USC Gamecocks 2024-25 Season: Part Two | Page 15 | The Boneyard

USC Gamecocks 2024-25 Season: Part Two

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yhun89 said:


What is going on with Lay?
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Just a guess here: Lay feeds off the crowd’s reaction to her flashy passes and layups, but Dawn wants her to play more as part of five player rotation. As a result, her minutes are reduced and she’s not happy. I predict that if this scenario is even partially close to the truth, it will not end well for Lay. We win as a team because we play as a team. We have depth to spare at guard… Raven, Bree, Pao, Tessa, and Maddie. As always, I trust in Dawn.
 
Even more important than the Fulwiley situation is what’s up with Adhel Tac. She’s the closest thing on the roster to being that big body we’re used to in the low post. I’m really surprised she hasn’t played more, and wondering if she’s still developing or has reached her ceiling as a player and just can’t achieve what the staff envisioned.
 
USMC(ret) said:
Even more important than the Fulwiley situation is what’s up with Adhel Tac. She’s the closest thing on the roster to being that big body we’re used to in the low post. I’m really surprised she hasn’t played more, and wondering if she’s still developing or has reached her ceiling as a player and just can’t achieve what the staff envisioned.
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Isn't she a redshirt freshman coming back from an ACL injury? It could be a matter that she's progressing a bit slower than what some expected. It's too soon to say whether she's reached her ceiling in my opinion.
 
JstVisiting said:
UCLA was my biggest concern last season, so I am not shocked to lose this year. But nobody expected that.

Difference between class of 21 and class of 22 was stark.

South Carolina seemed to have a successor to the Aliyah Boston class with 2, 3, 4, and 14 in the class.

2 Raven Johnson - ACL tear, good defensive player, but not a top of her class talent
3 Saniya Rivers - transferred for playing time, has appeared overmatched in two games vs South Carolina since
4 Sania Feagin - solid but not great rotation player
14 Bree Hall - best of the class Swiss army knife who is good at many things, but excellent at none
13 Dauda - newly arrived transfer, DNP

Whereas UCLA’s 2023 class is

1 Lauren Betts - All American, lottery pick
2 Kiki Rice - 95% of Bree Hall
3 Janiah Barker - potential All Conference, projected lottery pick

The best player of South Carolina’s 2021 class is essentially interchangeable with the “worst” of UCLA’s core class a year behind them.

This is supposed to be their year, and they look like a Sweet 16/Elite Eight ceiling. Hard to see it clicking now, so juggling the minutes with higher ceiling players behind them will be the challenge.
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Barker is a projected lottery pick? Too inconsistent for my taste. It seems she always goes sideways at the wrong time in games. Yesterday she did look better than I've seen since highschool highlights.
 
cancontent said:
Isn't she a redshirt freshman coming back from an ACL injury? It could be a matter that she's progressing a bit slower than what some expected. It's too soon to say whether she's reached her ceiling in my opinion.
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Yes, and technically this should be her true freshman year. She entered a semester early after her senior year ended with the injury. It was also her second injury in two years, so she hasn't played a full season since her sophomore year of high school. Dawn has stated many times that Tac is good but she needs to knock off the rust. Asking a lot of Tac this season just isn't in the cards. She is a project player with a very high ceiling. Dawn wants to get her more minutes but we have a logjam of players at the 4/5. Looking at the schedule I think she will get a lot of playing time in December when we have a string of easy games in a row.
 
Adhel is still rehabbing that knee. If you’ve been at a home game she rides a stationary bike before and after she plays in the game.

Dauda played 2 years at Arkansas who plays zero defense. She’s still learning. Like Sakima, she was the big we could get in the portal. She’s got 2 years to learn so I hope she works on that D so she can contribute.

UCLA was a tough matchup for us. I thought we’d have a tough game. Dawn has to let either Raven or Breezy come off the bench. We have to have another shooter out there to free up the middle so the guards can drive or get it in to the bigs. When Watkins, Raven, Breezy, PP and Feagin are in, PP is the only true scorer on the floor.

Credit needs to go to UCLA. They are loaded and played really well yesterday.

We will learn from it.
 
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USMC(ret) said:
Even more important than the Fulwiley situation is what’s up with Adhel Tac. She’s the closest thing on the roster to being that big body we’re used to in the low post. I’m really surprised she hasn’t played more, and wondering if she’s still developing or has reached her ceiling as a player and just can’t achieve what the staff envisioned.
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Tac hasn't played in 2 seasons; Rome wasn't built in a day. One loss against a great team doesn't warrant all this hand wringing.
 
