AP Top 25

[ElsenMidco]

Here was Dawn’s reaction to the news of her team being voted into the AP Top 25 for the first time in school history.

[announcerbob]

I am really impressed with Coach P and her mentality. Enjoy it today and tomorrow back at it. She will be preaching that now everyone will be gunning for us even more. She will have the team well prepared and ready for business.

[coyotecrazie5]

Feb 11, 2019 18:17:42 GMT -6 announcerbob said:

I am really impressed with Coach P and her mentality. Enjoy it today and tomorrow back at it. She will be preaching that now everyone will be gunning for us even more. She will have the team well prepared and ready for business.

Exactly. The job will be done when the ladies put some more banners up and make noise in the NCAA Tourney.

[Yotes]

Feb 11, 2019 18:17:42 GMT -6 announcerbob said:

I am really impressed with Coach P and her mentality. Enjoy it today and tomorrow back at it. She will be preaching that now everyone will be gunning for us even more. She will have the team well prepared and ready for business.

What a target to have on your back. Top 25 ranking in the Summit. Hope you're right that Coach P is able to turn this into even greater focus. This team could absolutely make the Sweet 16 if they've got the right focus.

[announcerbob]

Let's just worry about Saturday and put where to place the banner on hold for just a bit!!

[Men's League Waterboy]

I'd feel way better about everybody's focus if they'd quit falling asleep against shooters all the time, the coaching staff would have figured out that playing that zone on Saturday was a horrible idea about 5 minutes quicker than they did and it wouldn't have taken until the fourth quarter to figure out you need to get your leading scorer some shots.

[lynn]

Congrats to the Lady Yotes and coach P on the top 25 ranking. Huge accomplishment for the university and the state of so dak. Couldn't be prouder!!!

[announcerbob]

Thanks for your comment cityleaguesniper. I am sure the coaches and players will take your advice and apply it to the next game.

[coyoteglory]

Feb 12, 2019 5:15:27 GMT -6 announcerbob said:

Thanks for your comment cityleaguesniper. I am sure the coaches and players will take your advice and apply it to the next game.

I'm not sure what it is with people on this blog acting like just because we have a great team and coaching staff that they are immune to criticism. Cityleaguesniper's point is well taken. We've been sloppy against good three point shooting teams this year, and that's a product of both coaches and players (especially getting out of the zone against ORU). That doesn't mean that the coaches or players aren't amazing. It just means that this is a blog, and so we can still talk about what this (albeit great) team could work on.

[kiyoat]

Feb 12, 2019 6:58:20 GMT -6 coyoteglory said:

Feb 12, 2019 5:15:27 GMT -6 announcerbob said:

Thanks for your comment cityleaguesniper. I am sure the coaches and players will take your advice and apply it to the next game.

I'm not sure what it is with people on this blog acting like just because we have a great team and coaching staff that they are immune to criticism. Cityleaguesniper's point is well taken. We've been sloppy against good three point shooting teams this year, and that's a product of both coaches and players (especially getting out of the zone against ORU). That doesn't mean that the coaches or players aren't amazing. It just means that this is a blog, and so we can still talk about what this (albeit great) team could work on.

I don't have an issue with the criticism.  Those are valid points.  There might be a lot of sunshine-pumping koolaid-drinkers on here (myself included), but I think folks are pretty fair with allowing non-trolling and non-flaming discussions to happen without intervention.  If anything, I think Cityleague's post was a very fair criticism, but probably would have been better received in the game thread rather than this one.  

Personally, I love reading the analysis from those of you that watch/play/coach a lot of basketball, because I often miss the finer points.  Sometimes I am at a loss as to why we were struggling against a given opponent.  You can learn a lot from good announcers, and from the coach's post-game, but you rarely have coaches that will tell you "I screwed up.  Our game-plan was bad.  I was out-coached." or things like that.  And why would they say that anyway?  If people don't want to hear or read criticism, they probably shouldn't be hanging out on fan message boards.  If you have a thin skin you should probably just read the University's "official" articles.  I don't totally agree with everything I hear/read about this team, but I think there is some truth in every criticism and every accolade.

