What is going on with this team?? We look god awful. Forced shots, turnovers, poor shooting, no flow. We look like uttter sh*t.
WBB vs Bama
- Thread starter Evilchicken
- Start date
I wouldn’t go as far as you in saying we’re awful, but it almost seems like the three point shot isn’t really a set play for us anymore. Seems like just what we take late in the shot clock or if it’s so wide open you can’t pass it up. Seems to me like it’s not letting the girls get in a shooting rhythm like they were at the beginning of the season.
The turnovers aren’t good either. If we keep those up it will bite us eventually.
The turnovers aren’t good either. If we keep those up it will bite us eventually.
This is also without Cardoso against a top half team in the league. I’d actually say we look decent. When your record is perfect you expect the team to look perfect in every way and I don’t think that’s realistic.
Massey predicted we would win by 23 with Cardoso. We won by 28 without her. Also, Dawn gave Raven a half-night off; she only played 18 minutes after playing 37 on Sunday. The 1st half defense was filthy.
Your comments remind me of "Tyler from Spartanburg."
Evilchicken hating again lol. You do you I guess 
Both sides of this discussion can be true. We are not as sharp as we were early in the season, and we are still head and shoulders over most competition. However, I would much prefer go through a stretch like this now. We are in the dog days of the season. You are tired of the coaches, tired of the grind, just tired of basketball actually during this period of the season. You just have to fight through it until being rejuvenated by the playoffs. We do seem to be forcing plays a little. Trying to do things individually instead of letting situations develop. Also, seem to be rushing a little with finishing inside. We are bigger than most. No need to rush. Take your time, get it off the square and convert.
Let me just add a thought to some of the thinking on the board. One, if anyone thought this team or any team would continuing shooting at a ridiculously high level and efficiency as we were earlier for every game during the year, it was just not realistic. Every top 3pt % team has gone through slumps and/ or dips in productivity as the year has progressed and defenses try to disrupt more offenses. We have had a lot of disjunction, if that is a word over the past few weeks. The LSU game was the equivalent of playing a national title game on the home court of an opposing team and though we did not shoot well, when the moment of truth came, our perimeter game showed up. Other than that game and the let down of emotion from both teams, ours being a 20 pt win over Vandy and LSU a loss to Miss. State, we have dealt with Cardoza leaving, coming back and playing against another tall and talented team in Tenn on their homecourt after a big emotional win over Uconn. This game started off pretty rought but it wasn't perimeter shots that were the issue, it was layups and bunnies we were missing due to rushing in my eyes. With the Cardoza out, we had girls once again playing with a different line up than has been our normal starting offense, and this is after playing a game with Cardoza. We have been so spoiled by 40 pt victories to the point that we do not understand how impressive it is to win by 30pts against teams that will be in the tournament. I look at this way, our 3pt shots are slowly coming back to early season form, but the bunnies/layups are a product of a lack of focus because of the grind of the season. We must remember that our team is still full of freshman and sophomores going through this for the first time, thus at this point they may be a little bored as winning has been too easy. Look at their efficiency when it seems that they are going to be challenged in some of the games lately. Some of their second halfs lately have been elite. The good thing is that they get a week off practically before their first SEC tourney game, and then really two weeks off before starting the NCAA tournament. I believe, just like in years past they will be well rested and re-focused and ready to roll. One thougt, What team is smoking hot this time of year. Surely not LSU that almost lost again last night at home to Auburn again. Iowa that got blown out by 17 last night and coach wining about the mental grind at this time of the year. Every other team is either playing grind out games becasue of deficiencies or taking bad losses as well as some losses that are justified. I think we need to all sit back and take a deep breath before we forecase major issues with a team, that is still UNDEFEATED
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I wasn't talking about 3 Point shooting or shooting in general except for all the missed lay-ups. I am talking about hero ball drives into 3 defenders. Too many hero passes. Missing too many lightly contested lay-ups. The types of things that will keep you up at night during the summer if you happen to lose. I played enough ball to be realistic. You are going to miss shots. I understand about playing in late February where you don't even want to hear the voice of your coach. There are just some things that we need to tighten up before the competition stiffens.
That's still offense you're talking about. As Pat Summitt said, "Offense sells tickets, defense wins games, rebounding wins championships.”
Our offense is good enough and our defense is outstanding right now. It's going to come down to rebounding for this team.
Our offense can be good enough. However, everyone that makes an observation about the team does not mean the team harm or is trying to be negative. Quite to the contrary, we don't want to feel what we felt last year. We know what it felt like in 2021 and especially last year in 2023. We want to see smiles on our players' faces at the end instead of tears. In both of those years, it was our offense that got us in jams that our defense and/or rebounding couldn't get us out of. It may seem harsh, but it is out of love. We are practically out of games that we can lose now where we can go "Oh well, we'll get them the next game. The dance is approaching and we need to go into it, from the most casual fan to Player 11, with only the NCAA trophy is an option mindset.
I think some of us are trying to seem our team play perfect everynight and that is just not realistic. We win by 20 to 30 points and that is where you may see some fancy passing, but for a few of our players it is just their game and it does not look like the reserved playing of our players of past years. Often times, some of our early turnovers, other than when Chloe gets muscled in the paint, are the result of an offensively aggressive team to the extent that we have never been before. Just as Dawn has stated that she has to get used to this new look, so do we as fans. We have played a few close games and in those games, I dont remember a fancy or crazy pass at the time of separation that looked like our players were not diciplined or understand the magnitude of the moment. I really believe they will be fine. I will worry if I see Dawn pulling her hair out, as she has always been a straight shooter about the team. I refuse to deal in the "what ifs" because no amount of that is going to make you satisfied until we hoist a trophy, and if we don't it was not meant to be. Film study will address your concerns and it will be up the girls to play within their own comfort zone.
