Week 2 (11/10-11/16)

[DefenseBB]

There is a Fairfield-USF game that should be interesting for us UConn and state of Connecticut fans. Carly Thibault-DuDonis is an up-and-coming coach who should generate a lot of P4 program interest. My bet is she wins tonight over the Bulls.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Ok, for both you and my fine @nwhoopfan fan-some of these New England games are against the local schools to allow for easy travel during the school week (and for the limited budgets). In New Haven's case, they just moved up from D2 to D1 this year and SUNY Purchase is fairly close by (40ish miles). The hope is to get local fans to come by playing teams and players the locals may know.

By and large, the New England region is a "pro sports" region and not collegiate. The lone exception is UConn Basketball. All the other collegiate sports struggle with monetary support, talent, fans and weather. Whatever any college administrator or coach can do to appeal for fans is tried.

I suspect a lot of it is budget related but New England is by no means the hot-bed of the practice. Southeast and west struck me as notable, I glance at all the scores every night as I track wins and losses on a spreadsheet for P4, BE and Arizona opponents. So many schools relatively obscure.

 

[triaddukefan]

Well, after years of abysmal play, maybe my beloved Big Green will win a few games this year. Or maybe not.

View attachment 113213

You can throw out the record books when Colby-Sawyer and Dartmouth meet up.

 

[Vowelguy]

Yea…if you’re crazy enough to leave her in that long for a practice game. She almost had a triple double. Needed one more rebound.

She played 28 mins.

 

[Vowelguy]

I suspect a lot of it is budget related but New England is by no means the hot-bed of the practice. Southeast and west struck me as notable, I glance at all the scores every night as I track wins and losses on a spreadsheet for P4, BE and Arizona opponents. So many schools relatively obscure.

In northeast, pretty easy to find many D1 schools within an hour. Not so much out west. The entire state of Oregon has ~16 four-year institutions with athletic departments (4 are D1 I believe, with the rest D2-3/NAIA).

 

[nwhoopfan]

In northeast, pretty easy to find many D1 schools within an hour. Not so much out west. The entire state of Oregon has ~16 four-year institutions with athletic departments (4 are D1 I believe, with the rest D2-3/NAIA).

Wow, sorry to say there's no way I can name all 16. That's quite a bit more than I would've guessed.

But then there's probably close to 16 schools just in the Dayton area by itself, Ohio probably has closer to 100 schools overall. I'm only half joking. I've visited my brother in Beavercreek and there are colleges everywhere.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Ok, for both you and my fine @nwhoopfan fan-some of these New England games are against the local schools to allow for easy travel during the school week (and for the limited budgets). In New Haven's case, they just moved up from D2 to D1 this year and SUNY Purchase is fairly close by (40ish miles). The hope is to get local fans to come by playing teams and players the locals may know.

By and large, the New England region is a "pro sports" region and not collegiate. The lone exception is UConn Basketball. All the other collegiate sports struggle with monetary support, talent, fans and weather. Whatever any college administrator or coach can do to appeal for fans is tried.

I by no means meant to pick on New England. My rant started off directed at the Portland (Oregon, not Maine) area, and as @KnightBridgeAZ noted this has been occurring in most regions of the country it appears.

 

[Vowelguy]

Wow, sorry to say there's no way I can name all 16. That's quite a bit more than I would've guessed.

Wikipedia

4 D1 - Oregon, OregonSt, Portland, PortlandSt
1 D2 - Western Oregon
5 D3 - George Fox, Willamette, Lewis & Clark, Pacific (OR), Linfield
6 NAIA - Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon, Oregon Tech, Corban, Bushnell, Warner Pacific

 

[nwhoopfan]

Wikipedia

4 D1 - Oregon, OregonSt, Portland, PortlandSt
1 D2 - Western Oregon
5 D3 - George Fox, Willamette, Lewis & Clark, Pacific (OR), Linfield
6 NAIA - Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon, Oregon Tech, Corban, Bushnell, Warner Pacific

I would've gotten at least half of those. Bushnell is a new one for me, I've never heard a single mention of it during an entire lifetime living in the Northwest. I've actually been on the campuses of several of the smaller schools--Linfield, George Fox, Pacific, along w/ all 4 of the D1 schools.

edit--Bushnell is in Eugene. My mom grew up in Springfield, right around the corner, and she'd never heard of it either. Established in 1895, so it's been around for a while. But according to wiki total enrollment as of 2021 was about 800 students, so maybe that's why I had no idea of its existence.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Whoa, Ohio St. pitched a shut out in the first quarter against Bellarmine. How is that even possible?! 26-0 at that point, now several minutes into Q2 and they still have only managed 1 measly point.

 

[Vowelguy]

Whoa, Ohio St. pitched a shut out in the first quarter against Bellarmine. How is that even possible?! 26-0 at that point, now several minutes into Q2 and they still have only managed 1 measly point.

And Bellarmine is actually D1!

 

[nwhoopfan]

Here's a cautionary tale. Lily Hansford was a fairly significant contributor and part of the rotation at Oregon St. as a soph during their really good season 2 years ago. She joined the mass migration and left Corvallis. Had an absolutely terrible year at Iowa St. last season, now she's at Green Bay and looks like she's hardly producing there, either. Gotta think she would've been one of the featured offensive players last year and this year if she had stayed at OSU.

