Week 9 - Jan 1 to 7

[CalWBBfan]

Cal takes down Washington 70-57.

 

[Plebe]

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.

Ha it's really not a new discovery for me; I just politely refrained from naming the culprit. Gottlieb is a very known quantity in this regard. Her Cal teams were pretty much the same way. I commented to my buddy that it reminded me of the Holly Warlick offense of dribble dribble dribble jack and pray and crash the boards.

Most teams win with the help of their coach; some teams win despite their coach. Truly amazing that with Beers finally playing a full quarter and Juju leaving for several minutes with another cramp, OSU lost the lead and USC nosed ahead for the win.

 

[Darwin]

Pilli injured in the Utah game.

 

[GoChips20]

Watkins is already a premiere national talent but 11-33 is YIKES.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Pilli injured in the Utah game.

Already missing Kneepkens, that's devastating if Pili is out for a while.

 

[HuskyFan1125]

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.

I was hesitant to say this but completely agree that Oregon State was the better team for much of the game but couldn’t pull it out. I wish players would practice mid range more. Some
Of those oregon state shots were open 3s and if they just took 1-2 steps closer in they could have had an easier shot but that’s a lot of teams today as they have adopted it from the NBA.

Oregon state has good guard play and post play so they may snag some big wins this season.

I also will miss PAC12 after dark. It’s been a regular Friday night thing to catch women’s basketball.

 

[cancontent]

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.

Played well while having to manage with just 7 players and foul trouble. Cunningham and Williams impressed me in how they handled themselves in this type of game. Gilbert was one hell of a spark plug too.

 

[LoTrader]

OSU Beavers are back. This game vs USC will toughen them, and with the young women on this team, they will gain much and improve.

 

[Plebe]

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

Pili only played 13 minutes, apparently took some kind of knock in the first half and didn't return to the game after that.

It's not clear to me what the injury was or whether she's likely to play tomorrow at UA.

 

[Bone Dog]

If I just looked at the numbers I could think Juju is another Caitlin. And in the sense that she’s carrying the offensive load for her team, she is, sort of. And Juju is an extraordinary offensive talent. But the differences are more striking, since Caitlin is a tremendous passer and this doesn’t strike one about Juju, at least not yet.

Now this may be a lack more attributable to Gottlieb’s coaching. But even though Bluder clearly gave Caitlin a green light to shoot at will, she is still a great passer. And Caitlin seems to have more to offer on defense, at least so far. I suspect Juju will develop and can’t wait to see it.

 

[Plebe]

This article from the Deseret News gives some information about what happened with Pili. It says she was held out of the 2nd half “for precautionary reasons,” but Coach Roberts is quite vocal about the physical play that Pili has been facing lately:

“It’s frustrating. Teams’ game plan is to beat the crap out of Pili and it’s frustrating because it’s the second game in a row she’s got hurt. And yeah, our officials need to protect her because just because she’s a big kid doesn’t mean she’s not getting the crap beat out of her,” Roberts said.​

Alissa Pili’s injury, and uncertain availability, clouds Utah’s frustrating win at Arizona State

‘That’s got to get fixed,’ Utah coach Lynne Roberts said about Pili ‘getting the crap beat out of her’ after leaving a second straight game with an injury.

www.deseret.com

 

[donalddoowop]

Pili only played 13 minutes, apparently took some kind of knock in the first half and didn't return to the game after that.

It's not clear to me what the injury was or whether she's likely to play tomorrow at UA.

Hey Plebe, when you get a chance, watch a Nebraska game. They have a 6'2" freshman named Natalie Potts from the same high school Napheesa graduated from, Incarnate Word Academy. She has been FOW at least twice. Did not lose a game her last three years in high school. If you do, let me know if you think she has the talent to play for UConn.

 

[Darwin]

Pili only played 13 minutes, apparently took some kind of knock in the first half and didn't return to the game after that.

It's not clear to me what the injury was or whether she's likely to play tomorrow at UA.

I read this morning she received a scratch to her eye.

 

[Centerstream]

This article from the Deseret News gives some information about what happened with Pili. It says she was held out of the 2nd half “for precautionary reasons,” but Coach Roberts is quite vocal about the physical play that Pili has been facing lately:

“It’s frustrating. Teams’ game plan is to beat the crap out of Pili and it’s frustrating because it’s the second game in a row she’s got hurt. And yeah, our officials need to protect her because just because she’s a big kid doesn’t mean she’s not getting the crap beat out of her,” Roberts said.​

Isn't this a problem in all of WBB? It seems that each year the "physicality" gets worse as more and more name players are getting beat up and the refs pick and choose when they will allow it.

 

[visitingcock]

I read this morning she received a scratch to her eye.

