B1G Non-Conference Opening Week 2018-19

Ignatius L Hoops

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2015
Messages
10,170
Reaction score
3,108
Points
113
https://bigten.org/news/2018/11/5/weekly-womens-basketball-central-nov-5.aspx

Big Ten Opening week schedule. All times eastern. There are a few good matchups this week.

Nov. 6, 2018(Tues.)

Bowling Green at Michigan State 7:00 pm
South Florida at Ohio State 7:00 pm
Saint Francis (PA) at Rutgers 7:00 pm
Northwestern at Green Bay 8:00 pm


Nov. 7, 2018 (Wed.)

Alabama A&M at Illinois Noon
Purdue at Ball State 7:00 pm
Milwaukee at Indiana 7:00 pm
Drake at Nebraska 8:00 pm


Nov. 8, 2018 (Thurs.)

Providence at Penn State 7:00 pm
Winthrop at Wisconsin 8:00 pm


Nov. 9, 2018 (Fri.)

Stony Brook at Rutgers 2:00 pm
Coppin State at Maryland 7:00 pm
Mount St. Mary's at Michigan 7:00 pm
Detroit Mercy at Ohio State 7:00 pm
Oral Roberts at Iowa 8:00 pm
New Hampshire at Minnesota 9:00 pm


Nov. 11, 2018 (Sun.)

Ohio State at Connecticut Noon
South Carolina Upstate at Nebraska Noon
East Tennessee State at Michigan State 1:00 pm
Indiana at Oakland 1:00 pm
Dayton at Maryland 2:00 pm
Duke at Northwestern 2:00 pm
California at Penn State 2:00 pm
Harvard at Purdue 2:00 pm
 

In their last two games, Kevin Borseth's UWGB has suffered comeback losses to B1G teams. Last season finished with a NCAA second half rally by the Gophers and this season started with a 10-0 game ending run by Northwestern giving the Wildcats a 57-55 win in Green Bay. Next up for the Wildcats: Duke.

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2018/...-throws-give-nu-upset-victory-over-green-bay/

Michigan State defeated Bowling Green 90-69. The Spartans were 15-32 from behind the arc. Starters were Allen, McCutcheon, Clouden, Colley and Gaines. Cooks (13 points) played 16 minutes and Hollie (2 points) 9 minutes.

https://statenews.com/article/2018/...sketball-crushes-bowling-green-in-home-opener

McCutcheon reiterated Merchant's advice on fighting off complacency.

“Coach was getting on us for getting bored, honestly that does happen, we can’t do that,” McCutcheon said on the fourth quarter slump. “Bowling Green, they’re a good team, they’re really fast and like she (Merchant) said, they could come back into it just like that and you don’t even see it coming. So when we play even better teams in the Big Ten … we can’t sit back and get bored or think that we have it in the bag, because that’s not going to work. Really good teams will come back and get over that hump and we’re going to be in trouble. So we just have to keep that little consistency throughout the game.”

The shift in the Falcon’s energy and effort surprised the Spartans, but it wasn't enough to win the contest.

“And like I said, last year we had really good players, but it just seemed like if Shay (Colley) didn’t show up, we struggled at times," Merchant said. "Tonight she didn’t play as well early, she definitely played better later in the half. She didn’t play as well as she did in the Hillsdale game, and so to see other kids step up, I thought Taryn played really, really hard and really well."



Shades mentioned Ohio States frustrating 71-47 home loss to South Florida.

https://www.thelantern.com/2018/11/...eason-with-71-47-loss-to-no-22-south-florida/

Ohio State went into the half down 37-19, its largest deficit of the night to that point.

[Dorka] Juhasz earned a double-double in her first collegiate game with a 10-point, 10-rebound effort in the opener, but said she sees more room for improvement.

“I think everybody was nervous. It was the first game,” Juhasz said. “It’s like a whole new team. So I think it was just about that, and sometimes our concentration was not really on point, but I feel that like we can really improve on that.”
 

