Who wins this weekend? #6 Notre Dame at #3 U$C, #1 SCAR at #5 fUCLA

[Gamecockfan77]

Agree. Hall and R.Johnson need to make way for T.Johnson and Fulwiley. I’d also favor Joyce edwards over Faegin.

Without the dominant interior player, Dawn needs to tighten her rotation. There is way less margin. Her starters got blitzed and that essentially was game.

Fulwiley has played terribly to start the season.

Just bad decision after bad decision.

Pao is the one who has played well every time out.

Weird mix of players lacking co fence and having too much of it.

Cardoso was grossly underrated, which we knew, but seems like the supporting cast might have gone a little the other way.

Everyone is playing a position too big in a game like that.

 

[Stagnant]

i think Watkins will replace either Feagin or Kitts in the starting lineup after a few more games and a few more practices.

 

[Bone Dog]

It looked to me like Kitts was exposed, too slow, not strong enough, to play power forward. Something similar with Hall, and Raven at PG.

Dawn could favor Tessa more -- she's been a favorite of mine since her hs years -- and it wouldn't disrupt much of Dawn's game planning. But she's already playing 24 minutes.

I don't exactly know who to blame for the poor PG play. Only 13 assists? Of course, UCLA only had 16. The thing is, if the team isn't built around a dominant front court, it needs much better guard play, and they didn't get it today. Maybe haven't gotten it yet this season.

Dawn appears to be cursed with a long bench and not enough PGs, though she has great SGs. Could McDaniel get more minutes at PG? She led the team in assists.

As for UCLA, they shot a little better. But they looked pretty disorganized to me. Maybe I missed all the incredible plays when I got up to make a sandwich. But mostly they looked like they weren't all running the same play or they had not enough experience in a read-and-react offense. I suppose they played pretty good defense, but I just didn't feel impressed.

On Betts, she hit a 15 footer, which has not been a significant part of her game so far. She needs to develop this for the next level, so I'm glad to see it now. She got a few blocks and had a few turnovers. But she ought to have been even more of a presence than she was, or that UCLA's guards let her be. 14 pts in 37 mins? That's not making good use of her.

And where were the other bigs on either team? Barker? Dugalic? Gardiner? So far it look like it's just Betts and Jaquez and a few confused guards. I know, I'm being too hard on them. Rice and Jones played ok. But they were outclassed by a freshman, Aarnisalo. How does that happen? It sure wasn't because SC knocked them off their game.

And on SC, what happened to Walker, Tac, Dauda??? And Kitts and Feagin seemed like no-shows. It's time for Dawn to focus on Watkins and Edwards as the starters and give the others reserve minutes. She's gotten into the habit of playing a long rotation all year long. That may not serve the team so well this year. Right now, it looks like the group that's earned starting minutes is PaoPao, Tessa, Mcdaniel, Edwards and Watkins. Those 5 ought to be the core. That's a dynamite lineup and by February they should be playing 30 mins each.

 

[bbsamjj]

This was only Rice's second game of the year, coming off a shoulder injury. Seems like she is well on her way to being back in form.

 

[From Canada]

UCLA is going to cause match up problems all year. I thought their defense was quite active and effective. Glad to see Kiki was gifted a running mate at guard with Charlese Leger-Walker still rehabbing. Aarnisalo was a revelation.

Aarnisalo was a revelation

Elina Aarnisalo Career Stats - NCAAW - ESPN

Complete career NCAAW stats for the UCLA Bruins Guard Elina Aarnisalo on ESPN. Includes points, rebounds, and assists.

www.espn.com

Elina Aarnisalo is Finnish, and was probably spotted at the 2022 European U18 Championship. Finland finished this competition in 7th place, which wasn't enough to qualify for the 2023 U19 World Championship. She had a good tournament, and she's not the only one on her team to have caught the eye of American university recruiters. Like her, Elsa Lemmila 6'6'' is starting her first NCAA year with Ohio State.

