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***official 2024/25 women’s college bball thread*** paige gets her title and will soon be beat up and abused in the wnba (1 Viewer)

The WNBA is not a serious league.

And they should be thanking their lucky stars for Caitlan Clark, who is all anyone cares about in that league. Ratings were down 55% overall when she was injured and not playing the last few weeks.

Go check out the crap tonight. Not a serious league.
 
Things I really like about the Fever this year compared to last:

-the defense is much improved
-the offense seems to be much more than “stand around and watch CC”
-CC is definitely stronger and able to absorb the punishment more

And what I really like is that Clark’s teammates finally have her back. No more just standing around watching her get ambushed by the rest of the league game after game. She finally has teammates who are willing to throw down for her. Reminds me a bit of how the Bulls went out and got Oakley to be Jordan’s enforcer. Things started to change when players realized there was going to be a cost to going after the superstar.
 
GroveDiesel said:
Things I really like about the Fever this year compared to last:

-the defense is much improved
-the offense seems to be much more than “stand around and watch CC”
-CC is definitely stronger and able to absorb the punishment more

And what I really like is that Clark’s teammates finally have her back. No more just standing around watching her get ambushed by the rest of the league game after game. She finally has teammates who are willing to throw down for her. Reminds me a bit of how the Bulls went out and got Oakley to be Jordan’s enforcer. Things started to change when players realized there was going to be a cost to going after the superstar.
Click to expand...
Props to coach Stephanie White as well, who took all of the questions in the presser after the game about officiating, which protected Clark and others from having to do it. I am sure the WNBA will fine White for calling out their D-level officials, but by taking all questions, White theoretically protected the players from fines as well, although you never know when it comes to a non-serious league like the WNBA.
 
Ghost Rider said:
GroveDiesel said:
Things I really like about the Fever this year compared to last:

-the defense is much improved
-the offense seems to be much more than “stand around and watch CC”
-CC is definitely stronger and able to absorb the punishment more

And what I really like is that Clark’s teammates finally have her back. No more just standing around watching her get ambushed by the rest of the league game after game. She finally has teammates who are willing to throw down for her. Reminds me a bit of how the Bulls went out and got Oakley to be Jordan’s enforcer. Things started to change when players realized there was going to be a cost to going after the superstar.
Click to expand...
Props to coach Stephanie White as well, who took all of the questions in the presser after the game about officiating, which protected Clark and others from having to do it. I am sure the WNBA will fine White for calling out their D-level officials, but by taking all questions, White theoretically protected the players from fines as well, although you never know when it comes to a non-serious league like the WNBA.
Click to expand...
Definitely team attitude upgrade. When Clark got the eye poke Lexie's immediate reaction to come to aid was nice.
 
GroveDiesel said:
Things I really like about the Fever this year compared to last:

-the defense is much improved
-the offense seems to be much more than “stand around and watch CC”
-CC is definitely stronger and able to absorb the punishment more

And what I really like is that Clark’s teammates finally have her back. No more just standing around watching her get ambushed by the rest of the league game after game. She finally has teammates who are willing to throw down for her. Reminds me a bit of how the Bulls went out and got Oakley to be Jordan’s enforcer. Things started to change when players realized there was going to be a cost to going after the superstar.
Click to expand...

The defense definitely looks better. The CC-Kelsey-Lexie-Sophie-AB lineup is something else offensively and defensively. They can switch on most everything with Lexie and Sophie on the court at the same time. That's not even to mention Howard and DW who can be a big help defensively in spots.

With an offense that's essentially impossible to stop, it's quite dangerous.

A Big 3 seems to be clearly forming with NY, MIN, and Indy.
Though, I could see ATL or PHX threatening. PHX finally has their 3 stars healthy and in the process has found insane depth. ATL might really be for real. But maybe not there yet. I thought they had the Liberty and a trip to Commissioner's Cup Final, but they way the Liberty just locked them up at the end, ATL may just not be there yet. But we'll see. My Storm look like it at times, but they probably aren't real contenders.

Probably stupid to write off the Aces, but I am. They are a dumpster fire, and I think A'ja walks next year. They still don't even have a damn GM in the middle of A'ja's prime.

