2024-2025 WBB Team (2022-present)
- Thread starter TN-Gamecock
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Blackwell doesn't make much sense based on our returning roster. Where's she going to play?
CAN WE???
SHOULD WE???
DARE WE????
MUST WE????
Retire this thread and start
Gamecock WBB 2022-2023???????
Which board should it be on???
What say you????
SHOULD WE???
DARE WE????
MUST WE????
Retire this thread and start
Gamecock WBB 2022-2023???????
Which board should it be on???
What say you????
Technically, is Barker in the transfer portal or a decommitment?
Blackwell is a great talent but I don’t see her as a fit. A lot of talent in the portal, but any of them fit our need, style or culture?
Sounds maybe she will pursue a Covid year where she can start. If so good for her! Having to sit a year because of the surgeries on both feet really hampered her.
Blackwell should go to Louisville. Perfect fit, imo.
I'm looking at the portal for a "3 and D" player for us.
That would be a good fit for them.
I am interested as to where former Gamecock Bianca Jackson lands. But most importantly, what do your sources tell you about the Cavinder twins?
I "think" she is a decommitment. She signed a LOI with Georgia and they would have to release her. If not, she would have to use this as her first transfer without sitting out. I'm sure she wouldn't want to do that and she shouldn't have to. I haven't seen anything official on the status.
Bianca Jackson still has eligibility?!? Good lord. She was a freshman with Lele. Does her mom still coach in Alabama? Maybe she ends up in the SEC at a a Bama or Miss school.
I don't know anything about the Cavinder twins beyond what I've seen, if you know what I mean. Maybe a PAC -12 school. Have you seen the turnover in that conference? Everyone but Stanford is losing multiple players.
Yes, Arizona St., Oregon and Arizona just wow!!
Graves kind of threw his kids under the bus after the season with some of his comments. I don’t think he is aging well there.
Bianca actually was the year after Lele.
The Cavinder twins can actually play, Hailey was Mountain West POY. They are not quite good enough to go Power 5 and make a big splash. They need to go to a smaller school that is good but needs them. A city that is fashion and media heavy/hungry. The transfer is as much or more about NIL as it is b-ball. What a world.
Would love to start a discussion about what the SEC will look like next year. Very down as a whole. UT could actually challenge us for the title, but I see no one else even vaguely on the horizon.
Lot of good pickups out there, Morgan Jones from FSU, Blackwell, Brunelle from ND ....
Here's lawcalcock's breakdown of our 2017 class: Lele, Jackson, Haley Troup, Ladazhia Williams
A'ja, Cuevas, Tyasha. Jennings and Cliney
Will have to lead the youngs ones to glory next season...KiKi Harrigan, Bradshaw, Patrick, Lele Grissett, LaDazia Williams, Bianca Jackson and Haley Troup will all have to grow up in a hurry...But i have faith...
southcarolina.forums.rivals.com
Since 3 of them transferred out and sat out a year, they have one more year than Lele left to play.
Yes, I think a SEC preview thread would be great. I'm not as high on Jackson at UT as some, but I'll save my thoughts for that thread. Most of all, it's needed to keep track of tranfers. I have to think Mulkey will hit the portal hard.
Here's lawcalcock's breakdown of our 2017 class: Lele, Jackson, Haley Troup, Ladazhia Williams
A'ja, Cuevas, Tyasha. Jennings and Cliney
Will have to lead the youngs ones to glory next season...KiKi Harrigan, Bradshaw, Patrick, Lele Grissett, LaDazia Williams, Bianca Jackson and Haley Troup will all have to grow up in a hurry...But i have faith...
Since 3 of them transferred out and sat out a year, they have one more year than Lele left to play.
Yes, I think a SEC preview thread would be great. I'm not as high on Jackson at UT as some, but I'll save my thoughts for that thread. Most of all, it's needed to keep track of tranfers. I have to think Mulkey will hit the portal hard.
Well color me wrong
Williams will be a good pickup for somebody and it appears Troup is staying at Mizzou for another year
Owusu from Maryland just announced she is transferring. I swear more talent goes in and out of that school than any place in the country. Fresse can coach O but not D and that locker room must be...... well it must be something special
I just read that thread all the way through. Sorry to shortchange your own contribution to it. lol.Well color me wrong
Williams will be a good pickup for somebody and it appears Troup is staying at Mizzou for another year
Interesting to read in retrospect.
Troup made the right decision; she would have never seen the floor here.
Williams, I think, we could have used last season. I guess the knock on her is she's not physical enough to play the 5, but she has a nice mid-range game. She is no where close to Saxton or Amihere defensively, but she could have at been our 4th big. Perhaps loosened defenses up a bit that collapsed on Boston.