I'd love to hear from anyone that has a good argument that refutes Cityleague's post.  If not, I'll assume many agree with it.

[elcoyote]

In regards to cls's post I both agree and disagree. How's that for sitting on the fence? We did a very good job on Beatty, she was having a hard time even getting touches, did a poor job on Mayberry, who's just as good and we lost her way too many times, and then where did Lippe come from? Hit her first four three point attempts, two of which were from Carey's patio. Her fifth attempt was an airball and she was done scoring. I don't think the 'Yotes planned on her to that degree. I also agree on playing a zone against a three point shooting team like ORU, especially the way we can man up on a team.

[kiyoat]

Looks like Dawn did a phone interview with @dougfeinberg , AP sportswriter this morning.  I'd like to see the article when he writes it.

[kiyoat]

When you get ranked, suddenly there is national attention. While I realize that it doesn't make it any more or less likely to beat SDSU two more times (that will be a tough task), the attention is good for the program.

This NCAA writer lists 5 teams you "absolutely don't want to face right now".
#3 Oregon
#7 Maryland
#8 Marquette
#20 Miami
#25 South Dakota

www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-women/article/2019-02-11/these-are-5-womens-college-basketball-teams-you-absolutely

No. 25 South Dakota

It’d be easy to overlook this team.

It owns 22 wins and just three losses. It is on its way to a Summit League title if it can hold off South Dakota State. It can boast of wins against Missouri and No. 18 Iowa State. But until it makes its run in the NCAA tournament it’s unlikely a Summit League team will feel the national appreciation many of the teams ranked around it and behind it do now.

That’s just the reality a team in its position faces. However, it has a balanced offense and no one person an opponent can strategize against and neutralize what it’s able to do in the rebounding game. Seven different players have more than 20 steals. And it hits close to 80 percent of its free throws.

When this team claims a key upset this March don’t be surprised.

And before it gets mentioned, yes, we know SDSU has played 3 of those teams, and were close to winning 2 of them.

[Men's League Waterboy]

I don’t mean it to be an unfair criticism and I don’t mean to be overly negative. I think I’m actually quite positive about this team. I believe they have great potential. I just think there have been times where the focus slips a bit. There was no reason the team shouldn’t be able to match up with ORU. But for whatever reason they couldn’t or didn’t. Same thing happened at Denver.

That’s the type of thing that is going to catch you at a bad time here if they’re not more diligent. One of these games Arens or Duffy may not be able to save you in the fourth quarter. If you have to go zone against Mississippi State in the NCAA Tournament or something, that’s one thing. But this team shouldn’t have to zone Oral Roberts.

As I’ve said before, this team is capable of something special. But they have to take a more “take no prisoners” attitude on both ends of the floor on every possession.

Everybody’s very excited about the top 25 and rightly so. But let’s not pretend like they weren’t very close to losing their second league game last weekend.

[announcerbob]

Feb 12, 2019 11:50:17 GMT -6 Men's League Waterboy said:

I don’t mean it to be an unfair criticism and I don’t mean to be overly negative. I think I’m actually quite positive about this team. I believe they have great potential. I just think there have been times where the focus slips a bit. There was no reason the team shouldn’t be able to match up with ORU. But for whatever reason they couldn’t or didn’t. Same thing happened at Denver.

That’s the type of thing that is going to catch you at a bad time here if they’re not more diligent. One of these games Arens or Duffy may not be able to save you in the fourth quarter. If you have to go zone against Mississippi State in the NCAA Tournament or something, that’s one thing. But this team shouldn’t have to zone Oral Roberts.

As I’ve said before, this team is capable of something special. But they have to take a more “take no prisoners” attitude on both ends of the floor on every possession.

Everybody’s very excited about the top 25 and rightly so. But let’s not pretend like they weren’t very close to losing their second league game last weekend.