The 2023-2024 Season So Far

[PeteRI]

Last night's game against PC was the second loss in three games to teams we were favored to beat. The Quinnipiac loss at home was completely avoidable. We had a 7-point lead with 5 minutes to go but were outscored 15-6 the rest of the game, as a buzzer beater shot gave Quinnipiac just their second win of the season. Our 3 point shooting was atrocious - 7.1% on 1 for 14. Their 5 bench players scored 10 points. Our three scored just 5.

The Princeton win was terrific - our first win ever against a ranked team. Overall shooting stunk - just 34% - but 43.8% from 3 and 89.5% from the line was the difference. Four players came off the bench but only scored 3 points.

Last night's loss was soul crushing. PC was missing 2 of their best players who averaged a combined 20 points a game, and so shorthanded they had to activate a graduate assistant as a starter. But their new coach Erin Batth had the team play tenacious defense, including a press that bothered us all game.

Shooting was dreadful- 26.2% overall and a pitiful 18.2% from 3. Four bench players contributed exactly 2 points. PC had 18 turnovers to our 13 but our shooting was so bad we still lost. How bad was our offense? We scored 4 points in the last 8 minutes.

Oh, I almost forgot. We had 5 assists for the entire game.

Tammi's post-game comments were similar to the Quinnipiac loss, according to the ProJo article:

She was quick to credit Providence for its execution and ability to control the game, but after what Reiss saw in practice Tuesday she had a feeling that a performance like Wednesday’s was coming.

“My question is do you want to win and that’s what I said to the team [after the game] and then I walked out because there’s nothing left to say,” Reiss said. “I’ve said all I can say. Do you want to win and do you want to compete. If not, this will be a very up-and-down, very long season and I’m going to give some other kids some opportunities if we can’t get some people on board.”

Sloppy defense. A sputtering offense. Too short a bench. As I've said elsewhere, we lost two of our best 3-point shooters from last year's team, and neither of the two grad student transfers are very good at it. Tammi supposedly had a strong recruiting class, with two explosive scorers and good shooters in DeChent and Ledden, but they have barely seen the court. It's time to give them some of those "opportunities. " I doubt prospective recruits will be encouraged to sign here when they see how little playing time our freshmen get.

I know this may seem harsh. But Tammi is building something special here. She brings attention and excitement to this program and this team, as preseason polls have shown. But we're now 6-4 when we should be 8-2, and the team isn't playing anywhere up to its potential. It's time to start playing like we can!

[jcru]

Tammi's post-game comments were similar to the Quinnipiac loss, according to the ProJo article:

She was quick to credit Providence for its execution and ability to control the game, but after what Reiss saw in practice Tuesday she had a feeling that a performance like Wednesday’s was coming.

“My question is do you want to win and that’s what I said to the team [after the game] and then I walked out because there’s nothing left to say,” Reiss said. “I’ve said all I can say. Do you want to win and do you want to compete. If not, this will be a very up-and-down, very long season and I’m going to give some other kids some opportunities if we can’t get some people on board.”

That's actually the best news that could have come out of this. Yes, we have two monsters of the midway in Toure and Magassa, but they, particularly Magassa, do not give their best effort every game. Dee Dee Davis does give maximum effort, I just don't think she is as good as advertised. But the effort is there. Hyman is simply not what was advertised. Runs hot and cold and is cold more than she is hot.

I would limit Debroise some too. You risk her leaving, yeah, but she can be a liability.

It's time to start playing Toure and Magassa like they did last year, one in the game at a time. Magassa backing up Toure. This change this year has not been good for Toure to be honest, she went from an elite player to someone much less engaged.

It's time to diminish the roles of the grad players and start bringing in DeChant and Ledden for a shit ton of minutes. Heck, start them, or at least have them come off the bench at the half quarter mark. Enough is enough. What do you have to lose at this point, the only way into the NCAAT is through the A10T.

[jcru]

Like, when Tammi says that players are only worried about not getting subbed out, and they are basically being selfish, who do you think she is talking about?

You have a brand new dynamic with this year's team, where you have two towers who feel this is their last chance to impress the scouts out there, and earn individual honors.

You have two grad players, and these are hardly like last year's grad players who were each "6th man of the year award" recipients on their respective teams, Richmond and VCU, before they came here. And were already unselfish players to begin with, one of them is now a coach.

No, you have a lot of experienced players who somehow forgot that winning is #1 and if you win, the rest will follow. If you don't win, you don't get jack.

It's time to break that up. It's been awful to watch out there at times, except for games like Princeton and NC State, this team is playing down to it's competition. They should be lighting teams like PC up for double digit wins, not letting their subs hang around the entire game and bully them all over the court. Subs are imposing their will on us. That's a big, big problem.

