. Story here UCLA has #1 recruiting class.

 

[bbsamjj]

Indeed FarmFan. What has always been the great equalizer in the NCAAs to a degree has been experience. And for all of UCLA's talent, it's still pretty young. 4/6 of its top scorers are sophomores. Whereas Colorado, Stanford, Utah start almost all upperclass-women. [USC is about 50/50]. Should make for VERY interesting Pac12 race!