European championships are always interesting for recruiters. There's more parity between countries, and basketball is increasingly popular on the old continent, with over a million fans attending the Paris games - a record. U16 and U18 championships are held every year. Three championships in all, A (16 countries) B around 20 and C from 8 to 12. I haven't seen any statistics, but I'd be inclined to believe that the number of international players is constantly rising in the NCAA.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Elsa Lemmila Career Stats - NCAAW - ESPN

Complete career NCAAW stats for the Ohio State Buckeyes Center Elsa Lemmila on ESPN. Includes points, rebounds, and assists.

www.espn.com

Finland - FIBA U18 Women's European Championship | FIBA Basketball Events

Finland - All leaders, participating players & roster, game results and stats from FIBA U18 Women's European Championship

www.fiba.basketball

 

[Blueballer]

Bad loss for South Carolina. They were never in the game. I think Dawn needs to drop the favouritism and start playing the best players.

I'm not sure there's a "good loss" option for a team ranked number one. I guess the fact it was on the road is something. As other people have said they probably shouldn't have been preseason 1 anyway. Cardoso not being there is a hard piece to replace. They're not going anywhere though. Still a probable final four team.

 

[JellyBean]

South Carolina took a loss today. Early in the season, you never know what you are going to get. South Carolina will learn from this moment and build on it. Coach Staley been in the game too long to know that one loss does not define your team or season. South Carolina will regroup and learn from this moment; Plus, like she said in her post game, her team got a taste of medicine. They were on the receiving end this time. You learn from it and move on.

Hats off to Coach Close and her UCLA squad. Huge win for them and their confidence. Much like Coach Staley, huge as this win was for UCLA, they can't get too comfortable. They have to build on it. They know that they have the pieces in place to be really good or just happy to beat the #1 team on 11/24/24 and fall back into mediocrity. The season is young folks.

 

[Bigboote]

I’m glad I didn’t post a few days ago that there’s clearly SCar, UConn, then everyone else. I did think about it.

Kudos to the 11 who got it right. I only batted .500.

 

[jake0414]

Hats off to Coach Close and her UCLA squad. Huge win for them and their confidence. Much like Coach Staley, huge as this win was for UCLA, they can't get too comfortable. They have to build on it. They know that they have the pieces in place to be really good or just happy to beat the #1 team on 11/24/24 and fall back into mediocrity. The season is young folks.

Close said exactly that in her presser - great win but it’s only November 24. Need to continue to work hard and fall in love with the process. She doesn‘t care how they are ranked come Monday. All she cares about is getting better and prepared for March, and earning a one seed preferably in Spokane.

 

[Alydar]

No, I’ll credit that to ND’s defense. If I remember correctly, they rarely ran sets for her and most of her shots came inside a clogged paint.

USC's 2 stars are primarily inside scorers. They get in each other's way. LSU had that problem last year.

 

[Alydar]

Dawn summed the situation up with "last season we had an offense designed around a dominant big. This year we are learning to play without a dominant big".

 

[DallasDomer]

USC's 2 stars are primarily inside scorers. They get in each other's way. LSU had that problem last year.

ð assume you mean K. Iriafen and J. Watkins. Iriafen is supposed to be an inside scorer but Watkins shoots threes, mid range jumpers and layups. I don't think they got in each others way. When Watkins comes in to shoot Iriafen is supposed to be ready to rebound. But I'm not sure if that's who you meant.

 

[DallasDomer]

Dawn summed the situation up with "last season we had an offense designed around a dominant big. This year we are learning to play without a dominant big".

Staley lost the first game and a mid season loss in 2021-2 and went onto beat Uconn for the championship, so it's possible she'll develop something. But she had a dominant big, Boston then Cardosa, and I don't see one this year.

 

[visitingcock]

Staley lost the first game and a mid season loss in 2021-2 and went onto beat Uconn for the championship, so it's possible she'll develop something. But she had a dominant big, Boston then Cardosa, and I don't see one this year.

Not exactly

She didn’t have her first loss til Mizzou, the first game of the SEC season. The other loss was to Kentucky in the SEC tournament Championship Game.

 

[visitingcock]

Nice crowd Bruins! 13,659
99% capacity

 

[GoUconn7961]

I wonder why Uconn didn't do that last year?

So do we.

 

[GoUconn7961]

ND is the real deal. And the person on that team who I think is their best player is Citron.
If UConn gets out of South Bend with a win I'll be surprised. And yes, I'm a realistic UConn fan.
ND humiliated them on their home court last season, and revenge is a strong motivator, but is it enough?
I'm not so sure.

