Charlie Creme's Way-Too-Early Top 25

[oldude]

I think South Carolina is better, and it will all play out.

Dawn Staley is a great coach and recruiter who has won 3 national championships. But in each of those championship runs, Dawn’s team had the best center in the nation, who dominated the paint. That’s not to minimize Dawn’s accomplishments. Most teams that win national championships have a dominant center. During UConn’s 11 national championships it’s fair to suggest that the Huskies had the best center in the nation for 7 of those championships.

But as deep and talented as the Gamecocks are, I don’t see a dominant center on the roster, unless Dawn can persuade Maryam Dauda to transfer to Columbia. So this coming year we will see if Dawn can coach up her deep and talented team to championship #4 without having a dominant BIG in the paint to clean up the boards and protect the rim.

As you say, “Let’s see how it plays out.”

 

[bballnut90]

How many of UConn’s players were sitting on the bench? Azzi, Caroline, Aubrey, Jana, and Yanna! That is (conservatively) 50 points! Oh, and by the way, UConn can defend too! Hopefully, UConn can finally have a healthy roster for the next few seasons and these questions will be answered on the court. I freely admit SC has been the alpha team for the past few years and they deserve their kudos but they have done that absent the other big dog in women’s basketball. Might they have won anyway? Sure, but they might not have as well. I realize SC fans like to ignore that elephant in the room but ….. it’s a big elephant. Again, it doesn't detract from what SC has accomplished, all they can do is play the games, but once the game is played and the banners raised….a little perspective would be nice.

South Carolina has gone 109-3 over the past 3 years, including 4-0 over UCONN, with 3 of those games being 15+ point wins. It's only an elephant to a very specific group of UCONN fans.

 

[RadfordRam]

Azzi has been impactful on defense in non conference games. Not standout, but impactful. Te-Hina had a below average defensive performance in the Chip leaving a sharpshooter open 10 times. Luckily, Clark found someone else to pass to, else Gabby would've dropped 20.

Let me reword KK and Milaysia: Offesively, Lay is better. Defensively, they're the same. Speed wise, they're the same. If you don't think KK isn't quick with the ball, you haven't seen her play enough. Against Notre Dame, she blew past their paint defense when she had the ball. A more accurate comparison would've been Aubrey because of their similar verticals and athleticism, but she's more of a forward.

Raven wasn't even the one guarding PB when they played, so there's no way to tell whether Raven would've slowed her down at all. Bree was the one to guard her, did a fine job, but Paige still got 20 points. We're comparing guards overall, not just their offensive capability, and Paige doesn't have a slight edge, she has a big one over Raven. More consistent offensively (see Raven's single digit points in the Chip), can play multiple positions, can block, can pass, lethal midrange, won POTY as a freshman. No argument to say Raven, or any guard on SC, is better in the slightest.
I wasn't even comparing forwards, so not sure what they have to do with anything. Ignoring the last few paragraphs.

The guard play is literally equal.
Azzi=TeHina
PB> Raven
Bree>Ash
Tessa=Azzi
PB>Bree
Lay>KK

You lost all credibility when you TRIED comparing KK to Milaysia. Fulwiley does things NO player on UCONN can do, her athleticism, speed, vision and handles are unmatched by any of them.

 

[jdote33]

So, any thoughts on Stanford completely dropping off, and the 4 schools also considered? Do we have another NCSU on our hands for the upcoming season?

So I think Stanford should've completely dropped off the list. Obviously Tara leaving is a big deal, moving conferences is a big deal, but I just think they are not as talented as the other teams in the top 25 and even some not considered. Like I'm not sure who their best player is now. I like Demietre and Ogden, even Lepolo but can they be the leaders of the team. Idk. I love that you brought up NC State. I still think about the early season matchup with UConn. Obviously the season started with the great game in Paris, but as a UConn fan and just in terms of exciting early season matchups that was definitely a lot of fun. I'm going to keep shouting out and pushing TCU until they prove me to be wrong. That was a 20 win team that added Hailey Van Lith and Donavan Hunter among many others. I think they have a shot at being really good.

I love that Michigan State got some love but I do worry about some of the guard play that they lost due to the transfer portal and graduation. I do believe in Adia Barnes and Arizonas freshman played well to end the season. They have a pretty good freshman coming back from missing last season and I've always been pretty high on their transfer Paulina Paris. But still I expect them to be in the mix of the top 25 but not definite.

I appreciate the big east love but kinda surprised about Creighton. Definitely wouldn't have them over Maryland.

 

[bballnut90]

Dawn Staley is a great coach and recruiter who has won 3 national championships. But in each of those championship runs, Dawn’s team had the best center in the nation, who dominated the paint. That’s not to minimize Dawn’s accomplishments. Most teams that win national championships have a dominant center. During UConn’s 11 national championships it’s fair to suggest that the Huskies had the best center in the nation for 7 of those championships.

But as deep and talented as the Gamecocks are, I don’t see a dominant center on the roster, unless Dawn can persuade Maryam Dauda to transfer to Columbia. So this coming year we will see if Dawn can coach up her deep and talented team to championship #4 without having a dominant BIG in the paint to clean up the boards and protect the rim.

As you say, “Let’s see how it plays out.”

