Week 9 - Jan 1 to 7

[Hester42]

In all fairness, the loss of Smith must have put a serious dent in Kim's roster planning. Though I'm not sure what the starting lineup would have looked like with Smith. But letting Reese play outside of the C position would have added an interesting dynamic. On the other hand, it might have required some sort of platoon for Morrow, which might not have gone over so well. Could Kim have played a lineup that started Reese Morrow and Smith together? Sounds slow, especially with Haley Van Lith at pg.

I'm sure it could work in spurts, Reese/Morrow/Smith are 'athletic' bigs who can get out and defend on the perimeter well. Not the Kalani Brown type of bigs Mulkey had at Baylor.

But yes it would have been a bit slower when you add Hailey Van Lith into the mix.

I say if Smith was healthy, she or Morrow would be coming off the bench, I don't think its a starting lineup with all of those bigs. Morrow didn't get into a roll and find herself at LSU until the Cayman Islands, since then she has seemed to found her identify and groove at LSU (even with the return of Reese/Hailey Van Lith).

For me though I think the key to LSU's team this year and the glue to the team is Flaujae Johnson, she just does it all. I've enjoyed her growth from year one to year two. She dramatically cut down those turnovers and is a all around player now. Scores, rebounds, defends, creates for teammates

 

[Plebe]

I say if Smith was healthy, she or Morrow would be coming off the bench, I don't think its a starting lineup with all of those bigs. Morrow didn't get into a roll and find herself at LSU until the Cayman Islands, since then she has seemed to found her identify and groove at LSU (even with the return of Reese/Hailey Van Lith).

In the early games in which all 3 played, either Smith or Morrow came off the bench but still played starters' minutes.

 

[Vowelguy]

I can believe no one has discussed “Dress like Kim Mulkey” night at yesterday’s game.

No reports of anyone going blind.

 

[Plebe]

I can believe no one has discussed “Dress like Kim Mulkey” night at yesterday’s game.

No reports of anyone going blind.

It ended up in the SEC Opening Night thread:

LSU's 'Dress Like Kim Mulkey' night had fans channeling Tigers women's basketball coach

Kim Mulkey's style is all her own. That didn't stop LSU women's basketball fans from showing up and emulating the Tigers basketball coach on Thursday.

www.usatoday.com

 

[Plebe]

I can believe no one has discussed “Dress like Kim Mulkey” night at yesterday’s game.

No reports of anyone going blind.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Iowa thrashed Rutgers. Triple double for Caitlin, "only" 29 points. Is she a threat to finish #2 behind Sabrina for career triple doubles? I would think she's in the neighborhood. Looks like Marshall and Martin found their shooting touch for this game.

 

[Plebe]

Iowa thrashed Rutgers. Triple double for Caitlin, "only" 29 points. Is she a threat to finish #2 behind Sabrina for career triple doubles? I would think she's in the neighborhood. Looks like Marshall and Martin found their shooting touch for this game.

Clark is already #2. Ionescu had 26, Clark is now at 14. Third place all time is 9.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Clark is already #2. Ionescu had 26, Clark is now at 14. Third place all time is 9.

Oops, I need a Homer Simpson "Doh!" gif.

 

[TheFarmFan]

Any regular Boneyarder knows Kim is far from my favorite, but give credit where credit is due - this is pretty humorously self-deprecating:

"Look like Kim Mulkey night or something? That's a scary a** thought"

 

[Hester42]

Arizona/Colorado was amazing game. AZ has a lot of great young talent but Colorado escapes

 

[LETTERL]

Arizona/Colorado was amazing game. AZ has a lot of great young talent but Colorado escapes

I loved Adia Barnes going through the handshake line. All smiles...knowing her team played as well as it could and just came up 1 point short.

I am going to miss the Pac 12 on Friday nights next season. I hope the destination conferences for some of these Pac 12 teams arrange something to entertain us all on Friday nights next season.

 

[Plebe]

Any regular Boneyarder knows Kim is far from my favorite, but give credit where credit is due - this is pretty humorously self-deprecating:

Another favorite of mine was “I'd sure hate to see who thinks they look like me” — there is something so Southern about that quip and I love it.

 

[Bigboote]

I find it shocking that this was the first triple-double in UNC WBB history. With all those great players they've had come through the program back in the day.

I’m kicking myself for not watching that last night. I just love Ustby.

 

[TheFarmFan]

I’m kicking myself for not watching that last night. I just love Ustby.

I recall that we recruited her pretty hard. I feel like she's the kind of player Tara would rave about for four years straight...

