Duke/ACC/National WBB for 2022-23 Season

[JBDuke]

Starting a new collective thread for discussion of women's basketball across the ACC and the nation. We'll have separate game-specific threads for the Duke women's games.

[dudog84]

I still think we need a dedicated DWBB thread for news that is not strictly game-related.

[JBDuke]

I still think we need a dedicated DWBB thread for news that is not strictly game-related.

As with the men's team, if the news is sufficiently significant, then a standalone thread can be created. If it's a discussion of Duke's position in the conference or national scene, then I'd recommend putting it in the ACC/NCAA thread. If it's relatively trivial news, I would put it in the thread about the next women's game.

I just felt it was a disservice to the women's team to lump all discussion of WBB (Duke, ACC, and NCAA) into one season-long thread. The thread was already up over 700 posts, and it wasn't January yet.

[dudog84]

As with the men's team, if the news is sufficiently significant, then a standalone thread can be created. If it's a discussion of Duke's position in the conference or national scene, then I'd recommend putting it in the ACC/NCAA thread. If it's relatively trivial news, I would put it in the thread about the next women's game.

I just felt it was a disservice to the women's team to lump all discussion of WBB (Duke, ACC, and NCAA) into one season-long thread. The thread was already up over 700 posts, and it wasn't January yet.

Got it.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I still think we need a dedicated DWBB thread for news that is not strictly game-related.

Exaclty. It was the perfect thread to keep up with injury reports, progressions, general news and transfer/recruiting info.

Now DWBB has been lessened, and lumped in with every other team in the country. Disrespectful and a really bad idea.
As far as other teams, it's just as simple to leave the DWBB thread, and then have one that is simply for everyone else.

[dudog84]

Exaclty. It was the perfect thread to keep up with injury reports, progressions, general news and transfer/recruiting info.

Now DWBB has been lessened, and lumped in with every other team in the country. Disrespectful and a really bad idea.
As far as other teams, it's just as simple to leave the DWBB thread, and then have one that is simply for everyone else.

Yeah, that was my initial reaction. CB&B just explained it better (much) than I did.

[JasonEvans]

Exaclty. It was the perfect thread to keep up with injury reports, progressions, general news and transfer/recruiting info.

Now DWBB has been lessened, and lumped in with every other team in the country. Disrespectful and a really bad idea.
As far as other teams, it's just as simple to leave the DWBB thread, and then have one that is simply for everyone else.

Having a separate discussion of each game (exactly how we handle things with the men's team) is disrespectful... got it. The best way to show respect for our own team is to treat them the same as 350+ other teams and limit conversation about them to only one thread so they take up as little space as possible on the main DBR forum. Yup, that makes perfect sense. [/snark]

The old thread about the entire nation of women's hoops had over 700 posts in it. Anyone who might be suddenly engaged about the Duke team and interested in talking about them would face a daunting task keeping up. JB's decision to have threads dedicated to Duke games and to national teams/trends is respectful and well-reasoned. Your criticism is poorly placed, IMO.

Go Duke! Kara's Killers!!

[JBDuke]

Exaclty. It was the perfect thread to keep up with injury reports, progressions, general news and transfer/recruiting info.

Now DWBB has been lessened, and lumped in with every other team in the country. Disrespectful and a really bad idea.
As far as other teams, it's just as simple to leave the DWBB thread, and then have one that is simply for everyone else.

CB&B - sent you a PM, but I'll share some of my thoughts here for public consumption.

The DWBB thread had become a catch-all thread for everything in college WBB - national news, conference news, non-game related Duke news, and game-specific updates and news. It was cumbersome and difficult to follow with all of that content mashed into the same thread. It was over 700 posts and we aren't in January yet. These type of catch-all threads work during the off-season, but they quickly become muddled when games begin. The 2022 Duke Football thread is an example of exactly this problem.

In the past, we've done game-specific threads. In general, the traffic for the women's team hasn't merited the pre-game/post-game structure we us for the MBB threads, but one thread per game for the women's team has sufficed. Those threads also allow for discussion of certain topics - say, injuries or statistical trends - that evolve over the course of the season and impact or provide insight into the game-by-game pace of the season. Big stories that have broader impacts (for Duke or the conference or the NCAA) can either merit their own thread (like the commitment of a big recruit for Duke) or can be incorporated into a more generic thread about the season.

