They are not real optimistic for a win.
https://southcarolina.forums.rivals.com/threads/lets-discuss-our-wbb-game-vs-baylor.295223/
https://southcarolina.forums.rivals.com/threads/womens-greensboro-regional.295114/

Nice to see those YouTube highlights of the 94-69 win. Outside shooters put on a clinic in that one, too.

Good stuff on their board. Thanks for sharing. I was worried that it would be packed with SC fans but sounds like probably not.

They seem to think Baylor bigs are slow so they will just try to run us to death.... news flash UCONN fans said the same thing and that did not end well for them . Also SC fails to realize the we have two FASTER post players that come off the bench lol. They didn't play much last time but they will this time.

I also seen on Twitter a SC fan say that it's a different ball game because they are not the same team they were before... NEITHER ARE WE !! You have improved and so have we ...LETS GO !!

Most of them seemed pretty realistic in that they need to play their best game of the season (hit a bunch of 3'.s etc.) and hope Baylor plays a below average game.

Going back and looking at the first game against them, we were up 32-13 in the first quarter but then in the last three quarters we only out scored them 62-56. They adjusted after we came out strong and played us much closer throughout the game.

mimi25408 said:

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They seem to think Baylor bigs are slow so they will just try to run us to death.... news flash UCONN fans said the same thing and that did not end well for them . Also SC fails to realize the we have two FASTER post players that come off the bench lol. They didn't play much last time but they will this time.

I also seen on Twitter a SC fan say that it's a different ball game because they are not the same team they were before... NEITHER ARE WE !! You have improved and so have we ...LETS GO !!

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Please try to run us to death. That would be great.

Sincerely,
GrizBear

Jacques Strap said:

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Most of them seemed pretty realistic in that they need to play their best game of the season (hit a bunch of 3'.s etc.) and hope Baylor plays a below average game.

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First you have to be able to shoot the three. In warm-ups I watched ACU hit three after three after three (unguarded). Once the game began all those threes for the most part came no where close to going in. We are a much better team at defending the three than we have been over at least recent years.

True, we outscored them in the first quarter but almost played even the last 3 quarters. After the Stanford loss the lady bears have a different sence if urgency about them. Every one thinks that if they get brown and cox in trouble it's an automatic win for them... WRONG. Understand that it was the guards and back up post that brought us back in the game within 5. Also it was just are post players that were missing it was the whole team missing g shots the usually make.

I expect and hope their pessimism to be confirmed on Saturday!

Wish I could be there.

mimi25408 said:

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Every one thinks that if they get brown and cox in trouble it's an automatic win for them... WRONG. Understand that it was the guards and back up post that brought us back in the game within 5.

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LMAO they think they're gonna run us out the gym. We are one of the best conditioned teams around.

They are setting themselves up for a massive defeat. At least I hope so!

greggor25 said:

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LMAO they think they're gonna run us out the gym. We are one of the best conditioned teams around.

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And one of the best coached. I really liked the hug that KM gave to Chloe and Brown when they exited the game - good rapport between those three (and the other players, as well).

57Bear said:

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I really liked the hug that KM gave to Chloe and Brown when they exited the game -
good rapport between those three (and the other players, as well).

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Link to hug photo
9:54

Blackie's observation above is a very astute one.

Our inability to defend the three point shot has been our Achilles Heel for at least six years, because we were too often "vicinity defenders." As long as we were in the near vicinity of the shooter we seemed to think that we were in a good defensive posture. There was a day when that might have been the case, but today shooters have developed quicker releases, the step back shot, the fake and reset three, the over-the-screen three, the slide-past-the-screen and reset three, and while the results may vary, some shooters are able to make decent percentages with that variety of releases. Being in the vicinity is not enough, the defender has to play at a precise distance, designed to discourage the shot and to run the shooter off the arc.

As I observed to a friend yesterday, my theory is that the Stanford game was an early season replay of post-season three point traumas for this team, and Mulkey and her staff made adjustments that we have seen in effect since that game. We now pressure three point shooters out to the limits of their range, forcing them to go to the midrange areas and to the rim, where our interior defenders await them. If the opponent scores two points, so be it, because we can match or go beyond that, we just don't want runs based on multiple three point shots.

Our first big post-Stanford test was UCONN, and Didi, Juicy Lauren and Chloe, with Ursin off the bench, bellied up to their outside shooters and gave them no comfortable looks for most of that game. It was a test run of our new approach and it has continued apace. Often in other years we would see even our best defenders tend to sag in toward the paint to help seal off the driving lanes or perhaps to engage in a double team. This left the weak side offensive player spotting up for a quick three point shot with ball reversal and we got burned. We did not often switch with vigor and purpose when screens or crossing patterns were utilized and we got burned. We did not double the hot shooters to take the ball out of their hands and we got burned.

The fact that we did not have strong opponents at the conference level to challenge us usually enabled these things to occur without significant penalty, but once we got past the first week end of post season play and in a one-and-done situation, this habitual failure to deny the three point shooters opportunities to get uncontested looks became a vexatious problem. It has now been addressed by the balanced defense that this team employs, one without a significant weakness and with two of our five excellent defenders being as good as you will find in the women's collegiate game today, if not in many of the past years.

I might add that it is no accident that many teams are using the three point shot as a major weapon now. Stephen Curry has changed the landscape of the game and today's collegiate players have come of age in an era when his game matured into a game-changing phenomenon. Quite simply, there are a host of young shooters today who can shoot for distance and a lot of coaches who give them the green light to do so. We have an outstanding one on our own team and she is a major weapon in our postseason arsenal, and unlike most teams, we have a devastating interior game to open things up for our perimeter shooters.

We are going to be a tough out in the NCAA Tournament.

Yes. We hate fast paced games.

That is why we only scored 197 pts in the first 2 rounds.

setshot said:

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I might add that it is no accident that many teams are using the three point shot as a major weapon now. Stephen Curry has changed the landscape of the game and today's collegiate players have come of age in an era when his game matured into a game-changing phenomenon. Quite simply, there are a host of young shooters today who can shoot for distance and a lot of coaches who give them the green light to do so. We have an outstanding one on our own team and she is a major weapon in our postseason arsenal, and unlike most teams, we have a devastating interior game to open things up for our perimeter shooters.

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I've always thought of it as math that even I can do. If you shoot 33% from 3, that's equal to shooting 50% from 2. And a lot of shooters can do that.

But I didn't realize how many until I checked the NCAA stats for this year for men's basketball. You have to go down to #248 on the list for 3-point FG accuracy (BYU) to find a team that isn't shooting above 33% from behind the arc. (We were 195, btw, which I found a bit surprising.)

In women's college hoops you go all the way to 101 to find a team not shooting above 33% from 3. Here, I confess I was a bit surprised to find that BU is No. 3 on the list at 38.7%. We don't attempt many of them, but the Lady Bears' accuracy from behind the arc has to be scary to opponents who pack it in on the bigs. (Oregon, btw, ranks #1 at 41.9 percent as a team, which is also scary. And they've made 3 times as many 3's as the Lady Bears.