2021 Women’s NCAA Tournament

[uh_no]

I watched the last quarter and a half, what a great battle.

Like many, I was keying in on Paige Bueckers. For as good as she is, and she is already great, I still think she has a ton of upside as she gets stronger and into better shape. In this game at least, she barely moved when she didn't have the ball, and she isn't very quick. If she can inject a little more Christyn Williams into her DNA, she's going to go up a level. Williams is a BEAST, she is quick and really takes it strong to the hole. I loved her game. Back to Bueckers, I understand that she was gassed playing every minute while being face guarded the entire time. As she adds that strength, the stamina will come and then she's an even bigger problem.

Yes. for both her and edwards. Edwards bulking up will be critical for their front court moving forward and allowing them to more ably deal with teams like baylor next year.

Geno goes with a pretty small bench in close games, eh?

They're down a starting guard in Nika Muhl, so pretty much had to play their backcourt the entire game. Their rotation only went 7-8 deep, and Makurat's playing time really dropped after her mysterious "injury" mid year when she missed a month...so not sure whether she is still feeling the effects of that, or just not in good enough shape, or in the dog house or whatever, but losing muhl was critical.

In any case, geno is very much like K generally in that his bench is typically VERY short. The #25 recruit in the country, Mir McLean, got almost no minutes all year, for instance. His demands are exceptionally high (I recall one instance earlier in this year where he said he didn't care that the team was getting open shots, he cared more about HOW the team was getting the open shots), and he's not going to put people out there who aren't ready on one side of the ball or the other.

[whereinthehellami]

I started following Paige Bueckers last year when she was a senior in high school. Some of her clips randomly came up on my YouTube stream. Thanks algorithm. Anyway I'm amazed at how well she has done going up another level from high school to college ball at UConn. It doesn't get any bigger in woman's hoops.

I love Paige Buecker's game. She has incredible skills, savvy, basketball IQ, and just the right amount of swagger. If anyone hasn't seen her play I highly recommend watching some of her clips. Check out her stat line as a freshman on the biggest stage of woman's hoops: 53% FG, 46% 3 PT, 86% FT, 5.9 Assists per, 2.3 Steals per. She is leading UConn with 20.1 points per game. She has incredible passing vision as well.

[uh_no]

I started following Paige Bueckers last year when she was a senior in high school. Some of her clips randomly came up on my YouTube stream. Thanks algorithm. Anyway I'm amazed at how well she has done going up another level from high school to college ball at UConn. It doesn't get any bigger in woman's hoops.

I love Paige Buecker's game. She has incredible skills, savvy, basketball IQ, and just the right amount of swagger. If anyone hasn't seen her play I highly recommend watching some of her clips. Check out her stat line as a freshman on the biggest stage of woman's hoops: 53% FG, 46% 3 PT, 86% FT, 5.9 Assists per, 2.3 Steals per. She is leading UConn with 20.1 points per game. She has incredible passing vision as well.

She's a bit careless at times with her passing. at least twice she turned it over making hero skip-passes while bringing up the ball she didn't need to. She wants to make the flashy pass even when it's not necessary, and it gets her into trouble sometimes.

I mean, that's such a minor nit for a freshman. Really Geno doesn't know what to do with her since she works her butt off, is a fantastic teammate and wants to be just as great at defense is she is at everything else. After the second round game, she said she could hear Geno yelling at her what she needed to be doing, so she went and did it. Having that kind of realization as a freshman? How do you even coach a kid like that? Where do you go?

Really really incredible for a freshman. For contrast, Taurasi was in the doghouse as a freshman to the degree that Geno had to kick her out of practice. Paige is hot stuff, knows she's hot stuff, but is still humble as anything and works hard. That's why she can get away with slapping Geno's butt during the game and egging him about more minutes...because what's he going to do? She already does so much incredibly right.

That said, I'm sure he finds something. He always does.

[Phredd3]

That said, I'm sure he finds something. He always does.

As I said, he's the best women's coach of all time, by quite a bit. He has high standards, and he'll find her minor weaknesses (like those skips passes) and make her better. It won't matter how good she is, he'll find whatever minor flaws there are and iron them out. And she'll love him for it all the way along. He is not afraid to kick some butt when it is needed, and he's incredibly demanding, but he's also very adept at maintaining positive reinforcement, as well. He's right there with K as a master at motivation.