If the board thinks that the traffic merits a separate season-long thread for Duke WBB - separate from the game-specific threads and also separate from the conference/national thread - then I'm okay with that, but my observations from recent seasons are that the interest of the board in general doesn't demand that number of WBB threads and one or the other will get ignored and drift down off the first page and into obscurity. One generic thread and game-specific threads should be active enough to stick around.

This isn't "moderator policy", so it's open for discussion (and I think this is the right place to do so - please avoid it in the game-specific threads). I'm hoping to have few enough threads that they stay active and on the "first page", but not so few that they get cluttered with several active topics being simultaneously discussed in a way that makes them difficult to follow.

[MarkD83]

In an attempt to move this thread to a discussion of WBB (and not the relevance of the thread) here are the NET rankings for WBB.

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basket...l-net-rankings

Duke is at 7 with the only loss to UConn who is at 4. This is very early to speculate but Duke is putting themselves in a great situation to host NCAA games.

More importantly they have a big road ACC win. They still play VT twice, unc twice, at ND and NCSU once more at the end of the year. They could get into the top 4 in the league and get the double bye.

[dudog84]

I think it is the title of the thread.

There is very little ACC/national news that is discussed around here, and almost always how it relates to the Duke women. For instance, if a star on another team is hurt (reigning NPOY Bueckers is a prime example), the posting of the news rarely even gets a response. The only time it might is if we play them in a few games and there is speculation about whether that player will be recovered by Duke game time.

National news should be lumped into a Duke thread, Duke news should not be lumped into a national thread.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Having a separate discussion of each game (exactly how we handle things with the men's team) is disrespectful... got it. The best way to show respect for our own team is to treat them the same as 350+ other teams and limit conversation about them to only one thread so they take up as little space as possible on the main DBR forum. Yup, that makes perfect sense. [/snark]

The old thread about the entire nation of women's hoops had over 700 posts in it. Anyone who might be suddenly engaged about the Duke team and interested in talking about them would face a daunting task keeping up. JB's decision to have threads dedicated to Duke games and to national teams/trends is respectful and well-reasoned. Your criticism is poorly placed, IMO.

Go Duke! Kara's Killers!!

Please remember that next year when the Duke football, Duke lacrosse, Duke baseball, and other Duke specific sports threads are introduced. In fact, might as well shut the LAX and baseball ones down now, since they were already started. I guess softball, also.

If you are going to make bad decisions, at least do them consistently.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Jim Sumner's review of last night.

https://jimsumner.substack.com/p/duk...m_medium=email

[JBDuke]

Please remember that next year when the Duke football, Duke lacrosse, Duke baseball, and other Duke specific sports threads are introduced. In fact, might as well shut the LAX and baseball ones down now, since they were already started. I guess softball, also.

If you are going to make bad decisions, at least do them consistently.

So, you're saying that consistency across the years is more important than evolving to meet the needs of the DBR community? I think that's not what folks want around here. As this community's interest (and thus board traffic) changes over time, the boards and threads need to evolve to align to those interests, as long as they stay within the bounds provided by the site's owners and admins. While interest and traffic in discussing men's basketball is the foundation here, interest and traffic in discussing other Duke sports has waxed and waned, and how we treat those sports on these boards needs to change in response. The resurgence in Duke football's success and in the women's team's success (so far) this year has meant much more discussion and interest on these boards, and so the threads need to change in response to that renewed interest. As I noted in a previous response, the Football thread became too broad and cumbersome to meet the needs of the community this year, so we'll plan to do something different moving forward. The WBB thread was headed in the same direction, so I chose to act sooner rather than later.