The B1G avoided any upsets, not the case for some P5s though losing to mid-majors:

Gardner-Webb 60, Florida 58
North Alabama 74, Vanderbilt 71 (hopefully Whalen's coaching career doesn't go the way Steph White's has so far)
Utah State 72, Washington State 61
LMU 69, UCLA 63 (Josie Buckingham had 1 rebound in 3 minutes for LMU)
#24 Cal held off Houston 80-79 to avoid being the only ranked team to lose.
 

LMU 69, UCLA 63 (Josie Buckingham had 1 rebound in 3 minutes for LMU)
#24 Cal held off Houston 80-79 to avoid being the only ranked team to lose.

I saw that former Gopher commit Jaidah Stewart did not play for Houston.

The Steph White experience is a cautionary tale; hopefully not for us.
 

The B1G avoided any upsets, not the case for some P5s though losing to mid-majors:

Gardner-Webb 60, Florida 58
North Alabama 74, Vanderbilt 71 (hopefully Whalen's coaching career doesn't go the way Steph White's has so far)
Utah State 72, Washington State 61
LMU 69, UCLA 63 (Josie Buckingham had 1 rebound in 3 minutes for LMU)
#24 Cal held off Houston 80-79 to avoid being the only ranked team to lose.

Buckingham. There's a name from what seems like the distant past. (Just looked her up. She IS 23, so she has been around a while, plus she had a sit-out year.)
 


Buckingham. There's a name from what seems like the distant past. (Just looked her up. She IS 23, so she has been around a while, plus she had a sit-out year.)

I was a bit disappointed to see Josie leave the Gophers for California since I thought she had potential, if only some coach could develop it; but I didn't blame her for jumping ship, since the Previous Coaching Regime (call it PCR - I'll refrain from using the S-word) treated her poorly. You can't deny she https://lmulions.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=6246 had potential since during her high school career the 6' 5" center scored 1,432 points, grabbed 1,004 rebounds, and blocked 440 shots. Her 440 career blocks ranked fifth in state history at the time. And she had one Banham-like high-school game with 42 points, 17 blocks and 26 rebounds. Reason enough for the Gophers' Pam Borton to recruit her.

But of course she didn't run the court all that well, and wasn't a lights-out shooter, and so didn't fit too well into the PCR's run-and-gun style of play - seeing very limited action in her last year as a Gopher. So if she was #last on their pecking order of players - so be it - yet the coaching staff needs to be smart enough to realize that there may be niche moments when a player like Josie is the perfect solution to what is needed to win the game. But PCR was not that smart. In fact, rewinding the clock back to Rachel Banham's last game as a Gopher, their 2nd game in the WNIT tourney, against South Dakota, I claim that game was largely lost because PCR refused to put Josie into the game, when Josie was crucially needed to win that game. The Gophers arguably should have been playing in the NCAA tournament instead anyway, given the fact that in Banham and Wagner we had the best scoring duo in the country (capable of 45 up to as much as 75 points in a game), but probably thanks to poor PCR defensive schemes (coupled with low strength of schedule), we found ourselves in the WNIT instead. And after winning the first WNIT game, we were two-and-done in the WNIT - ending Rachel's Gopher career on a rather sour note.

Now South Dakota (under Amy Williams at the time) was a good team (who went on to win the WNIT) and played a good game. The first of two things that stood out about that game was that SD was never content to take a 16-foot jumper when a team-mate was open somewhere else for a 12-foot jumper. It was South-Dakota stop-and-pop short jumpers versus Gopher 3-pointers, mostly.

The pre-game analysis for that game is here https://gophersports.com/news/2016/3/18/WNIT_Game_Preview_Gophers_vs_South_Dakota.aspx?path=wbball and the post-game analysis is here https://www.twincities.com/2016/03/...ll-season-ends-with-wnit-loss-to-south-dakota and here https://www.argusleader.com/story/s...20/live-blog-2-usd-vs-minnesota-wnit/81988782 .

