Week 9 - Dec 30 to Jan 5

[Stagnant]

Oh wow. Is Arizona state actually going to win a conference game??

 

[nwhoopfan]

Arizona has lost a whole bunch of transfers the last 3-4 years. Plenty of them have been impactful other places. I just can't stop thinking how they could have both Madison Conner and Anna Gret Asi in their back court right now. That would be 2 deadly 3 point shooters that would be pretty darn hard for any team to come up with a good defensive strategy against.

 

[azfan]

I would still say you are a bit harsh. Every coach has flaws. Adia's have seemed throughout her tenure to be how she handles players. She does play favorites (and so do many coaches). She "can" get a team on one page on the court, only to have off court issues interfere. The defense has been excellent, over all, and was against Utah. But for some reason, the offense - even against the weak OOC schedule - is disjointed. It resembles the CVS Rutgers offense we watched for 15 years in person. The background issues are different, I think, but the result - wild shot late in the shot clock - is exactly the same. Too much dribbling vs. too much passing. Afraid of shooting because Vivian would be mad you took a bad shot vs. afraid to shoot and miss and not look good.

And Kia Vaughn who went on to a long career in the WNBA had some of Cunningham's issues, but she improved faster.

Adia isn't fooled by the results of the weak schedule. I personally don't agree with this year's scheduling (and neither did the team's beat writer) but it was ultimately to get wins (and it didn't work so well as a plan, exactly what the beat writer worried about). She argued that playing a tougher schedule doesn't necessary reward you.

Oh well, I still think (like Rutgers in the day) that Arizona will pull out some unexpected wins. We will see.

To quote Loophole Lloyd Benson, I watched Stringer coach, I watched Stringer win.....Barnes is not to be mentioned in the same breath as Viv

So,

Off court issues

wild shot late in the shot clock -

To much dribbling vs. too much passing.

Afraid of shoot


Hummmmmm....... If it's harsh to attribute these repeated deficiencies on the court to flawed coaching then I wonder what adjective one would pick?

I'm thinking back to last month when Grand Canyon traveled down to McKale and Molly Miller coached a tremendous game. At the risk of being overly harsh Molly Miller out coached Barnes and her players out played the kitties.

The more important point here is the dirty t is an outstanding basketball town with fans that really show up and support their team. It appeared that when Barnes arrived with McDonald the kitties were going to be led out of the wilderness. It appears that Barnes was able to lead the kitties out of mediocrity and now they appear stuck in average. (Or at the risk of being overly harsh below average)

 

[azfan]

Arizona has lost a whole bunch of transfers the last 3-4 years. Plenty of them have been impactful other places. I just can't stop thinking how they could have both Madison Conner and Anna Gret Asi in their back court right now. That would be 2 deadly 3 point shooters that would be pretty darn hard for any team to come up with a good defensive strategy against.

Any responsibility on the part of the head coach?

 

[azfan]

Oh wow. Is Arizona state actually going to win a conference game??

Ikr. The Walk of shame by Texas Tech is going to be long and painful.

With a win over Houston the Devils will be on a three-game winning streak. Interesting that Ice Brown was not on the court in the previous win or this afternoon's victories and I'm wondering if she'll make the trip to Houston. Is it possible ASU is a better team without the run and gun Ice Brown.

Takeaways

Obviously Texas Tech is a horrible road team as their other two losses are also on the road losng to ASU is what the kids would call a bad loss a really bad loss.

ASU may well be better without Brown

 

[Plebe]

Arizona State is the hottest team in the country! Or at least in the eastern half of the Phoenix metropolitan area...

With their dominant win over one-time national champion Texas Tech, the Sun Devils are tied for 2nd place in the Big 12. The national media is abuzz with excitement and rumor has it that a contract extension for Adair is in the works.

Am I close, @azfan ?

 

[Stagnant]

Sign Adair to an extension before an SEC team poaches her!

 

[nwhoopfan]

Arizona State is the hottest team in the country! Or at least in the eastern half of the Phoenix metropolitan area...

With their dominant win over one-time national champion Texas Tech, the Sun Devils are tied for 2nd place in the Big 12. The national media is abuzz with excitement and rumor has it that a contract extension for Adair is in the works.

Am I close, @azfan ?

This is much funnier when you do it to someone else rather than me!


Hey, North Carolina Central wants to be in that hottest team conversation. Also on a 2 game winning streak.

 

[triaddukefan]

A lot of schools that I pull for in NC/SC played down this week.. like vs NAIA, D2 and D3 squads. In the backyard brawls throw out the record book games... UNC-Asheville hosted nearby Brevard College (My Tornadoes) and you know when a Bulldog meets a Tornado, anything can happen. The Bulldogs won 79-45. Presbyterian played Newberry, and when the Presbyterians and the Lutherans meet up.. well... its not always pretty. The Blue Hose squeaked by 53-43. In the SoCon.. UNC-Greensboro thrashed Greensboro College (My Pride) 104-21 Western Carolina defeated Southern Wesleyan 112-53 Last but not least, in the CAA NC A&T sliced up the Pickles of Mt Olive 100-42. Elon defeated Lees Mcrae 97-53. In summary, it was a really bad week for the Methodists, Wesleyans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Baptists

I know why the bigger schools do it because their conference seasons dont start up until this weekend and they want to give the players a easy game after the holiday break.

 

[triaddukefan]

This is much funnier when you do it to someone else rather than me!


Hey, North Carolina Central wants to be in that hottest team conversation. Also on a 2 game winning streak.

I was just about to post that. That actually is a decent win.. Furman has had a respectable program in the past.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Any responsibility on the part of the head coach?

Of course. Many teams have lost a bunch of transfers in recent years. I feel like the revolving door started at UA before the transfer portal really went crazy though.