Hope it’s minor and won’t affect her outside game.

 

[Plebe]

I read this morning she received a scratch to her eye.

I just went back and watched the play (it's at 2:10 left in 2Q).

It's hard to tell what happened but she didn't really react as one normally does to an eye scratch. Appeared she may have bumped her head and/or taken some knock to the leg. She left the court with a slight limp but also looked a little "shaken" and misty-eyed as one would after a head knock.

Nothing really malicious about the play, just players jumping and colliding for a 50-50 rebound is what I saw. One could argue that when the shot first went up she was impeded by her defender as she cut toward the lane, but that wasn't what caused the injury per se.

 

[LoTrader]

This article from the Deseret News gives some information about what happened with Pili. It says she was held out of the 2nd half “for precautionary reasons,” but Coach Roberts is quite vocal about the physical play that Pili has been facing lately:

“It’s frustrating. Teams’ game plan is to beat the crap out of Pili and it’s frustrating because it’s the second game in a row she’s got hurt. And yeah, our officials need to protect her because just because she’s a big kid doesn’t mean she’s not getting the crap beat out of her,” Roberts said.​

Alissa Pili’s injury, and uncertain availability, clouds Utah’s frustrating win at Arizona State

‘That’s got to get fixed,’ Utah coach Lynne Roberts said about Pili ‘getting the crap beat out of her’ after leaving a second straight game with an injury.

www.deseret.com

Exact same observation with Raegan Beers when it comes to the PAC-12 officials

 

[Plebe]

Exact same observation with Raegan Beers when it comes to the PAC-12 officials

Well, luckily for Oregon State they won't have to worry about Pac-12 officiating after this year.

 

[Plebe]

OSU Beavers are back. This game vs USC will toughen them, and with the young women on this team, they will gain much and improve.

I've noted elsewhere that the Oregon schools play the toughest possible Pac-12 schedule, facing USC, UCLA, Utah, Colorado and Stanford twice each.

For Oregon, this will almost certainly bury them in sub-.500 territory and make them ineligible for even the WNIT.

But for Oregon State, this will actually benefit their resume because it means they have 10 shots at high-quality wins, 5 of them at home, and I expect them to win at least a few of them. Since their OOC schedule was basically a nothing sandwich, OSU needs the quality wins and their conference slate maximizes their opportunities.

 

[GoChips20]

If I just looked at the numbers I could think Juju is another Caitlin. And in the sense that she’s carrying the offensive load for her team, she is, sort of. And Juju is an extraordinary offensive talent. But the differences are more striking, since Caitlin is a tremendous passer and this doesn’t strike one about Juju, at least not yet.

Now this may be a lack more attributable to Gottlieb’s coaching. But even though Bluder clearly gave Caitlin a green light to shoot at will, she is still a great passer. And Caitlin seems to have more to offer on defense, at least so far. I suspect Juju will develop and can’t wait to see it.

I agree with everything else you said but do you really think Caitlin is a better defender? Watkins is averaging 4.4 steals+blocks a game while Clark is at 2.0. Stats aren’t everything of course but to my eye Watkins offers significantly more commitment and effort on that end of the floor.

 

[GoChips20]

Watkins is probably the media favorite but I think Hidalgo is the clear NFOY so far. Nearly equal in scoring and rebounding but a more efficient shooter and more productive passer while also leading the nation in steals by a significant margin.

 

[Plebe]

The quote of the night came from the analyst of the Iowa-Rutgers broadcast. Late in 4Q, they were showing a team's upcoming schedule and she enthusiastically exclaimed, “There’s no easy game on the schedule for anyone!” Meanwhile Iowa was blowing out Rutgers by 40 and on cruise control the entire second half.

Gotta love these conference homer rah-rah networks. BTN is usually the least egregious of them but this quote was a gem.

 

[Hester42]

Watkins is probably the media favorite but I think Hidalgo is the clear NFOY so far. Nearly equal in scoring and rebounding but a more efficient shooter and more productive passer while also leading the nation in steals by a significant margin.

If you truly look at production, not just scoring points Hidalgo been been the most productive when you look at scoring, rebounds, assists, steals, etc.

I'd vote her over Juju (who is great), Hidalgo is just more valuable on the defensive end (generating lots of steals) and creating (assists). Rebounding is basically a wash between the two.

 

[Vowelguy]

10 Texas vs undefeated 24 WV and you need ESPN+ to view

B12 TV contract about as bad as the P12 one

 

[triaddukefan]

If you thought the Mighty Panthers of High Point would start off 0-2 in conference action, then you better think again. Grad transfer Lauren Bevis led the way with 32 against her former school. High Point defeats Gardner-Webb 74-64

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We back on the prowl