I'm a huge Mulkey fan, and, most often, believe it just because she says it, But is it fair to question her claim that her team is young? I'm not even sure they are inexperienced. DiDi is a senior. Moon is a senior. Trinity is a 4th year player, Smith a junior with much experience, as is Queen, Bickle's been around awhile as well. Didi, Moon, Smith, and Queen all have significant playing time under their belt as well. And top it all off with a graduate transfer.. Does she mean LC is Gone so it feels young? Does she mean the point guard position is unsettled? Does she mean this group has not started together before? Perhaps. But they individually are neither young nor inexperienced.

You thoughts?

That's primarily coach speak. Kim has used that excuse many times over the years and most all coaches do. To some degree it's always true in College sports because you are always recruiting and adding freshmen to the pack. But just because you bring in Andrews and Gusters a couple of times for 3 or 4 minutes to give them some experience doesn't mean you have a "young team". It means you have a couple of youngsters on your team. Iowa ST can say they have a young team because they are starting 3 freshmen. When they pull them and put in their Jrs and Srs they play worse so they go back to their freshmen. I suspect the starters against Arkansas will be Didi and Moon (srs) Smith and Egbo (jrs) and T Oliver (4th yr player). That's not really a young team. But their is some inexperience involved when it comes to them getting used to playing together as a unit.That's why I really regretted that the Friday game got cancelled last week. They really needed a few more games to get their bugs worked out.

Even though we lost Lauren, Juicy and T'ea we are not young.

geewago said:

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That's primarily coach speak. Kim has used that excuse many times over the years and most all coaches do. To some degree it's always true in College sports because you are always recruiting and adding freshmen to the pack. But just because you bring in Andrews and Gusters a couple of times for 3 or 4 minutes to give them some experience doesn't mean you have a "young team". It means you have a couple of youngsters on your team. Iowa ST can say they have a young team because they are starting 3 freshmen. When they pull them and put in their Jrs and Srs they play worse so they go back to their freshmen. I suspect the starters against Arkansas will be Didi and Moon (srs) Smith and Egbo (jrs) and T Oliver (4th yr player). That's not really a young team. But their is some inexperience involved when it comes to them getting used to playing together as a unit.That's why I really regretted that the Friday game got cancelled last week. They really needed a few more games to get their bugs worked out.

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The week after next week, Baylor play 4 games in that one week. One on Monday, one on Wednesday, one on Friday and then one on Saturday! Hopefully those games will prepare us for UConn and the rest of the big 12 games

As far as game experience we are relatively young.

fredbear said:

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I'm a huge Mulkey fan, and, most often, believe it just because she says it, But is it fair to question her claim that her team is young? I'm not even sure they are inexperienced. DiDi is a senior. Moon is a senior. Trinity is a 4th year player, Smith a junior with much experience, as is Queen, Bickle's been around awhile as well. Didi, Moon, Smith, and Queen all have significant playing time under their belt as well. And top it all off with a graduate transfer.. Does she mean LC is Gone so it feels young? Does she mean the point guard position is unsettled? Does she mean this group has not started together before? Perhaps. But they individually are neither young nor inexperienced.

You thoughts?

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Its Mulkey speak for young in terms of game experience

Look at starters, minutes played, top scorers, etc. Sometimes, even roles played. Nalyssa doesn't have the experience of being "the" inside player. She got to thrive because KB and LJ drew most of the defensive attention. Now she has to figure it out while being the defensive focus. Bickle and Egbo got to benefit from that focus on Smith. Give the team a little time to figure it out. Not having those cupcake games everyone complains about every year has set us back a couple of weeks. I do not believe, barring injury or COVID related issues, that we will be the same team at end of year we are right now. Treat these games in first half like a tournament...just try to survive and advance. Take a win, even if it isn't the whipping we've all come to expect. Also remember, while we may not look like a # 4 team from past years, this year is different. Most teams do not look quite as good as might be expected, based on previous years, and the teams that DO look sharp, probably return a lot of starters. Just means they are in the position of the hare...a fast start. Maybe they cap out early. Let's see who improves and who deals best with the adversity of this year. Don't get me wrong, I like fast starts and whippings. I'm one of the spoiled fans coach talks about, but I'd rather cross the finish line first than the one mile marker, if I can't have both.

