Non-Lady Vol Basketball News 2024-25

[lvocd]

I watched the second half of yesterday's game, and I don't think UConn looked good at all. They play with a lot of indecisiveness. Their previous teams were very crisp on both ends of the floor. That hasn't been the case since Collier/KLS graduated, and that includes last season. A player like Paige can mask a lot weaknesses, but those have become obvious since she went down. Juhasz has asserted herself the last few games, and Ducharme had a hell of a game, but their offense is not flowing well at all and ball movement has not been with purpose. They aren't "bad" per se; there's still a lot of talent on the team, but they are a cut or two below a team like SC and probably not on par w NCSt, Stanford, etc.

Okay, that makes sense because most of what I paid much attention to was early in the first half. But every time I clicked over to that game Ducharme scored. So I quit watching at all in case I was the reason she was doing so well. You're welcome. lol

But seriously, I will go back and watch it sometime this week. As for being a cut or two below SC, that's the case for everyone. Dang, they just keep piling on and and on and on. And even it's inevitable that Stanford and NC St and CT and Tennessee and everyone else will continue to improve, so will SC. At this point, it definitely looks like the national championship will have to go through the Gamecocks this season.

That is, IF we get to have a tournament.

 

[Dak1219]

I watched the second half of yesterday's game, and I don't think UConn looked good at all. They play with a lot of indecisiveness. Their previous teams were very crisp on both ends of the floor. That hasn't been the case since Collier/KLS graduated, and that includes last season. A player like Paige can mask a lot weaknesses, but those have become obvious since she went down. Juhasz has asserted herself the last few games, and Ducharme had a hell of a game, but their offense is not flowing well at all and ball movement has not been with purpose. They aren't "bad" per se; there's still a lot of talent on the team, but they are a cut or two below a team like SC and probably not on par w NCSt, Stanford, etc.

My thing with Ducharme is what happens when she gets moved to the top of the scout. Is she as effective? I am going to guess no. Teams haven't seen her play a whole lot of extended minutes. With the team they have now, teams are probably really focused on making Westbrook and Williams uncomfortable. Without Paige, disrupt the guard play add some additional attention to Ducharme, and win the game. Their post play is not good enough to carry them on the offensive end. Just my humble opinion.

 

[creekdipper]

But seriously, I will go back and watch it sometime this week. As for being a cut or two below SC, that's the case for everyone. Dang, they just keep piling on and and on and on. And even it's inevitable that Stanford and NC St and CT and Tennessee and everyone else will continue to improve, so will SC. At this point, it definitely looks like the national championship will have to go through the Gamecocks this season.

That is, IF we get to have a tournament.

Could turn out to be a banner season!

 

[Rickster]

I think everyone will know how good SC is after tomorrow night. Stanford will be the best team they've played by far.

 

[Rooster1]

No kidding, big IF

 

[Volfan2012]

My thinking is that SC will win the game by a few points they won't play as bad as we did in that first half. We totally went off the tracks.

 

[lvocd]

Could turn out to be a banner season!

Whew! That was cold. lol

 

[Amb3096]

My thing with Ducharme is what happens when she gets moved to the top of the scout. Is she as effective? I am going to guess no. Teams haven't seen her play a whole lot of extended minutes. With the team they have now, teams are probably really focused on making Westbrook and Williams uncomfortable. Without Paige, disrupt the guard play add some additional attention to Ducharme, and win the game. Their post play is not good enough to carry them on the offensive end. Just my humble opinion.

LVille went out of their way to make sure that Christyn Williams and Evina didn't beat them. They pressed Evina the whole game, and she looked worn down. You figure that once Muhl is back, that will take pressure off Evina to play 35-40 minutes and quickly tire out. For Williams, if she got past her first defender, there was a 2nd wave of defenders waiting for her at her spot. Since they had so much attention focused on Williams, Ducharme was open. She was also primarily guarded by 5'7 Van Lith, so she was either shooting over her, posting her up or going right at her. She won't always have that matchup advantage. If teams shift their focus to Ducharme, then that will open up Williams to have a field day scoring. I think the last part of your statement is key. Both UConn posts need to be scoring in order for them to make teams pay for shutting down one of the scoring threats. Juhasz did her part, but ONO was a non factor. They were playing with only 4 offensive threats. They'll look different when they have more guard depth with Muhl and Fudd back in the rotation, but their post play will be what lets them down. Dorka is the only one looking for her shot.

