March Madness Discussion (Men's Nat'l Championship Game: Mon 4/8: Purdue vs UCONN)

[Lockdown504090]

So what happened to UConn? Did they just stop getting all the top players? Why is that? Obviously they’re still good but they used to never lose a game

NIL money happened, not everyone can get all the advertising money on the squad, they can’t get EVERYONE anymore.

[Ice Man]

No one thinks this. She's got talent though.

Hmmm. Caitlin is easily the best player in NCAA women's hoops this season. Next year JuJu will be. After that it's hard to say. JuJu isn't so much of a passer or 3-point shooter but she is a wonderful pull-up midrange shooter. Whereas Clark excels at the first two but doesn't do the midrange game.

I'll take 'em both, thanks. much.

[ellobo]

I don’t know how I never really pondered this before, but it must be significantly easier for the ball to go in the hole in the women’s game due to the difference in basketball size. Kinda sucks that they play with a smaller ball. It makes it harder to compare shooting skill.

The women's ball is about 3.3% smaller in diameter.

[Clyde Frazier]

What does "created" mean?

She scored 41 and had 12 assists. Basically everything they did was centered around her, I think they just worded it oddly.

They making these for people who don’t understand basketball but meme on women’s sports. It’s pretty insecure, but nobody can deny that the strategy has gotten more eyeballs on the sport

Huh? I can point you to several tweets about NBA players where they use the same exact wording. It isn't specific to caitlin last night.

Read on Twitter

[Ambrose]

No one thinks this. She's got talent though.

Hmmm. Caitlin is easily the best player in NCAA women's hoops this season. Next year JuJu will be. After that it's hard to say. JuJu isn't so much of a passer or 3-point shooter but she is a wonderful pull-up midrange shooter. Whereas Clark excels at the first two but doesn't do the midrange game.

I'll take 'em both, thanks. much.

It'll be Paige next year.

She was a tier above JuJu last night, and when things were tight, locked her up. But JuJu is going to run it the next two years unless she declares early.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Saw this elsewhere titled "Hailey Van Brick" and thought hilarious. Quite a few are upset with her performance last night.

A post made exclusively of strays

[Handlez]

It's amazing Paige Bueckers went under the radar all season.

She's fully back after that injury.

Unbelievable numbers all season.

[jkvonny]

So what happened to UConn? Did they just stop getting all the top players? Why is that? Obviously they’re still good but they used to never lose a game

NIL money happened, not everyone can get all the advertising money on the squad, they can’t get EVERYONE anymore.

Yall talkin about the girls program?
Meh. So boring (UConn). Womens hoops lacks parity.

The UConn head coach should retire already, quit hogging up all the trophies.

[Dirk]

[Lockdown504090]

So what happened to UConn? Did they just stop getting all the top players? Why is that? Obviously they’re still good but they used to never lose a game

NIL money happened, not everyone can get all the advertising money on the squad, they can’t get EVERYONE anymore.

Yall talkin about the girls program?
Meh. So boring (UConn). Womens hoops lacks parity.

The UConn head coach should retire already, quit hogging up all the trophies.

Yeah, these elite ladies can really capitalize while in college on the money because making it in the pros is annoying, especially for American players. Being to go to girl for advertising at another school makes more sense than being 3rd most famous at uconn dollars wise. The difference is huge. Times that by 3 years of building your profile, it only makes sense.

[jkvonny]

Clark is insane. Female Steph Curry.

That girl can shoot!

[jkvonny]

Juju Watkins is really good. Great agility, footwork and handle.

Seen the highlights on SportsCenter this morning.

She has great shooting form, too.

I know shes a young kid (freshman?), but I think she can be kind of a ball hog. Which didn't help last night. There were wide open team mates on the wing, but she would just keep the ball too long or drive into the paint. Needs to learn to share the ball more. Game was over when she kept missing shots. Lost the lead and then UConn took over. She will learn over time, hopefully.
Don't become another Melo.

[jkvonny]

Where are we talking about NCAAW?
Cause LSU is pooping the bed quick

Happy for the Iowa womens team.

[jkvonny]

So what happened to UConn? Did they just stop getting all the top players? Why is that? Obviously they’re still good but they used to never lose a game

Parity in womens hoops?

About damn time!

I mean, for awhile. It was pretty bland, boring the same. Tennessee, La Tech, UConn repeat repeat. Back in the days. Until Teams like Baylor, S Carolina, Texas A&M, LSU, N Dame, etc broke up that mode.

Didn't mind Louisiana Tech Lady Bulldogs back in the days, tho. Mid major (American South Conference) team used to dominate and won a couple of national championship games. I like to see that. They were like the mens Gonzaga (almost won ), UNLV (won 1 NC) San Francisco (Won 2 NCs) , etc teams of the past and present.
Old Dominion Lady Monarchs (Sun Belt Conference/Colonial Athletic Conf) was another one of those mid majors that would dominate. Won a NC one year ('80s) and was runner up another year ('90s). They were cool, too.

