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Post by yoteforever on Apr 4, 2021 18:26:05 GMT -6
Just watched the women’s championship game with Stanford beating Arizona by 1. I get we’d have an inside size disadvantage but if Chloe and Liv and Maddie were on target I don’t think we are that far off. Thoughts?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2021 21:23:04 GMT -6
Just watched the women’s championship game with Stanford beating Arizona by 1. I get we’d have an inside size disadvantage but if Chloe and Liv and Maddie were on target I don’t think we are that far off. Thoughts? ESPN has South Dakota at #25 on their way to early poll for the 2021-22 season. They don't have Arizona in the top 25.
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Post by elcoyote on Apr 4, 2021 22:11:01 GMT -6
I still think that lack of competition in the Summit League hurts us when it comes to NCAA tourney games. It seems we compete much better when fed a steady diet of the P5s we're able to schedule in December. Right now the SDSU games are intense, especially if meeting for the SLT title, but other than that the rest of the league is basically meh. Hopefully NDSU can continue to rise and a few other schools join them. It'd be interesting to know what the combined conference records for the 'yotes and bunnies are over the past say five seasons excluding games against each other. I've said this before, but I also think the absence of a men's practice squad hurt them this season. I have no idea if other schools kept that going or not.
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Post by Yotes on Apr 5, 2021 0:44:54 GMT -6
Just watched the women’s championship game with Stanford beating Arizona by 1. I get we’d have an inside size disadvantage but if Chloe and Liv and Maddie were on target I don’t think we are that far off. Thoughts? I watched the 4th quarter, plus the semifinal for Arizona against UConn. I also question what the gap is for USD. Perimeter shooting is key, for sure, but if you can count on it I would say USD can beat any team on a given night.
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Post by Coyote Fan on Apr 5, 2021 3:07:13 GMT -6
Size and athleticism has always kind of been the kryptonite for the Coyotes in the NCAA tourney. IMO the best way to counter that is really good passing and efficient three point shooting. Right now the Coyotes are not efficient enough from outside to counter other disadvantages on the court. Athleticism and length is the reason Stanford and Oregon won. Those games were both blowouts. The Coyotes didn't give up against Oregon but much of the reason for the comeback was because the Ducks let way off the gas. When a team is down over 20 it is almost inevitable that they make a run and half of that reason is because the other team lets up.
The game against Clemson was close but in the second half the Tigers really stepped up the pressure and the Coyotes had a tough time with it. It would be nice to say the Coyotes are close to these teams and I think during the non conference games they are, but when it comes to the tourney (when those teams are playing their best) the Coyotes have a ways to go yet. Those teams all get their games refined and in full game mode when they have to face the tough competition in their power 5 leagues. It gets them more than ready for most mid majors. The exception to that is when the Coyotes get to host some of these power 5 clubs at home in the WNIT. Those clubs aren't quite as good as the NCAA teams but they are still much better than what the Yotes play in the Summit minus SDSU.
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Post by fightsd on Apr 5, 2021 6:51:31 GMT -6
Size and athleticism has always kind of been the kryptonite for the Coyotes in the NCAA tourney. IMO the best way to counter that is really good passing and efficient three point shooting. Right now the Coyotes are not efficient enough from outside to counter other disadvantages on the court. Athleticism and length is the reason Stanford and Oregon won. Those games were both blowouts. The Coyotes didn't give up against Oregon but much of the reason for the comeback was because the Ducks let way off the gas. When a team is down over 20 it is almost inevitable that they make a run and half of that reason is because the other team lets up. The game against Clemson was close but in the second half the Tigers really stepped up the pressure and the Coyotes had a tough time with it. It would be nice to say the Coyotes are close to these teams and I think during the non conference games they are, but when it comes to the tourney (when those teams are playing their best) the Coyotes have a ways to go yet. Those teams all get their games refined and in full game mode when they have to face the tough competition in their power 5 leagues. It gets them more than ready for most mid majors. The exception to that is when the Coyotes get to host some of these power 5 clubs at home in the WNIT. Those clubs aren't quite as good as the NCAA teams but they are still much better than what the Yotes play in the Summit minus SDSU. Agree with most of this. For me, size is the biggest thing. When it comes to ability and basketball IQ, I'd put the Yotes up against anybody. Hannah is great inside, but post moves don't work all that great when you're trying to shoot over a couple of 6'5" girls. Defensively, I think we hold our own against the bigger teams in the country. But we just don't have the length to score inside the arc against teams like Oregon. I didn't look it up, but it sure seemed like their entire starting lineup was taller than any girl on our team. That's always going to be tough.
