← No Offseason: The Athletic Women's Basketball Show
No Offseason: The Athletic Women's Basketball Show
Early Challenge for South Carolina, Plus USC and UCLA take on Paris
00:35:50
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- [00:00]
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- [01:38]
Zena Keda
There to watch them.
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- [04:52]
Zena Keda
For the athletic I'm Zena Keda and this is the Athletic Women's Basketball Show. Welcome back to the Athletic Women's Basketball show where we are here to talk all things women's hoops. I hope you guys enjoyed the bonus episode that dropped yesterday. If you haven't gone to listen to it, definitely go and check it out. Ben and Sabrina break it down with the Indiana Fevers front office, particularly their GM and their new coach Stephanie White. You do not want to miss that because you want to keep in touch with what's going on the WNBA side. I know it's NCAA season but we got to keep touch on everything that's going on in this ecosystem. But we're back with Chantelle Jennings to talk about the start of NCAA season because it kicked off on Monday, and I don't know what your Monday, but I was pretty much faced with every single screen possible in my house with a basketball game on it, whether it was ncaa, women's basketball, NBA. There was NFL on. I mean, it was crazy. But I think the stars that overpowered all of it were the NCAA teams. Quite a few teams we're going to talk about today. Want to talk about the reigning champs, South Carolina, of course, going undefeated last year, opening their season with Michigan. We're going to talk about the battles in Paris, which I'm sure the sponsor, aflac, was very pleased with, how tight both battles were. People were glued to those games. We're going to talk a little bit about some individual performances. And Chantel, I know you had a little bit of a list of people that need to prove themselves this year, so we'll break all of that down. But let's start it out with South Carolina, Don Staley's group coming back onto the court after going undefeated and winning a championship last year. You would have thought Michigan knew nothing about that, the way they came out and played against South Carolina. We're going to get into some of the big performers of this game, but first, Chantel, first. First appearances of this South Carolina team. What'd you think of the way they came out?
- [06:57]
Chantelle Jennings
I was watching and it was like, wow. We all knew how important Camila Cardoso was to that team last year. What it means to sort of have a person in the paint who is 6, 7, 6, 8 with hands like Camila's, touch like Camilla's, that, you know, everything can kind of rotate in orbit around for a team, how much stronger that makes you. And so, you know, I think we saw a bit of that. Their interior game looks really different. I was really impressed with Chloe Kits. I thought she played really well. She finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds. She was really good on the glass, but obviously she's a different, smaller player than Camilla. And so I think that changes things up a little bit. And so there were differences, but I think, you know, we go through this game and it was like, wow, this is obviously a lot tighter than I think any of us expected it to be. You look at a Michigan team that has, you know, three primary true freshmen and only one player returning who had starting experience, Jordan Hobbs, and it was like Michigan's leading at the half. This, you know, South Carolina last year in their undefeated season, only trailed at the half four times. And I certainly didn't expect it coming into this game. But like you said, this Michigan team came out with the blinders on. And you don't know what you don't know. Right?
- [08:09]
Zena Keda
Right, Absolutely.
- [08:10]
Chantelle Jennings
Interestingly, though, like, there's a lot of South Carolina's team doesn't know what it's like to lose a college game. And in a very South Carolina fashion, sort of saw them come out, make those second half adjustments. Specifically on the defensive side, they held. They held Michigan to 21% from the floor in the second half. I'm sure, you know, Don Staley's halftime speeches are pretty famous for being very motivational and to the point. And I think they got to that point specifically shutting down Silas Wards in. In that third quarter especially. She only got one field goal off. And we can talk more about Sila, but, yeah, my initial impressions of South Carolina was, of course, this was going to be a team that looks different if you don't have a Cardoso in the middle. But there were still a lot of aspects of this South Carolina team that looked the same in terms of their second half adjustments. Their bench points. They outscored Michigan 29, 6 in bench points. And maybe more than anything, the piece of South Carolina that looked exactly the same was like, literally the final buzzer goes and like, Tahina Powpow, Tessa Johnson, like, they're all like, smiling and giggling, jumping.
- [09:15]
Zena Keda
Yeah, they' in that huddle.