South Carolina even without Cardoso's input would've been #11 in the country in blocks per game (with Cardoso they were #1 by a massive margin). I'd also argue that Watkins is the best returning post defender in the country. She's insanely athletic, a menace on the glass and an incredibly good shot blocker (she blocks more shots per minute than Cardoso). In the Final Four against NC State she was domiannt and pulled down 20 rebounds, and against Raegan Beers and Timea Gardiner in the Elite 8 she grabbed 14 boards and blocked 4 shots.

Dauda would be a nice pickup for SC (or any team, really) but she's far less dominant than Ashlyn Watkins is and would be a role player off the bench for the Gamecocks.

 

[oldude]

South Carolina even without Cardoso's input would've been #11 in the country in blocks per game (with Cardoso they were #1 by a massive margin). I'd also argue that Watkins is the best returning post defender in the country. She's insanely athletic, a menace on the glass and an incredibly good shot blocker (she blocks more shots per minute than Cardoso). In the Final Four against NC State she was domiannt and pulled down 20 rebounds, and against Raegan Beers and Timea Gardiner in the Elite 8 she grabbed 14 boards and blocked 4 shots.

Dauda would be a nice pickup for SC (or any team, really) but she's far less dominant than Ashlyn Watkins is and would be a role player off the bench for the Gamecocks.

No doubly that Watkins is a great athlete who probably ends up playing the 5 for the Gamecocks. But shot blocks and rebounds don’t happen in isolation. The fact that opponents had to concern themselves with the very large presence of Ms Cardoso opened up opportunities for the other Gamecocks to overplay their opponents, secure in the knowledge that an athletic 6’7” player had their backs.

 

[BRS24]

So I think Stanford should've completely dropped off the list. Obviously Tara leaving is a big deal, moving conferences is a big deal, but I just think they are not as talented as the other teams in the top 25 and even some not considered. I love that you brought up NC State. I still think about the early season matchup with UConn. Obviously the season started with the great game in Paris, but as a UConn fan and just in terms of exciting early season matchups that was definitely a lot of fun. I'm going to keep shouting out and pushing TCU until they prove me to be wrong. That was a 20 win team that added Hailey Van Lith and Donavan Hunter among many others. I think they have a shot at being really good.

I love that Michigan State got some love but I do worry about some of the guard play that they lost due to the transfer portal and graduation. I do believe in Adia Barnes and Arizonas freshman played well to end the season. They have a pretty good freshman coming back from missing last season and I've always been pretty high on their transfer Paulina Paris. But still I expect them to be in the mix of the top 25 but not definite.

I appreciate the big east love but kinda surprised about Creighton. Definitely wouldn't have them over Maryland.

Good points here. Agree on TCU. I think after all the portal dust settles, we may see a somewhat different poll in the 10-25 range. And I also won't be surprised if we have a tumultuous first week of the season, similar to last year, where 10 of the top 25 teams lost, and 14 of the 25 moved in the range of +15 to -11, with NCSU going from unranked to #14.

 

[hoophuskee]

KK Arnold is equal to Milaysia Fulwiley??? Are you out of your mind? Not one unbiased person would say this, the two aren't even comparable! You can have the UConn guards, I'll take Carolina's all day long.

If UCONN/Azzi is healthy UCONN is better in the backcourt. What you are experiencing at the moment is selective amnesia.

When Fudd was healthy within approx a month she had smoked Texas, NC State, Duke and Iowa. In fact she matched Clark if not exceeded. The very same player that smoked your team last year and this past year you threw your whole team to stop her. The same thing happened to you in Paige’s frosh year. She beat South Caolina single-handedly. If Azzi is to be healthy for several months leading into the Tourney - then the Azzi/Paige due is better than anything Calrk ever threw at you with her being just 1 player.


The big advantage your team has is that your advantage in the frontcourt could allow your guards to over-extend just like they did this year with Clark and what they did to Paige in Finals. Because of the strength of your frontcourt, it makes your guards appear much stronger than what they are. And they are strong.

IMO what will dictate the matchups are ofc rebounding/inside foul trouble for UCONN - and the other is if Sarah (or Jana) can score inside against your team at a decent enough level that your team feels threatened in the post. If UCONN can't do that then it means your guards can overplay. So, in this case I suppose you could argue your guards are/were better but that would ignore the impact of how dominant your frontcourt actually was.


**If UCONN is comepletely healthy for a significant length of time - and Sarah Strong is better than Joyce (which we expect) and she is at the level of last year's super recruits (not at Juju's exact level) - of Juju, Hidalgo, Booker- then you're in trouble.

 

[hoophuskee]

South Carolina even without Cardoso's input would've been #11 in the country in blocks per game (with Cardoso they were #1 by a massive margin). I'd also argue that Watkins is the best returning post defender in the country. She's insanely athletic, a menace on the glass and an incredibly good shot blocker (she blocks more shots per minute than Cardoso). In the Final Four against NC State she was domiannt and pulled down 20 rebounds, and against Raegan Beers and Timea Gardiner in the Elite 8 she grabbed 14 boards and blocked 4 shots.

Dauda would be a nice pickup for SC (or any team, really) but she's far less dominant than Ashlyn Watkins is and would be a role player off the bench for the Gamecocks.

Blcoked shots can be an overated stat. And it's easier to pull down 20 rebounds when you have a 6'6 athletic counterpart affecting shots. You're from teh Pat Summit school of thought- "Offense sells tickets, Defense wins games, and Rebounds win Championships."

UCONN / Geno is not a member or follower of that school of thought. They believe in Offense much more.