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(13) Kentucky @ (4) South Carolina -Jan 2 @ 7 PM Eastern

 
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myrtle



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PostPosted: 01/02/20 4:54 pm    ::: (13) Kentucky @ (4) South Carolina -Jan 2 @ 7 PM Eastern Reply Reply with quote

video on SEC
stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/mobile/?id=274410
audio: https://gamecocksonline.com/watch/?Live=296&type=Live

hoping for a real game...



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cthskzfn



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PostPosted: 01/02/20 5:22 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

yeah, this could be a good one.

i expect SC to steadily improve over the season. i really never know what to expect form UK.



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myrtle



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PostPosted: 01/02/20 7:22 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

well, Dawn should be extremely grateful to have Boston. without her, this team looks pretty ordinary.



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PostPosted: 01/02/20 9:18 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

myrtle wrote:
well, Dawn should be extremely grateful to have Boston. without her, this team looks pretty ordinary.


Yes, without Boston the other 5 Gamecocks scoring in double-digits - 3 of them with as much if not more pts than Boston scored - tonight would have lost for certain.....

Rolling Eyes

Kentucky came into the game with one of the better scoring defenses in the nation, allowing 48.7 ppg. USC had 49 at the half......


myrtle



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PostPosted: 01/02/20 10:20 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

Boston dominates in the middle. When you have a player like that it opens up the floor for the others. Even though they couldn't hit a three anyway, at least it takes away some defense.. I thought Cook looked good. Not being able to hit a three will be a problem against better teams. SoCar is probably a top 10 team because everybody is 'down' this year, but they don't look final four to me unless they can find some outside shooting from somewhere. Kentucky is over-rated, having lost to the only two teams worth a shit that they've played. It's easy to have good team numbers when you play Winthrop, Appy State, Grambling, etc...



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PostPosted: 01/03/20 4:54 pm    ::: Reply Reply with quote

myrtle wrote:
Boston dominates in the middle. When you have a player like that it opens up the floor for the others. Even though they couldn't hit a three anyway, at least it takes away some defense.. I thought Cook looked good. Not being able to hit a three will be a problem against better teams. SoCar is probably a top 10 team because everybody is 'down' this year, but they don't look final four to me unless they can find some outside shooting from somewhere. Kentucky is over-rated, having lost to the only two teams worth a shit that they've played. It's easy to have good team numbers when you play Winthrop, Appy State, Grambling, etc...



Kentucky has played a top 50 SOS thus far, and have around a top 25 RPI. It will most likely only improve. While it isn't the greatest schedule strength, its pretty above-decent for a field of 350 teams. The USC-UK games have always been physical barn-burner games in the Dawn Staley-Matthew Mitchell eras, and there has some sort of a conference rivalry developed between the two programs. A lot of stats and SOS rankings can be thrown out the window here.

But most likely how the game developed involved more team scouting sheets and game-planning, than anything else. UK is a guard-strong (as typical under Mitchell) team that is 11th nationally in 3-pt. FG Defense, but they are very post-poor as a team, and are last in the SEC in rebounding per game and defensive rebounding. South Carolina shot less than half their average of 3-pt. attempts per game, but heavily dominated in points in the paint and in rebounding, and also harassed UK into turnovers and poor shooting. Despite only going 1-6, USC is still in the top 4 of the SEC in 3-pt. FG shooting (the game knocked them out of 3rd place, actually), and in the top 50 nationally. Again, not great, but above-decent.

Not sure about your "everybody is down" logic. It's like saying "CT is probably the #1 team because everybody is down". It brings the entire playing field down to your level, but if it does that, then if you're top 10 in that field, then for all intent and purpose you really ARE a top 10 team, for that playing field. It's a "well, DUHH" statement. South Carolina has no apologies to make here: they've played a top 10 SOS thus far, and are 13-1 on the season....

But to your initial point: Boston has had a great start to the season. She hasn't dominated so much in recent games in terms of outright stats - she seems a bit out of conditioning, and has gotten more foul prone as the schedule has toughened. She's a freshman, so this isn't a great concern for me: her greatest impact has been her consistency on the season which is usually the major issue with freshmen playing their first year of college BB.

But other players around her have been raising their games around her, particularly the other freshmen. Cooke started off being the leader in ppg but she was shooting too much, and has reduced her attempts, but she's still showing no fear to drive and shoot, and her efficiency has improved. Beal started out not taking a lot of shots and mostly playing defense and rebounding, but she's taken more of a role offensively as well, and has become a do-everything type player: she's been compared often to Alisha Gray in that regard, and she's backing it up.

Amihere has recently started to flex her muscles: last night's game was by miles her best in terms of being comfortable on the floor, on being aggressive offensively in her post moves and drives to the basket, and it was a career game for her thus far. She looked as unstoppable as Boston typically does in the post against UK, but again UK is post-poor. It remains to be seen if her game will be more consistent as the schedule progresses similar to Boston's, or if it will be in spurts.

Other reserves Grissett and Saxton are also having improved production off the bench - the combination of Amihere, Grissett, and Saxton shot 10-12 for 33 pts and 11 rebounds, and helped keep the offense at a high efficiency when they were rotated into the game, something past benches were not able to do during the Tiffany Mitchell/A'ja Wilson years - and Henderson led the team with 8 assists and 3 steals.

So what's good here is a strong balance throughout the roster of contributors and producers, and I haven't even talked about senior starters Harris or Herbert-Harrigan. Many of the pieces are still young and the chemistry is still finding out about itself.

But this is the deepest team in terms of productive talent that Staley has had at South Carolina, by far. Just in terms of what the non-starters bring to the game every game. We had that season in 2014-15 where a freshman Wilson and sophomore Alaina Coates came off the bench as reserve super-subs, and that team made it to the FF, and was 1 point shy of playing for it all, but that was just 2 players, and the other reserves were not much, and we had 2 starters that were essentially non-factors offensively.

This season we have all 5 starters that have led the team in scoring already - 4 of them multiple times - which is something I don't think has happened before under Coach Staley at USC, and two reserves have also led the team in points. With the youth, the team is still developing and growing. We'll see where it goes this season, and beyond....


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