- [09:17]
Chantelle Jennings
And I was like, wow, this like, you know, Don has talked about, like, it's still daycare. Like, this group is still like, I'm not gonna change them. This is who they are. And I was in Columbia a few weeks ago and had a chance to talk with them about it, and, you know, just sort of that personality resonates. And what helped them win last year will be what helps them win this year. But, you know, this is a game that there's gonna be a lot of teach tape for dawn coming out of it to say, this is. This is what we need to do better. There's a lot to correct, There's a lot to fix. We've got time. But there's. There's stuff there. We're not a finished product yet. But it was like that buzzer went, and immediately it's like, Tahina's walking off the court smiling. And I was like, that's. That's South Carolina.
- [09:56]
Zena Keda
I know, I know. I saw her jump up and down. I think it was Tahina or Tessa Johnson, that kind of jumped up as they went. And I remember being like, you better not jump. Your film session is about to be terrible. There's about to be a lot of call outs. But I think there's something to be said about the fact that they do keep things light. They focus on the task and they do keep things light. And that's one thing. As they were down going into the half, I was like, I'm not even stressed for them because this is a team.
- [10:21]
Chantelle Jennings
Because they're not even stressed for them.
- [10:23]
Zena Keda
Yeah, I'm like, they just focus in like. And they. Again, Don Staley's halftime speeches. I need it for my personal life. Like, Don Staley, if you want to be my therapist, I'd be down because I feel like you pump people up and get people focused on the right task. But exactly as we anticipated in the second half, you saw them picking up their offensive boards, you saw them playing in more rhythm, you saw them prioritizing their middle presence a little bit more. I want to talk about a bit about that because that is something you alluded to Camila Cardoso and how much she impacted the floor. But this has been a lineage at South Carolina of middles impacting what South Carolina does that inside out. Dawn Staley said this in her halftime interview with Taylor Rooks. Like, any time that we can get the ball inside out, we create a little bit more rhythm. So I was really excited to see Chloe Kitts kind of taking the team on her back a little bit, particularly in the beginning parts of that game. She was the only one really finding buckets. But then I had some things to say about Joyce Edwards. I mean, hustle player. Finally got to see what you were talking about at some of the comparison game with an Asia Wilson, just an active big. Do you think that South Carolina is going to be another team predicated on how much their inside presence shows up this year as opposed to their guard play like a Brie hall and Ravens, Johnson and Tahina Powpow and Tessa Johnson.
- [11:44]
Chantelle Jennings
It'S going to be about balance for them, right? Like they have this interior presence, but then when you have a backcourt with experienced players like Raven Johnson, Tahina Powpow, Brie hall, and then when you can bring players off the bench like Tessa Johnson, Malaysia Full Wiley, you know, it's going to be about the balance. And I think in different games we're going to see different players and parts of the floor featured, I think Michigan Zone that they kind of like morphed at times, like I think that messed with them a little bit in terms of getting to their positions and, and running things. I don't know if wasn't quite expected from Michigan or what, but like, I think initially that plus Michigan going up tempo, trying to get out and run a little bit more, you know, got to South Carolina a bit. But to go back to Joyce Edwards, she looked so comfortable on the floor. This was absolutely, I mean, every South Carolina player really did. But you know, for a true freshman to come out, sort of run the floor like she did. She has great hands. I think we saw that plenty defensively, played well. Like, I just think they're a team that. Because, you know, you look across the board and there's a lot of teams that had a lot of changes in terms of their roster. South Carolina is not one of those. They lost Camila Cardoso, but like, you can't understate how important that one loss is. Like, we're going to talk about other teams here that are like, you know, brand new starting lineups. South Carolina has four returning starters, right? Four super experienced players, but the one that they're missing is a really, really big piece and a really big part of how they operated. And again, when you have a 6, 7 center in the middle, that changes the way that Tahina, Bree and Raven can play on the outside. How they attack, how they pass, what threes are open for them. And that was another part of the game. You know, they didn't shoot great from three yesterday, but down the line, I'm sure that's going to adjust as they establish more of an inside game and sort of, you know, get to their spots a little bit more.