 

[tchristensen22]

Could turn out to be a banner season!

‘Did you know that at Duke they have Final #1 Ranked banners hanging? 2003 and 2004. They didn’t win the National Championship either year. At least the banner hanging at SC doesn’t claim a #1 final ranking in a year someone else won a National Championship.

 

[NoBackBoard]

‘Did you know that at Duke they have Final #1 Ranked banners hanging? 2003 and 2004. They didn’t win the National Championship either year. At least the banner hanging at SC doesn’t claim a #1 final ranking in a year someone else won a National Championship.

So since Duke does it that makes it ok?

 

[Rooster1]

LVille went out of their way to make sure that Christyn Williams and Evina didn't beat them. They pressed Evina the whole game, and she looked worn down. You figure that once Muhl is back, that will take pressure off Evina to play 35-40 minutes and quickly tire out. For Williams, if she got past her first defender, there was a 2nd wave of defenders waiting for her at her spot. Since they had so much attention focused on Williams, Ducharme was open. She was also primarily guarded by 5'7 Van Lith, so she was either shooting over her, posting her up or going right at her. She won't always have that matchup advantage. If teams shift their focus to Ducharme, then that will open up Williams to have a field day scoring. I think the last part of your statement is key. Both UConn posts need to be scoring in order for them to make teams pay for shutting down one of the scoring threats. Juhasz did her part, but ONO was a non factor. They were playing with only 4 offensive threats. They'll look different when they have more guard depth with Muhl and Fudd back in the rotation, but their post play will be what lets them down. Dorka is the only one looking for her shot.

Agree with most of that. I might consider ONO plus a surging Juhasz to be a strong post nucleus. Few teams have two true post players as good.

 

[Amb3096]

Agree with most of that. I might consider ONO plus a surging Juhasz to be a strong post nucleus. Few teams have two true post players as good.

Not impressed with ONO. She's a tough defensive player, but too passive on offense.

I thought the addition of Dorka would create a nightmarish post mismatch for opposing teams. I'm pleasantly surprised that while Dorka may live up to her billing, ONO and Edwards have regressed and DeBerry is a non factor. It sure is nice seeing the mighty Huskies brought down a notch!

 

[stllvf]

Miss State had a 4o point win tonight and of the three Hayes only one played and she played one minute.

 

[VolBall09]

Miss State had a 4o point win tonight and of the three Hayes only one played and she played one minute.

Not sure what is going on there but doesn’t seem to be working out. Had heard for a while it wasn’t going well. I think at least one of them (Alasia) is injured, she has not played all season. Not sure why Annie has not been playing. Aislynn has been playing very limited minutes the last few games.

edit: went looking around and it appears Annie is in concussion protocol after being hit in the head with a ball prior to their UT Martin game.

Aislynn just isn’t shooting the ball well at all. She was a decent shooter at MTSU but her game doesn’t seem to be translating to this level of play.

 

[creekdipper]

‘Did you know that at Duke they have Final #1 Ranked banners hanging? 2003 and 2004. They didn’t win the National Championship either year. At least the banner hanging at SC doesn’t claim a #1 final ranking in a year someone else won a National Championship.

It was even worse when Duke had those forty "#1 Intellectual Final Ranking" banners hanging until Vanderbilt filed a lawsuit.

 

[creekdipper]

UCONN out of the top 10 for the first time in 16 years! Didn’t think them losing to a higher ranked team in single digits would bump them out that far.

No one knew when EW said "unfinished business" that this was what she was talking about.

 

[Amb3096]

Interesting game this afternoon between South Florida and Ole Miss. USF has been pretty solid this year with wins over Stanford and WVU and narrow losses to UConn/Tennessee. Ole Miss looked like crap in their season opening loss to Belmont, but has won 11 in a row (mostly against cupcakes). Time to see which team is legit!

