USC Gamecocks 2024-25 Season: Part Two | Page 9 | The Boneyard

USC Gamecocks 2024-25 Season: Part Two

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Tessa Johnson again got a lot of minutes as the primary ball handler suggesting she might be the third PG behind Pao and Raven.

Another game with extensive minutes for big lineups, or at least lineups featuring what I'd consider a forward playing wing. Edwards, Kitts, certainly and maybe a little bit of Dauda in this one.

Edwards just does everything so easily and catches and finishes in a continuous motion. She'll hit double figure most games just doing that and nothing more.
 
GamecockFam said:
I wonder if Dawn is trying to move towards positionless basketball. Any insights? I vaguely remember Coach making an off-hand comment about moving in that direction right before the freshies came on campus. I'm just getting caught up on recruiting and noticed that we seem to be targeting long-armed, athletic 6'+ wings that can shoot from anywhere on the court ... Ayla McDowell, Agot Makeer, and Kaelyn Carroll seem to be our targets. If we get all three, in a couple of years all but the PG could be 6'2" or taller. It makes me feel like coach wants to move towards a more athletic version of Oregon State from this prior year...kind of like a hybrid between Maryland and Oregon State.
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Having players that can shoot the rock from anywhere has really worked for SC lately. Combining Dawn’s defensive mindset with players that you don’t have to teach how to shoot and you see the success we’ve had the last 3-4 years, especially last year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved some of our teams from the Wilson years and earlier, but if they’ve always had an Achilles heel then it was shooting. You can’t really say that anymore. And I don’t think Dawn is trying to go back to that when you look at how she’s recruiting. 2/3 from McDowell, Carroll and Makeer would be a VERY solid offensive boost to the team. I really think McDowell and Carroll are underrated.
 
mikeboss550 said:
For anyone there how did Chloe look or how much did she play? I really think she will be huge this year.
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Chloe only played 15 minutes as did most of the starters except Hall. I think Hall played extra minutes because her shooting was off. Dawn probably wanted her to work through that.

20 Sania Feagin 18:31 4-7 0-0 0-0 4 5 9 1 0 8 2 1 0 0 2 49 21
Chloe Kitts 15:59 4-6 0-1 0-0 0 3 3 1 1 8 1 0 0 0 0 44 0
Te-Hina Paopao 15:11 4-7 3-6 2-3 1 3 4 1 2 13 5 0 3 0 1 40 23
Bree Hall 25:28 3-12 0-7 0-0 2 1 3 1 0 6 5 0 4 1 0 55 25
Raven Johnson 16:13 4-6 1-2 0-0 3 0 3 1 0 9 3 1 3 0 0 36 8
Joyce Edwards 25:48 8-11 0-0 4-5 5 6 11 1 3 20 6 1 2 3 0 46 12
MiLaysia Fulwiley 24:49 10-18 4-7 0-2 0 2 2 0 2 24 3 1 7 3 0 46 5
Tessa Johnson 25:21 6-13 3-9 0-0 2 3 5 0 0 15 4 0 1 0 0 48 30
Maryam Dauda 19:58 2-3 0-0 6-6 1 7 8 0 3 10 1 1 0 1 0 30 15
Adhel Tac 12:42 3-5 0-0 7-10 4 3 7 1 6 13 0 1 0 2 0 26
Team 1 4 5 0 1 Totals 48-88 11-32 19-26 23 37 60 7 17 126 30 7 20 10 3 84 Technical Fouls::NONE Shooting By Period 1st FG% 11-23 47.8% 3PT% 2-8 25.0% FT% 4-4 100% 2nd FG% 13-22 59.1% 3PT% 4-11 36.4% FT% 4-8 50% 3rd FG% 12-23 52.2% 3PT% 2-8 25.0% FT% 6-8 75% 4
 
SCGamecock said:
Having players that can shoot the rock from anywhere has really worked for SC lately. Combining Dawn’s defensive mindset with players that you don’t have to teach how to shoot and you see the success we’ve had the last 3-4 years, especially last year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved some of our teams from the Wilson years and earlier, but if they’ve always had an Achilles heel then it was shooting. You can’t really say that anymore. And I don’t think Dawn is trying to go back to that when you look at how she’s recruiting. 2/3 from McDowell, Carroll and Makeer would be a VERY solid offensive boost to the team. I really think McDowell and Carroll are underrated.
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I do not think Dawn's intention was ever to deliberately have offensive black holes in the lineup, but she wasn't going to compromise on defense and take one dimensional offensive players and sit back in zone. Multi-dimensional guards and forwards tended to pick programs that had already won titles.