- [13:28]
Zena Keda
Talking about being comfortable out on the floor. We cannot under emphasize how much Michigan came out and played comfortably, confidently against these Gamecocks. Particularly freshman Sila swords leading Michigan 27 points, 12 rebounds. Unbelievable. And you know, not to mention Jordan Hobbs adding 19 points. Like, these players were locked in. Talk to me about Silosaurus because I know you, knowing everything that's going on in the NCAA landscape, knew about this freshman coming in, but I know a lot of people didn't and man, did she kind of show up in this space in a definitive and dominant way. The fact that she has two coaches as parents was pretty cool to find out on the broadcast. Tell us a little bit more about Silas Swords. Is this a and a performance that we can expect more out of throughout the rest of the season from her?
- [14:24]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah, you don't just walk on to the Canadian national team, right. Like this isn't just like given to anyone. And she got minutes in Paris this summer. She looked really good. I think there's also the level. Natalie Ochonwa is an assistant for Michigan this season.
- [14:38]
Zena Keda
Love that.
- [14:39]
Chantelle Jennings
So I think that also Natalie, longtime Canadian national team player, I think that also helps her comfort level. But, you know, let me take a mea culpa here for a moment because last week I published an article with, you know, a list of coaches who have something to prove this year. You know, whether it's Kim Caldwell at Tennessee sort of stepping into that position, or Kelly Graves at Oregon having, you know, just the second time in his career at Oregon last season that the Ducks didn't make the postseason, put Kim Barn Sirico on that list. You know, we saw her get her Wolverines to the Elite Eight when Nas Hillman was there, but since then, their record against top 25 teams hasn't been great. You know, midway through the, through the second quarter, I texted Sabrina yesterday and I was like, this feels like the Jordan meme of like, I took that personally.
- [15:24]
Zena Keda
I love it. Yeah.
- [15:26]
Chantelle Jennings
I was like, okay, you know, mea culpa. Because beyond sort of what they did on the floor, not just to have your team go to a neutral site like Vegas and, you know, play comfortably, but to go up against a team that is on a 38 game win streak, the defending champs, everyone, you know, the preseason number one favorite people are Vegas is picking them as the. The favorites to win the national title. To have your freshman walk out there and be like, it's a game, it's 40 minutes. Silas Swartz, no problem. But also the Jordan Hobbs of the world, players who've been in the college game for a long time, seemingly unfazed. She had some threes that were like, damn, like unconscious, fearless. Like, I don't care that you're on a 38 game win streak. I'm trying to end that thing. And so I thought that was really impressive. But to put Silas Ward's individual performance and perspective after the game, I looked up how many. Just because I was trying to rack my brain, I'm like, I don't think I've seen a player play this well individually against South Carolina in a long time. And so I looked up since 2017, how many players have had 25 points and 10 rebounds against the Gamecocks. You want to take a guess?
- [16:40]
Zena Keda
25 points, 10 rebounds. I'm going to go 05, but think about it, okay? I was like, I can't imagine. Okay. Lake, can you list Them. Do you know them?
- [16:50]
Chantelle Jennings
Listen to the names on this list. Let's start with Nafeesa Collier, Gabby Williams, Tierra McCowan, Kayla Charles, and Java Nicholson.
- [17:00]
Zena Keda
Like, wow.
- [17:02]
Chantelle Jennings
You've got some big names on that list, right?
- [17:04]
Zena Keda
Yeah. You got WNBA stars on that list. Yeah.
- [17:07]
Chantelle Jennings
And none of them, if I'm doing my math right, were freshmen when they did it. And so Sila, to be able to come out in this way in her. Not just as a freshman, but the first game ever of her collegiate career, put the blinders on and how she went about it. You know, she was just relentless in terms of getting on the glass. She had a few plays in rowers, like multiple offensive rebounds. Like, just relentless. I think she's, as we're talking about potential freshman of the year candidates. We've talked a lot about Joyce Edwards. We've talked a lot about Sarah Strong. You know, Michigan is now looking like a top 25 team, and if they're led by Silas or. It's like we have to put Sila in that conversation.