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Post by gopheryote on Apr 5, 2021 7:59:00 GMT -6
Just watched the women’s championship game with Stanford beating Arizona by 1. I get we’d have an inside size disadvantage but if Chloe and Liv and Maddie were on target I don’t think we are that far off. Thoughts? The fan in me agrees. The basketball guy in me says 'slow your roll'. My take is that WBB right now is very similar to CFB - the handful of teams at the very top are nearly unbeatable by everyone else. (Kind of like USD/SDSU to the rest of the SL.) It isn't just size or athleticism, it is the combination of those in each athlete. I was very impressed how fast the 6'5"+ players got up and down the court. And those top programs keep getting better right now, so it is harder for teams just below that level to catch up. We would need Sjerven to be a 4 (not a 5) to play for 40 minutes against a Stanford (even though Stanford's PG was a train wreck). We would also need the person guarding the other team's 3 to be 6'2" and very quick. That said, I think the right combo has a chance on a given night. I really thought the 19/20 Yotes were Elite-Eight level, with a shot to pull and upset to get to the Final Four. To pull several upsets like that in a row is very different animal though.
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Post by sfmetroyote on Apr 5, 2021 13:14:45 GMT -6
I will start by saying I am a faithful Coyote fan. But I’m also a realist. Last years team would have had a shot at a Sweet 16, very outside shot of Elite 8. The difference between where USD and SDSU are vs the elite women’s team is all about athleticism and talent. UConn, Baylor, Stanford and South Carolina in March are completely different levels of teams than the Coyotes or those annoying rabbits, they just are. That doesn’t mean we can’t be successful and enjoy this incredible run and continued success. I just think some people need to temper expectations a bit. A national championship?? Highly to almost completely unlikely. Fun to banter though.
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Post by fightsd on Apr 5, 2021 13:36:08 GMT -6
I will start by saying I am a faithful Coyote fan. But I’m also a realist. Last years team would have had a shot at a Sweet 16, very outside shot of Elite 8. The difference between where USD and SDSU are vs the elite women’s team is all about athleticism and talent. UConn, Baylor, Stanford and South Carolina in March are completely different levels of teams than the Coyotes or those annoying rabbits, they just are. That doesn’t mean we can’t be successful and enjoy this incredible run and continued success. I just think some people need to temper expectations a bit. A national championship?? Highly to almost completely unlikely. Fun to banter though. I don't think I've seen anyone on this board claim that we are a national championship caliber team. For the most part, I think expectations and speculations for the women's team have been fair and based in reality. The general consensus for this years' team was that we deserved to be there, but weren't really built to make much noise. Depending on who we drew for the first round, a win could have been possible. But with the Oregon matchup, I don't think anybody was feeling overly confident going into that game. Last years' team was a different beast. When that team was playing up to their abilities, there weren't many better teams in the country. A realistic shot at a Sweet 16 or Elite 8 was a fair assessment. A Final Four berth was a pretty lofty goal, but we've seen crazier things happen. It's unlikely we'll ever have the same caliber athletes as Stanford, UConn, etc. But I do think USD has had enough sustained success both in and out of the Summit League over the past 6 or 8 years to consistently be in those top 25 conversations and be a matchup that no team in the country can look past.
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Post by Men's League Waterboy on Apr 5, 2021 18:59:51 GMT -6
The gap is Aari McDonald and Shaina Pellington.
'Zona had Bendu Yeaney who basically shut Ciara Duffy down a few years back and two guards that hardly anybody in the country can stay in front of. At the end of the day, that's pretty much it. Do you have creators? And can you stay in front of the other team's creators?
You can have all the shooters in the world. If you don't have somebody who can collapse a defense and find them it's not going to do you much good.
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Post by Men's League Waterboy on Apr 5, 2021 19:08:33 GMT -6
South Dakota/South Dakota State D-I teams with a Seekamp, Duffy, Miller, Vogel, Warkenthien, Rotert, Selland ... there's a reason they were what they were.
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Post by sfmetroyote on Apr 5, 2021 19:08:56 GMT -6
Well stated FightSD. I didn’t mean to imply there were some with national championship goals. I think most fans are realistic. We are still small fish in a huge ocean. I mean look at the Gonzaga men. It took them 20+ years of being the mid major power to finally get to this point. And they’re in a much larger market.
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