I just watched #3 Stanford lose at home to Arizona, #42 in the NET. Cameron Brink was out with an illness.
We played without Cardoso and beat a top 30 NET team by 28.
Of course we could have played better. But we should not lose sight of how well the team did play, minus our best player.
Not true. Many of us may not hang out on the WBB Thread all the time, but we have been with Dawn from the beginning and see all the games just like you do. As a result, we recognize the standard for our team. Until yesterday, we have not met that standard since the UConn game. We got the win and that's what is important. However, we recognize the challenge we face from the Top 4 or 5 teams out there. What we put on film in the first quarter of the Alabama game and against Tennessee was not a standard to get us to where we want to go. Dawn Staley herself has said this same thing in the press conferences over the past 2-3 games. She was much more positive after yesterday just like I am.
Got it. If you want to only focus on what we do well, that is your choice. However, that is not what coaches do. That is not what I do. I focus on what we can correct. This team does not need perpetual pats on the back telling them how great they are. The results show that. We are at a stage where it is "Championship or Bust". I don't recall any program in any sport that has gone undefeated in the regular season twice and not come away with a title in at least one of those seasons. So, that is the challenge. Playing well is not going to fly for us. We have got to win it this year.
What are you taking about? Are you new? I warned all season last year about our starting lineup and they ended up letting us down in the Final Four. So I'm not against criticizing the coach or the team; I just disagree with you about this game.
Anyway, UCONN went undefeated in 2016-17 and 2017-18 before losing both seasons in the Final Four as any fan of WBB should know.
Also, you are trying to make the team perfect to satisfy your view of Championship or Bust. I coached basketball for 10 years and know, no matter what you have on your team, teams go through phases, and with our talent and consitency throughout this year, Dawn needs no help from us solving the ebbs and flows of the season. The Uconn team with Steward ,Tuck and Jefferson that went undefeated during our first final four, had a 4 pt win against USF, and a few other single digits wins during that season. This scenario would then suggest that they had their ebbs and flows as Dawn also stated in her press conference where you astutely claim that she said we did not play to our standard, which by the way was not the case in any of those press conferences. She only stated that in a resounding victory over a prior team. I will tell you, that she does not want to stifle Fulwilley's creativity, so your comments about her passes and style of play are off base. It is what makes her special. This team is not perfect but they are considered in terms of efficiency one of the best all time, not just for gamecocks, but for womens NCAA Basketball. LSU, one of our chief challengers, struggled in Knoxville earlier because they are still formidable at home and in that venue. Not making excuses, but a team this young should have been way more up and down, even if they won the championship than this one on average, but for the most part, they have never played an entirely poor game. They just have had to figure out what was going wrong in a quarter or two and they have stepped up and correct it. The options this team has are immense, and they are the best team in wcbb, but that still does not guarantee a title because as we saw last year, it took an outrageous game by a spectacular talent + poor offciating + an uncharacteristic set of turnovers by Cooke in the last minute and a half to win the game, and even then, the Iowa team could not repllcate their effort two nights later. At the beginning of they year, most reasonable fans believed we would be at an elite level at some time this year, but most predicted a loss or two or three before we got there. I knew when we started off beating everyteam by 40, it woiuld not be sustainable throughout a year. The team, most likely needed the struggle to refocus, but by no means were these wins against historically great programs that have elite talent means to hit the panic button and fgure out all that we assume is wrong with our team. By this measure, this team has exceeded those projections thus I stand by my earlier post.
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I'm not new at all. Been here all the time. My posts have been mostly positive. So, you haven't been paying attention. I remember getting into it with you about Kamilla's play after the LSU game. You tried to discount what I was saying until I started pointing out specifics of the issues she had in the first half of that game. I am not as big a College Women's Basketball fan as most of you, but I follow the sport as a whole. AAU, College (Men and Women's), NBA. All of it. So, it's hard to please me. I know what championship basketball looks like. Like I said, I was pleased with the UConn game and yesterday. Also, I expect slippage through the course of a year. I am just saying that I hope that it is natural slippage through the course of a year. However, if you expect me to back off and say everything is great. I can't truthfully say that. I think in your support of the program, which I understand, you are just not recognizing what a loss in the tournament this year will mean. Coach Staley will wear it like it like a Scarlet Letter for the rest of her career and a lot of people will be glad to bring it up just because of her stances on things outside of basketball. Of course, it won't be a deathknell for a program, but it can be a changing of course for us moving forward. I am just sounding the alarm for some of you guys because I see the overconfidence brewing in supporters, our fanbase, and a little bit in our team. I think it will take a loss for some of us to fully get it, but there are others that totally get what I am saying. They have just chosen not to be as vocal as me. Just say, I am King Ward for this year. He saw it as devastation for us to lose last year as an undefeated team. I wasn't with him then, but I totally get it this year. This can't happen two years in a row.
Finally, I am not as into the Women's Game as some of you so if Geno lost as an undefeated coach twice in a row, great. However, he has several more championships to balance those losses off with. I can just see it where this will always be something to be brought up with Coach for the rest of her career if things don't go the right way.
Now, enough of the negative. You guys kind of forced me into it because you didn't respect my opinion. I do believe this team will step up to the challenge. They have stepped up to every challenge this year. Their will be some games where we will be playing 8 v 5, but I think that will rise to that too. I just believe we need to win all these games convincingly (at least 8 to 10 points). We need to knock teams out. Otherwise, politics can get into play and it can be taken away from us.
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