Wout TS, I fear we will be in for a surprise loss. They are better, and tech is buying athletes as much as anyone. Hope I'm wrong.

Tech has beaten 0 teams with a pulse. Would be a bad loss imo. 13-0 looks great on paper. But when you dig a little deeper you see an improved team whose record is incredibly fluffed. Even without Scott BU will have the more talented team.

Iowa bear I hope you are right. A deeper dive shows they beat our common opponent UTSA by considerably more points than we. May mean little; but it is a warning flag to me.

Sic em

Wouldn't put too much stock in the common opponent UTSA. Tech beat em by 27 BU by 18. Several factors at play there. They could beat BU today absolutely. But that would reflect more on BU just not being good than it would Tech being a player in the B12

Not saying tech is a player in Big 12. Am saying BU wout TS looked scary against Texas. Maybe Texas is just that superior.

Texas is just that superior. They're 1 of only 5 who have a realistic shot at the natty, the gap from 5 to 6 is gigantic imo.
I'll be rather disappointed with a loss today. I've yet to be critical of Collen. But a loss today would make me skeptical

Very true. I want to see BU coached to win without Scott. I'm concerned how gassed JVG will get if asked to go another 40 min

IowaBear said:

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Texas is just that superior. They're 1 of only 5 who have a realistic shot at the natty, the gap from 5 to 6 is gigantic imo.
I'll be rather disappointed with a loss today. I've yet to be critical of Collen. But a loss today would make me skeptical

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I would not be surprised to see hornettes and UConn in NC game, but that's still a long ways off.

I'm cautiously optimistic going into this game.

Like more so than at any point during the season.

And that was because there was finally a stretch during the last game (against Southern) where it seemed like things suddenly clicked.

And that was due to CNC finally playing Nelms for a significant period of time.

It's no coincidence that the 2 big runs we had coincided with subbing Nelms into the game.

The first time resulted in pushing the lead to double-digits at half.

The second time resulted in the 11-0 run in the second half that effectively put the game away.

During that run, Nelms started it with the And-1 and later hit a 3.

She had a career game, and it allowed others to play comfortably.

Bella stepped up (as a senior should) and hit shots. Buggs played well. And Deng made buckets.

When Nelms is out there, it forces the opposing defense to account for her, and she stretches the floor due to her being an outside scoring threat. This freed up space and allowed everyone else to get cleaner looks.

This will especially be important for Bella, because she is arguably our best outside scoring threat with Scott sidelined (hopefully she understands that she needs to stay out of foul trouble because of her importance).

Plus, Nelms is a solid rebounder and a decent passer.

Even with Scott out, I feel that this version of the team is good enough to hold down the fort against everyone not named ISU during the first half of conference (at least until Scott is fully healthy and returns).

Of course, this optimism can be dimmed if CNC chooses not to take advantage of Nelms and puts her back on the bench.

Mentioned this weeks ago (ref. playing Nelms), and couldn't understand how CNC didn't realize this.

No disrespect to our other post players, but starting Nelms and playing her significant minutes gives us the best chance to win moving forward.

I don't remember which game it was, but CNC was asked about Nelms playing time and at that time the answer was essentially (my words, not hers) that Nelms wasn't being serious enough in practice to justify real minutes. Perhaps that point has been driven home.

I think until we hear otherwise, I wouldn't count on Scott for a long time. I don't like this "day-to-day" status. Too many times that has ended up that the "day" never comes. And if that happens, our ceiling this year has been greatly lowered. There is only so much you can cover up with schemes and coaching. You still have to have whatever the female equivalent of "jimmys and joes" may be.

I am somewhat in fred's camp on this one. I think today's game will be very dangerous for the Bears. We have had trouble with Tech. We only beat them by 6 last year. We can't afford a bad shooting start and Buggs or Bella going to the bench in the first half because of fouls.

Obviously when you lose Scott, you don't play with 4 on the floor. Someone else takes her place and that person will account for some of her offense. But I think without her we lose 10-15 points off our total. Are we that much better than a team that can score? Our defense really needs to step up.

I had once thought this game would be a W which is very important given the short straw we drew on our early conference schedule. Having to turn around and play ISU and OSU on the road was going to be a challenge with Scott. Some of our better teams in the past have lost to ISU in Ames when ISU was clearly out-talented. We lost to OSU last year, and that was at home.

I would be thrilled if we could go 2-1 in these first three games, but it may end up 1-2 or conceivably 0-3, especially if Scott isn't back for the OSU game. But as I said earlier, I am not convinced we will see her anytime soon. I thought we would have at least seen her on the bench in the Southern game. Perhaps that is some type of uncertainly that CNC wants to put in opponents minds, but it could be something more concrete.

Do we have any hope that the other two injured guards are ever going to play this year.....and then it takes time for them to get to game speed to fit in? JVG cannot go 40 minutes game after game and without Scott or either of those two, where is our second guard?

Obviously hope I am wrong on Scott's return, but we have seen this song before on both the men's and women's side.

Wasn't there a recent post about Ines getting a knee brace? And a few weeks ago, Brow was using a scooter to keep weight off knee/ foot. Was she injured coming in from SMU, or got hurt in preseason?

I'd expect Scott to play relatively soon. On the B12 injury report she is listed as Questionable (implied 50% chance of playing). I don't think CNC has the stones to keep her on that status for a long period if she's not close to returning. Could land a fine for doing something like that too.

I think it was the last presser CNC was asked about Ines and Brow. She said Brow is closer to returning than Ines.
Ines injured her knee in HS, if memory serves, and she has yet to play…starting her second season. A while back CNC made a comment that she was disappointed in Ines not working harder to get back on the court.

Looking at todays big 12 games its going to be a rough year.

You still believing Iowa Bear?

Tech's D looks really aggressive

Tech very well might be the 5th best team in the conference but they are not good.

A loss is a loss no matter what it says. I was worried and am more so now. I had a feeling like I said.

franke said:

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Tech very well might be the 5th best team in the conference but they are not good.

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So where does that leave us?

Ines hasnt played in way over a16 months. Jenna playing after acl injury 14 months. Kinda crazy

Gametime said:

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franke said:

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Tech very well might be the 5th best team in the conference but they are not good.

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So where does that leave us?

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For now, 0-1 just like last year with a home loss. Encouraged that Scott came back. Just unfortunate that Deng couldn't get her shot to fall.

But once again turnovers and free throws......and missed bunnies.

Been thinking for weeks that Nelms needs more playing time and she looked really good against Southern.
So how many minutes did she get against Tech? Maybe the coaches didn't like the matchups for Nelms but sure would have liked her to get a chance.