In Reply to: also posted by Punahou on March 07, 2025 at 23:05:30
They can smother Betts in a way no team that I’ve seen can, inclusive of Watkins doubling down.
And it seems like a lot of teams have a very good wing player who makes Watkins work to cover her. And who is mobile enough to make Watkins work for her shot, and tall enough that Watkins has to shoot over her.
Lastly, we seem to get a lot of turnovers trying to get Betts the ball. sc, because of their roster, is the best at this. And they’re good on the break. Either Watkins going end to end, or Van Huffelpuff getting the ball to Watkins. I bet there is a big correlation between Watkins big #’s against us and our big TO #’s against sc.
I think the biiig problem for us against sc is our O vs. their D. Outside of Betts, best weapons imo are getting layups for Kiki, Gabby, and to a lesser extent, Elina. If sc has 2 bigs plus Watkins camped under the rim, that’s not going to happen, unless Betts is set up clearly on one side of the block and we’re feeding cutter to the other side. And we don’t do that. Really reminds me of when Howland ran everything through Love. Eventually you’re going to meet a team that can stop that. Then what?
Finally, sc is a damn good team. The loss at Iowa was on Caitlin Clark day, and the transfer that replaced Clark played out of her head. Again, we don’t have a player like that.