Week 9 - Dec 30 to Jan 5

[Vowelguy]

Rutgers better waive the white flag. First half was lopsided, but got worse in a hurry w/ 11-0 run by USC in the first 90 seconds to open the second half.

edit--17-2 in 2 minutes

Rutgers needed to waive the white flag about 10 years ago. The AD screwed up big time in not getting CVS to retire sooner. Those last few years ran the program into a ditch that it hasn’t been able to recover from.

 

[UConnCat]

Someone went from Creighton to colorado st??

Ronsiek transferred to play with her sister at CSU.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Rutgers needed to waive the white flag about 10 years ago. The AD screwed up big time in not getting CVS to retire sooner. Those last few years ran the program into a ditch that it hasn’t been able to recover from.

And Coquese was an...interesting choice tasked w/ trying to lead the recovery. She had a nice run for several years during the middle of her tenure at Penn St., but it's been over a decade since she's been the head coach of a team w/ any relevancy.

 

[Vowelguy]

USC 71-26 in the 4th

 

[UConnCat]

Stanford travels east to play a conference game in Texas (SMU) and then on to South Carolina (Clemson) and loses both games. Isn't playing in the ACC great?

 

[TheFarmFan]

Stanford travels east to play a conference game in Texas (SMU) and then on to South Carolina (Clemson) and loses both games. Isn't playing in the ACC great?

Our Top 5 all-time HOF coach of 35 seasons retired, 2/3 of our scoring from last season graduated or transferred, we don't have a top 10 recruit on the roster for the first time in almost a decade, our only real post player getting minutes is generously 6'2", and - by nature of the institution - our school is guaranteed to lose out in the "reload via NIL and portal" era. Traveling time zones is the least of my worries.

 

[Baller29]

Our Top 5 all-time HOF coach of 35 seasons retired, 2/3 of our scoring from last season graduated or transferred, we don't have a top 10 recruit on the roster for the first time in almost a decade, our only real post player getting minutes is generously 6'2", and - by nature of the institution - our school is guaranteed to lose out in the "reload via NIL and portal" era. Traveling time zones is the least of my worries.

Stanford has a top tier class. Will definitely need to try their best (with limitations academically at a school like Stanford) to beef up the roster in spots

 

[Plebe]

Take it easy on them, they are in rebuilding mode

Pitt singlehandedly debunking the common refrain and proving, beyond any doubt, that there is indeed such a thing as "nights -- or weeks, months, years -- off in the ACC".

They do, however, get a lifetime achievement award for sending Muffet into retirement.

 

[UConnCat]

Our Top 5 all-time HOF coach of 35 seasons retired, 2/3 of our scoring from last season graduated or transferred, we don't have a top 10 recruit on the roster for the first time in almost a decade, our only real post player getting minutes is generously 6'2", and - by nature of the institution - our school is guaranteed to lose out in the "reload via NIL and portal" era. Traveling time zones is the least of my worries.

Understood, but Stanford lost to SMU and Clemson, not ND and Duke. Road trips to South Bend and Durham are coming, of course.

 

[TheFarmFan]

Understood, but Stanford lost to SMU and Clemson, not ND and Duke. Road trips to South Bend and Durham are coming, of course.

I think you're missing my point - we'd have been equally likely to lose on the road to Utah, Colorado, Arizona or Oregon, none of which are particularly good this year - precisely because of all the factors at issue. No universe we'd lose at Clemson or SMU it we had Tara, Brink, Iriafen, Jump, and Lepolo. The travel is not ideal, but it's not even among my top 5 concerns this year.

 

[Plebe]

Understood, but Stanford lost to SMU and Clemson, not ND and Duke. Road trips to South Bend and Durham are coming, of course.

In theory it should balance out to the extent that for every road game out east, someone has to make the trip out west to play Stanford and Cal.

All in all, just a super weird dynamic in this bizarre elephant-man of a non-Atlantic conference that has become a microcosm of college sports dystopia.

 

[triaddukefan]

Pitt singlehandedly debunking the common refrain and proving, beyond any doubt, that there is indeed such a thing as "nights -- or weeks, months, years -- off in the ACC".

They do, however, get a lifetime achievement award for sending Muffet into retirement.

Well technically, the game started at noon

No nights off. A few afternoons off though

 

[azfan]

Elephant-man of a non-Atlantic conference that has become a microcosm of college sports dystopia.

I've been thinking about this development/observation since the season began.

The transformation at the power 4, some mid majors and elite schools has indeed been profound and had a number of positive and negative consequences.

I wonder about the vast majority of college athletes however. Thinking about the Big Sky and the WAC while there has been turmoil and change in terms of conference realignment and some level of transfer I've not noted a significant change at either Grand Canyon or NAU or the conferences in which they play. And the changes that are taking place seem to make sense outside of the new world of transfer portal and nil.

Grand Canyon is a representative example. The two UNLV players who arrived in Phoenix arrived by both the transfer portal and as graduate transfer. GCU is leaving the WAC to go to the West Coast Conference, no after accepting membership in the WCC they made the decision to join the Mountain West Conference. Unlike the former pac-12 schools Grand Canyon does have financial considerations impacting travel and the Mountain West seems to be more natural place for the Lopes. I'm delighted as the Mountain West Network streams at no monetary cost so I'll be able to drop ESPN Plus. Getting to see the Lopes play UNLV it is definitely an upgrade over Tarleton Tate.

Am I wrong in observing and assuming that for the vast majority of athletes, let's take women's basketball as an example, there will be minimal impact?

 

[Ozimoto]

And Maryland did their best to fend Iowa off. They seem to have a habit of letting teams back in to have a chance after establishing double digit leads. It could bite them in the end if it continues.

Maryland has a history of this going back many seasons.

 

[Bigboote]

Maryland has a history of this going back many seasons.

I said earlier in the thread that I wasn’t sold on Maryland’s high ranking. After watching last night’s game, I’m still not sold. For such a high-scoring team, the offense is really messy.

 

[typhaon]

It's early, but we could have an interesting battle developing between Quinnipiac and Fairfield for MAAC supremacy.

Earlier in the year, I joked about Fairfield being able to contend for the MAAC title, even if they lost their starting 5.

Well... my bad on the jinx... as they've lost 2 of their opening game starters (1 for the season -> 23-24 PotY Nellie Brown - and 1 hasn't played since the first game) and another key player has been down since mid-Nov, along with a slew of other game-to-game injuries/illnesses.

The good news is that they should be getting some relief, soon, with a returner or two.

Interesting game coming up Thursday vs. Iona, who has started conference play (4-0). Could just be the product of a hot shooting half, some close wins, and a favorable schedule or they might be a surprise.

 

[ISUnorth]

Utah gonna get a decent win @ Iowa St. They have that bad loss to Northwestern, but otherwise have been solid.


Am I crazy in starting to wonder if Crooks is one of those players who gets her big numbers, but doesn't really make a team better?

Think you right. Add in she is a pretty big liability of defense. At the end of the game yesterday they were shuffling her in and out of the game, in on offense and out on defensive if there was a break to do it.

 

[BRS24]

Onto week 10!