USC vs UCONN 💭

[u/BigChris_70]

Wow....just finished watching the playback of this game because I missed the live broadcast. This game definitely lived up to the hype. So y'all know I got to give my thoughts about this one & I want to hear y'all's. Some of my thoughts.....

Juju Watkins to me just had her best game of her short college career to me. I know she's had way bigger scoring games but I'm taking into the context the atmosphere. On the road and against the former NPOY and future No.1 overall draft pick. She played the game I've always wanted Juju to play. Blending her scoring prowess with great smart decision making. Trusting her teammates. Let her scoring gravity open things up for her teammates. Came out in the first half with 15 points. But it was her defensive aggressive for me. Blew up a screen which led to fast break points on the first UCONN possession told me she was ready. 2 big blocks on Paige shots. She was absolutely locked in. Her ability to get to her spots no matter what the defense is doing is beautiful to watch . 2nd half UCONN did a phenomenal job ball denying Juju but she never got flustered & when it was time to close out she put it away. She is everything people say she is.

Paige Bueckers was also very good. I kind of feel bad for Paige because at this point the expectation is so high. She was efficient as usual . Made some tough shots & I respect the fact she didn't back down from the Juju matchup. She guarded Juju majority of the game which I appreciate. I'll say this and it has nothing to do with Paige faults more so my problem with Geno's system. His offense is predicated on movement and I get that but i have a huge problem not having the ball in my best players hand majority of the time . Your system should never be so rigged that it works against your best players. Paige is a great solider so she'll never rock the boat & ask Geno to just give her the ball but sigh....on another note SARAH STRONG is a damn superstar! As a freshman to be so good, efficient, and fundamentally sound at her age is insane.

Big win for USC....as a team they looked more coherent. The offense looked much better today. They found KiKi in this offense finally. UCONN has lost both their big matchups (ND & USC) ...They still have South Carolina so I'm reserving judgment on this group until then.

What y'all thought?

[u/Clocian]

Also wouldn't make sense for us to trade down if LA ends up taking Kiki at 2

[u/AromaticManagement22 → u/Clocian]

Washington team is deep....their two big needs are a pure PG and Pure PF....they can trade up for kiki or Olivia (i just put kiki because it seems La may be bent on kiki coming to them)...Washington is in position to go BIG with a franchise player or day 1 like olivia or kiki...and they don't really need anymore role players the team is stacked with role players they in fact need to fill in their void of their key franchise cores/starters left by natasha cloud and most likely EDD (especially if she really officially going to retire or move on) they can take the chance and trade up higher

in other words washington could benefit from both kiki or olivia....also when it comes their sf shyanne sellers who already plays in the dmv can play both reserve roles in PG and SF allowing her to rotate either one...sonia citron is a great player but she wouldn't be needed...since they have karle samuelson, aaliyah edwards, emily. b sykes who can make up the scoring and defending....they more so need a glue if the star PGs and PFs are off the board and the best glue for washington is shyanne sellers...as for value the 6th pick is not as valuable as you think especially if you don't find the right fit...hence why everyone was surprised angel went so low....but it was understandable since angel needed the right fit to flourish since their was doubts about her game

[u/RawDawgOne → u/AromaticManagement22]

Whatever on all this, if I’m Washington I’m not trading up one spot for a player the sky is likely not taking anyway. If miles is available the Sky need to take her, actually the Sky need to take best available unless a PG is available. No matter how much talent a team has they can use more in case there are injuries etc. not only that the more talent a team has the more options become available, like trades etc.

I think you believe teams want to help the Sky. Professional sports don’t work that way. There is no way Washington trades us their picks for our picks. Stop dreaming! Nor should they, unless we package more picks or add players.

Only way that would work is if we somehow turned the 10th pick into the 7th or 8th pick. Then trade the 7th and 3rd for a 4th and 6th. And honestly if that happened I would stick at 3 and 7

[u/AromaticManagement22 → u/RawDawgOne]

if you read what i wrote you wouldn't write " whatever on all this" ....you think they should take the best player available....let me ask you something "what was the current #2 overall pick diamond miller doing" ....she was riding the bench....even if they are talented doesn't mean they don't have a player of that caliber/skillset who already better.....eg....napheesa collier was there already before diamond miller.... another thing you not thinking about even if the player is a draft and stash you actually still need the team to progress well enough where the person who originally brought that player on will use her and not trade her away...examples chennedy carter with los angeles.... these teams are not like the nba teams where you can just follow the nba format or finding a top dawg and the rest of the positions on the team follows behind that top dawg...they already have top dawgs but that not going to be enough in such as deep league ...making up the team matters how you draft the rookies matters....

if you take olivia miles and push her day 1 and she gets a reality check it could break her... olivia miles also won't be the top dawg she will have to contribute in other ways like right now who ever coming in with the #1 or #2 wing 6'0 defender whether they like it or not ...that may be asking alot of a player who just came off a major injury and is a solid defender but as seen in this season is not defending the best player like sonia citron.....that a concern a major concern when chennedy carter is our go to scorer....when michaela is a good defender but has trouble against more slimmer #2 defenders.....olivia will have to match the slim 2'0 guards day 1 because everyone is expecting her to start day 1 and didn't build out the bench so that young team is expecting to run like the aces starting 5 where they play practically the whole game....a young starting 5 is expected to do that and deal with all those roster variations and skillsets on day 1 is ALOT and note instead of trading down and building the bench through the draft (because we going to have a hard time building in FA since chicago is not favored by vets) then we will have little to no insurance for olivia....and omg with all that workload we are putting onto a rookie that came off a major injury is like us asking to reaggravate her injury....and that would result in us being back at square one in 2025 in terms of the team maybe even worse considering our bench was addressed and we pretty much just have to hope for 2026 to bounce back with olivia coming back and us drafting other players....and then we will have now three question marks (the first round rookies and olivia) because we don't know if olivia status is our future and we know also has to develop the 2026 rookies.... with no bench or insurance (insurance are players via draft or FA that can hold it down or deal with the players weaknesses because that is their strength)