Week 4 - Nov 24-30

[cancontent]

Okay Michigan fans, or Big 10 fans in general--what's your take on Yulia Grabovskaia? She's a token starter for Washington this year. Plays about 12 minutes per game. Fr. McGaughy is getting more minutes but coming off the bench. Coach Langley is pretty committed to only playing 1 post player at a time, she even goes 5 guards sometimes. Anyway I see Grabovskaia didn't put up much in the way of stats last year and she's doing the same this year. Does she add some value that doesn't show up in the stat sheet?


As an aside, despite standing 6-5 she has 1 blocked shot thru 7 games. Little used deep reserve Olivia Anderson has 10 blocks in 5 games.

From what I recall from her play last season, making the move to the BIG10 may have been a stretch for her. At the same time, her numbers improved last season compared to her sophomore season at Middle Tennessee.

Michigan 2024 - 2025: 5.3 points and 4.1 rebounds in 13.5 minutes per game
Middle Tennessee 2023 - 2024: 3.3 points per game, 3.4 rebounds in 9.8 minutes

To me, she's more of a reserve player than a starter. Maybe Coach Langley has her starting to handle the tip??

 

[nwhoopfan]

Maybe Coach Langley has her starting to handle the tip??

I would guess more just a matter of giving McGaughy some time to adjust to college. Langley has very rarely started Fr. during her time at Washington.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Okay, did Ohio St. wake up this morning and think they were LSU? Up 91-18 against Niagara...w/ 13 minutes left in the game.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Princeton is hammering DePaul. That program has just about cratered in a few short years.

edit--meanwhile Harvard is doing the same to Arkansas, beware the Ivies

edit #2--and Penn is leading Texas after Q1! (I doubt that will hold up, not gonna blame my jinxing powers for that one, just law of averages catching up)

 

[nwhoopfan]

Oregon @ Auburn is kinda interesting. Two 8-0 teams that aren't getting much publicity, I'm assuming the schedules for both have been fairly mediocre.

 

[bballnut90]

Okay, did Ohio St. wake up this morning and think they were LSU? Up 91-18 against Niagara...w/ 13 minutes left in the game.

98 point win. I know Niagara isn't good (0-7) but I feel like we're seen more insane margins of victory this season in early season games.


LSU has won games by 89 and 77, Michigan with a 70 point win too. Probably many others I'm missing.

 

[nwhoopfan]

98 point win. I know Niagara isn't good (0-7) but I feel like we're seen more insane margins of victory this season in early season games.


LSU has won games by 89 and 77, Michigan with a 70 point win too. Probably many others I'm missing.

Yeah, 130-32 is just embarrassing for everybody involved. I know Bobby Bowden used to say a long time ago "It's not my job to stop my team, it's the other team's job to stop my team." But a score like this just shouldn't happen. Better yet a game like this shouldn't happen.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Iowa and Jan Jensen are known for developing post players as well as anyone in the country; scary to think about what Ava Heiden might look like with 2.5 seasons left. Has better physical tools and range than Monika Czinano did and Czinano was often unstoppable offensively.

Stuelke was supposed to be next in line, although she's in a different mold than the typical Iowa post player. I think Heiden has jumped past her already early in her soph year.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Fairfield has scheduled themselves some challenging games, although they've come up short against North Carolina and Iowa. They won't be seeing teams like that in conference games. Heiden came up big, and any time you can get 4 3 pointers each from McCabe and Feuerbach that really helps Iowa's cause.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Wow Crooks went for 47, Iowa St. beat Indiana 106-95. Ciezki had 38.

edit--Addy Brown had 17 pts/10 reb and Jada Williams had 23 points/11 assists

Crooks was 19-25 from the floor

 

[GoChips20]

Did anyone think Audi Crooks would be an All-American out of high school? Plenty of chatter about how she’d struggle to stay on the court at her size. 25/game with several massive 40+ games against power competition over her career.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Princeton beat DePaul 71-41.

Purdue must've melted down at the end, lost to Central Michigan 57-55. Outscored 14-5 in Q4.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Harvard beat Arkansas 69-51.

 

[GoChips20]

Crooks is a conundrum as a pro for me. She probably needs to transform her body to avoid injury and meet the fast pace of the league, but her girth makes it very difficult to block her shot right now, and at 6’3” she’s not tall enough to play C in the league without that advantage.

Definitely has skills, though.

 

[mudcat]

Harvard beat Arkansas 69-51.

Is Harvard better than I thought or is Arkansas worse than I thought (or possibly both)? Looks like the bottom of the SEC is gonna be a hot mess.

 

[bballnut90]

Crooks is a conundrum as a pro for me. She probably needs to transform her body to avoid injury and meet the fast pace of the league, but her girth makes it very difficult to block her shot right now, and at 6’3” she’s not tall enough to play C in the league without that advantage.

Definitely has skills, though.

Great college player but I don't think she makes a roster. Length, quickness and speed are essential in the pros and she isn't going to match up well defending other posts. 15 years ago she could've had a career similar to Courtney Paris but with the speed of the game in today's day and age I don't think she sticks. Love her though.

 

[bballnut90]

Stuelke was supposed to be next in line, although she's in a different mold than the typical Iowa post player. I think Heiden has jumped past her already early in her soph year.

I haven't seen much of Iowa yet but last year they tried to put Stuelke on the wing more with mixed results. She's a good player but undersized to be a pro 4 or 5. I mean this with no disrespect, but I think playing alongside Clark her sophomore year as a rim runner post likely make her look better than she is.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Is Harvard better than I thought or is Arkansas worse than I thought (or possibly both)? Looks like the bottom of the SEC is gonna be a hot mess.

Well Harvard is only 4-5, so it's probably more the second part.