- [17:47]
Zena Keda
Absolutely. Absolutely. It was a wonderful game to watch. Ultimately, South Carolina takes it 68 to 62. South Carolina is not going to shy away from the competition, though, after this game. They're going up against NC State on November 10th, so gonna go see their old players, Sinai Rivers and the Wolf Pack, and then Michigan taking on Lehigh in their next game. All right, we got to keep it going because there are so many teams to talk about. Let's go to Paris. Okay. Of course, you were out in France over the summer and got to see some pro action in the Olympics, of course, but there were some people looking like some pros out in Paris for the NCAA tournament or not tournament, but matchup in the AFLAC we play. I love that. It was really intense for these games. One, I think, just seeing the parody, because the two teams that were kind of the. The shiny teams in terms of, you know, who people were watching, et cetera, were USC and ucla, two teams that have been chosen to potentially win the Big Ten. And Ole Miss and Louisville had something to say about that, particularly their defenses. So we'll start with USC. USC ends up winning the game. 68, 66. Very close game, but big thing that really stood out to me. 26 turnovers. 26 turnovers from USC due to the tenacious defense of. Of Ole Miss. What do you make of that game and. And what USC has to work on before this season really picks up steam.
- [19:34]
Chantelle Jennings
Back to that South Carolina conversation. When you talk about not a ton of turnover USC is kind of the opposite, right? Like in part returning in Juju Watkins and then mount her these fifth year players who have so much college basketball under their belts to, you know, three of the top seven players in the rotation are now true freshmen. Like, it's just a very different situation. And then you bring in someone like Kiki Iriafen and Talia Von Olhoffen where it's gonna take time for these players to learn to how to play together, how to function together, how to excel together. And I think we saw that there were some times on offense where it just felt really stagnant, like people were watching Juju and waiting to see what she does so that they could react versus just like playing through her and playing off her and having a lot of movement. And so her stat line was, was incredible. You know, 27 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, three steals, five blocks. But I was like, you know, it speaks to how good she is that she had that kind of a game. And I was like, but something still felt like, you know, and I think it was obviously she had nine turnovers alone. And so when she wasn't being super effective, she was turning the ball over. But also a lot of her points came from times that it wasn't always the most flowy or beautiful offense in terms of, you know, she was taking it her on her own. And I think it's just gonna take a little bit more time. And even as sports writers, even as people that watch sports and talk about sports for a living, like you, you kind of have to like pull back yourself and be like, okay, pump the brakes. Don't overreact. Like 10 minutes in, I was like, ooh, I don't know about USC's chances to win a national title this year. And I was like, pump the brakes. Like, we're 10 minutes into a really, really long season. But I think it's, you know, there's a team like USC where it's going to take time. And sort of the upside of that is that when you have a player like Kennedy Smith, right, who's starting for them looked great, but you just imagine like sort of how much further she can go by March and what she can bring to this team as they grow together and. And this whole team, obviously Lindsey Gottlieb has a few freshmen coming off the bench as well. Talia Von Olhoff and the player they brought in to play point for them this year picked up three early fouls in the first quarter. And so that kind of impacted rotations and how they were playing. And. And I think even once you have those three fouls under your belt, it impacts how you play and how you approach the game, obviously, because you don't want to pick up that fourth. And so it was. It was an interesting game. And obviously Ole Miss did what Ole Miss does. Like, they're going to get you on the defensive end. And. And they did 26 turnovers. Like, it was not a pretty game for USC offensively. But even without the 26 turnovers, you know, I think I expected this offense to take a little bit longer to gel.