Jackson would have been a contributor, but watching how poised Destanni and Zia looked against UCONN I think her moving on worked out for the best. Destanni and Zia have played a ton of minutes against high level competition over the last 3 years. It really paid off Sunday night.
Yes, Lele was underrated.
And your mention of the Hayes sisters was spot on. Anastasia is an excellent player, but Dawn was right to avoid that headache.
Can we make up an all-star team of players who have transferred out?
Owusu, Shakira Austen, Jenna Stati. That's a good nucleus.
Destiny Slocum, Taylor Mikesell, and Olivia Owens also come to mind. That’s a final four team with DS coaching
Personally I'm a little curious about the Briggs transfer to Maryland. It seems like Florida's team chemistry increased after she left.
Also curious if Owusu could perhaps be the the potential birdie. She's an experienced PG we can use.
I don't know, depending on who's transferring I can see it potentially happening. The only reason I entertain Blackwell personally is that I saw her like a lot of South Carolina stuff on social media recently.
Owusu is a curious player. She is a good to great pg but needs the ball too much. She is fast, quick, plays long minutes and runs the court well but she looks to be very very out of shape. Smart and strong willed but UMD is not a mentally strong team.
And let’s not even talk about the talent that has transferred in
Owusu played on the AmeriCup team with Boston and Destanni last year. Dawn was the coach. A committee selects the roster, though, not Dawn. So I don't know how DS feels about her. Her defense is not the best. I don't think she's the birdie, though I'm sure some people will speculate it's her.
Oh oh oh and how could I forget Lindsey Spann Who transferred here and averaged 10 ppg her senior year. She is now an assistant coach back at UMD and considered a rising star
But that's what makes her intriguing, the things she can use to round out her game we can provide. She makes good use of her size already and Coach Molly can get her in great shape. Whereas Dawn and company easily fix the rest. We already know how she is about defense so she wouldn't accept a player that isn't willing to do it and get better.
I wonder what the ratings could have been if it was on network TV and it wasn't airing against the Grammys.
Towards the end of the season she was at games with no brace..... so my guess is she is best frienemies with Molly Binetti
Musings and ramblings for this thread
The curious case of Matthew Mitchell and how it relates to Brenda Frese at Maryland and Dawn Staley
Twelve years ago when I started following WBB, I really disliked Matthew Mitchell at UK. They were better than us, played 94 foot D and ran it up. He had been an assistant at UT under Summitt. I found him smug and arrogant. To me he saw himself as the self appointed heir to Pat’s throne in the SEC.
And of course we had to play them twice a year. A defeat was always extra bitter and a win was extra sweet. Mitchell knew DS was coming and their relationship was less than stellar. The night he called two “let the crowd soak in the victory” timeouts in the last minute of a win over us infuriated me. Of course DS repaid the time at the next home game.
But then things went bad for Mitchell, maybe it was stress, pressure to win, envy, or just I don’t know. In less than a calendar year he had 12 players transfer.
College Coaches are workaholics, when things go bad they put in a 90 hour work week instead of their normal 80 hours. Mitchell instead stepped back, it was offseason. He came to the conclusion that HE was the problem. He changed. He hired Lin Dunn, a 70 something grandma, as his assistant. She is a WNBA GM at present.
Something happened..... his players and program changed, they loved playing for him. He still coached the same style but HE was different. I STARTED TO LIKE MATTHEW MITCHELL. Unfortunately he had a serious injury and retired. I miss him in the league.
This a long way to say, something is wrong at Maryland. Frese has a national championship and is a perennial top 10 team with TONS of talent on the roster.
But it’s different talent every year. Shakira Austin, Jenna Staiti, Taylor Mikesell, Destiny Pitts, Olivia Owens, Lindsey Spann, Ashley Owusu, Angel Reese all left. That’s 3 All Americans, 3 other all conference players, and 2 other starters at power five schools. These were not players buried deep on the bench( Haley Troup, LaDhazia Williams, Bianca Jackson) but starters and stars!
On the flip side talent has also transferred in and via dogged recruiting. And the Big 10 titles keep coming. But something is wrong up there and it ain’t on the court. Either Frese figures that out or constant turmoil is there constant companion.
Dawn is faced with a possibly tumultuous offseason. Everybody got their ring. They got it by BUYING IN to team and role. Grissett, Henny, Saxton, Littleton, Wesolek are gone..... pros, life or maybe a year to play somewhere else.
Roles, starters, newbies, everything has to be renegotiated. And expectations and scrutiny are raised. Clearly DS Is grounded and up to this challenge, but back to back is not guaranteed. We are going to see a lot of change and it might not all be rainbows and unicorns
The curious case of Matthew Mitchell and how it relates to Brenda Frese at Maryland and Dawn Staley
Twelve years ago when I started following WBB, I really disliked Matthew Mitchell at UK. They were better than us, played 94 foot D and ran it up. He had been an assistant at UT under Summitt. I found him smug and arrogant. To me he saw himself as the self appointed heir to Pat’s throne in the SEC.