Once SCar got over the hump, the black holes started lightening up.

At the time, detractors liked to pretend that it is the coaches who create these players, but the reality is they are recruited.

Coaches can develop them to a greater or lesser degree but the stars largely create themselves.
 
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If you look at WBB, defense and rebounding are the essential pieces.

You can get to a championship level with them and then you can recruit better offensively with an existing culture for defense.
 
Gamecockfan77 said:
If you look at WBB, defense and rebounding are the essential pieces.

You can get to a championship level with them and then you can recruit better offensively with an existing culture for defense.
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I agree 100%! Dawn always seems to seek out traits that give someone a natural defensive advantage (elite athleticism, tall, long arms, etc.) over everything else and then let them grow their skills over the years in her system.
 
Gamecockfan77 said:
If you look at WBB, defense and rebounding are the essential pieces.

You can get to a championship level with them and then you can recruit better offensively with an existing culture for defense.
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Tessa Johnson is a great example of this.

5 years earlier and a player like her goes to another school IMO. Offensively minded players like her that are athletic and good defenders are highly coveted. I'm not sure a lot of us thought of Tessa as a defender when she arrived. And her size caught a lot of people off guard too.
 
There is some really good information here about the team from last season, the transition from the freshies, recruiting during COVID, NIL, and just a little peek behind the curtain on Feagin and Hall.
 
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There are also episodes with Kaela Davis and Molly Binetti. I have them queued but haven't listened to them yet.



 
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Well, Saturday night was a nice diversion ( and next Saturday will be big). But now the focus is on Dawn’ kids. Joyce has shown dominant traits against our exhibition opponents. Can she continue against P-5 level athletes? How about Tac? We need them both to grow their games before tournament time.

I’ve got pregame jitters for our freshmen.
 
visitingcock said:
Well, Saturday night was a nice diversion ( and next Saturday will be big). But now the focus is on Dawn’ kids. Joyce has shown dominant traits against our exhibition opponents. Can she continue against P-5 level athletes? How about Tac? We need them both to grow their games before tournament time.

I’ve got pregame jitters for our freshmen.
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My main jitters relate to frontcourt defense. We've had such excellent post defenders for the past 5 years that were great at getting rebounds and backing up guards when they lose their man. While our remaining frontcourt players are capable, they're either inexperienced in our system (Tac, Edwards, Dauda), not typically relied upon for their defense (Kitts, Walker), or new to having a starters mentality at the college level (Feagin, Walker, Tac, Edwards). So I think all front court players have something to prove on that side of the ball. I'll have butterflies in my stomach up until I see them play a full game.
 
The Quest to Repeat begins in just a few hours.

I'm EXCITED!!!! :D
 
Well I hope South Carolina got that out of their system. Our guard play was atrocious with exception to Tessa. Every guard had good moments followed by bad ones but I thought Tessa was the only guard with any stability to their game tonight.

Kitts and Edwards did their jobs but not the rim protectors we are used to. Feagin needs to step up her game. Hopefully Dauda will start feeling more comfortable. Though few, I thought Tac gave good minutes and for a moment she had the "Cardoso effect" where her size just sucks in the defense, leaving wide open passes to guards on the perimeter. I think her minutes will grow as the season progresses.

That's the SparkNotes version of my thoughts...I hope we learned a lot to apply to the future.
 
I enjoyed watching it, but it was worrisome.

I thought Edwards and Tac looked pretty good.

I really wish that Raven could have improved her jump shot one of these years.

Fulwiley seems to still be too worried about style points and I wish she'd stop. She'll make a good Globetrotter at this rate.
 
GamecockFam said:
Well I hope South Carolina got that out of their system. Our guard play was atrocious with exception to Tessa. Every guard had good moments followed by bad ones but I thought Tessa was the only guard with any stability to their game tonight.

