OSU at UCLA game thread.

Rueck has said that opponents like coming to Gill; there's the intimidation aspect, but a big crowd is fun to play in front of for any competitor; a lot of games are raised at Gill.

Simmons was seen hugging her fellow Australian Horvat before the game.  Appeared friendly, but you never know for sure.

The M. Moore they were missing was Minyon. Her older sister, Mariya, is a senior this year and now eligible after trasferring from Louisville. Minyon leads the team in PPG, RPG, APG, SPG, and MPG. She makes the team go.

They were also without Asiah Jones who had been starting.

I have to say I really enjoyed this game - we rarely win @ UCLA, and they always have very athletic players that challenge us........and we owed them something after getting run out of their gym last year.......

Some of the plays to get close up shots at the basket in this game were just beautiful to behold - as observed here, I think SR has this team at a point where he is adding all of these intricate "towards the basket" plays to the arsenal, and he figured that UCLA would fixate on stopping the 3 and not be ready for an onslaught of well-choreographed plays inside the arc. And they weren't. I think that not only was UCLA well-prepped to defend the 3, but they were unable to figure out how to deal with all the screening....so we kept going to the basket.  Yes, I sometimes watch plays 3 and 4 times on the DVR, one time through just to take in the bench reaction. The edge that OSU is developing with their very tight-knit culture on and off the court should not be underestimated. Perceptive recruits will take notice (and have). 

(I can also see why someone like AA needed to redshirt - if you haven't been well-coached in HS, you are probably lost in our system.....which also bodes well for Kennedy Brown. I also noticed Kat coaching plays from the bench - I sure hope she can recover back to this year's form, because if so, the additional understanding she is gaining sitting next to SR & Co. will make her even more deadly).

My favorite new wrinkle is the "get the post at the top of the arc to plant herself, bent over, hands on shorts, and let the guard rub the defender off this post player, with no possibility of a moving screen call" play.......when the ball handler is an speedy ankle breaker like DS, she would find herself at the rim before help could arrive. And some of the BLOB plays, with several screens in succession, especially the "and 1" to Taya in the 4th! Speaking of, I think Taya really came of age in this game. If she can play like that all the time, we are going to be a force. Maddie is also growing before our eyes, and I think this was one of JG's best games. Aleah has come so far - you can tell going against DS in practice has improved her leaps and bounds. Mik is so multidimensional! We were able to absorb KTMac's subdued outing as well.

My vote for "best WBB game of the year" thus far.....

Go Beavs!

So now opponents have to worry about the drive and dish to go with the three point shooting. If we can replicate this skill on a regular basis it can and will extend our season well beyond conference play.  

ucla has a lot of really good players, it lost a few but that are still very good.

USC always seems to recruit well, but then they do less with more raw talent than any other program, with the exception of the UCLA football program. Looking at the year to date stats, they don't shine in a single area, and are down near the bottom of the conference in several, including rebounding.

They would need to really draw on something to win tomorrow, but they haven't done that in the last year or two. I'd say maybe they'll draw energy from the crowd, like our team does, but I really don't consider 700 to be a crowd - it's about the same as the line at any DMV office in Los Angeles, and equally spirited. The only thing they have going for them is the knowledge that a loss pretty much means they mail in the rest of the season, but I just can't see even that inspiring them sufficiently.

Beavers leave LA with the sweep.

We were talking about raw talent and I saw something like this on a different forum and decided to do something similar each game:

Compares the hoopgurlz rankings of both teams’ players (I used the 6 players with the most minutes in this case) and whether or not they were a McDonald’s All-American. 

As you can see, Slocum was the highest ranked player on the floor that day at #7. Drummer was right behind at #8, but she has never truly lived up to that ranking at UCLA and Onyenwere close too at #10. She seems to be their top dog at this point and for years to come. They had the higher average ranking. 

They also had 3 McDAA in Drummer, Onyenwere, and Corsaro while we only had 1 in Slocum. 

Side note - good to see Corsaro out on the floor. She was a member of the class of 2016, originally committed to Kentucky, but switched over to UCLA. She played 4 of 34 games and 2 of 35 games in her first two seasons there before sitting out with an undisclosed injury. This is still her freshman campaign, so we will likely see a lot of Corsaro if she decides to use all her years of eligibility. Depending on the degree of her injury, may make more sense to graduate and get a job. 

Will make another for the USC game.