The Ags should post this analysis by an MSU fan on the locker room wall:

Well I watched over half of their Big West championship game. I don't know how they stayed close to Oregon. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if they were in the MVC that they would be in a play-in game. I would say the only D1 opponent we have played that is worse than UC Davis is Evansville. They are slow in getting back in transition, average to slow overall. They do have active hands defensively but seem unable to stop dribble penetration. Very careless passing. All of the teams in their conference besides them are worse than SIU in the ratings . It is clear that that league is weak. It seemed to me that they probably won their conference by being less bad than others in the conference. My summary may be too hard on them but even if so we should absolutely not lose this game. They try to play good defense but they are too slow and unathletic to do so for the most part and their defense should pose no problem for us.

https://247sports.com/college/missouri-state/board/59471/Contents/ncaa-selection-162442410/

Any guesses which half of the game that poster watched? ;)

Ha....good point!

Who cares what an MSU fan has to say about UCD ? If their team is so great, then why aren't they a higher seed ? That person's entire mental well-being probably rests on the outcome of the games. Get a COVID-19 hobby, friend, and stop living vicariously though college athletes to such an inappropriate extent. Seriously, it's like they're a Fresno State baseball fan with better grammar.

Ms. Jones, representing! :smile:

MSU fans are certainly looking ahead to Rounds 2 and 3. Maybe the team will too... :naughty:

I was thinking the same thing. I'd bet that their coach is trying to keep them focused on one game at a time but the team probably knows they are heavy favorites and that might work against them.

ALAMO REGION:

Analysis: Stanford is definitely the top overall seed for many reasons. The Cardinal are deep, led by Haley Jones and Kiana Williams, talented, and have already spent two months on the road, so three weeks in a hotel room shouldn't faze them too much. It won't be easy with a high-scoring Arkansas team as a potential Sweet 16 matchup. Dana Evans and Louisville potentially await the Cardinal in the regional final.

Other players to watch: Chelsea Dungee, Arkansas; Natasha Mack, Oklahoma State; Hannah Sjerven, South Dakota.

Upset watch: UC Davis will continue the trend of 12s knocking off 5s as the Aggies have a good shot to upset Missouri State, which opted out of the Missouri Valley Conference tourney before the semifinals because of COVID-19 concerns for its opponent.

First-round winners: Stanford, Oklahoma State, UC Davis, Arkansas, South Dakota, Georgia, Northwestern, Louisville.

Second-round winners: Stanford, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisville.

Regional semifinal winners: Stanford, Louisville.

Regional champion: Stanford.

https://www.startribune.com/picks-for-all-63-womens-ncaa-tournament-games/600035039/

After the trash talk from that msu fan, it’s nice to see a professionally written analysis

ESPN preview of the game:

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/preview?gameId=401311215

Hope they are not bussing to TX! But, a lot of study time. . . .

Only the marching band does that! :strong:

(They bused to the airport for a charter flight--they had Instagram pics up of getting on the plane.)

ESPN's 64-1 ranking of the women's bracket has this to say about the Aggies:

46. UC Davis Aggies

Best case: The Aggies missed seven weeks of their season because of COVID-19-related issues. But once they got going, they were dominant in the Big West, where they have won five consecutive regular-season titles. UC Davis also played Oregon tough in early February. The confidence drawn from that game and the play of conference player of the year Cierra Hall helps the Aggies to a first-round stunner.

Worst case: Hall is the Aggies' best player, but she had plenty of help on the way to the Big Dance. Unfortunately, she doesn't get enough of it in San Antonio, and the idea of an upset disappears quickly.

And the Bears:

17. Missouri State Lady Bears

Best case: On the 20th anniversary of Missouri State (then Southwest Missouri State) making the Final Four, the story almost writes itself. The Lady Bears shock the college basketball world and reach the Final Four again. This time there is no Jackie Stiles like in 2001. Instead, this Lady Bears team is well-balanced offensively with Brice Calip leading the way and excellent defensively -- Jasmine Franklin was MVC Defensive Player of the Year. But both teams had plenty of veterans, were No. 5 seeds, and both made it to the NCAA tournament's final weekend.

Worst case: The Lady Bears hadn't had a close game since mid-February and really could have used a Jackie Stiles for the big moments when they get one in Round 2. Missouri State comes up a couple of plays short and the careers of seniors Calip, Abby Hipp, Elle Ruffridge and Emily Gartner end sooner than anyone in Springfield had hoped.