 

[nwhoopfan]

Utah beat Arizona St. fairly handily despite Pili not scoring much.

UCLA is running away from Oregon, we've got a couple close games...and then my stinking Huskies have regressed badly from early in the season, back to the gang that can't shoot straight and can't score. I thought those days were done, this was supposed to be a more talented group. 7 straight years of paltry offense is getting REALLY old.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I recall that we recruited her pretty hard. I feel like she's the kind of player Tara would rave about for four years straight...

Yeah, she kinda has that Hull tenacity to her, doesn't she?

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Arizona/Colorado was amazing game. AZ has a lot of great young talent but Colorado escapes

Very exciting. As Adia said, it wasn't the player that missed the shot at the buzzer's fault, as there were defensive issues in the first half, and while she didn't say it, her expression said it all on 2 very ill-taken 3 point shots late in the game.

 

[LETTERL]

Oregon State had two shots at a last second shot and fell just a little short. USC holds serve at home, 56-54.

I guess the Beavers are back.

 

[nwhoopfan]

UCLA 75-49 over Oregon.
Stanford 74-65 against Washington St.
Cal beat Washington 70-57 (6 point 2nd quarter for the Dawgs...I guess that's my karma for making fun of Duke last night)

USC-Oregon St. going down to the wire

 

[visitingcock]

Utah beat Arizona St. fairly handily despite Pili not scoring much.

UCLA is running away from Oregon, we've got a couple close games...and then my stinking Huskies have regressed badly from early in the season, back to the gang that can't shoot straight and can't score. I thought those days were done, this was supposed to be a more talented group. 7 straight years of paltry offense is getting REALLY old.

Pili only took 5 shots? Only one 3 point shot?
Utah and AZ state scored only 8 points each in the 4th quarter?

 

[nwhoopfan]

Oregon State had two shots at a last second shot and fell just a little short. USC holds serve at home, 56-54.

I guess the Beavers are back.

They led most of the game but couldn't seal the deal.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Saturday is a second round of the Big Sky-Summit League Challenge. Looks like almost everybody gets 2 games. Interesting. That's not how these challenges usually work.

 

[Hester42]

They led most of the game but couldn't seal the deal.

All of OSUs bigs were basically a non factor and that is prob the difference in OSU not pulling it off.

 

[Plebe]

Weird game. Oregon State actually looked to me like the better team TBH. TVO and Hunter impressed. Beers played limited minutes in the first 3 quarters due to foul trouble, but OSU seemed to play well without her. I kept thinking if Beers can just stay on the court they would win easily. Well, she played the entire 4Q ... and OSU lost. So what do I know.

USC is frustrating for me to watch. Not sure I've seen so many contested long 2-point shots taken by any team in one game. There were a few occasions where if I squinted really hard I thought I saw some semblance of a half court offense, but it wasn't easy to spot. Padilla can shoot the 3 and on the rare occasions when Juju or Forbes actually looked to pass, she hit some big shots.

Watkins had some great plays but also forced a ton of bad shots, finished with 28 points on 11 of 33 shooting. Forbes and Marshall combined for 5 of 21. Padilla was the X factor hitting 4 of 5 from three.

 

[TheFarmFan]

Weird game. Oregon State actually looked to me like the better team TBH. TVO and Hunter impressed. Beers played limited minutes in the first 3 quarters due to foul trouble, but OSU seemed to play well without her. I kept thinking if Beers can just stay on the court they would win easily. Well, she played the entire 4Q ... and OSU lost. So what do I know.

USC is frustrating for me to watch. Not sure I've seen so many contested long 2-point shots taken by any team in one game. There were a few occasions where if I squinted really hard I thought I saw some semblance of a half court offense, but it wasn't easy to spot. Padilla can shoot the 3 and on the rare occasions when Juju or Forbes actually looked to pass, she hit some big shots.

Watkins had some great plays but also forced a ton of bad shots, finished with 28 points on 11 of 33 shooting. Forbes and Marshall combined for 5 of 21. Padilla was the X factor hitting 4 of 5 from three.

You're discovering what we in the Pac-12 long ago learned: while Gottlieb is an awesome person, a great mentor, and a charismatic spokesperson for women's basketball, she's actually neither a particularly good Xs & Os coach, nor an especially potent player development coach. I've yet to see a U$C game that she's coached that's featured consistent, coherent offensive sets. Yes, you have Juju, but that just can't be your plans A, B, and C when you have relatively little natural shooting talent behind her. Last season, her team had a ton of physical talent that kept them in a lot of low scoring games, but it felt like they were just jacking stuff up and praying it would go in.