 

[VolBall09]

Interesting game this afternoon between South Florida and Ole Miss. USF has been pretty solid this year with wins over Stanford and WVU and narrow losses to UConn/Tennessee. Ole Miss looked like crap in their season opening loss to Belmont, but has won 11 in a row (mostly against cupcakes). Time to see which team is legit!

I believe USF will win by 20 today. Ole Miss defense doesn’t have the same passion it did last year. Their guard play is disorganized as well. Yo has about 8 identical players on the perimeter and just added another with Davis. Bunch of speedy guards who don’t shoot that well and don’t handle that well.

Was watching them the other night and really felt like they’re headed for mediocrity again. Tons of excitement for the last season but just not feeling it. They can’t draw a crowd at all either, thought that might improve since they’re winning. Watched their home game the other night and it looked like practice in there. Dead quiet

 

[Rickster]

......Was watching them the other night and really felt like they’re headed for mediocrity again. Tons of excitement for the last season but just not feeling it. They can’t draw a crowd at all either, thought that might improve since they’re winning. Watched their home game the other night and it looked like practice in there. Dead quiet

Once a team loses their fan base, it's a long slog to get them back.

 

[LadyVols_WBK]

Once a team loses their fan base, it's a long slog to get them back.

Yeah we are having a little trouble with this but winning is the cure

 

[Amb3096]

Once a team loses their fan base, it's a long slog to get them back.

I don't think Ole Miss WCBB ever had much of a fanbase to speak of. It must be disheartening when you have a winning team, but fans would rather go see their less successful men's team. There were a couple of seasons were UK women were doing great and their men's teams were cellar dwellers, but you wouldn't be able to tell from looking at the crowds. I think there are very few women's teams that can build/sustain a crowd for a program that comes from nothing, and it takes a special coach to pull that off (Dawn at SC and Vic at MSST come to mind).

 

[Amb3096]

Yeah we are having a little trouble with this but winning is the cure

Tennessee still has their history working for them. They may have lost some fans, but there were a ton of them that stuck with them through thick and thin. I mean, we're all still here having survived the Holly era lol.

 

[Good Lurking]

I'm sensing an anti-climactic showdown tonight. SC is out for revenge. It's at their place. Boston will be extra-motivated. Anna Wilson lost her starting job so Stanford is going with 4 shooting guards and a post player. Jones' numbers are down because she's having to play as the primary playmaker (kind of like Horston). The only thing I see that's keeping Stanford close in the game is SC running Amihere at the point guard position. Not sure it's the greatest idea to have your most turnover prone player running the point on a team that turns the ball over too much. I'm not at their practices so maybe she's their only viable option. Of course all those shooting guards that Stanford has could shoot lights out. But SC has excellent perimeter defenders.

 

[LadyVols_WBK]

I felt like she had the same injury type as Rae but don’t know when the injury occurred

 

[Amb3096]

I'm sensing an anti-climactic showdown tonight. SC is out for revenge. It's at their place. Boston will be extra-motivated. Anna Wilson lost her starting job so Stanford is going with 4 shooting guards and a post player. Jones' numbers are down because she's having to play as the primary playmaker (kind of like Horston). The only thing I see that's keeping Stanford close in the game is SC running Amihere at the point guard position. Not sure it's the greatest idea to have your most turnover prone player running the point on a team that turns the ball over too much. I'm not at their practices so maybe she's their only viable option. Of course all those shooting guards that Stanford has could shoot lights out. But SC has excellent perimeter defenders.

Henderson will play tonight, according to Dawn. Not sure how many minutes, but she'll definitely be an asset.

Amihere has actually done a fairly commendable job of filling in for Destanni. At least her turnovers tend to be travels when she tries to attack the basket and not live ball. And she's a nightmare for the opposing PG to have to deal with when you have a mobile 6'4 player glued to your hip. I'm surprised that Eniya Russell hasn't gotten more minutes at PG. You'd think a solid 6'1 player that was recruited as a combo guard would be able to prove her worth. When Destanni/Raven were healthy, Eniya was basically the 3rd string PG, and she's been demoted again even with injuries to other two in favor of a backup post player. She's got to be wondering why she's still there...