Good win, even with the obvious bad no call at the end. I was not able to see most of the second half due to family commitments, but in what I saw, I agree with most of the analysis of the refs. They just weren't able to keep up with the game. I'm not sure I agree, though, that Baylor is one of the top two teams in women's college basketball. I think they're third, behind UConn and Stanford. Stanford doesn't have the super-freshman that Bueckers is, but they are so incredibly balanced. They are somewhat deceiving in that way. They don't look spectacular, because there isn't one star shining above the rest of the team. You can hold their top scorer under 20 and still give up 70 points. If both UConn and Stanford make the final, that will be one heck of a game.

[Phredd3]

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey with an interesting take after the loss last night to UConn:

"After the games today and tomorrow, there's four teams left, I think, on the men's side and the women's side," Mulkey said, unprompted, during her postgame news conference. "They need to dump the COVID testing. Wouldn't it be a shame to keep COVID testing and then you got kids that test positive or something and they don't get to play in the Final Four? So you just need to forget the COVID tests and get the four teams playing in each Final Four and go battle it out."

And I'm done with Baylor women's basketball for this reason. I didn't like her to begin with, but to have that kind of casual disregard for the players is unconscionable. You know what would really be a shame? A player getting COVID and then spreading it through two entire teams. I won't watch another Baylor minute for as long as she runs the team, even if they play Duke. Just an irresponsible comment, especially as it was completely unprompted.

[uh_no]

And I'm done with Baylor women's basketball for this reason. I didn't like her to begin with, but to have that kind of casual disregard for the players is unconscionable. You know what would really be a shame? A player getting COVID and then spreading it through two entire teams. I won't watch another Baylor minute for as long as she runs the team, even if they play Duke. Just an irresponsible comment, especially as it was completely unprompted.

I respect that her teams play at a high level. I don't respect comments like that. I don't respect that she had a freshman on her team who thought it was acceptable to punch another player in the face on the court. I don't respect that with a transcendant player like Brittney Griner (along with a PG like Odyssey Sims for 3 years) that she was only able to win 1 title. I also question whether her decision to eschew the agreement among the rest of the coaches to dress down for games is due to wanting to keep some sort of normalcy, or out of vanity (though based on what i've seen from her over the years, I have my opinions).

In any case, my bottom of the barrel is and will likely always be C. Vivian Stringer...on whose rutgers team, it was apparently acceptable to get into it physically with an opposing coach in the handshake line, who never showed an ounce of respect for other top teams (declaring rutgers the "team to beat" in the big east at the time...really aged well). I do respect her defense of her team with the idiot Imus.

[uh_no]

After the USC game was a stinker, UL Stanford was looking like a good game early, with UL having a small lead, but stanfords big freshman, Brink, is hurt, and UL stretching the lead. I know geno was complaining about baylor's seeding, but I have trouble believing this UL team is the 8th best team in the country, when two of their 3 losses are against NCSU, the last one by just 2 points.

[CameronBornAndBred]

After the USC game was a stinker

Texas had only one player in double digits, which given the fact that they only scored 34 for the whole game makes sense. (23% shooting...oooh, that's bad.)

Absolutely scoreless in the 4th quarter. I didn't watch, so I don't know what their mentality was like at that point. Definitely not the way you want to end a season, though.

[mattyoung18]

I have to mention Kenneth Smith in the women's thread ,but he seems to be a whiney little cheat.

[miramar]

Unfortunately Kyra Lambert’s career at Texas did not end as well as would have liked as South Carolina destroyed Texas 62-34. Amazingly enough, the Lady Longhorns did not score in the 4Q. Yikes!

She still had a really strong year as she overcame three knee operations to finish in the Elite Eight.

[uh_no]

Unfortunately Kyra Lambert’s career at Texas did not end as well as would have liked as South Carolina destroyed Texas 62-34. Amazingly enough, the Lady Longhorns did not score in the 4Q. Yikes!

She still had a really strong year as she overcame three knee operations to finish in the Elite Eight.

I imagine Vic Schaefer will have them back.

