Week 5 - Dec 2 to 8

[Kaizen]

South Carolina 85-52 TCU final.
Prince has 6 pts 2 rebs. She just stand there, no move, no fighting the ball like a buddha ...LOL

 

[Plebe]

Instead of her normal non-conf sked, Kim should've just scheduled an extra game against TAMU.

There was some top recruit who followed Joni from GA to TAMU. Is she still there or did she bail?

Janiah Barker, transferred to UCLA.

 

[BRS24]

Good morning BYers! Not totally surprised at the SC/TCU result. After losing to UCLA, some tuning up most likely took place against Iowa State, Purdue, and Duke. TCU only beat ND by 8, and then had two fairly easy games afterwards. TCU should learn from this if they expect to go far in the tourney. We're only 10-ish games into the season, so 2/3 of it still remains.

Week 6 post with top 25 games will be posted later today (ish). Going to see Santa with some girlfriends. Why yes, if asked, I still believe.

 

[visitingcock]

Good morning BYers! Not totally surprised at the SC/TCU result. After losing to UCLA, some tuning up most likely took place against Iowa State, Purdue, and Duke. TCU only beat ND by 8, and then had two fairly easy games afterwards. TCU should learn from this if they expect to go far in the tourney. We're only 10-ish games into the season, so 2/3 of it still remains.

Week 6 post with top 25 games will be posted later today (ish). Going to see Santa with some girlfriends. Why yes, if asked, I still believe.

Does Mrs. Santa Clause know about his girlfriends?

 

[Kaizen]

South Carolina 85-52 TCU final.
Prince has 6 pts 2 rebs. She just stand there, no move, no fighting the ball like a buddha ...LOL

At 6'7" Prince only has 2 rebs in this game. That is not OK at all.

 

[Vowelguy]

Does Mrs. Santa Clause know about his girlfriends?

The wife always knows.
And she's been spending a lot of time in Southtown with Heat Miser ....

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Kitty defense was really amazing particularly in the first half were they really bothered TSA. There were a number of steals and constant disruption which is consistent with Barnes philosophy on the defensive end. Interestingly enough Molly Miller employs the same type of philosophy and implemented it as well.

Ultimately I think the result rested on the shoulders of TSA. The Lopes have a leader on the floor and she showed up and was a dominant force for her team. I didn't see that kind of player emerge on the kitty side.

In fact I was surprised and unimpressed with Cunningham. She has the ability to dominate and I would have thought there would have been a more consistent effort to get the ball in her hands down low.

As I said in my post after the game it's a wonderful atmosphere at McKale and the kitties fans really show up. It looks like the official attendance was slightly over 6,200 making this the second largest women's attended game I've had the pleasure to be at. The highest attendance was an ASU game down in the dirty t two or three years ago.

So as to coaching I think this game exemplifies two different types of coaches. Molly Miller, as the third highest active winning percentage coach exceeds expectations and I think really gets the most out of her players. This is a team that's evolving over the years but always shows up with their trademark defense, a clear game plan, and most often the players follow that game plan successfully.

Barnes while a huge improvement over the recent past in coaching is notable for not meeting expectations particularly after McDonald left for the w. It could be as simple as fans in the dirty t need to readjust their expectations and accept that Barnes will generate an interesting product on the court which will be average by Big 12 standards or slightly below average. The kitty fans can take solace and a 100% lock that they will beat their rivals up in Tempe as long as the ASU administration remains indifferent to women's basketball there and Adair a fine person who's way over her head remains at the helm.

I think this year's performance against NAU and Grand Canyon provides a reality check for those who expect success in championship terms in the dirty t. Both Loree Payne and Molly Miller at least in the games this year out coached Barnes. (Remember Barnes has the better players. The difference in athleticism between Big 12 kitties and the Jacks and Lopes was obvious) Their teams were better prepared, played to the game plan for the games, rose to the occasion, and beat the kitties. In fact Payne's squad opened up a can of whoop #@$ on the kitties and I had the sense that the kitties well they deflated down the stretch of that game to put it kindly.

If I were a kitty fan the Grand Canyon loss would be particular deflating. A home game that was close down the stretch with a really large crowd supporting the team and the Lopes out played the kitties when it really mattered. As I said it's my view that TSA was the deciding factor but Superior coaching was a close second.

So the kitties a mid-range Big 12 team got pounded by a Big Sky team and beaten at home in a close game by a WAC team. I think that's an illuminating coda when one evaluates Barnes.

With that said as an ASU fan I would take Barnes over Adair every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Of course that would only be after Payne and Miller rejected the job offer as any sane person would.

Later today I'm driving over to Phoenix to watch the Lopes play Utah State. I am continually impressed when I see well managed athletic programs and Grand Canyon is on the same level of U of A in that regard. It's a wonderful facility in Phoenix to watch a game and when school's in session they have really solid attendance and enthusiastic fans. The administration really does care and supports the team. I just got an email indicating that as a season ticket holder I was entitled to an additional free ticket for each of the remaining December games.

Going into Mckale Thursday night was a revelation. I got there early enough I was able to walk around and notice how they've honored their past successful athletes and it was the teddy bear toss. I didn't think it would stop raining stuffed animals lol. I've been at the ASU teddy bear toss and well it was pathetic 200 fans could only generate a tiny number of donations for deserving kids.

I agree with some of what you say. I'm not expecting any final fours any time soon. What Adia doesn't do is impose her game plan and insights onto the players. CVS had the same problem when we followed Rutgers, she would get so frustrated on the sideline, we sat behind the bench at Rutgers. Adia was very frustrated at times the other night, Arizona doesn't play with a lot of emotion, and almost every defeat the other team has emotion on their side. That said, Arizona plays hard and has very talented players.

We really had a chance to win against Grand Canyon. But instead of executing her game plan, players, especially Paris, froze, didn't know how to attack the defense Grand Canyon was playing and that was inexcusable. Because Adia did know, couldn't get them to do it. Plus our foul shooting was inexcusable (and not normal). I will say that more Swann would have helped, but she is really hurting, her non-shooting shoulder is apparently constant pain.

Cunningham was fine, she is still a bit foul prone. They can get the ball into her and most times they did she scored.