- [22:16]
Zena Keda
I agree. Like, it's. You can't say it's rust because these players haven't been together. That would implicate that they had been together and just have gotten a little stiff. It's kind of like when you get something brand new and you need to oil it up. Right. They need a little bit more time to gel and. And. And get to know each other. I'm happy you mentioned Kiki Iriafin because I'm so happy that we have changed the way that her name is being pronounced or it's been not changing. Excuse me. Correcting. Quick linguistic lesson here. African languages, African dialects very rarely, very rarely make a long A and separate the sounds of vowels. So Ethan is not a thing in African dialects. It's very rare that you'll see that, especially in Nigerian languages. Like, if you've heard, you know, Adebayo it. The. The way an A is long is usually after a hard consonant. So I remember when I was told, like, oh, it's Iria. Often I was like, really interesting. But usually it's Iria fin where there's a. The emphasis is on the hard consonant within the language or within the name or within the word or whatever it is. So I'm so happy linguistically, I feel much more confident. Confident and comfortable saying Kiki area Finn. But, you know, those two absolutely did what they were supposed to do. 22 points for Kiki. 8 of 11 from the free throw line. Got herself to the line several times, and she missed quite a few bunnies. So imagine with a little bit more oil on her game, she absolutely would have gotten way more than that, and they would have been even more productive with her in the center.
- [23:54]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah, I think similar to Don Staley, similar to every sort of top 10, top 15 coach that's going to walk away from these games and say, there's so much we have to fix. I. There's a lot that Lindsay Gottlieb also needs to like. Specifically. They hit their last 17 free throws. Like to have multiple players step to the line in a close game late, like college basketball. Not always the most accurate free throw shooters. Right. Like, shooting 70% in college is like, okay, okay. But like to hit 17 of 17 to close out the game in a close game in Paris, season opener on espn. And it's, you know, it was Kiki, it was juju, it was Kennedy Smith the freshman, it was Talia. And so I think you have to feel good about sort of the mentality of your team and sort of how you can be in a tight game like that and be unbothered and knock down those shots, because not every team could do that, certainly not in the first game of the season.
- [24:50]
Zena Keda
One thing that's very uncharacteristic, but this is, you know, I would give full credit to Ole Miss and just how hard they were denying the perimeter, how much they were in guard's faces. I mean, the USC Trojans went 9% from 31 of 11. That's very, I think, uncharacteristic of them, but also something they're going to have to figure out because Ole Miss defense looks like Louisville defense looks like, you know, Ohio State defense looks like defense you see across the country. So they're definitely going to have to, you know, pick that up if they want to be able to have that be a part of their game. I want to kind of shift the conversation to ucla. Again. I'm not looking too deeply into this USC win as a triumphant win, nor am I looking at it as should we be concerned. I thought Ole Miss really showed up in this moment. And Coach yo should be really proud of how her, her girls played against this team ucla. This is an interesting one because even though they don't have as much change in their, their team as USC did, they didn't have Kiki Rice, who had an injury and did not travel with the team. Um, and there were some, you know, some new faces around Lauren Betts. Betts and trying to make sure that she gets the ball that is a focal point for UCLA is how do we get Lauren Betts the ball, even if she doesn't finish it, being able to pass it back out. So let's go to UCLA real quick. UCLA won their game against Louisville 66 to 59. Now Louisville, I was pretty impressed with their defense as well, just to make things difficult for Gabriela Jacques and Dugalich as well. I mean, overall, UCLA still presents the same concerns I have with them last year in being able to see Lauren Betts in Being able to have a fluid half court offense in having good transition defense. Would you make of UCLA's performance against Louisville?
- [26:45]
Chantelle Jennings
There's such an interesting team because I thought the same thing where I was like, oh, you know, they return when Kiki Rice is healthy. They return all five starters from last year. Like, this is a team that is largely the same. But like then you look at the people they brought in and they just so fundamentally change what UCLA does. You have a Tamiya Gardner who's like this six three forward who's truly a three level scorer. Like she shoots 70% at the rim, 40% in the mid range and 40% from three. Like that's great shooting even if you're not a six three forward. And then she can like hit the glass. She can pass, she can. We saw her bring the ball up the floor a little bit and initiate the offense. Like she changes what they. Dude, Janaya Barker from Texas A and M can, you know, same thing, 64 forward score at all levels. Like she can change what they do. Kendall Dudley, we saw her get off the bench as a freshman. Like athletic wing changes. And so it's just like all of these players will change what they do. Whenever Charlie Sledger Walker comes back again. A guard that has just destroyed the PAC 12 and it is a different look if you haven't played her before. Coaches tell me you just don't know what to expect. And so UCLA is the same, but super different. And I think that was just. I was reminded of that every time they came off the floor. But the way they are the same is that, you know, everything needs to revolve around Lauren Betts. Like for this team to make it deep, Lauren Betts needs to play well. She played really well. I thought what was interesting against Louisville, a team that pressures the perimeter and makes it hard to get the ball into Lauren, which, let's be honest, like that's going to be everyone's game plan against ucla. Like let's make life as hard for Lauren as possible. I believe six of her nine baskets, six of the assists came from London Jones or Gabriela Hawkez. I think that speaks to sort of the established chemistry between these guards and Lauren. And so I think continuing to push that, elevate that to a different level so that Lauren is comfortable, the guard play is comfortable and Hawkes, you know, she's a player. I love watching her play because of who is on that team. She's never going to sort of have the prime billing, but she's just such a do Everything player. Like, she's, she's going to be that player that gets, like, fun.
