This Week in WCBB, 11/26/14

 

 

I want to thank the administrators of The Boneyard for posting the link to my Blog in the permanent link with all the other Blogs pinned at the top of the Women's Basketball board. Please look there for the link or bookmark this address for future reference.

 

I'll be posting my DoggyDaddy's Dailies every morning with news links from all of WCBB, noting many of the great performances and of course a little opinion.

 

So visit. Like every morning with your breakfast. I mean it. Seriously.

I'll be watching.

 

 

Welcome to my weekly look at the world of WCBB. I was able to get in one more round of golf Tuesdeay (I'll brag, a 79 at Wintonbury Hills) before Connecticut get's hit with the first snowstorm of the season just before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Notre Dame and South Carolina  

The new coaches poll is out. Notre Dame moves into the top spot with South Carolina moving into 2nd.and UConn climbed to third. Stanford dropped to fourth after losing to Texas.

Rank	School (record)	Points	Last week's rank	First-place votes
1	Notre Dame (5-0)	772	2	14
2	South Carolina (3-0)	769	3	14
3	Connecticut (2-1)	729	4	2
4	Stanford (3-1)	697	1	0

Three points separate Notre Dame and South Carolina Both with 14 first place votes. Talk about evenly split!! Just like last week, four teams with first place votes. But this time Texas (who only jumped from 9-13) garnered 2 first place votes, as did UConn.

Here is the link to both polls on ESPN.

Let's take a look at the top ten week in review. I'm using the coaches poll as it's the most current.



 

    



#1 Notre Dame

Last Week: @ Michigan State W 71-63, vs Chattanooga W 88-53,
vs Holy Cross W 104-29, vs Quinnipiac W 112-52

Leading Scorer Jewell Loyd - 19.8
Leading Rebounder Taya Reimer - 6.3
Leading Assists Lindsay Allen - 4.3

 Notre Dame moves up to take over the top spot after the Stanford loss to Texas. Loyd had 28 points, 11 rebounds against Michigan State in a closer than expected game. Three easy games followed and Notre Dame handled them well. Turner is the real deal. She had some great games this week and is second in scoring at 16.7 per game. Notre Dame is still the same terrific passing team and is showed in all four games. December 6th against UConn tell us a lot more about this years edition of Notre Dame.  

 

#2 South Carolina

Last Week: vs Clemson W 99-41, vs San Diego State W 89-38
 
Leading Scorer Tiffany Mitchell - 17.7
Leading Rebounder Alana Coates - 9.2
Leading Assists Tiffany Mitchell - 4.0
 

 South Carolina had an excellent week against two overmatched opponents.  I don't care who you play against, Mitchell going 9-10 on three's is amazing. Wilson appears to enjoy coming off the bench. She is thriving there scoring 33 points and grabbing 14 rebounds for the week. The other two impact freshman Cuevas and White both had an excellent week. They got extended minutes and looked more and more comfortable. This really bodes well for SC going forward. Alana Coates continues to be a handful both on the boards and defensively. Don't give her low post position. 
 

 

#3 UCONN

Last Week vs Creighton W 96-60
 
Leading Scorer Breanna Stewart, KML - 21
Leading Rebounder Breanna Stewart - 8.7
Leading Assists Moriah Jefferson - 6.3

UConn had a great bounce back against a tough Creighton team. Stewart found perfection, going 10-10. KML didn't play, in fact not only didn't she dress for the game, she stayed home resting from a bad case of the flu. I'm pretty sure that this impacted her performance against Stanford. But she did play 45 minutes, showing true grit. Nurse was fantastic against Creighton. I think it's going to be a three way battle for FOY with Nurse, Wilson and Turner.

UConn travels to Florida for a weekend tournament where the sun and fun will take a back seat to fine turning the team. Looks like KML will be back in the line-up.



#4 STANFORD

Last Week: vs Texas L 87-81,  @ New Mexico W 70-65
 
Leading Scorer Lili Thompson - 26.0
Leading Rebounder Kaylee Johnson - 13.0
Leading Assists Amber Orrange - 4.0

When the rollercoaster hit the turn the Stanford players were still excited from the ride with the win over UConn when that stomach turning big downhill called Texas took their breath away. After a great overtime win against UConn, an agonizing home winning streak ending loss dropped Stanford from the top spot before they could even enjoy it. And it looked like there was still a hangover from those tough 2 games in the close New Mexico game where they were down a point with 30 seconds left. I think there are a lot of pundits scratching their heads on how good Stanford really is.
 