Kitts and Edwards did their jobs but not the rim protectors we are used to. Feagin needs to step up her game. Hopefully Dauda will start feeling more comfortable. Though few, I thought Tac gave good minutes and for a moment she had the "Cardoso effect" where her size just sucks in the defense, leaving wide open passes to guards on the perimeter. I think her minutes will grow as the season progresses.

That's the SparkNotes version of my thoughts...I hope we learned a lot to apply to the future.
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Thought Pao played pretty well offensively though it may be that she got torched on the other end.
 
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cancontent said:
Nah. She'd still would. She's been doing it against women competing for Canada at the senior women's FIBA level for two years in addition to her high school play. She's used to battling in the paint like that well before she arrived at Michigan. Can't short change that experience.
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The kids that play FIBA are way ahead but I was pretty surprised she torched us. That's a little better than she played for Canada.
 
Anybody else worried we could have another Dawn is Too Loyal to a Senior storyline this year? Tessa clearly should have been inbounder getting the ball back to get fouled out of a TO, and, despite defending the Michigan FR better than anyone else, she was watching from the bench on both of those big 3s.
 
JstVisiting said:
Anybody else worried we could have another Dawn is Too Loyal to a Senior storyline this year? Tessa clearly should have been inbounder getting the ball back to get fouled out of a TO, and, despite defending the Michigan FR better than anyone else, she was watching from the bench on both of those big 3s.
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A little bit. She tends to favor experience. But I think she values winning over everything else so I expect Tessa and Hall to flip-flop with each other on total minutes played based on who is having a better night. Tessa definitely proved herself time and time again, so I hope Dawn will use her more in critical moments.

On the other hand Edwards was stealing time from the rest of the bigs, so I think that narrative will be a hard sell as a whole.
 
Gamecockfan77 said:
The kids that play FIBA are way ahead but I was pretty surprised she torched us. That's a little better than she played for Canada.
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The system Canada used is very different from what we saw last night. Think it plays to her strengths.
 
I only saw a few clips of the game, taken I think from a cellphone in the crowd. Chloe jumped the opening tip? That was a surprise. From other moments she looked pretty good in the post. So did Joyce. She made freshman errors but she also looked really good on other plays. Other than Tessa, the guard play was unimpressive. Why didn’t Milaysia play more? This was a serious game, not an exhibition or a tuneup game.
 
Michigan isn't chopped liver and it was the first game so it was ugly, but it just looked like a lot of team's early games. Jitters, new team members, experimenting with lineups...
 
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It was the first game, so I never get too up or down based on one game. A lot of times, players get nervous and either do too much or they do too little out there, so I was not surprised at the poor shooting by both teams. I was surprised that Michigan hung with South Carolina. Michigan threw that matchup zone at South Carolina and it threw South Carolina off. The difference maker in this game, the bench of South Carolina. I think the bench total was 30-6, South Carolina. Michigan has some positive things to build on going forward and South Carolina has things to work on. It is a long season. I am sure they will get better and so will Michigan, I hope.
 
JellyBean said:
It was the first game, so I never get too up or down based on one game. A lot of times, players get nervous and either do too much or they do too little out there, so I was not surprised at the poor shooting by both teams. I was surprised that Michigan hung with South Carolina. Michigan threw that matchup zone at South Carolina and it threw South Carolina off. The difference maker in this game, the bench of South Carolina. I think the bench total was 30-6, South Carolina. Michigan has some positive things to build on going forward and South Carolina has things to work on. It is a long season. I am sure they will get better and so will Michigan, I hope.
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Great point. Had to chuckle while watching as it reminded me of my daughter's rep ball coach. He introduced that concept to them when they were 11/12. They really liked it and man it confused other teams who were only used to a 2-3 or 1-2-2 zone.
 
Sakima is coming back from an injury so maybe she wasn’t 100% for last night and so Dawn kept her on the bench? Fulwiley just kept driving too deep in the lane. She’s been great in the 2 scrimmages.
 
So, Ashlyn’s case was resolved on November 1. The team flew to Vegas the next morning. Ashlyn was not with them.

Ashlyn was quite involved with NC State during recruiting. We play NC State this weekend.

Crickets from Dawn on Monday ( understandable on Gameday.) crickets yesterday and this morning. Crickets from team members’ social media. Crickets from Ashlyn too!

Crickets are scary beasts!
 
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