[Jersey77]

In response to this thread, not going to sugarcoat it, I am disappointed so far.
I bought in to all the pre-season hype and after our pre-season rankings, I certainly expected us to be better than 6-4 at this point.
We were very competitive at #14 ranked NC. State and beat #25 Princeton.
But still, that doesn't off-set the double-digit loss to Maine, losing at home to Quinnipiac, and last night against short-handed PC (picked 9th in the BE).
Looking at the schedule and opportunities, I really felt we had a great chance of qualifying for an at-large, especially if we were as good as advertised.
Now, I feel we will need to win the A10T and get an auto-bid unless of course we catch fire and have a miraculous run.
I expect our conference schedule to be very competitive and have its share of land mines.
With all that said, Tammi is the right coach for us, and got a well-deserved extension, looking forward to continued success with her at the helm.
I still plan on being in Queens, NY on Sunday.

[PeteRI]

I didn't see the St. John's game, but given our performance it's just as well I missed it. 44 points for the entire game?! That's pathetic. We were tied after 3 quarters, then outscored 23-12 in the 4th. What happened to the tenacious defense that was supposedly a cornerstone of our team? We only made 2 3-point shots and 7 assists and suffered our second straight loss against a mediocre Big East team. We look completely lost on the court.

6-5 sure as hell doesn't look like a consensus A10 favorite. I thought we'd be at least 8-3. Meanwhile Davidson is 9-1 with impressive wins against Wake Forest, Duke and Dayton, and a close loss at North Carolina. Richmond is 8-2 and beat Maine by 33 points. If we played either team right now it would be a blowout. Not only is our defense weak but our offense is dysfunctional. Something is seriously wrong with this team and Tammi better figure it out soon.

[SmartyBarrett]

This looks like a team that's gonna be closer to the middle than the top right now.

[Spook5365]

44 points??? Zero downside to playing Ledden and DeChent right now. Things really need to be shaken up.

[RhowdyRam02]

Maya Toure 5-15 shooting yesterday. Can't have that from a forward, but overall on the season she's been good and bad games happen.

Sophie Phillips 1-9 yesterday, 1-6 from 3. She's been off most of the season so far it feels like.

Just those two going 6-24 is going to kill you. Those are a lot of possessions coming away with nothing

[scorpio]

This team would have been better off had Dolly Cairns (Florida Gulf Coast), Emmi Rinat (Toledo), and Anete Adler (Boston University) not transferred.

Additionally, the team has had 4 different starting point guards the past 4 seasons. Bringing in one-year transfers needs to stop in order to build some continuity.

[Jersey77]

Actually SLU may be the most disappointing team in the A10 so far.
Last season they won the A10T and returned 4 of 5 starters plus top player McMakin.
They finished OOC at 5-8, losing the last 3 games and 5 of 6.

[scorpio]

Davidson seems to be doing verry well. They have a NET ranking that would perhaps earn them an at-large bid, if the season ended today.

URI still has a lot of talent, when compared to the rest of the A-10. They could win the conference tournament, especially since all the games are at a neutral site in Virginia. St. Louis and UMass were not expected to win the A-10 Tournament in 2023 and 2022, respectively.

[RhowdyRam02]

#40 Davidson - 2/17 home
#52 Richmond - 1/14 away, 2/7 home
#60 Saint Joseph's - 1/21 home, 2/24 away
#70 VCU - 2/28 home
#76 Rhode Island
#84 George Mason - 1/2 home

6 top 100 NET teams in the A10, that feels unprecedented for A10 women's basketball. We get 7 games against the other top teams, 5 at home. That's not even counting tonight's game against #89 Harvard tonight. Plenty of opportunities remaining, but we need to take advantage of them

[RhowdyRam02]

#40 Davidson - 2/17 home
#52 Richmond - 1/14 away, 2/7 home
#60 Saint Joseph's - 1/21 home, 2/24 away
#70 VCU - 2/28 home
#76 Rhode Island
#84 George Mason - 1/2 home

6 top 100 NET teams in the A10, that feels unprecedented for A10 women's basketball. We get 7 games against the other top teams, 5 at home. That's not even counting tonight's game against #89 Harvard tonight. Plenty of opportunities remaining, but we need to take advantage of them

Beat Harvard 59-56
Beat George Mason 70-68

#40 Davidson - 2/17 home
#51 Richmond - 1/14 away, 2/7 home
#60 Saint Joseph's - 1/21 home, 2/24 away
#77 Rhode Island
#78 VCU - 2/28 home
#81 George Mason

We've taken care of business since this post with 6 more really good opportunities in front of us, 4 of them at home. This schedule sets up really well for us when it comes to controlling our destiny