But, ya. Most of the '80s, '90s and '00s. It was either Tenn, La Tech, and UConn hogging up all of the NCs for the longest. lol

[shi-woo]

So what happened to UConn? Did they just stop getting all the top players? Why is that? Obviously they’re still good but they used to never lose a game

NIL money happened, not everyone can get all the advertising money on the squad, they can’t get EVERYONE anymore.

Naa this might be part of it, but take it from someone who lives in Storrs it's not that. Uconn was able to pull the girls because the talent pool was so bad back in the day that players used to team up just to get noticed and play for a winner (their words not mine). For the men, a lot of what Calhoun did was focused on convincing a lot of NY prep school talent to stay closer to home.

Neither of those connections exist anymore, and if you've ever been to Storrs, or Connecticut in general, you would know there is NOTHING here. They tried building a downtown here, but imo it's been a complete failure given that UConn can never decide what type of school it wants to be. One year it's party central and the next i'm getting searched for making a late night taco bell run during spring break. There is literally 2 package stores in town, 1 bar, and NO night life within a 25 mile radius. Not even Hartford, the closest "city", has anything worth going to. Add in that the two adjacent towns are know as Heroin Town and the other still has an active branch of the KKK lingering about, and you get the idea.

I honestly don't see any reason why a prospect would want to come live here for 1-4 years unless they really like going for walks in the woods or like authentic Puerto Rico Food, or simply have no other options. If you are a person of color, like, why come here? Mansfield is one of the most racist towns i've ever lived in, and I grew up in Boston

To put it in perspective how boring and how bored these players get, Kemba Walker used to come to our highschool parties, hanging out with a bunch of 16 year olds because we had weed

Once Geno is gone, UConn womens basktball will go with him. Hurley saved the mens program with his family connections and Name.

[Lockdown504090]

She scored 41 and had 12 assists. Basically everything they did was centered around her, I think they just worded it oddly.

They making these for people who don’t understand basketball but meme on women’s sports. It’s pretty insecure, but nobody can deny that the strategy has gotten more eyeballs on the sport

Huh? I can point you to several tweets about NBA players where they use the same exact wording. It isn't specific to caitlin last night.

Read on Twitter

purpose and context are different. These women and the sport have serious issues with feeling underappreciated, and inadequate. most of coaching girls i find is keeping their confidence up compared to boys. I've really fallen in love with coaching girls basketball compared to boys at this point because of the difference sport makes in their lives when they dont quit in high school like so many do. I cant express how important juju caitlin paige and flaujaue johnson are for women as role models. any post made by clark can be diminished with "well dennis smith would kill them all when he was in grade 8" thats not happening anymore. these women got people to give the sport a chance and people saw last night ( peaked at almost 13 million viewers on tv) and they saw a game that was really fun to watch.

You are totally right, but I just wanted to get the point across, why I think they are really trying to express their point to a more general audience with the tweets about superlatives regarding clark.

[Curmudgeon]

The women's game is just as interesting as the men's game, it's just below the rim. UConn Iowa is going to be a great game.

Having said that, D.J. Burns, Jr. is the most fun to watch of any player in the tournament. No one has played that way in the last 30 years. He's a walking history lesson.

[Patches Perry]

Juju Watkins is really good. Great agility, footwork and handle.

Seen the highlights on SportsCenter this morning.

She has great shooting form, too.

I know shes a young kid (freshman?), but I think she can be kind of a ball hog. Which didn't help last night. There were wide open team mates on the wing, but she would just keep the ball too long or drive into the paint. Needs to learn to share the ball more. Game was over when she kept missing shots. Lost the lead and then UConn took over. She will learn over time, hopefully.
Don't become another Melo.

I agree, she didn't play that well last night, and she could definitely get better at balancing her attack. That said, I don't recall ever seeing a women's player move as fluidly and skillfully as she does. She's tall too. She has incredible potential.

[Patches Perry]

I don’t know how I never really pondered this before, but it must be significantly easier for the ball to go in the hole in the women’s game due to the difference in basketball size. Kinda sucks that they play with a smaller ball. It makes it harder to compare shooting skill.

The women's ball is about 3.3% smaller in diameter.

It's a big difference. Back in my playing days, I used to be able to shoot anywhere within halfcourt with a 28.5 ball, and felt like I'd never miss. That little extra room in diameter makes the rim feel huge.

[jkvonny]

Looks like Indiana State is pullin away from the Utah Utes in the NIT Final Four. Sycamores needs to hang on to this big lead. Very good team out if the MVC. Would have won some games in the tournament. Great passing and shooting offense.
Winner plays the winner of Georgia/Seton Hall game for the NIT Championship game.

It's a shame that the NCAA Selection committee left them out of the NCAA Tournament. Instead they put in a boring low scoring Virginia Cavaliers team. Who got pounded by Colorado State Rams in the 1st round.