The next couple of months are gonna be very uneasy for many Lady Bear fans because we've been spoiled over the past decade. This team has a lot of talent, but it also has a lot of holes right now that Mulkey is trying to assess and address through experimentation. We are likely to lose more games over the next two months than we've lost in combined years. In fact, Lady Bear fans had better brace themselves because we may be on the bad end of a blowout or two. But, you have to keep your eyes on the long term focus -- the NCAA tournament.

I truly think a solid 7 rotation will be developed and, while we still aren't anywhere near the firepower of last year, it will still be a good team capable of going reasonably far in the tournament. Our ultimate downfall may be due to poor outside shooting. If we don't develop a threat there, teams will start packing the paint against us and they won't all be the size of UCA so we won't have easy access to rebounds.

And, no, we are not "young" team.

Chibears2 said:

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Look at starters, minutes played, top scorers, etc. Sometimes, even roles played. Nalyssa doesn't have the experience of being "the" inside player. She got to thrive because KB and LJ drew most of the defensive attention. Now she has to figure it out while being the defensive focus. Bickle and Egbo got to benefit from that focus on Smith. Give the team a little time to figure it out. Not having those cupcake games everyone complains about every year has set us back a couple of weeks. I do not believe, barring injury or COVID related issues, that we will be the same team at end of year we are right now. Treat these games in first half like a tournament...just try to survive and advance. Take a win, even if it isn't the whipping we've all come to expect. Also remember, while we may not look like a # 4 team from past years, this year is different. Most teams do not look quite as good as might be expected, based on previous years, and the teams that DO look sharp, probably return a lot of starters. Just means they are in the position of the hare...a fast start. Maybe they cap out early. Let's see who improves and who deals best with the adversity of this year. Don't get me wrong, I like fast starts and whippings. I'm one of the spoiled fans coach talks about, but I'd rather cross the finish line first than the one mile marker, if I can't have both.

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Agreed. We are so used to blowouts that this can be a shock to fans when we have close games. I like the close ones as you really learn to handle the pressure when it is tight come tournament time.

I think everyone is honing in on the word young, like it means young age-wise. I think Coach meant young relating to experience. And just having minutes on the floor, doesn't mean a player isn't inexperienced in the role they are currently playing. And "role" isn't the same thing as position, either. How many of us would say, right now, that Queen or Nylssa are as emotionally or mentally (basketball-wise) mature as Lauren or Juicy or Te'a? Didi is stepping into that senior leader role, but we need one of those two above, despite being juniors, to take that second leader role on. It's almost a must, in our post dominated offense, to have your situationally aware, gritty, "climb on my back" player be one of your post players. I think we all THOUGHT Nylssa would be that, and maybe she will, but she's not showing that yet.

I think I read somewhere that USF returned their top 7 scorers from last year. That sounds almost unbelievable, so I wish I could remember the article and double check that I read that correctly, but think about the scoring we lost in Juicy, Lauren, and Te'a. Would also be telling to see how many of Smith's points came off offensive put-backs shot by someone other than herself. Those aren't available if those initial shots aren't being taken. Coach Mulkey has her work cut out for her this year, as does every other coach with COVID challenges thrown in. I worry about outside shooting, and I may be trying to convince myself more than anyone else, as I'm a bit ashamed of some of the things I was yelling at the screen last night. But I think Coach Mulkey has earned my trust and I'm going to just see what unfolds in the last part of 2020, (and keep screaming at the TV, I'm sure!)

blueeyedbear said:

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fredbear said:

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I'm a huge Mulkey fan, and, most often, believe it just because she says it, But is it fair to question her claim that her team is young? I'm not even sure they are inexperienced. DiDi is a senior. Moon is a senior. Trinity is a 4th year player, Smith a junior with much experience, as is Queen, Bickle's been around awhile as well. Didi, Moon, Smith, and Queen all have significant playing time under their belt as well. And top it all off with a graduate transfer.. Does she mean LC is Gone so it feels young? Does she mean the point guard position is unsettled? Does she mean this group has not started together before? Perhaps. But they individually are neither young nor inexperienced.

You thoughts?

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Its Mulkey speak for young in terms of game experience

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Bingo! Not a mystery.