Thinking on it for a second, Barnes built her initial success in Tucson almost entirely on incoming transfers.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Wasn't pretty but TCU beat Colorado. Prince hasn't been as dominant as she was early in the season. 3's weren't dropping for Conner. Van Lith had a pretty decent game. I think Emma-Nnopu has been a steadying influence for them. Missed a few games and then needed a bit to get in the flow of things.

 

[Stagnant]

I don't know how Villanova lost that one to Seton Hall. Total choke.

 

[Plebe]

I don't know how Villanova lost that one to Seton Hall. Total choke.

A 5-second call on an inbound play, missing two free throws with 7 seconds left ... but the most unforgivable thing was getting beat on a rim run even though no one was at the lane during the free throws. How does that happen? SMDH

Maybe it was a bit of cosmic justice in that I really thought Seton Hall got the brunt of a bad call and a bad no-call in the last couple minutes.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Of course. Many teams have lost a bunch of transfers in recent years. I feel like the revolving door started at UA before the transfer portal really went crazy though.


Thinking on it for a second, Barnes built her initial success in Tucson almost entirely on incoming transfers.

While she had some key transfers like McDonald, the core of her best teams were recruited, assisted by transfers. Then she started to over collect transfers, then she changed her philosophy. Cunningham, Dew, Jones, Williams and Swann are all recruits, as well as 2 foreign players. Beh is originally a transfer, but was recruited to return for her extra year.

The transfers left for a bunch of reasons, some with Barnes blessing, some not so willingly, some were big losses, some not so much. It all comes back to what is really my core disagreement with the coaching - the handling of the players. Yeah, Conner was great, but was only a sub and never given any indication she would be more than that. Gret Asi never got a look in Tucson. Adia has wanted players to wait their turn, and that just isn't the way it is. I like Isis Beh a lot, but is she really a starter? And Paulina Paris just doesn't do it for me.

Rather than take up more of the thread with a separate post - just a comment for @azfan - we were season ticket holders from when Vivian arrived at Rutgers until we moved west. We were one of 10 fans at Rutgers WNIT win about 10 years back. While she probably couldn't have named us, Viv knew us, as we attended many away games, have a mutual friend, my wife was active in the fan club, etc. We were also part of the table of fans at her WBB Hall of Fame induction, and while we could never have afforded to attend her Springfield induction, we did receive a personal gift from one of her former assistants commemorating that event. I said - and will stand by it - that some of the in-game issues we saw at Rutgers are not hugely different from what we see at Arizona. As I said, the background causes are not quite the same, but they caused Vivian what we called the CViv headache just as they do to Adia.

And regarding the injured ref - we had that happen at Rutgers years ago, Denise Brooks I think but am not sure. Running and tore her ACL. Got up, tried to run, and nope. Out the rest of the season, obviously. She's still around, FWIW, having survived some serious medical issues a few years back as well.

 

[nwhoopfan]

While she had some key transfers like McDonald, the core of her best teams were recruited, assisted by transfers.

Really? I'd say the opposite. Without Aari the whole thing would've never gotten off the ground to begin with. In addition to her you had McBryde, Starks, Pellington, Carter, Baptiste. Compare that to the impact recruited players on those same teams, I think you are basically talking about Thomas, Reese and maybe Pueyo. It's no contest the transfers played a bigger role in the initial success during Barnes' tenure.

Eventually she got less returns going to the transfer well w/ players like Yeaney, Chavez, Love, Copeland, Martinez, Loville, Fields...etc. I kinda lost track of how many incoming transfers were on the roster last year and this year.

 

[azfan]

Arizona State is the hottest team in the country! Or at least in the eastern half of the Phoenix metropolitan area...

With their dominant win over one-time national champion Texas Tech, the Sun Devils are tied for 2nd place in the Big 12. The national media is abuzz with excitement and rumor has it that a contract extension for Adair is in the works.

Am I close, @azfan ?

Lol..... With a win over the Cougars on the horizon Adair might be in the running for Coach of the Year?

I suspect her agent is in contact with the AD and developer who runs ASU for a contract extension perhaps on the order of Geno's?

 

[azfan]

7pm tip (ESPN plus) tonight in Pocatello as NAU tries to right the ship after three losses in their last four games. This is the Big Sky opener and I'm feeling a little nervous given the recent performance of the Jacks.

Sophie Glancy and Aubrey Taylor will certainly have friends and family in the house as they return home.

ISU has three players shooting over 40% from three land which is a cause of concern given the lack of focus on defense that's characterized NAU play this year.

While Taylor Feldman is coming off the a 25 point performance in the loss to Grand Canyon the key to getting back on track is rebounding and a strong performance by Glancy and the Moran twins in the paint.

 

[Plebe]

Patiently awaiting the OU-Texas game ... but yikes, so many dull and mostly one-sided games in the ACC and SEC today. It's worse than watching the CFP.

Cal and Stanford are already loving the fact that they get to play 45% of their conference games 2 or 3 time zones away from home.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Drake was having some trouble with Illinois-Chicago, then Dinnebier said enough of that. Absolutely took over the 3rd quarter and Drake ran away with it. Becker went off too.

 

[triaddukefan]

Cal learned tonight that there are NO NIGHTS OFF in the ACC

 

[triaddukefan]

 

[triaddukefan]

Sorry BC, you can blame South Florida for that arse whipping tonight.

86-59 for the ladies in blue

 

[Plebe]

Sorry BC, you can blame South Florida for that arse whipping tonight.

It's Boston College, losing badly is their middle name.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Cal learned tonight that there are NO NIGHTS OFF in the ACC

They shoulda tipped off Stanford, looks like they are currently learning the same lesson.