[dudog84]

Duke is #2 in the RPI!!! <ducks to avoid darts from a certain sector >

[dudog84]

So, you're saying that consistency across the years is more important than evolving to meet the needs of the DBR community? I think that's not what folks want around here. As this community's interest (and thus board traffic) changes over time, the boards and threads need to evolve to align to those interests, as long as they stay within the bounds provided by the site's owners and admins. While interest and traffic in discussing men's basketball is the foundation here, interest and traffic in discussing other Duke sports has waxed and waned, and how we treat those sports on these boards needs to change in response. The resurgence in Duke football's success and in the women's team's success (so far) this year has meant much more discussion and interest on these boards, and so the threads need to change in response to that renewed interest. As I noted in a previous response, the Football thread became too broad and cumbersome to meet the needs of the community this year, so we'll plan to do something different moving forward. The WBB thread was headed in the same direction, so I chose to act sooner rather than later.

I kinda understand your reasoning, but I think 90% of the "broad and cumbersome" problem is solved by splitting out the game threads.

Also, it's a mistake to equate football to women's basketball. There's only one school in the country where the interest is even close, and that's UConn. That's because their women have been the undisputed premier program for a quarter century while their football team sucks. Just the way it is, interest in men's vs. women's sports, especially football.

Simple solution: change the name of the thread. There is very, very little discussion of non-Duke WBB around here. Any such news has been gladly accepted (well, at least not spurned) in the DWBB thread. If there's news about one of our players, or Jadyn Donovan or on next year's recruiting, it fits comfortably in the DWBB thread. It's extremely rare to see comments/articles about other team's players or recruits around here.

[CameronBornAndBred]

I kinda understand your reasoning, but I think 90% of the "broad and cumbersome" problem is solved by splitting out the game threads.

Also, it's a mistake to equate football to women's basketball. There's only one school in the country where the interest is even close, and that's UConn. That's because their women have been the undisputed premier program for a quarter century while their football team sucks. Just the way it is, interest in men's vs. women's sports, especially football.

Simple solution: change the name of the thread. There is very, very little discussion of non-Duke WBB around here. Any such news has been gladly accepted (well, at least not spurned) in the DWBB thread. If there's news about one of our players, or Jadyn Donovan or on next year's recruiting, it fits comfortably in the DWBB thread. It's extremely rare to see comments/articles about other team's players or recruits around here.

Hear, hear! Dudog explained it better than I could. Also, the number of posters on this board that join in the DWBB thread is a small fraction of the overall population. Trust me, those trying to "keep up", are caught up.

[dudog84]

One last point, and then I'll shut up (at least for a bit ). Just try changing the Duke Lax or Duke Soccer (baseball, golf, etc. etc.) threads to ACC/national threads. I'm quite sure the contributors there will have the same (if not more heated) response.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Please remember that next year when the Duke football, Duke lacrosse, Duke baseball, and other Duke specific sports threads are introduced. In fact, might as well shut the LAX and baseball ones down now, since they were already started. I guess softball, also.

If you are going to make bad decisions, at least do them consistently.

One last point, and then I'll shut up (at least for a bit ). Just try changing the Duke Lax or Duke Soccer (baseball, golf, etc. etc.) threads to ACC/national threads. I'm quite sure the contributors there will have the same (if not more heated) response.

Hey, like minds!

[JasonEvans]

Thread title changed to reflect Duke more directly. Good suggestion.

the number of posters on this board that join in the DWBB thread is a small fraction of the overall population. Trust me, those trying to "keep up", are caught up.

I dearly hope that folks who are not regular WBB fans are starting to pay more attention. After last night, I would expect the number of folks expressing interest in the WBB ACC standings and NET rankings and other stuff like that has increased significantly. By cleaning things up a bit, we have given the "newbies" a better launching off point.

The changes have been made out of a desire to bring as many Duke fans as possible to the women's game, not to maintain the status quo for the die-hards who are already connected to the women's game.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Thread title changed to reflect Duke more directly. Good suggestion.



I dearly hope that folks who are not regular WBB fans are starting to pay more attention. After last night, I would expect the number of folks expressing interest in the WBB ACC standings and NET rankings and other stuff like that has increased significantly. By cleaning things up a bit, we have given the "newbies" a better launching off point.

The changes have been made out of a desire to bring as many Duke fans as possible to the women's game, not to maintain the status quo for the die-hards who are already connected to the women's game.

On that point, I most definitely agree. Thanks for the title change.