- [28:58]
Zena Keda
She's bouncy, she's active.
- [29:00]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah.
- [29:00]
Zena Keda
She's in your face. She'll take the hardest assignment on defense. Yeah, I'm a big fan.
- [29:05]
Chantelle Jennings
And it's not like she's gonna have a triple double, but she's gonna fill out the stat line in a way that just sort of fills in all the other ways that UCLA needs. And so, you know, as much as we talk about a Lauren Bets being the key to this championship team, you need players like Gabriella Hawkes who are going to elevate the rest of the team and sort of fill in those gaps. And, you know, she, she also has international play experience. Like, she can be a star, but because of who UCLA is, like, she's going to fill in all of the other pieces that make them a complete team. And so I think, you know, I just watched her yesterday and I was like, man, she's just. I really enjoy watching her play and she's just really, really fun. And she's like, always in the middle of, like, loose ball situations. Like, she's just there.
- [29:43]
Zena Keda
Yeah, no, I agree with that. And it's funny when you mentioned, you know, Hawkes and Jones being able to get the ball inside, I've. I remember myself, I think two of Gardner's turnovers of her three were her trying to lob it in to Bets. And I was like, ah, they need some drills. They. They gotta go through some more drills of the. The lob into Bets because it is all about particular angles and making sure. And that's not something that comes super easy. You've gotta be able to be in game and get those experiences rather than just that practice where someone might know how to guard Bets well.
- [30:14]
Chantelle Jennings
And I think we saw a little bit of this in terms of, like, Lauren directing from the center. Like, you think of her as like, being there. She can see everything and saying, like, let's get it over here, whatever. You know, this is where, like, I want to see her do even more of that, like, to become even more vocal or even more of a leader on the floor. Because, you know, a. She's. She's so tall, she can see everything, but, like, she has the basketball IQ to do that. And I think there's enough trust on that team to sort of direct as a unit, to sort of have that group leadership. But this UCLA team, again, we're going to talk about a lot of teams that need to get back from injury, get fully Healthy. That's going to be key for everyone through the season. But, you know, I thought all four teams in Paris looked really good. Ole Miss and Louisville looked better than I thought they would be. USC and ucla especially knowing sort of some of the injuries and such that they'd be dealing with or working freshmen into the rotation, like, kind of what I expected.
- [31:07]
Zena Keda
And I didn't even, you know, I didn't give KK Dean's her proper love when we were talking about USC versus Ole Miss. But KK Dean, a senior showing up for Ole Miss as she has throughout her entire career, ended up with Madison Scott, too. And Madison Scott as well. I just. I want to give players a proper. The proper props because they definitely showed up. And one player I want to show out for, for Louisville freshmen again, these freshmen showing up and being comfortable, Taj Roberts, folks. Learn about her, okay? This player was so. She was so dynamic so long. I mean, first, it's a big guard game, right? Like, five, ten guards is casual and normal now for folks, but four, three pointers, and she let that thing go so smoothly. She looks like she's been playing at this level for a long time. It was. I was shocked to find out she was a freshman.
- [31:58]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah. I think it also says a lot about how much Jeff Walls trusts her that she played 36 minutes and there was no one else on that team that played more than 28.
- [32:05]
Zena Keda
Not even close, like.