But the second thing that really sticks out in my mind about that game - and something that nobody else has bothered to mention at the time - is that the Gophers largely lost to South Dakota on one ongoing massive coaching error by PCR (and by the way, an error that I simply cannot imagine Whalen and her staff making, thanks to the cumulative basketball IQ of Lindsay and her assistant coaches). Specifically, whenever the second units of both teams went into the game, South Dakota put in their own 6' 5" second-string center; whereas PCR refused to put in our own 6' 5" Josie Buckingham (as the proper countermeasure). While the 2nd units were playing, the South Dakota 6' 5" center hoovered up all available rebounds. We got squat for rebounds during that time. So during 2nd-unit time, South Dakota significantly outscored the Gophers - thus nullifying all the hard work put in by Rachel and Carlie during 1st-unit time. And all we had to do was put in Josie to contest those rebounds. That's it. It's that simple why we lost that game. And this is why I can sleep nights, now that Whalen is in charge - because I know that Whay is smart enough not to make such an obvious and avoidable (and costly) coaching mistake. A Banham-career-ending coaching mistake.

Now South Dakota was a good team, and they played well, but the Gophers played well too. The PCR was simply out-coached by Amy Williams in that game.

In the above analyses, various comments were made about things that led to the Gopher loss. Banham was apologetic, and wanting to assume much of the responsibility. And those comments were perhaps all true. But none of the comments mentioned the true reason for the loss - namely, a brutal coaching error. Here are some quotes from the above news articles.

Rachel: “I was settling too much for the outside game,” said Banham, who made six 3-pointers. “I should’ve attacked more. I should’ve been more aggressive.”

South Dakota went on to outscore Minnesota 25-15 in the third quarter for a 12-point lead entering the fourth. Both teams scored 31 points in the final quarter. (Note: I claim that much of that 10-point 3rd-quarter deficit came from lack of rebounding by the Gopher 2nd unit. And similar deficits for the other quarters.)

South Dakota’s 33-13 run had Minnesota facing an embarrassing 78-60 deficit early in the fourth quarter. It appeared the game was over then until the Gophers’ pride kicked in.

Banham’s deep three-pointer capped a 19-7 run that made it 85-79 with 4:37 remaining. South Dakota seemed to be reeling but Mullaney sprinted down court and missed an open layup that would have cut it to four. (Note: With properly playing Josie Buckingham against the South Dakota 6' 5" 2nd-unit center, the game would have been more like South-Dakota 75, Minnesota 89 at that point - for an easy win.)

Wagner had 18 points for the Gophers, and she went over 1,000 points for her collegiate career with a 3-pointer in the third quarter.

Banham finished with 37 points in her final game.

Finally, a post-game quote from the PCR architect of the loss ...
“It wasn’t our best defensive game, obviously,” Gophers coach Marlene Stollings said. “Rebounding was the key to the game, and they outrebounded us. We just talked about our seniors and what they meant to the program. This is going to be a really tough moment. Nothing we’re going to say is going to make that moment feel better.”

So, rebounding was the key to that game. Well duh! Then why didn't you sub in the appropriate (tallest) rebounder to go up against the opponent's tallest rebounder? Only for those 2nd-unit minutes - that's all that was needed, and then she could go back to the end of the bench where you kept her all year long. You could have put Josie in there and told her "Don't shoot unless it's a bunny shot - just pass out to Rachel or Carlie or some other guard at the 3-point line. But block out and get all the rebounds you can." That would have been a better plan. And Josie could have been the hero for one game (something I'm sure she would have been thrilled with), keeping the Gopher tournament run alive.

Like I said, I can sleep better at night, knowing that we now have a Gopher coaching staff that has incredible cumulative basketball IQ.
 

I never thought that Buckingham was going to be a BIG level player and I thought that Borton never should have recruited her. That being said, I heard that she was a good attitude player and a good teammate. I also seem to recall that she was pre-med, which must have meant that she was strong academically. No surprise to see that Stollings didn't take much interest in developing a post player. (Altho' Zahui B had a helluva year under Stollings after Banham went down with an injury.)