Just my view, but I think Raven is trying to run The team and avoid scoring but looks sped up by the experience of not being able to score.

I believe Feagin has played pretty well but she’s not an all American and looks better playing next to a bigger player. its weird how putting a big body makes the offense look better even though the big probably can’t score.

fulwiley is a mess. Her tricks are just turnovers now. I want Bob Newhart to tell her to stop it. Just be normal and score points on easy stuff.
 
Gamecockfan77 said:
Just my view, but I think Raven is trying to run The team and avoid scoring but looks sped up by the experience of not being able to score.

I believe Feagin has played pretty well but she’s not an all American and looks better playing next to a bigger player. its weird how putting a big body makes the offense look better even though the big probably can’t score.

fulwiley is a mess. Her tricks are just turnovers now. I want Bob Newhart to tell her to stop it. Just be normal and score points on easy stuff.
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Re Fulwiley. She’s trying to transition from a free flying entertainer into a basketball player. There’s frustration there because there’s indecision. It will work itself out one way or the other.

Dawn is trying to play everybody to see what they have. We’ve seen this before…every year. She doesn’t care if they take a loss. She’s preparing for March. There were valuable lessons learned from that game - win or lose. The bench will shorten considerably by the time we start SEC play. Bank on it.
 
GamecockFam said:
Yes, and technically this should be her true freshman year. She entered a semester early after her senior year ended with the injury. It was also her second injury in two years, so she hasn't played a full season since her sophomore year of high school. Dawn has stated many times that Tac is good but she needs to knock off the rust. Asking a lot of Tac this season just isn't in the cards. She is a project player with a very high ceiling. Dawn wants to get her more minutes but we have a logjam of players at the 4/5. Looking at the schedule I think she will get a lot of playing time in December when we have a string of easy games in a row.
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Thanks for refreshing my memory on this. Ironically, her situation is eerily similar to Amihere's, including the early enrolment.
 
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TC22 said:
Re Fulwiley. She’s trying to transition from a free flying entertainer into a basketball player. There’s frustration there because there’s indecision. It will work itself out one way or the other.
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SCHSL coaching is a mess, boys and girls. Lot of gameplans boil down to “go score!”
 
JstVisiting said:
Loyalty to Raven Johnson is going to cost us some games.
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I am frustrated by how Raven is playing too, but she earned a lot of capital for the way she locked down CC in the championship game last year. Dawn needs to be bringing some of the "backups" off the bench more, though. Wish we could see Tessa get a lot more minutes for instance.
 
Different result today against a ranked team, with the same starting lineup. Balanced scoring and minutes played, good defense. Purdue up next on Saturday.
I think the top seven teams will begin to separate themselves from the rest of the pack: UConn, Notre Dame, LSU, USC, UCLA, Texas, and South Carolina.
 
Notre Dame lost to TCU… a surprise, but suspect that TCU had a game like UCLA had against us. TCU has talent, and we get them soon.
 
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USMC(ret) said:
Notre Dame lost to TCU… a surprise, but suspect that TCU had a game like UCLA had against us. TCU has talent, and we get them soon.
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ND losing to TCU just shows how competitive this season is going to be for every Top 20 team and how balanced (Coaching and players) these teams are compared to 10, 20, 30 years ago.
 
Two starters and five off the bench in double figures. Fulwiley with 14 pts in 17 mins, which is a good bounce back from the prior game.
 
Folks trying to write South Carolina off. SMH. 60 points from their bench. 6-0!
 
JellyBean said:
Folks trying to write South Carolina off. SMH. 60 points from their bench. 6-0!
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Against the Big Ten powerhouse that is Purdue. ;)

They have Duke and TCU in back-to-back games next week, both of whom are coming off Top-10 wins. Excited is truly as understatement.
 
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JellyBean said:
Folks trying to write South Carolina off. SMH. 60 points from their bench. 6-0!
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That’s fine. This team could probably use less pressure. Most actual Gamecock WBB fans I know aren’t complaining about being written off by media/other teams/haters. This team needs more time to find its identity.
 
I was mostly upset that we aren't going to go undefeated again, but oh well. I've gotten past that. This team still has all the pieces it needs to go back-to-back.

But I will say this. Mouse McDaniel is a revelation and is someone that Coach Dawn Staley is going to have a hard time keeping off the floor as this season continues. I don't know if she's had a truly "bad" game this season.
 
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