Fever-Valkyries tonight should be a lot of fun.
Valkyries probably don't have a shot, especially with 4 players in EuroBasket, but that team just plays their *** off. They've already won a couple games they seemingly had no business winning. They've become must watch, IMO. I've put Kayla Thornton and Veronica Burton on a lot of all-star ballots.

Valkyries have just laid down the expansion team gauntlet. I don't know what Toronto and Portland have in store, but the bar is high. GSV nailed the coach, somehow built a strong culture from the jump.

They are getting 18,000 fans every game with players that most of the general public has never heard of, and nobody really expected to be any good. The vibe in Balhalla seems awesome.
 
pollardsvision said:
GroveDiesel said:
Things I really like about the Fever this year compared to last:

-the defense is much improved
-the offense seems to be much more than “stand around and watch CC”
-CC is definitely stronger and able to absorb the punishment more

And what I really like is that Clark’s teammates finally have her back. No more just standing around watching her get ambushed by the rest of the league game after game. She finally has teammates who are willing to throw down for her. Reminds me a bit of how the Bulls went out and got Oakley to be Jordan’s enforcer. Things started to change when players realized there was going to be a cost to going after the superstar.
Click to expand...

The defense definitely looks better. The CC-Kelsey-Lexie-Sophie-AB lineup is something else offensively and defensively. They can switch on most everything with Lexie and Sophie on the court at the same time. That's not even to mention Howard and DW who can be a big help defensively in spots.

With an offense that's essentially impossible to stop, it's quite dangerous.

A Big 3 seems to be clearly forming with NY, MIN, and Indy.
Though, I could see ATL or PHX threatening. PHX finally has their 3 stars healthy and in the process has found insane depth. ATL might really be for real. But maybe not there yet. I thought they had the Liberty and a trip to Commissioner's Cup Final, but they way the Liberty just locked them up at the end, ATL may just not be there yet. But we'll see. My Storm look like it at times, but they probably aren't real contenders.

Probably stupid to write off the Aces, but I am. They are a dumpster fire, and I think A'ja walks next year. They still don't even have a damn GM in the middle of A'ja's prime.

Fever-Valkyries tonight should be a lot of fun.
Valkyries probably don't have a shot, especially with 4 players in EuroBasket, but that team just plays their *** off. They've already won a couple games they seemingly had no business winning. They've become must watch, IMO. I've put Kayla Thornton and Veronica Burton on a lot of all-star ballots.

Valkyries have just laid down the expansion team gauntlet. I don't know what Toronto and Portland have in store, but the bar is high. GSV nailed the coach, somehow built a strong culture from the jump.

They are getting 18,000 fans every game with players that most of the general public has never heard of, and nobody really expected to be any good. The vibe in Balhalla seems awesome.
Click to expand...
Welcome back Pollar.
 
Some pretty fun games today with Fever-Aces, Storm-Liberty, and Mystics-Wings.

Even a WNBA junkie like myself can recognize that we've had way too many national TV blowouts this season (like yesterday).
It's been an awesome season if you have League Pass. But a lot of the national TV games have sucked.

It's been a combination of injuries (CC, A'ja, Paige, Sloot, Kah, AT, now Jonquel and let's hope like hell Phee's back injury isn't too serious) and teams with national recognition underperforming.

The Sky were supposed to be better in theory. Now, the GM is absolutely horrible, so there's that, but in theory, you give Angel and Kamilla a true PG, and bring in a little more outside shooting, and things should be a little improved. Marsh was supposed to be a good coach. Obviously, it hasn't worked out that way even before Sloot went down. Some of the point forward Angel stuff has some potential (though still needs a lot of development) and Kamilla has looked better. But a team rolling Rachel Banham out for big minutes/touches is going to struggle mightily.

I could go on forever about all the reasons why this team sucks, but having them on national TV so much isn't good. They should get curb-stomped by the Dream today too.

I've bitched about the Aces, but their under performance is a problem too. Blown out by the Liberty on opening day, blown out by the Storm in prime time (though I did love that). A week ago, they were getting crushed by the Wings for 37 minutes. They'll probably get blown out by the Fever today, even though it should've been a good game in theory on ESPN.