#5 Tennessee
 
Last Week: vs Winthrop W 81-48, vs Tenn St W 97-46

Leading Scorer Nia Moore - 20.8
Leading Rebounder Nia Moore - 9.5
Leading Assists Jordan Reynolds - 5.7

Nia Moore? Wow...I'm sure that even most Lady Vol fans did not expect this type of performance from the 6'3" junior. With Harrison out she has been a force in the middle. She reminds me of DeWanna Bonner, physically long with arms that go on forever. Like most of the top ten teams, Tennessee is still waiting to play a challenging team. Tennessee is playing everyone on the roster so far. It will be interesting to see who is in the shorter rotation against good teams.
. 

#6 Texas A&M


Last Week: vs Rice W 76-55, PV A&M W 59-41

Leading Scorer Courtney Walker - 18.0
Leading Rebounder Achiri Ade - 8.7
Leading Assists Jordan Jones - 5.6

Well, so far it's the Courtney Walker show. The next highest scorer after her is at 8.6 per game. For the 6th ranked team in the country, they had two pedestrian wins over rather weak teams. They really need the other Courtney to be reinstated.


#7 Duke

Last Week: @ Old Dominion W 82-66, vs Marquette W 83-51, vs Buffalo W 88-54

Leading Scorer Elizabeth Williams - 16.3
Leading Rebounder Rebecca Greenwell - 10.3
Leading Assists Kai'la Johnson - 6.0
 

Duke has been impressive so far this season. This week was no exception. Williams has played really well in the face of her critics, who scoffed at her first team AA selection averaging close to a double double. Greenwell IS averaging a double double. Her scoring is not a surprise, but her rebounding has been. Johnson has done a good job at the point, but her experience is not at that position, a potential problem once Duke plays it's tougher games.



#8 Maryland

Last Week: vs South Florida W 85-67, @ G. Washington W 75-65,  vs Loyola (MD) W 65-43

Leading Scorer Lexi Brown - 21
Leading Rebounder Brionna Jones - 6.4
Leading Assists Lauren Mincy - 3.6

Maryland went 3-0 this week but is wasn't easy. They were down at the half to GW before pulling away in the second half. They had a different star in the USF and GW games. Shatori Walker-Kimbrough scored 25 against South Florida, Mincy had 23 against GW. But they seem to be struggling some on the offensive end.

#9 Texas

Last Week: @ Stanford W 87-81, @ UCLA W 75-65

Leading Scorer Kelsey Lang - 12.7
Leading Rebounder Nneka Enemkpali - 8.3
Leading Assists Empress Davenport - 2.7
 

What a great week for the Texas program in their West Coast swing. Beating the #1 team is always a great accomplishment but doing it on the road in a tough place like Maples is doubly tougher. They followed that up with a solid win against a disappointing UCLA team.

They really spread out the scoring on this team with 4 players averaging double figures and one more averaging 9.3. Texas was really tough on the boards this week with 45 against Stanford and 50 against UCLA. Their big front court will do them well this season. It's good to have them in the national scene again.

#10 Kentucky

Last Week: vs Morehead State W 91-62,
@ Cent Michigan W 71-68

Leading Scorer Jennifer O'Neill- 18.8
Leading Rebounder Azia Bishop - 8.5
Leading Assists Makayla Epps - 3.3

 

Probably the least impressive win for a top ten team was Kentucky against Central Michigan. Up big, Kentucky was outscored by 16 in the second half before finally holding off the Chippewas. O'Neill has been a terrific leader and score and led them with 32 points in the two games.
 

 

Bria Smith of Louisville had 22 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, 4 steals against Western Kentucky!

Rutgers is still undefeated and believe it or not SCORING. I really like this team.

The AAC has 4 teams playing well in the early season games.

East Carolina	0-0	5-0
Tulane	0-0	4-0
UCF	0-0	3-1
South Florida	0-0	3-1

Looking forward to seeing if they can compete for an NCAA tourney spot.

Geno is working his magic motivation skills on the team. Most undisciplined team in 30 years...lol.

Thanks to you all for helping me blow by the 13,000 (up 3000 in one week) page view mark. Keep on reading!!!
Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!!!! And remember to appreciate each other.