NCAA WBB selection and game matchups
- Thread starter ozzyrulz
- Start date
I would rather put the Hawks up against Stanford than SC or IN.
I would be shocked if anyone beat SC. Have watched them play several times. They are a big,physical,athletic and very well coached. Happy Iowa not in same bracket.
Can anyone beat South Carolina? They have had a scare or two, and going undefeated in anything is difficult, although not impossible. So I'll say this: If anyone can beat South Carolina, it would be Iowa and Caitlin Clark. So let's hope we see that match-up so the rest of the country can watch history as it happens as the last undfeated team in college basketball goes down, just like when Iowa gave Ohio State its first loss--in Columbus--after a 16-0 start. Let's go, Hawkeyes!
Stanford has proven themselves to be vulnerable this year, having lost to multiple unranked teams. That's ample tape to study. We can handle tall -- Czinano did just fine vs Beers at OSU, Soares at ISU. Brink is also very prone to foul trouble and Czinano/Clark are good at drawing those. FYI SC is tall and much tougher/deeper. UConn has lost some games but largely due to injuries. And of course everyone on UConn's team is healthy just in time for the tourney. For us to have a chance at the Final 4, we had to avoid SC and UConn. VA Tech would have been preferable obviously but Stanford is far from the worst.
No. We will not beat them. They are simply too deep, athletic, big, tall, long, everything. They are (literally) head and shoulders above everyone else. There used to be lots of teams like this (Baylor, ND, etc) but almost all of them have collapsed due to coaching changes, the portal, etc. UConn and Stanford are still pretty elite but like I said, vulnerable. Gone are the days of them dominating their conferences. I'd be surprised if SC wins any game before the NC by less than 20. I think UConn is the only team that can compete with them for the NC and SC still has the edge on them in terms of depth b/c UConn has very little.
Indeed, we match up well with them. There’s a reason we’ve won 4 of 5, 6 of 8 vs them. But we were never gonna be in the same bracket so it’s a moot point.
I think if any team can beat them it is Iowa. Would take a good shooting day....but if they are on it is really hard to defend 4 three point shooters and a strong post at the same time.
I do agree it will be very difficult...and the flip side is if we can lose to to just about anyone if we are not hitting.
Is parity improving in women’s bball or do the top dogs just dominate like years past. 40pt wins.
Pasting this from above:
“There used to be lots of teams like this (Baylor, ND, etc) but almost all of them have collapsed due to coaching changes, the portal, etc. UConn and Stanford are still pretty elite but like I said, vulnerable. Gone are the days of them dominating their conferences.”
For reference, when we made the Elite 8 in 2019 we were the #8 seed yet. Yet we rly had no chance of keeping it close with teams 1-7. We were the best of the rest of the field and we got blown out by Baylor in the Elite 8 by 20 or 30. Baylor’s coach is now at LSU and Baylor is just another team. LSU is good but not Baylor good. Baylor no longer dominates the Big 12 — Iowa state actually won their tourney for the first time since 2000 Sunday.
Other formerly elite teams that have come down to earth from great heights include Maryland, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Louisville, and Tennessee. Some of these teams are still pretty good, others have completely collapsed (not to mention flashes in the pan like Oregon, Washington, Texas A&M, Arizona, Oregon State, Mississippi State, Syracuse, which all made Final 4s or higher in the past ~10 yrs but couldn’t keep up the success — all have seen major portal attrition and/or coaching changes and more than half didn’t even make the tourney this year).
So yeah, parity is certainly much more of a thing in WBB than it was even last year. SC remains the only elite team in the field (and they arent even a true blue blood). UConn + Stanford are close — and were expected to be elite this season — but they both lost multiple times to unranked teams this year. Stanford didn’t win the PAC 12 for the first time in, well, decades maybe? UConn is mostly dealing with injuries but 5 years ago they wouldn’t have lost to Marquette and St Johns the way they did in Feb, even with the same level of injuries. Things have just kind of come crashing down rly hard for the giants over the past few seasons, rather quickly.
In the last couple weeks of the regular season, tons of ranked teams were upset. It’s certainly much more fun to watch than it was.
Last edited: