Street & Smith's Basketball Yearbook Has Been Released

They have us at number 10, right ahead of Stanford.

I made the investment over the weekend and picked up this year's Street & Smith's Preseason Basketball Yearbook. The women's collegiate section was allocated a total of four pages out of the 300+-page magazine. Four PAC-12 teams are ranked in the Top 20. Of note is that the Beavers' non-conference schedule could see #1 Notre Dame (in BC), #7 South Carolina (in BC), #12 Texas A&M (in Hawaii), and #19 Duke (in Gill). Two of those non-conference games against Top 20 teams are assured, while we hope that the Beavs advance in the Vancouver Showcase tourney in late November to also face both South Carolina and Notre Dame. Factoring in another competitive PAC-12 conference schedule with games against Oregon, Stanford, Cal, Arizona State, UCLA, and USC, we may find out that the Beavers strength-of-schedule for '18-'19 is among the top 10-15 schedules in the country.

The women's basketball Top 20 for '18-'19 according to Street & Smith is as follows:

1)    Notre Dame
2)    Oregon
3)    UConn
4)    Baylor
5)    Louisville
6)    Mississippi State
7)    South Carolina
8)    Iowa
9)    Maryland
10)  Oregon State
11)  Stanford
12)  Texas A&M
13)  Georgia
14)  Texas
15)  Missouri
16)  DePaul
17)  North Carolina State
18)  Central Michigan
19)  Duke
20)  California

Iowa and Maryland both in the Big 10. Much more of a football conference than a WBB conference. Their post, Megan Gustafson, played with Kat over the summer. She was at the top of the league in PPG and I believe led in FG%. Not sure they have the other pieces to win the Big 10 though.

I really really want to win either of the Pac-12 Championships. Clearly both would be ideal but I don’t want tsdtr to have both. I think that we will be better than expected once again. We always have these preseason question marks that are pretty much always answered.

Who will pick up the void both Hamblin and Wiesner left behind?
We depended on Syd so much, who will pick up the slack?
And now Gulich?

I’m quite confident this trend of finding an answer will live on.

IMO no one on this year's team will be able to do what Marie did last year.  Marie's combination of size, strength, and experience were what allowed her to compete head-to-head against players like Russell and Brown/Cox.  While our 2 new girls have size, they don't have Marie's strength or experience.  Numerous times vs Baylor and Tennessee the play of choice was to pull all other players to the perimeter to open the inside up for Marie to go one-on-one vs the other team's big.  Ain't going to happen this year.  However, we have Destiny Slocum.  Destiny's ability to penetrate and draw the defense to her, combined with her excellent passing skills, should allow her to feed our bigs for some open shots under the hoop.  If our bigs can weather being pushed around under the hoop and still get those shots off, and if on defense they can use long arms to block or disrupt inside shots, then I think it's at least possible that they can compensate for the loss of Marie.  But those one-on-one plays from the center position aren't going to happen.  It's going to take some deft inside passing from Slocum, with support Pivec, Goodman, McWilliams, and others to get much offensive production out of the center position.  Just my opinion.

The season will play out, but I generally felt better having experienced "bigs" up front to carry scoring, rebounding, interior D, and "dirty work".

We can shoot it... but, great teams have the capability to turn the game into a power game in the paint when the outside isn't falling. Those teams also have the "go to" inside presence in tight games vs depending on a jumper consistently.

As of right now this team is more question marks concerning Marie's loss than known quantities. Just a couple key thoughts from my personal perspective...

Destiny COULD yield big dividends... IF shots fall on kicks and bigs can get into the position/handle the ball to finish.

AA and PM COULD develop rapidly and provide solid D. Those two and Jo COULD develop into a three-headed offensive threat to offset the loss of Marie's game.

TC COULD develop a more rounded game and also provide a slasher with size and inside board/D help.

Others can improve their games, but are who they are... mostly outside threats, with decent board numbers in support of Marie. But, vs some teams that have gone very quick and small the backcourt must be able to give Destiny support in dealing with defensive pressure or she'll wear down quickly.

I see this team losing some early games last years team wins as they grow and develop. There are lots of new, inexperienced pieces to blend. By Pac12 play this team will be in the hunt for the top 4 spots barring any major setbacks.

I don't know what to make of the "consideration" issue.
If the Selection Committee is truly impartial, and sticks to the math, that's one thing.
But to play to a 1/4 house in PDX because the Ducks and the Beavs have been shipped elsewhere smacks of stupidity even beyond the NCAA bracketing process.

My memory is vague on this but I remember about 2 years ago a Selection Committee spokesperson said they would try, when possible, to locate appropriate teams close to home. I think this translates to: if it's a toss up for the Beavs to go to either Lexington or Portland, then Portland would get the nod. If it's not a "toss-up" the Beavs wouldn't get the benefit of a close to home site....

At any rate, I've bought my Regional Tix at a VERY reasonable price and I'm hoping for the best....

GO BEAVS !!

I think you guys might be putting too much emphasis on the post position and the loss of Marie, and not enough on the other 4 positions. At point guard, we are much better than we were last year, and have terrific depth. We now have 4 players on the roster who have played the point at the college level. At off guard, we are much better than last year because we get to move Pivec back to her natural spot, and have great depth there as well with Tudor and Simmons. We have 3 returning starters (Tudor, McDaniels, and Corosdale) who can divide time at the forward spots. We have a wonderful nucleus of players with a lot of experience, they're all a year older, and they all know how to win. They all expect to seriously contend for the PAC 12 title, and they all expect to go deep into the tournament.

I have very high hopes and expectations for this team.