01-21-2011, 11:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-21-2011, 11:30 AM by Viking_Guy.)
Lefty--
I think it\'s more a gap between the top 5 (Baylor, UConn, Stanford, Duke, UT) and everyone else. UCLA did beat Notre Dame on their home court, after all, where the Irish only lost to UConn by 3. They\'re not nearly as bad as Stanford made them look last night.
More than that, I\'m wondering if the standard "corrections" for home court advantage might not be big enough for women\'s basketball. I said, among my other prognostications to friends last night, that we were probably about 15-18 points better than UCLA at home, about 10 on a neutral court, and about 4-5 at their place (making that game a tossup). After last night, and watching the difference in Stanford\'s performance level on the road and at home (not final scores, but the trouble we had putting away weak WSU and UW teams for the first 30 minutes), I\'m wondering if the "home court edge" should be more like a 12 point swing than a 6 point swing for WBB.
A couple of other observations:
- It wasn\'t the UCLA press or trap that was the problem last night; it was their perimeter pressure. Stanford\'s gotten too used to being able to hand the ball off uncontested from a post to a circling guard at the wing, and the Bruins were good at disrupting that. I was really hoping we would move Kayla to that position and keep the posts down low, with a shooter in the corner to balance out the triangle. Instead, we often had Nneka, Chiney and Sarah out there, none of whom are a threat to turn and shoot at that distance, although Nneka and Chiney did turn and drive when both their mark and the guard\'s defender went after the ball over the top rather than dropping below.
- I really liked that a lot of the team got strong minutes last night: Boothe, Tinkle, Kokenis, Ruef all got time under pressure against a strong opponent that was still playing its starters. Lindy didn\'t see much time, but it wasn\'t a good matchup for her; the Bruins are quick enough to deny her set shot 3-pointer, and she wasn\'t comfortable driving against them. Toni, on the other hand, needs to work on her finishing off the drive; she\'s not been able to get the ball up over the rim on a number of drives under pressure in the last few games; I think she\'s not getting it out of her hands and up on the glass soon enough, but that\'s a shot she\'s got to be able to make at least more dangerous. Right now, it just looks wild.
Lefty, to adduce more information - North Carolina (albeit they have a tradition of being overranked) got trounced by UConn at home by 30+ when they were ranked #12 last week. So I\'m not certain UCLA was overrated by that much. Although I\'m betting they\'ll drop in the rankings much more than the Tar Heels will, given the continuing perceived weakness of the Pac-10 (another reason the blowout last night was maybe not the best outcome; we really need a couple more strong programs in the conference to boost its reputation).
Oh, and to the top-5, add Texas A&M on the periphery. They\'re good but haven\'t faced one of the powerhouses yet. They play Baylor at some point soon.
VG
I think it\'s more a gap between the top 5 (Baylor, UConn, Stanford, Duke, UT) and everyone else. UCLA did beat Notre Dame on their home court, after all, where the Irish only lost to UConn by 3. They\'re not nearly as bad as Stanford made them look last night.
More than that, I\'m wondering if the standard "corrections" for home court advantage might not be big enough for women\'s basketball. I said, among my other prognostications to friends last night, that we were probably about 15-18 points better than UCLA at home, about 10 on a neutral court, and about 4-5 at their place (making that game a tossup). After last night, and watching the difference in Stanford\'s performance level on the road and at home (not final scores, but the trouble we had putting away weak WSU and UW teams for the first 30 minutes), I\'m wondering if the "home court edge" should be more like a 12 point swing than a 6 point swing for WBB.
A couple of other observations:
- It wasn\'t the UCLA press or trap that was the problem last night; it was their perimeter pressure. Stanford\'s gotten too used to being able to hand the ball off uncontested from a post to a circling guard at the wing, and the Bruins were good at disrupting that. I was really hoping we would move Kayla to that position and keep the posts down low, with a shooter in the corner to balance out the triangle. Instead, we often had Nneka, Chiney and Sarah out there, none of whom are a threat to turn and shoot at that distance, although Nneka and Chiney did turn and drive when both their mark and the guard\'s defender went after the ball over the top rather than dropping below.
- I really liked that a lot of the team got strong minutes last night: Boothe, Tinkle, Kokenis, Ruef all got time under pressure against a strong opponent that was still playing its starters. Lindy didn\'t see much time, but it wasn\'t a good matchup for her; the Bruins are quick enough to deny her set shot 3-pointer, and she wasn\'t comfortable driving against them. Toni, on the other hand, needs to work on her finishing off the drive; she\'s not been able to get the ball up over the rim on a number of drives under pressure in the last few games; I think she\'s not getting it out of her hands and up on the glass soon enough, but that\'s a shot she\'s got to be able to make at least more dangerous. Right now, it just looks wild.
Lefty, to adduce more information - North Carolina (albeit they have a tradition of being overranked) got trounced by UConn at home by 30+ when they were ranked #12 last week. So I\'m not certain UCLA was overrated by that much. Although I\'m betting they\'ll drop in the rankings much more than the Tar Heels will, given the continuing perceived weakness of the Pac-10 (another reason the blowout last night was maybe not the best outcome; we really need a couple more strong programs in the conference to boost its reputation).
Oh, and to the top-5, add Texas A&M on the periphery. They\'re good but haven\'t faced one of the powerhouses yet. They play Baylor at some point soon.
VG