Rest of the article, if you're interested:
https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/31067452/women-basketball-tournament-2021-ranking-all-64-teams-bracket

Hmm, not sure how much I should read in to those rankings, but Oregon is 22, 5 spots below MSU. I'm also not sure if the injury plays in to their ranking.

Worst case: The injury to the right foot of freshman Te-Hina Paopao that keeps her on the sideline continues to have a ripple effect.

Yeah, I'm not convinced that there was enough crossover in WBB this year to really get a handle on extra-regional match-ups.

This article has Cierra Hall as one of the five players to watch in the region: https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/31083672/women-basketball-tournament-2021-players-teams-watch-region-region

Nice publicity!

Also from that article:

Team that could ruin your bracket: Missouri State. The fifth-seeded Lady Bears haven't lost since the week before Christmas and completely dominated the Missouri Valley Conference. Brice Calip, Jasmine Franklin and Abby Hipp are talented and experienced enough to scare any bigger-name program. Missouri State took down Maryland earlier this season, knocked off 23rd-ranked Minnesota two years ago upset DePaul and Iowa State on their way to the Sweet 16 in the 2019 NCAA tournament. If Missouri State makes it that far again, Stanford, the team that ended the Lady Bears' run two years ago, could be waiting.

Matchup we'd like to see: Stanford vs. Arkansas. If the Lady Bears don't get in the way, the Cardinal and fourth-seeded Razorbacks would make for a compelling Sweet 16 matchup.

Which teams advance? Stanford, Missouri State, Georgia and Louisville are my picks to reach the Sweet 16. Stanford advances to the Final Four

Yeah MSU will be a tall task. They beat one of the tournament favorites in Maryland and went undefeated in a solid conference.

On the bright side, we bring an MVP type player in BW poy Hall, a tough defense featuring Stobbart (BW dpoy) Konrad (1st team defense), a solid floor general with great vision in Trpcic (13 assts vs Oregon) and a proven scorer in Turner who has come up big in key games (19 pts vs Oregon and 22 in BW final against UCI). From the limited amt I’ve watched, Harris and Gibb play well off the bench, but our starters take most of the minutes.

Interesting Bee article yesterday re: Cierra Hall. Looks like she is ditching med school for a cell biology research career; presumably this means grad school and if she stays at Davis she should could play some ball next year. I know, very wishful thinking on my part. Great young woman! She will be a key in the Mo. St. Game.

I get so tired of these jocks skating through on easy majors!

Wow. Very impressive young lady

Joe Davidson wrote that very nice article and really showcased how tough it is to be a scholar and an athlete at the same time at UCD.

https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article250005454.html

There’s a killer article in The Athletic about the unequal practice facilities between the men’s and women’s tournament. NOT a good look for the NCAA. I gather Stanford is making a deal out of it: men get free weights while the women get, ahem, yoga mats. It’s Texas. They’re probably lucky they get towels and showers.

Jen spoke about MSU being more post oriented than the teams in the Big West and that they go to the boards really hard. She emphasized that the Ags can not give up lots of easy post buckets and that we must rebound well and limit them to one shot. I think this team will be fired up and ready to leave it all on the floor going for their first NCAA Tournament win.

It'll be interesting to see how we defend the paint. In the past, when faced with post oriented teams, we'd consistently double team as soon as the ball got inside, giving up the perimeter shot. But will that be the case this year when we have a good interior defenders in Stobbart, Konrad and Hall? I imagine we'll try to mix up, double teaming at times, and from different angles, to try and keep them off balance. That type of defense often leads to poor rebounding (as players are scrambling to guard and are often our of rebounding position) so it's going to be key to crash the defensive boards.

We definitely have to find a way to limit them from getting multiple shots per possession. We gave up 17 offensive boards to Irvine and still managed to win going away but MSU will torch us if they pounds us on the offensive boards.

Of course part of the reason UCI got so many offensive boards is that they missed so many shots. I suspect that if MSU gets even double digit offensive rebounds it won't be because they shot poorly but rather out worked us.

UCI did miss a lot of shots, many of which were 3's that often go long and end up being 50/50 balls. We got beat on those long rebounds way too often.