- [32:07]
Chantelle Jennings
So I think just sort of we have an indication there, like, first games are always tough, right? Because there's a level of shaking off the rust. There's a level of adding the new mixture together. Who's. Who's there, who's not, who's healthy, who's not, you know, putting stuff out there, seeing if it works. And you just have to take everything with a grain of salt because, like, it's still just 40 minutes, right? It's still just one game at this point. It's all we have, so it's all we can talk about. But I do think there's indicators. There's small indicators like that where it's like, you know, for Kim Barnzariko to trust Silas Hordes in the way she did. Like, let's keep that in the back of our mind moving forward. For Jeff Walls to trust Taj Roberts in the way that he did. Like, let's keep that in the back of our mind moving forward, because I think that does speak, especially when the competition is at the level it is. We're not. And we'll get to this. We're not talking about a Notre Dame, Mercyhurst sort of situation. Like, these are power conference opponents. These are close games. These are winnable games. These are games that if the underdog wins for their resume for the tournament, it's huge. Like, these are important things. And so seeing who plays where the ball is late, who's taking those shots, who's hitting those shots, you know, those are the things that you can kind of store away because, you know, they aren't maybe the most relevant thing right now, but in February, they're the things that sort of boost the understanding of these teams and who they are and what they can do.
- [33:20]
Zena Keda
Y'all, I've been in these, you know, preseason practices, especially as a freshman, to be able to earn the trust of your coach at that point in the season when you're still trying to figure out what your identity is, how you're going to show up on the court. That is an incredibly impressive feat for a freshman to be able to do so. Big ups to Silas Swords, Taj Roberts and Kennedy Smith. I mean, there were several freshmen that really showed up across the board yesterday. Now, gotta close it out because, you know, there's too many games to talk about, but so many blowouts outside of these games that we just talked about. These games are the ones that showed us there's some parody in the NCAA, but, man, other than that. LSU winning 95, 44. Iowa State 96, 56. I mean, again, they were not playing the same caliber of talent. Dud. Duke 89, 36. Kansas State 92 to 45. But there's one particular blowout we got to talk about, and that is Notre Dame versus Mercy Hurst, who happened to, like, just recently turn into a D1 school. As.
- [34:27]
Chantelle Jennings
As I'm understanding, that's important context for all of this.
- [34:30]
Zena Keda
Context. Like they were D2 a week ago. It seems like. Like not being. I don't know if I'm being actually serious. I'm not sure exactly the day they turned D1, but it was very recently. And so. So that's important to note. But Notre dame beats Mercyhurst 105 to 61. Leave the score alone, folks. I think the most important thing to really focus on is Olivia Miles is back, baby. She looked amazing. A triple double against this team. 20 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds. With some flashy moves, no look passes. She was in great shape, playing 32 minutes. It was so fun to see her out there. But overall, only seven players played for Notre Dame. They had a starting five sitting on the bench. Sonia Citrone, not playing. Maddie West Bell not playing. I mean the list goes on this Notre Dame team. You can't make too much of this game because again, the competition was Mercyhurst. That for all their might try their best, you know, but, but Olivia Miles being back is huge for this Notre Dame team. How does she change the makeup of this team? Chantelle?