Like I said, it's been an awesome season on League Pass. The continued excellence of the Liberty, Lynx, and Fever. The emergence of the Dream, Mercury, Storm, Valkyries, and Mystics has been the story of the season.

But I know the broader audience isn't tuning in as much for those games.

Anyway, hopefully some of these today are close.

Storm-Liberty will be a great test to see how close the Storm are close to being a real contenders (though the Liberty will be without Jonquel and Fiebich, so there's that). Gabby Williams seems to have taken the leap.

Really excited for Mystics-WIngs. Mystics are must watch TV, and this will be ROY race Battle Royale with Paige, Kiki, and CItron.
 
Last edited:
Got my wish. 3 fantastic games on a Sunday afternoon.

Hard to follow all of them too closely, but Sonia vs. Paige has been fantastic. Both pretty much guarding each all game. Sonia is making her ROY case, for sure. Paige starting to cook now though.
Haven't seen much of the Sky-Dream game, but I'm not sure Paopao won't enter the ROY race soon. She's been on fire.

Aaliyah Boston taking it to A'ja has been fun. She's clearly sick of being Dawn's 2nd favorite.
 
Alex P Keaton said:
pollardsvision said:
Alex P Keaton said:
Some fun games today. Caitlin is not having a good game. Some really bad TOs and poor decisions.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure she's healthy. Quad strains can linger.

Playing as fast as she wants to, and the deep shots, any leg issue is a big problem.
Click to expand...
Well, they should have kept her out if she isn’t healthy.

To me it just looks like bad decision making
Click to expand...
Just a completely unsubstantiated guess because I don't know how to make sense of it. Just not used to seeing CC struggle.
 
Alex P Keaton said:
To me it just looks like bad decision making
Click to expand...
As a passer, she loves that play where she comes off a screen and someone cuts hard to the basket and she hits them in stride for a layup. That play takes timing and touch, and Caitlin didn't have it today.

Lexie Hull had open lanes to the basket several times, and Caitlin missed her.
 
Sky, Sparks, and Aces all had no interest in the #3 pick (among others, those are just the teams that actively or effectively traded it away). A lot of stupid teams punted on the draft because they might have to settle for CItron (or Kiki).

All Citron can do is shoot, pass, defend, drive and finish at a high level with good size for the position.
Somehow that got interpreted as "limited upside".

Similar deal with Kiki.
 
pollardsvision said:
Sky, Sparks, and Aces all had no interest in the #3 pick (among others, those are just the teams that actively or effectively traded it away). A lot of stupid teams punted on the draft because they might have to settle for CItron (or Kiki).

All Citron can do is shoot, pass, defend, drive and finish at a high level with good size for the position.
Somehow that got interpreted as "limited upside".

Similar deal with Kiki.
Click to expand...
Yeah, both of them can play. Crazy to pass them up.
 
Bizarro night in the W last night.

For a lot of reasons.
Fever curbstomped the Storm when CC was off.
Wings destroyed the Dream.
Sky crushed the Sparks, but not terribly surprising because the Sparks suck.

But I love the Mystics getting it done. I'm never going to pass up the chance to push the Sug Sutton agenda.

Yeah, there was no Phee, but the Mystics are the best young team in the league (outside of Indy).

Kiki and Sonia are the truth. Shakira is as physically talented as A'ja. If she can stay healthy and get it together, she's going to be a star. Aaliyah and Jade are fantastic young talents. Sykes is fantastic and having a all-star season.

But as unheralded as she is, Sug Sutton is the head of the snake that makes it all work.

Defensive stopper that allows everybody else to go about their business, but she also always makes the right plays on offense. And now she's hitting more shots. Sug is going to be a star soon.
 
Another big win for the Mystics.

Shorthanded already with Sykes out. Then Jade Melbourne took an elbow to the mouth and lost a tooth early in the 1st.

No problem for the Mystics.
My beloved Sug stepped up and put in 40 great minutes of work. "The other Mystics rookie" Lucy Olsen got her first chance at real minutes and played really well.

