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BRS24 said:
GM @YoDore - Vandy has locked up the 6th seed for the SEC tourney and will play the winner of the 11-14 game. As of today, that's FL or Missouri. FL has UA and AU left, and Missouri has Ole Miss, Vandy, and Miss St.
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Yes. I couldn't be prouder of coach Ralph and her players. The team still has some obvious weaknesses, particularly on the offensive end. but they've managed to win ugly.
 
BRS24 said:
GM @YoDore - Vandy has locked up the 6th seed for the SEC tourney and will play the winner of the 11-14 game. As of today, that's FL or Missouri. FL has UA and AU left, and Missouri has Ole Miss, Vandy, and Miss St.
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Huh? Vandy does have the 6th seed locked up but there is only 1 game left for all the teams on the SEC schedule so you lost me on your last piece about Florida has UA and AU. Florida only hosts Auburn and Missouri visits MSU and also in the mix as the 11 seed is Arkansas who is at Ole Miss.
 
DefenseBB said:
Huh? Vandy does have the 6th seed locked up but there is only 1 game left for all the teams on the SEC schedule so you lost me on your last piece about Florida has UA and AU. Florida only hosts Auburn and Missouri visits MSU and also in the mix as the 11 seed is Arkansas who is at Ole Miss.
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Yeah. I had an old FL page up that hadn't refreshed and saw the last two games.
 
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Georgia postgame remarks. The first six minutes are the two seniors. Shea's remarks start at 6:15. I love my coach. :D

 
Amazing regular season for Vandy, lots to be proud of for Ralph and team. Hope they tear up the SEC Tournament.
 
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For you, @YoDore - the preseason predictions, yours, and actual final standings. I think you had a better feel for the league than the coaches. Go 'Dores!
1709560430821.jpeg
 
BRS24 said:
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This was based off of last year. And to not take into consideration how many starters went down with season ending injuries, that would come back this year.
 
YoDore said:
Coach Ralph's weekly press conference.

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Coach Ralph speaks like a true Husky alum, and I am truly happy for her and her team’s success as they move forward. I also love the fact that she’s imparting some of “the UConn Way” into her student athletes’ lives.

Also, thanks @YoDore for sharing this video.
 
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Good for Shea and Vandy! They went thru that 5 game losing streak against the 5 teams ahead of them in the SEC. But other than that, had a great season. Hope they go far in the SEC, spring an upset, and make the big dance!
 
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TN-Gamecock said:
Vandy gets in the NCAA tournament...no doubt about it and certainly over Auburn and A&M....

Go Carolina!!! Go Vandy!!!!
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Vandy's resume is slightly better than A&M's but probably not quite as good as Auburn's IMO. Not everything is about the conference standings.

Auburn has a much higher quality win (LSU) than anything Vandy has, and also played a tougher SEC schedule (playing LSU, Bama and A&M twice each, compared to Tennessee, Missouri and Georgia).

Creme has Auburn as one of the last four byes, Vandy as one of last four in, and A&M as the first team out. When you stack up their significant wins and losses against each other, you can see why.
 
I know at times I post things here that are of limited interest to most posters on this board, but I figure it does no real harm since no one is forced to read (or watch) what I post.

I think some Shea Ralph fans will find the following Monday morning podcast interview worthwhile. It's probably my favorite interview with Shea. She is at home and relaxed, talking to a couple of students who work for VandySport.com. They are, in particular the young lady, Alaina Morris, the most dedicated media members to Shea's program.

At the end, they invite her to deliver whatever message she wants to convey. The following statement, not prompted by any question, is of particular interest:

"I'm here for life. I'm excited about it. We're raising our daughter here. This is our home."

 
The above post is a great piece from The Athletic’s Joe Rexrode about my all-time favorite player, Jordyn Cambridge. Jordyn’s physical struggles over the years are well documented, including, but not limited to, three knee surgeries and an achilles surgery.

In recent weeks, she has been wearing a brace on her left hand with two fingers taped together. Turns out she has a broken finger. Also, when she took an accidental head butt at Arkansas recently that gave her a bloody lip, it also fractured a bone in her jaw and loosened a couple of teeth. She wears a wire to hold the teeth in place and a special mouthpiece. Oh, and that right knee that is heavily braced, the one she can't completely straighten anymore and at times seems to be dragging around the floor, is giving her problems. She doesn't practice anymore.

Her dad let her know it was OK not to play this season, telling her she didn’t owe the game anything at this point. She said, “I know, but I love this team and I love Vanderbilt.”

She is understandably struggling with her shot lately, but we also saw her score nine points and contribute six rebounds, five assists and five steals to Sunday's win over Georgia.

She is also loyal to and thankful for coach Ralph. I don't think Joe Rexrode would mind me borrowing this one quote from his story.

“She’s the most positive person you’ll ever meet,” Cambridge said of Ralph. “She’s bringing this program back to what it was when I went to games as a kid. It’s going to be great. … This process isn’t for the weak, but it’s all paying off in the end. I’m glad I had the grit and resilience to see it through. I wouldn’t have wanted to become this person anywhere else.”

By the way, The Athletic is having a special where you can subscribe for $2 per month for 12 months.
 
Vanderbilt-Florida tomorrow in the round of 12 in Greenville.

God forbid if we should lose tomorrow, it would be the ultimate natural experiment in how serious the WBB committee is about making the NET the dominant part of a team's résumé. Of course I'm highly biased but that's the only reason I can see why we'd be on the bubble, and plenty of people believe we are on the bubble.

I get the desire to represent actual team strength in seeding. Sure, close wins or losses depend largely on luck. Even so, part of the fun of sports is quaint 20th century notions of "games" involve two teams resulting in a "win" for one team and a "loss" for the other. If NCAA selection is based overwhelmingly on a stats competition, then why have any regular season games? Just arrange some combines involving a bunch of skills competitions and scrimmages. Pick the teams with the best stats and save a lot of money.

At least they've been warning us this is the new reality.
 
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Well... regular season and tourney ends with a thud. Based on where they were before the loss, I'd say Vandy is NIT bound. We will see, but a really bad loss to end the season. Honestly I think Florida is better than their record, but they are barely .500 on the season, so by most metrics, a really bad loss.
 
I'm afraid you're right. Given the emphasis on underlying statistics and all, perhaps closing a 10 point game with a little over 3 minutes left to a 2 point loss will count for something.

I follow MBB much more closely and there, the committee has been pretty explicit about its blossoming love for Four Factors metrics (NET). I had little patience with our men's coach whining about a hot finish last year because the men's committee has been clear that no longer matters and that statistical excellence does. I infer the same is true in WBB. I hope it doesn't get to the point where W and L have no significance beyond the underlying stats.

The non-NET case against Vanderbilt hinges on lack of big wins. The other side of that is consistency or lack of bad losses. Holding record and schedule constant, you can either have more big wins or you can have consistency, not both, so we could say both committees have a taste for higher-variance résumés. This has been true for decades AFAIK. It's somewhat justifiable -- higher variance teams will create more upsets.

I don't think head to head is as meaningful as most fans tend to think. VU's h2h against the other SEC bubbles could be a major asset -- in some universe. I hope we're in that universe but won't complain if we're not.
 
Although it does look like Creme still has us 3rd-last in as of this morning. Seems like losses by Arizona and WSU are a big boon. Would be nice if Iowa could dispense with PSU tonight and if Green Bay could be kind enough to lose to PU-FW in the Horizon semis on Monday.
 
Even more disappointing was that I don't think it was the best game Shea ever coached. They looked disorganized on offense. A lot of standing around, missed layups and one on one play. They fought until the end though.
 
Congrats to Jordyn.

With Vanderbilt pretty established at 3rd-last in the tournament in Charlie Creme's projections, I'm starting to feel decent.

  • AFAICT Columbia is a legitimate threat to do the "bid stealing" thing on Sunday in the Ivy tournament -- gah, I still hate hearing those two words together -- and Princeton would certainly be an at-large ahead of us.
  • In contrast, if Green Bay wins the Horizon tonight, Cleveland State looks unlikely to be an at-large ahead of us. (Creme projects CSU as a 13 if they win the AQ spot, so well below an 11 if they lose.)

So a Columbia win would push us to 2nd-last, certainly close enough for me to sweat it out but still likely in. Are those the only two conference tournaments remaining with possibilities of bid larceny?

BTW aside from becoming ESPN's chosen one years ago, who is Creme? I spent a few minutes trying to figure this out and just found a bunch of newspaper stories linking back to ESPN.
 
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