2023 NCAA Womens basketball tournament

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Oct 1, 2015
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I haven’t seen a thread dedicated to the womens side of things. After watching UConn demolish Vermont, I figure I’ll get it going.
 

HurstSoGood

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Dec 14, 2006
2,057
Hoping Indiana Senior C Mackenzie Holmes (All-American from Gorham, ME) can get back on the court soon. She sat out todays game with a knee. Really good kid. Great player. Loves the game. Both her mom and dad were stand-outs back in the day.
 

amh03

Tippi Hedren
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Dec 27, 2003
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Rooting for LSU, with my niece attending. But seems like it’s still going to be S. Carolina.
 

Ale Xander

doesn't like to back it in
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Oct 31, 2013
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Here in Fort Myers, proud of our FGCU Lady Eagles. (#12 took down #5 Wash St). Tough draw with Villanova on their home court on Monday, tho.
Is the Monday watch party going to be at Pelican Larry’s again, or somewhere else?
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
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I think Iowa-Georgia is the best game on right now. Caitlin Clark scored or assisted on Iowa's last 23 points.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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Great game except for the complete lack of class from Georgia after the game was effectively over. The slap to the face may have been accidental (although wreckless), but it's unfortunate there's no real way to penalize a player for shoving an opponent to the floor with 1.5 seconds left in your season.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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May 5, 2017
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Zona comes back to take a 1-point lead on Maryland at the half. I watched Diamond Miller and Abbey Meyers torch Ohio State twice this year, but they've only combined for 9 so far today. The women's tournament has certainly been more interesting than the men's so far today.
 

amh03

Tippi Hedren
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LSU moves onto the Sweet 16. Angel Reece reaches her 30th double-double before the half…wrapped up the game with 25 points and 24 rebounds…
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Sep 10, 2017
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Stanford is down 35-25 to Ole Miss in the middle of the 3rd quarter, this could get interesting...
My only issue with the women's tournament are the home pods the top seeds get, and that may help here. I understand the revenue equation is such that doing round of 64 games at all neutral sites wouldn't work. Even if they could schedule the 1st rounds at an off campus arena nearby, it still gives the better seed a homecourt advantage but there is some separation where this feels like the postseason and not just another regular season game.
 

canderson

Mr. Brightside
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Jul 16, 2005
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Harrisburg, Pa.
I don't follow the women's game tooooo closely but went to a school that is one of the winningest ever (and who now is mostly irrelevant due to the rise of the funding of major schools and so forth) so do pay attention generally.

While the top three or so programs still are light years ahead of most programs, the rest of the field has made major strides in competitive balance over the last 10 or so years. It's very good to see.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Oct 1, 2015
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I don't follow the women's game tooooo closely but went to a school that is one of the winningest ever (and who now is mostly irrelevant due to the rise of the funding of major schools and so forth) so do pay attention generally.

While the top three or so programs still are light years ahead of most programs, the rest of the field has made major strides in competitive balance over the last 10 or so years. It's very good to see.
100% true. The days of UConn or Tennessee just steamrolling through the tournament year after year are long gone. South Carolina has something special going on right now, but they won't stay this dominant.

The season, UConn, by the way, at times has literally had an all-American lineup on the bench due to injuries. I wish we could see them at full strength going up against SC. Last year, UConn wasn't healthy either when they played SC in the title game.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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9 seed Miami knocks out 1 seed Indiana. Miami player being interviewed by the announcer after the game: "coach told us to win the fucking game, excuse my language." The announcers didn't give her the same don't worry about it this is cable TV line like Jamie Erdahl did, haha.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Oct 1, 2015
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I think you mean all the players are excellent, can't focus on one or two players. But they only play 7 people.
UConn's roster (if everyone was healthy) - not counting walk-ons:

G - Bueckers (NPOY a couple of years ago and has been hurt the last two seasons)
G - Fudd (All American caliber player)
G - Muhl (all conference player, set a UConn record for assists this year, conference DPOY as well)
G - Bettencourt (bench player forced to play real minutes this year in a ton of games)
F - Ducharme (all conference caliber player, has dealt with concussion issues all season)
F - Griffin (all conference caliber player, missed a bunch of time with a back injury)
F - Edwards (all conference player, might make one of the All-America teams)
C - Juhasz (all conference player)
F - Brady (McDonald's All American freshman, out all year due to injury)
F - Lopez-Senechal (all conference player)
F - Patterson (bench player getting real minutes this year due to injury)
F - DeBerry (bench player getting real minutes this year due to injury)

If they were healthy, this group of players would all get real minutes:

Bueckers, Fudd, Muhl, Ducharme, Griffin, Edwards, Juhasz, Brady, and Lopez-Senechal. That's 9 deep, all of whom are at minimum all-conference caliber players. At one point this year they had this list of players on the bench due to injury:

Bueckers
Fudd
Ducharme
Juhasz
Brady

That's an unbelievable amount of talent forced to sit due to injury. That team right there, if healthy, is a final four caliber team all by itself (with a few decent subs to give them a few minutes' break).