[uh_no]

UL rolling at halftime up 12. Not expected. stanford doing an awful job keeping UL off the line, and folding on the pressure UL is applying outside the arc, and not able to take advantage of the space inside.

[uh_no]

well this one is over now. incredible second half from stanford. really took UL out of their offense and played a bit cleaner on O.

[Steven43]

South Carolina destroyed Texas 62-34. Amazingly enough, the Lady Longhorns did not score in the 4Q.

I wish South Carolina were playing UConn. I’d love to see them smash the Huskies.

[uh_no]

I wish South Carolina were playing UConn. I’d love to see them smash the Huskies.

you mean the same USC team the huskies already beat this year?

[Steven43]

you mean the same USC team the huskies already beat this year?

I didn’t say they necessarily would smash UConn, I just HOPE that they would. SC might well beat them if they play a second time. That game went to overtime; South Carolina came very close to beating them. Who is to say the Gamecocks won’t get it done were they to play again?

I don’t dislike all things UConn by the way. I really respect their coach and I love the way Paige Bueckers plays.

[uh_no]

I think she is certainly deserving, but I think there are other players such that the landslide 21/30 votes doesn't necessarily due the quality of some of the other players justice. IMO a bit of a uconn bump there, though understandable to some degree given they were the #1 team at the end of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Keb1kCHVfbA

She started crying. Really hard to hate her.

[Phredd3]

I think she is certainly deserving, but I think there are other players such that the landslide 21/30 votes doesn't necessarily due the quality of some of the other players justice. IMO a bit of a uconn bump there, though understandable to some degree given they were the #1 team at the end of the year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Keb1kCHVfbA

She started crying. Really hard to hate her.

Maybe a bit of a bump, but she was a clear favorite statistically, too. She is very Taurasi-like, and that's not a comparison I would ever make lightly. She's more of a pure scorer and less a facilitator that Taurasi was, but she is incredibly well-rounded and makes the players around her better. A truly eye-popping talent.

I'm curious if she'll stay all four years. The women's game has started to become infected with the go-pro-early bug, as well, although it's not life-changing money, the way the men's game is, so it's been much less prevalent. But if anyone would be a candidate to reach the WNBA max quickly, I'd think she'd be it, and there's even better money to be made overseas. She could make endorsement money, too, I'd guess (although perhaps the NCAA solves that problem, and the pro teams don't really have more endorsement cachet than UConn would at this point). But she's a lot less edgy as a personality than Taurasi was, and she's pretty good in interviews, so her endorsement potential would be pretty high, I would think. She's special in a lot of ways. A really good ambassador for the women's game, I think.

[uh_no]

Maybe a bit of a bump, but she was a clear favorite statistically, too. She is very Taurasi-like, and that's not a comparison I would ever make lightly. She's more of a pure scorer and less a facilitator that Taurasi was, but she is incredibly well-rounded and makes the players around her better. A truly eye-popping talent.

I'm curious if she'll stay all four years. The women's game has started to become infected with the go-pro-early bug, as well, although it's not life-changing money, the way the men's game is, so it's been much less prevalent. But if anyone would be a candidate to reach the WNBA max quickly, I'd think she'd be it, and there's even better money to be made overseas. She could make endorsement money, too, I'd guess (although perhaps the NCAA solves that problem, and the pro teams don't really have more endorsement cachet than UConn would at this point). But she's a lot less edgy as a personality than Taurasi was, and she's pretty good in interviews, so her endorsement potential would be pretty high, I would think. She's special in a lot of ways. A really good ambassador for the women's game, I think.

As far as I know, the only "uconn" player who left early was azura. Given how much she enjoys being in this group, I would be SURPRISED if she left early, but things can obviously change in 2 years. I'd put it about the same probability that IF (and that's with a big I and a big F) they were to somehow do the impossible and win 4, she would stay for a fifth year and try to do something that would almost certainly never be repeatable. Of course, now I've even suggested the possibility, however remote, they're going to lose on friday. oh well, good run.

[killerleft]

Kyra Lambert helps lead Texas to the Elite Eight against Brenda Frese's Maryland twerps. Kyra is 24 years old now. Big steal and bucket late, then a later free throw to put the Longhorns up three.6