This one will be heartbreaking for the Ags. The game was there for the taking. Gallant effort and a great bunch of young women. The coaching staff has a big job ahead to try and rebuild with the loss of Hall, Konrad and Stobbart. We need a couple of players to really step up a lot and join Turner and Burns.
Thanks for the info. I wonder if Turner just assumed the foul would come right away (which she shouldn't have since there were still 30 seconds left) and then was caught off guard when they didn't foul right away.
It was a mistake for Turner to gett trapped along the sideline, pull up her dribble and then drop the ball down and try to split the defenders. That's just what a double team wants the player to do. That's how they tie the ball up or create a TO.
However, games are played in live action and it's not like a practice where I'm sure Jen has gone over this with her players a hundred times. It's unfortunate for Turner but she didn't lose the game. She was one main reasons that we were even in the position to win the game. I feel for her and the rest of the team.
I'm not sure we have any schoolies to offer and, right now, I just don't see the reinforcements that we will need to replace the loss of 3 great players and still be among the top teams in the BW next season. The rest of the top BW teams have gotten a lot better and deeper. The coaching staff has some big challenges ahead. I hope they have some diamonds-in-the-rough that haven't really shown up very much this year.
I could have sworn I've seen Evanne Turner get into the same trap in the previous game when Long Beach State was being very aggressive against the Ags.
Yes they did. It's not often though that a true freshman will come in and be able to replace players with 4-5 years of experience especially the likes of Hall, Stobbart and Konrad. The surprising thing to me is that we didn't get much production at all from the bench this season from our freshmen and sophomores. It will be interesting to see how things shape up for the team next season.
I would think, recruiting wise, it might be easier to sell a higher level recruit on playing early knowing you just lost three senior starters. There's no longer an entrenched group of starters that you, as a freshman, would really have to blow out of the water to get playing time. Sure, the fresh and sophs in the program have a bit of a leg up having been in the program for a couple years. But it's not like they're proven at the collegiate level.
But yeah, like you said, it will be interesting to see how things shake out the next two years to see if they can get back to the top of the conference.
I watched a bit of the first half of this game. Even though it was relatively close at half, you knew it was just a matter of time. Baylor had just too much quality size.
There's such a wide gap in the talent between the few top women's team and most of the other teams that these unfortunate, lopsided games happen too often. You rarely see the kind of upsets that you see in the men's tournament. You have to feel for the teams that get absolutely trounced in games like that.
Yeah, I think it's getting better, though that's mainly at the top, but the depth isn't there yet. I imagine it's similar to what the men's tourney would have looked like had there been 64 teams back in the 60's and 70's when UCLA was destroying everyone. Takes time for more and more girls to start playing but eventually, because roster spots are limited, that depth starts trickling down. Doesn't happen overnight though.
There was the 16 over a 1 upset of Stanford but that was due to Stanford losing two players to injuries right before the tournament. Other than that, no 14 or 15 seed has won a game in the women's tourney. By comparison, we see a 14 or a 15 seed win about a game year on average in the men's side. Even in the second round the 1's on the women's side rarely lose (100-3 all time).
Over the weekend there was a record-tying 8 wins by double digit seeds.
2-seeds had only 3 losses against 10 seeds since the tourney expanded to 64 teams in 1994 coming into the year. 2-seeds went 0-2 against 10 seeds this year in the tourney.
It does seem like there is more talent way down to the double digit seeds. It certainly makes the first weekend exciting. By the way, If you get a chance, check out noter dame vs nc st game this Saturday. ND has a very talented freshman point guard surrounded by shooters.
It was a tough weekend to be an Iowa fan. Both basketball teams, coming off of Big 10 tournament titles, were upset. Creighton women shut down Iowa's talented guard. Wrestling team underperformed in the NCAA tournament. Softball team lost to top rated Oklahoma, 20-0, in a game called after five innings....
...but back to basketball, one of the stars for Creighton played for Iowa last year, then had a starring role in the upset in front of a sold out Iowa crowd.
#11 Princeton had a good chance to beat #3 Indiana but they threw the ball away and lost 57-56 in the final seconds. Princeton reminded a lot of how the Aggies play.
In one of the biggest upsets in the tournament, #10 South Dakota soundly beat #2 Baylor in 61-47. So there are now two #10 seeds in the Sweet 16: SD and Creighton.