And of course we had to play them twice a year. A defeat was always extra bitter and a win was extra sweet. Mitchell knew DS was coming and their relationship was less than stellar. The night he called two “let the crowd soak in the victory” timeouts in the last minute of a win over us infuriated me. Of course DS repaid the time at the next home game.
But then things went bad for Mitchell, maybe it was stress, pressure to win, envy, or just I don’t know. In less than a calendar year he had 12 players transfer.
College Coaches are workaholics, when things go bad they put in a 90 hour work week instead of their normal 80 hours. Mitchell instead stepped back, it was offseason. He came to the conclusion that HE was the problem. He changed. He hired Lin Dunn, a 70 something grandma, as his assistant. She is a WNBA GM at present.
Something happened..... his players and program changed, they loved playing for him. He still coached the same style but HE was different. I STARTED TO LIKE MATTHEW MITCHELL. Unfortunately he had a serious injury and retired. I miss him in the league.
This a long way to say, something is wrong at Maryland. Frese has a national championship and is a perennial top 10 team with TONS of talent on the roster.
But it’s different talent every year. Shakira Austin, Jenna Staiti, Taylor Mikesell, Destiny Pitts, Olivia Owens, Lindsey Spann, Ashley Owusu, Angel Reese all left. That’s 3 All Americans, 3 other all conference players, and 2 other starters at power five schools. These were not players buried deep on the bench( Haley Troup, LaDhazia Williams, Bianca Jackson) but starters and stars!
On the flip side talent has also transferred in and via dogged recruiting. And the Big 10 titles keep coming. But something is wrong up there and it ain’t on the court. Either Frese figures that out or constant turmoil is there constant companion.
Dawn is faced with a possibly tumultuous offseason. Everybody got their ring. They got it by BUYING IN to team and role. Grissett, Henny, Saxton, Littleton, Wesolek are gone..... pros, life or maybe a year to play somewhere else.
Roles, starters, newbies, everything has to be renegotiated. And expectations and scrutiny are raised. Clearly DS Is grounded and up to this challenge, but back to back is not guaranteed. We are going to see a lot of change and it might not all be rainbows and unicorns
A good read. Thanks for sharing. WIll be interesting to see how next season goes.
I don't get the feeling that she is much into pandering. I think Henderson is living proof of that. There are other examples. She doesn't do a lot of placating. She sells the idea to the player and the player's family that the player will be better off in the long run by doing things on her schedule. Agree?
Definitely. I believe it was Bree Hall's parents who talked about how Dawn kept it real with them during the recruiting process, didn't make any promises. Well, she made one promise: they would win. "The main thing is the main thing."
Looking at the photos after the last game of the season, all the players were were enjoying themselves.
If any player is unhappy, then she's really not about the main thing, now is she? Nothing necessarily wrong with that. Maybe she wants to play more or play a different position. Whatever the reason, she can't blame Dawn. Coach didn't lie to her. They did a lot of winning.
John Wooden never played more than eight players. Dean Smith played almost everyone - even substituting five at a time (Blue Team). But Wooden was the greatest championship winner of all time. I think Dawn is more like Wooden than Smith.Definitely. I believe it was Bree Hall's parents who talked about how Dawn kept it real with them during the recruiting process, didn't make any promises. Well, she made one promise: they would win. "The main thing is the main thing."
Looking at the photos after the last game of the season, all the players were were enjoying themselves.
If any player is unhappy, then she's really not about the main thing, now is she? Nothing necessarily wrong with that. Maybe she wants to play more or play a different position. Whatever the reason, she can't blame Dawn. Coach didn't lie to her. They did a lot of winning.
Geno's best teams played even fewer than 8. He went undefeated a couple of times with a 6 1/2 player rotation. Not sure he can do that any longer. Hard to keep 5 star players on the bench these days without them transferring.
The women have 48 hours to declare for the draft after the champion. It's
To further you point, every player who stuck it out from 2017 to now have a national championship.Definitely. I believe it was Bree Hall's parents who talked about how Dawn kept it real with them during the recruiting process, didn't make any promises. Well, she made one promise: they would win. "The main thing is the main thing."
Looking at the photos after the last game of the season, all the players were were enjoying themselves.
If any player is unhappy, then she's really not about the main thing, now is she? Nothing necessarily wrong with that. Maybe she wants to play more or play a different position. Whatever the reason, she can't blame Dawn. Coach didn't lie to her. They did a lot of winning.