- [35:40]
Chantelle Jennings
Yeah, this is like you said, Mercyhurst is a first year Division 1 team. So like let's sort of take the score away from it. Everything comes with a grain of salt in the game like this. But when you watched Olivia and Hannah play together, obviously you have the opportunity and the potential for two elite ball handlers. You know, Olivia sort of taking over more of the transition, fast break. Honestly, they can kind of go to whomever and you have so many ball handlers on that team. But what I was mostly looking for was how often are Olivia and Hannah sort of like checking for each other on the floor? Like how often is that hit ahead pass? If Olivia has the ball going to Hannah, like that is where they're going to be. The most lethal is that they will be able to attack teams from so many different places on the floor because you have Olivia and Hannah sort of balancing it and you know, imagine them on the same side of the floor like what that two man game looks like. So that's what I was really looking for. There's not a ton that you can from this game in terms of like Olivia Miles got a triple double. It's the fourth of her career. The first player, I believe, I don't know if it's in, I think an ACC history to have a triple double in three different seasons, like that's impressive. A triple double is never not impressive. But again, like, let's take the competition level into account here. But what I thought was interesting about this team, like you said, to get to 105 with seven players means you've got a lot of players scoring a lot. Liatu King, the most improved player in the ACC last year who transferred in from pit, looked really, really good. 24 points, 11 rebounds. And then obviously this is a team that you look to the bench and you sort of say like, okay, so what is to come? Sonia Citron on the bench. Liza Carlin on the bench in a walking boot. They should be back soon. Maddie Westfield might be back for ACC play, which would be a big boost to their inside game. Kate Cova looked good, the freshman out of New York. But I think looking at this Notre Dame team, like the biggest storyline to me is you know, going to be this backcourt, both offensively and defensively. We saw Hannah Hidalgo, the queen of steals, like, six steals, like, it was, you know, no problem. Their next game is against Purdue, so I'm more interested in that one. Purdue, obviously power conference team, not at the level of an Ohio State or a Michigan at this point, but I'm curious to see that. And then sort of the date that I have circled on my calendar for this Notre dame team is November 23rd, when they play USC. Like, that, to me, is going to be a huge indicator. It's on the road of, you know, what can we really expect? Like, how is Neil Ivy going to utilize a backcourt like this in a way against, you know, that level of competition? And I think until we see that, like, you know, I'm watching it and I'm like, damn, they look good. But I'm like, this is Mercy Hearst. Like, don't. It's the opposite of usc where I'm like, I don't know about their. I don't know about them winning a national title. Notre Dame, I'm like, like, they're the champs. Like, you just have to, like, rein it in a little bit because it's like, you know, I'm optimistic that this group is. Is going to be. If they, again, stay healthy, which has been an issue for this team in the past. Like, if Notre Dame can stay healthy, this group and get healthy, I should say this group has the potential to be really, really good. Simply because of what. Like, who do you put your best defender on?
- [38:51]
Zena Keda
Yeah, because you're going to expose yourself somehow, right?
- [38:55]
Chantelle Jennings
Like, you have your ace, right? Like, if you're an opposing coach, are you going to put her on Hannah or are you going to put her on Olivia? And then when Sonia comes back, you've got this other weapon on the other side that's not quite as dynamic in terms of playmaking ability, but, like, still really, really good. And so, like, how are teams going to defend this? This is going to be one of my favorite things to watch through the season.
- [39:14]
Zena Keda
And yes, there'll be so much more to watch because NCAA action is just getting started on the day that this will drop. There's going to be at least 20 games today, tons of D1 talent seeing all across the country. I think Iowa will take the floor for the first time, will be interested to see what they look like with their new makeup. Oregon also takes the floor. I'm very, very, very pumped to just get this stuff going because this is when you're going to be able to fully, truly start to judge teams on how will they fare in their conference play and then eventually when we get to March. That's a long time away from now, folks, but appreciate you Chantal, breaking that down. Some of these games had us a little stressed on Monday morning, but I feel a little bit better after listening to you break it down. As always and for all of you listening, thank you for lending us your ear. We appreciate you tuning in. As always. Please hit that subscribe button on this podcast. Subscribe online. There's so much good content on the athletic, you do not want to miss it. Leave us comments. Let us know who we should be covering, who you want to hear from, because those interviews are going to keep going. I know we just had a WNBA interview, but we're going to have some NCAA ones too. Let us know who you want to hear from. On behalf of Chantel, I'm Xena Keda thanking you for your ear as well and encouraging you to keep listening, keep watching, keep learning and keep loving the game folks, because that's the only way we're going to keep growing it until next time.
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Zena Keda
Remember blowing into a video game cartridge.
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Wayfair Representative
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Liquid IV Representative
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Wayfair Representative
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Zena Keda
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Wayfair Representative
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Liquid IV Representative
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Wayfair Representative
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Liquid IV Representative
Relive the laughs, the cringes, and the nostalgia.
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Wayfair Representative
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Chantelle Jennings
Their podcasts every everywhere. Acast.
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Zena Keda
Com.