 

[GamecockFam]

So what team will be the new #1? I think there are three candidates: UConn, Notre Dame, and UCLA.

I'm putting in my guess for UCLA. Beating South Carolina may push them past UConn for that #1 in the rankings. I think voters will value that win as a better win than Notre Dame over USC.

1. UCLA
2. UConn
3. Notre Dame

 

[LwrcasefaN]

ND is the real deal. And the person on that team who I think is their best player is Citron.
If UConn gets out of South Bend with a win I'll be surprised. And yes, I'm a realistic UConn fan.
ND humiliated them on their home court last season, and revenge is a strong motivator, but is it enough?
I'm not so sure.

Against Notre Dame....you can't turn the ball over. 17 steals against USC is ridiculous. Notre Dame currently has a very short bench so if a team can play uptempo for long stretches it would be to their advantage. On the defensive end I might even zone em up or maybe a box and 1.

 

[ucbart]

Fulwiley has played terribly to start the season.

Just bad decision after bad decision.

Pao is the one who has played well every time out.

Weird mix of players lacking co fence and having too much of it.

Cardoso was grossly underrated, which we knew, but seems like the supporting cast might have gone a little the other way.

Everyone is playing a position too big in a game like that.

Listen-

Not to brag, but last year I was very suspect at SC being #6 because of Cardoso....and we see how that turned out. This year, while I think SC should've started at #1, I was very interested to see this SC team because of the loss of Cardoso. She should've been a 1st team AA. Her size and skill set completely changed everything SC did on both sides of the floor. Add to that, that Dawn coaches a little bit like Pat did(and Kim did at Baylor), which is a ton of athletic, massive bigs who out muscled everyone. This SC team just doesn't have that massive size down low. They have some tall, athletic, posts, but not a Coates, Wilson, Boston, or Cardoso type. Obviously they will be fine, but I wonder what will happen when they play teams with better backcourts than even UCLA had. Like, I could see SC really struggling with ND.

 

[Dillon77]

Against Notre Dame....you can't turn the ball over. 17 steals against USC is ridiculous. Notre Dame currently has a very short bench so if a team can play uptempo for long stretches it would be to their advantage. On the defensive end I might even zone em up or maybe a box and 1.

• Isn't Southern California thought to be an up-tempo team? Hidalgo and Citron don't tire.
• Zone? That's usually ND's trick. Against prior teams and without Westbeld, I'd say that was a good move, but Miles has greatly improved her outside shooting and you've got Citron and Hidalgo. Plus, Emma Risch can stroke it from deep.
• Box + One? Who do you cover? Hidalgo, Miles? That leaves the other free to attack a box.

 

[Rixxx]

ND is the real deal. And the person on that team who I think is their best player is Citron.
If UConn gets out of South Bend with a win I'll be surprised. And yes, I'm a realistic UConn fan.
ND humiliated them on their home court last season, and revenge is a strong motivator, but is it enough?
I'm not so sure.

Absolutely agree about Sonia. Did you see how she bothered JuJu for most of the game. She could be a #1 option on any team, but she plays 3rd to the dynamic duo.

 

[WBBTakeover]

Listen-

Not to brag, but last year I was very suspect at SC being #6 because of Cardoso....and we see how that turned out. This year, while I think SC should've started at #1, I was very interested to see this SC team because of the loss of Cardoso. She should've been a 1st team AA. Her size and skill set completely changed everything SC did on both sides of the floor. Add to that, that Dawn coaches a little bit like Pat did(and Kim did at Baylor), which is a ton of athletic, massive bigs who out muscled everyone. This SC team just doesn't have that massive size down low. They have some tall, athletic, posts, but not a Coates, Wilson, Boston, or Cardoso type. Obviously they will be fine, but I wonder what will happen when they play teams with better backcourts than even UCLA had. Like, I could see SC really struggling with ND.

As long as Citron, Hidalgo, and Miles are healthy, every team in the country will struggle with ND.

 

[Dillon77]

Absolutely agree about Sonia. Did you see how she bothered JuJu for most of the game. She could be a #1 option on any team, but she plays 3rd to the dynamic duo.

She's been the #2 (mostly), the #1 and #1A (when Miles went down) and now the #3. Who knows what will happen when Westbeld comes back? It's a good problem to have....