No, UConn doesn't only play 7 players, not when they have a fully healthy roster. They'd go 9 deep easy, and have players like Bettencourt, DeBerry, and Patterson not playing at all - and all three of them would be legit quality starters on a mid-major team.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Oct 1, 2015
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Getting Fudd and Ducharme back makes them dangerous again.
100%. That's two very high level shooters they can now put on the floor, which opens all kinds of things up for Juhasz and Edwards, as well as for back door cuts. Teams HAVE to respect their shooting. Makes a huge, huge difference. Fudd didn't even shoot very well last night (she scored a lot because she took a lot of shots) and they blew out Baylor (though the game was closer than the score indicated).

I still think it will take an A+ performance, and probably some breaks going their way, for UConn to beat South Carolina, but without Fudd they only lost by 4 last time they played. So they've definitely got a puncher's chance if they get that far. Indiana losing, by the way, might not be the blessing it appears to be for UConn. I think LSU is better than Indiana anyway.
 

Humphrey

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UConn's roster (if everyone was healthy) - not counting walk-ons:

G - Bueckers (NPOY a couple of years ago and has been hurt the last two seasons)
G - Fudd (All American caliber player)
G - Muhl (all conference player, set a UConn record for assists this year, conference DPOY as well)
G - Bettencourt (bench player forced to play real minutes this year in a ton of games)
F - Ducharme (all conference caliber player, has dealt with concussion issues all season)
F - Griffin (all conference caliber player, missed a bunch of time with a back injury)
F - Edwards (all conference player, might make one of the All-America teams)
C - Juhasz (all conference player)
F - Brady (McDonald's All American freshman, out all year due to injury)
F - Lopez-Senechal (all conference player)
F - Patterson (bench player getting real minutes this year due to injury)
F - DeBerry (bench player getting real minutes this year due to injury)

If they were healthy, this group of players would all get real minutes:

Bueckers, Fudd, Muhl, Ducharme, Griffin, Edwards, Juhasz, Brady, and Lopez-Senechal. That's 9 deep, all of whom are at minimum all-conference caliber players. At one point this year they had this list of players on the bench due to injury:

Bueckers
Fudd
Ducharme
Juhasz
Brady

That's an unbelievable amount of talent forced to sit due to injury. That team right there, if healthy, is a final four caliber team all by itself (with a few decent subs to give them a few minutes' break).

No, UConn doesn't only play 7 players, not when they have a fully healthy roster. They'd go 9 deep easy, and have players like Bettencourt, DeBerry, and Patterson not playing at all - and all three of them would be legit quality starters on a mid-major team.
I was referring to who they are playing now. Only 7 played significantly, 2 or 3 others played a minute. They are beyond loaded if everyone is available.
 

BaseballJones

ivanvamp
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Oct 1, 2015
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I was referring to who they are playing now. Only 7 played significantly, 2 or 3 others played a minute. They are beyond loaded if everyone is available.
Ohhhhh.... I misunderstood your previous post. My bad. Yeah, by "depth" I mean that everyone they mainly used last night is a terrific player. I gotcha.

My daughter is on the coaching staff of another D1 women's hoops team, and we were chatting watching the UConn game. When Edwards got in foul trouble (she commits some DUMB fouls, though her 4th foul...man, she literally didn't do anything, and they called it on the wrong person... whatever), I texted her and said, they'll be fine. Against Baylor, they can live with just one big (Juhasz) because Baylor isn't very big, and Griffin can totally play the 4 for them against this team, as athletic as she is.

Well...spot on, if I may say so myself. Griffin was a beast on the glass and on defense, and totally did a great job, and Juhasz was solid, and it was more than plenty. Now if Edwards gets in foul trouble against South Carolina....TOTALLY different story. But last night, it was fine.
 

GB5

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Aug 26, 2013
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Did I hear that one of the Sweet 16 games is at 2:30 this afternoon? Is it so they don’t have to compete against the men’s games? Either way, not a great way to market your sport.
 

CarolinaBeerGuy

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Mar 14, 2006
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Did I hear that one of the Sweet 16 games is at 2:30 this afternoon? Is it so they don’t have to compete against the men’s games? Either way, not a great way to market your sport.
How is that any different than the men’s first round starting around noon on Thursday and Friday?