RebKell's Junkie Boards

[AJMMs]

The U.S. World University Games team won the Gold Medal with a 188-67 win over the Russian team. Sylvia Fowles had 25 points and Seimone Augustus had 18 points and a team-high 5 assists.

UCLA's Lisa Willis was solid throughout the games and continued that in the gold medal game, scoring 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor, including 3-for-5 from 3-point land, grabbed 5 rebounds, had 2 assists and 2 steals as the U.S. beat Russia, 118-67 to win the gold.

She finised the Games averaging 9.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 2.3 steals (team leading) a game. She shot 51 percent from the floor, 37 percent from three point land (2nd on the team) and her 11 3s were the most on the team.

Noelle Quinn and Nikki Blue usually get all the attention but Willis has proven that she is an equal talent to what Bruin fans have labeled as the "Triple Threat."

Now if only UCLA could find a coach with as much talent. I hope Olivier proves us all wrong this year but I'm not holding my breath. Too many disappointments for the Bruins under her tutelage.

[AJMMs]

Some more interesting stats, Brooke Smith shot a whopping 80 percent from the floor to lead the team (20-of-25), while Fowles shot 75 percent (36-of-4 second on the team. As a whole, the U.S. shot 56 percent and outscored its opponents 101-55. Fowles led the team in scoring at 15.6 points a game and also in rebounding at 7.4 a game.

[AJMMs]

The win over the Russians was not the Gold medal game. The U.S. will face Serbia & Montenegro, which beat the Australians, 70-57. Sorry for the misprint.

[CamrnCrz1974]

I think Willis was a very good player. The difference now is that she is a star among an elite group of players. UCLA could have the best PG-SG-SF combination in the country.

The questions for UCLA are the frontcourt and coaching. Will Pluimer develop? And can KO harness the talent and turn it into a deep NCAA Tournament run?

[AJMMs]

UGH, I don't know, KO really scares me. On one hand it's like, is she really that bad or is the injuries? Her teams always seem to have a bevy of injuries to key players and fans are left making excuses because of it.

Same thing going on with Bibby but at least he had the knowledge to know when to get out of the kitchen when the heat got too much for him. I know he was probably forced out but I don't think he is disappointed leaving the women's game. He just didn't fit.

Well, KO had a lot of potential early on in her career but she just lost her head and never tried to make changes to her coaching style when other great coaches picked her coaching plan a part. She can look pretty good against other subpar coaches but her teams can look real bad against the real more elite type of coaches like Summitt, Auriemma, Vanderveer, KMR, etc.

Even with Quinn's injury last season, UCLA should have made the NCAA tournament. They made it the previous year and should make it every year. A good, solid coach could've coached that team to at least the NCAA tournament.

Um, OK, I guess I really want a change. 13 years and she barely has about a 52 percent winning percentage.

[Keegan]

Willis is one of my sleepers for the 2006 WNBA draft.

[AJMMs]

Willis has worked real hard and has taken her game seriously. From the moment she put on a Bruin uniform, she had said her goal was to make it in the WNBA. Hopefully, she does make it and her real strength is her defense.

Anyway, Keegan, did you know that if you do a yahoo search for women's hoops blog that your site is the first one listed? I know because I just did a search there for that.

[Keegan]