 

[Vowelguy]

Here's a cautionary tale. Lily Hansford was a fairly significant contributor and part of the rotation at Oregon St. as a soph during their really good season 2 years ago. She joined the mass migration and left Corvallis. Had an absolutely terrible year at Iowa St. last season, now she's at Green Bay and looks like she's hardly producing there, either. Gotta think she would've been one of the featured offensive players last year and this year if she had stayed at OSU.

I don’t have fondness for any of the players who bailed on OSU. They blew it.

 

[Vowelguy]

2nd straight game lackluster Vols
Up 6 on Belmont at half

 

[Vowelguy]

NCSts win over TN is looking less and less impressive.

 

[Vowelguy]

After being down double digits, Belmont comes back to take the lead late in 3rd!

 

[nwhoopfan]

2nd straight game lackluster Vols
Up 6 on Belmont at half

This was supposed to be the year they really took off. Early returns aren't looking great.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Chicago St. and North Carolina Central both have non conference wins very early in the season. What is happening?

edit--NCCU's win came at the expense of UNC Asheville, now I'm curious where they are on @triaddukefan 's Top 25 favorite teams from the state of North Carolina list

 

[nwhoopfan]

Ooh, South Dakota nipped Kansas St. by 1.

Fairfield and South Florida game yo-yoed back and forth, Stags get the 8 point win.

 

[nwhoopfan]

And Bellarmine is actually D1!

Bellarmine went on a scoring binge, put up 33 points in the final 3 quarters! But surrendered 90.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Virginia is going down to the wire against UMBC.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Texas Tech is smoking SMU. Is this what Adia signed up for?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Tennessee pulled away down the stretch.

Virginia lost to UMBC. Hmm, wasn't that the biggest upset of all time in the men's Tourney several years ago w/ a #16 seed taking out a #1 seed?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Just realized in the UCLA-North Carolina match up, Aarnisalo is facing her former teammates. She probably didn't expect that to happen so soon.

 

[mudcat]

Is the Big East a 1 bid league this year? Creighton is getting crushed by Nebraska. Thought I heard reference to Marquette getting off to a slow start. Is anyone other than UConn supposed to be good?

Much of Creighton's talent is very young: they have 4 very talented freshmen (3 in the ESPN 100), but freshman are just going to take some time to get acclimated to the pace and physicality at the college level. I believe Creighton will be much better by season's end, but those early losses will still count against them in NCAA selection.

 

[aceboon]

UCLA has had basically two top 10 matchups(UNC #11) and they've played them in NBA/WNBA arenas in front of immediate family. Awful atmosphere and terrible look on TV, put these matchups on campus.

 

[nwhoopfan]

How about Betts' line? 20 pts/10 reb/7 assists. I don't think her play making gets talked about, but obviously she can pass the ball.

Also second really solid game in a row for Dugalic coming off the bench.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Gonzaga about to lose to Colorado St. for the second year in a row. They will be conference foes starting next season. GU had a long wait for Whittaker from New Zealand, battled a series of injuries, but she's been really good for them so far this season.

 

[jdote33]

Some musings from a couple of games I watched tonight.
UCLA vs UNC: really competitive game, especially for about 2 and a half quarters. I really think both sides should be happy. Unc guards started out so well. Aarnisalo, Nivar, Kelly all create for themselves so well, and gave UCLA's guards problems. I thought Cierra Toomey played well in spots. Definitely most comfortable shooting on the outside. I really don't know where else she feels comfortable on the offensive end except behind the arc. I'm not sure if it just is what it is. She played well defensively as well. For UCLA, I just think they are so talented. Betts is so good, I thought Toomey played her well and she still ended up with 20 10 and 7, shooting over 50 percent from the field. Kneepkens didn't get going and Leger Walker was relatively quiet but it didn't matter. Still won by nearly 20, and had 4 players in double figures. Kiki Rice was really good after a slow start. And Angela dugalic is an Olympian and pro. I don't mind 5th or 6th years but dugalic is like almost a professional role player in college. I love her game but idk, she's like a case study that's a bit different, cuz she's almost playing a similar role on the same team she was on last season. But she still has barely played 100 games and a lot of those she was injured or coming off of injury..
Maryland vs Townsend - Maryland is an interesting team. It was good to see Smikle back. I think she had 15 shots in 15 minutes but she looked like herself honestly. Garzon still trying to fit in a bit but their freshman guards are pretty fun to watch. I think they are deeper than I thought but conversely I'm a bit worried their transfers won't be as impactful as I thought, like all conference players.
Miami vs Florida Atlantic - kinda random but I saw Gal Raviv this summer and became a big fan. She's struggling a little bit, but I like their team. I think it's an age old question, when ur a guard who can create ur own shot, when do I be aggressive. I also think this is particularly challenging if ur not a fast pace or quick guard. Honestly Raviv and Aarnisalo remind me of each other. The ball will be in their hands. I think they both want to win but how will they make their teammates better. At half time Raviv had 10 shots, finished with 12.

 

[BRS24]

Thanks to everyone posting key games this week. In Europe, no laptop, and I’d have to give greedy MS $$$$ to use Excel on my iPad. Probably not a bad thing that I’m not online much. I’ll see you with a big grid the week of Nov 24.