Yes, Stephanie White may be a cautionary tale for those of us who think Whalen is a sure thing to get the Gopher program to the next level, but I'm still betting on Whalen...and it's probably too early to say that White won't succeed, although she's not off to a great start.

And one more note, Iggy mentioned former Gopher commit Stewart. This reminded me to check up on Leslie Finau, another former Gopher commit who opted out to go to Colorado after Stollings left. She played under a minute and didn't score in Colorado's opening win last night over Northern Colorado. Too early to tell yet, but the fact that these two have played so minimally for Houston and Colorado makes me think that they wouldn't have had much impact here, at least not this year. I had thought that Finau might have been able to contribute, but based on high school recruiting rankings, Staples will probably end up being more of an impact player than the other two.
 
Last edited:

Nebraska fell at home to Drake 83-77. Kate Cain was a non-factor with 4 points on 2-6 shooting and 7 rebounds. Drake had a couple of extended dry spells keeping the Huskers in the game. Nebraska never developed any rhythm on offense or defense. Each team took 28 threes; Nebraska made 10 and Drake 11.

Earlier in the evening the Hoosiers defeated UW Milwaukee 68-66. UWM had a couple of good looks late for the win or tiie. IU's Ali Patberg (16 points (9-15 from the line)) has a chance to be almost as annoying as Tyra Buss. Brenna Wise was the other Hoosier in double figures with 17.
 

I'm wondering if Nebraska is a bit overrated heading into the season. I think Amy Williams is a terrific coach, but I'm not sure she has the personnel that 4 or 5 other teams in the BIG have. And Iggy, good to see that you still can't resist the digs at Tyra Buss, even after she's gone. I'm thinking the Hoosiers might also be a bit overrated heading into the season.
 



I'm wondering if Nebraska is a bit overrated heading into the season. I think Amy Williams is a terrific coach, but I'm not sure she has the personnel that 4 or 5 other teams in the BIG have. And Iggy, good to see that you still can't resist the digs at Tyra Buss, even after she's gone. I'm thinking the Hoosiers might also be a bit overrated heading into the season.

I had to get one final dig. It was a little unfair to Patberg whom, at least last night, didn't demonstrate the driving, flailing, floor flop perfected by Buss. Patberg also wasn't as good from the line either.

Nebraska may be a bit overrated; but they also are sorting out their lineup. It was a night where the freshmen off the bench often looked better than the starters. Nebraska led 29-15 at the end of the first quarter when I started paying attention. Then Drake went on a 16-0 run. I think last season these two teams went to double OT.
 

In Happy Valley, Penn State trailed Providence, sometimes by double digits, for most of the game including a 72-66 deficit with 1:56 remaining. But the Lady Lions rallied to win 74-72 with Sam Breen knocking down two free throws with .01 remaining. Penn State committed 22 turnovers and generally looked disorganized before the final push. By quarter, the Friars scored 30, 10, 23 and 9. Penn State was a bit more consistent scoring 21, 15, 15 and 23.
 

Among today's interesting games:

On BTN, a revitalized Northwestern defeated an unvitalized Duke 84-58 in a revitalized Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Penn State led visiting Cal 43-41 with 2:52 remaining in the third quarter before Cal took control and emerged 75-58 victors.

Purdue needed an Ae'Rianna Harris free throw with .08 seconds remaining to defeat Harvard 66-65 in West Lafayette. Harris also picked off the Crimson's in bound pass under the basket to end the game. I think Purdue's largest lead was two.
 

I watched a good portion of the Northwestern win over #21 Duke and the Wildcats look formidable. If they can stay healthy, they could be an NCAA tourney team. 4 returning starters from last year's team. And as Iggy noted in the MSU thread, I hope Colley's injury wasn't a serious one. I always hate to see teams lose players to serious injuries.
 






Top Bottom