Citron, Shakira, and Kiki kicked *** as always.
This team is going to be a problem for years to come.

Some big games tonight even though it royally sucks that Caitlin is out for what should have been the 1st CC-Paige game in the W. Could still be a decent game. WIngs seem to be getting it together a little bit. Paige is having an amazing season that's sort of going under the radar because of what Caitlin did last year. 18-6-5 with great defense would normally be an earth shattering rookie season for a guard. But we've been spoiled by the amazing season Caitlin just had. They'v got many more clashes to come, but it would have been nice to see this one tonight.

Dream still trying to figure out if they are a legit contender host the Lynx, and it sounds like Phee might play. Should be a great test.

Another LIberty-Mercury match-up. It was a banger when they played last week. Even without Jonquel and Fiebich, if the Mercury can beat them a 2nd time, it's probably time to put them in the real contenders tier.
 
On the Mercury.....I'm sure they are about to sign DeWanna. It was a shock it didn't happen in the off-season.

They should. She's amazing. A legend.

But I do worry. They've found some crazy chemistry around 3 stars (alternatingly injured) and 4 great undrafted rookies. Though Held is going to be out for a while.

I'm sure it'll be fine. Ain't nothing going to get between AT and winning. She'd run over her own mother and call for an "And 1"

But it's a lot to potentially throw in to this fantastic mix.
 
Aside from the obvious need for more jobs, going to 16 teams should help with scheduling.

It's a huge problem right now giving the networks enough product without running players into the ground.
Teams having stretches of 8 games in 16 days and such. With some rosters that are only 10 deep.

A lot of it is simple math.

Networks like Saturday and Sunday games.
If you only have 3 of those games each day, the entire league just played (minus 1 team now).
Monday games generally are not an option because of this.

But then you generally have some Tuesday and Wednesday games.
Then the Amazon games on Thursday, then the ION games on Friday.

You run players ragged and you have to do stuff like put the Connecticut Sun in a lot of national TV games.

16 is the perfect number IMO, for now, for a lot of reasons, but should help ease some of the scheduling burden.

I really hope they have no plans on going past 16 anytime soon.

The league is in a great spot right now. It's one of the very pro sports leagues where every game matters, it doesn't take a huge time commitment to follow pretty well, and there's an insane concentration of talent.

Though, every other league was in that position at one point and kept over expanding to drain every last nickel. It'll probably happen here too, but I just hope it's not for a long while.
 
The question is, will there be enough good players to make the league good? The bad players in this league are really bad, and now players not as good as them over time will have to be added to fill out the new franchises.
 
Another wild night. The Playoff race is going to be insane.

Lynx and Liberty get back on track. Fever somehow keep rolling. They are going to be a monster when CC gets back.
Storm eek one out over the Dream. Feels like they are going to flip back and forth all year.

Wings pull off a massive win over the Mercury.
Mercury had seemed to start to settle in as the best team after the Lynx, Liberty, and Fever. And the Mercury usually have a good defense.

So, the Wings dropping 98 on them is massive. They've got all 3 rookies cooking and they might have fleeced the Storm in the Li Yueru trade.

Wings started 1-11, but have now won 5 of their last 7.

This all started on June 13, which was a soul crushing loss to put them at 1-11.
They were destroying the Aces for 37 minutes, and then completely fell apart (though the refs helped).

It was the infamous game where Dijonai took a live play off to scream at her own coach while the rest of the team played 4 on 5 for a critical play during the meltdown. I love Dijonai, but this one of the most inexcusable things I've ever seen a player do.
This was peak "Fire Koclanes, he's lost the team".

I didn't think he had the stones to do it, but that was the last game Dijonai started (fans were even lived about this move). I won't say that's what sparked this run, but I certainly think it's a factor.
The knock on Koclanes is that he's a pushover. Had he not done "something" after the Dijonai thing, I could see him losing the locker room.

It's unlikely that the Wings make a real Playoff push with all the good teams in front of them, but it's not impossible. They are at least playing solid basketball, which is a far cry from where they were in early June.
 
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