What a bummer.
I knew it was a tall task against South Carolina but down 1 at the half and didn’t even play well - I was borderline optimistic. Plus Cardosa had killed us for 16 points at the break and she hobbled off at the half.
The 3rd qtr was a killer. Nothing went right. State couldn’t throw it in the ocean, the zone was puzzling and blew up in our face. I get we wanted to change how we guarded Cardosa because she was eating us alive - but it allowed everyone else to get going and the Cocks were raining 3s on us. State doesn’t traditionally play zone, and it looked it too!
I thought James, Brooks and Baldwin were the only girls who played their “normal” games. Hayes and Collins missed open jumpers they have made all season and otherwise looked slow and unathletic by comparison to USCs players.
I don’t like bashing anyone, and this isn’t meant to be that - but Saniya had her worst game of the year by far. I think she was totally psyching herself out and in her head going against her former team. She was rushed. Her shots were forced. She was unsure on passes. Timid on defense. 5 turnovers and 5 points on 2-11 shooting. I mean … wow. First play of the game she has a run out and somehow missed the bunny badly. That was a sign of things to come for her. I hate it for her because she has been great this year and is such an easy one to root for, always positive and smiling and seems to have and infectious personality. But she was pressing and absolutely put up a stinker.
I thought South Carolina played more physical defense than we’ve seen all year and we didn’t handle it well. Every rebound was contested. Every outlet pass contested. Every dribble Saniya made was contested. They were handsy and the refs let them play, not one sided - they let both teams play. State just didn’t ramp up the energy on defense and push the envelop with physicality. States lack of depth hurt as well.
The comment about emptying your bench seems weird to me. You’re in the Final Four. Sure you’re down 16 or whatever but why waive the white flag when you are 10 minutes away from a championship game? State has rallied against good teams before. USC has blown big leads this very tournament. It’s appropriate to question if Wes should have developed his bench more this year and been able to trust them by now - but this ain’t Tball. Everyone doesn’t get a participation trophy. You are trying to win. He put in bench players under 5 minutes to go and let them see some action and get some shots up. That was appropriate I thought.
Overall it was a fantastic season. Became the 7th team in history to make the final four when unranked in the preseason. James put her name on the map as a legit All American type player, Saniya took a major step forward as an all around player and leader, Zoe Brooks proved she is a future star and the Pack reeled off more top 25 wins than any team in the nation. Wins over traditional powers like Stanford, Tennessee and UConn all in one season to go along with wins over Colorado, Duke, UNC, FSU, Syracuse, Louisville, Notre Dame and Texas.
Nothing to hang our heads about. We have a final four banner to hang in Reynolds and a lot of reasons to be optimistic about next year.
