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Post by skyrider on Mar 13, 2018 15:38:05 GMT -8
Am I wrong in sensing that there does not seem to be a large amount of interest in the Beaver's NCAA tournament appearance this year?
Is this due to a "hangover" effect from the loss to ASU in the PAC 12 Tournament, and/or the general feeling that the Beaver's are not likely to go very far in this year's tournament?
It has been an excellent year overall for the Beavs but clearly they appear to be to up and down, plus too susceptible to defensive pressure and quick point guards.
I think that the wildly varying point production of Kat Tudor from one game to the next and her virtual disappearance in the last few games has also been a major factor. |
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Post by 411500 on Mar 13, 2018 17:20:43 GMT -8
skywriter - - Based on the lack of commentary here at Benny's I kinda agree with you about the wait-and-see attitude a lot of us have on the upcoming tournament....
If the games were played in Corvallis things would be a lot different....simply because the Beavs win much more consistently here than on the road - and being on the road in Nashville gives a lot of us the shivers. At least it does me.
Part of the deal is that the team itself is hard to figure. If an accurate poll was possible I'd guess that most fans in Beaver Nation would say something like this. "I think the Beavs have a good chance of winning the first game on Friday (although it's certainly not a sure thing) but they have very little chance of winning on Sunday against Tennessee at Tennessee."
Fans live on hope so we hope for 2 wins, but if it came to betting wages my guess is that even hardcore Beaver fans would not bet on getting out of Nashville with 2 wins....
Despite what beaverfever thinks "the wildly varying point production of Kat Tudor" IS a legitimate part of why the Beavs are so hard to predict this year...
I know I'd hate to game plan a defence against them because Kat can kill you; on the other hand, from the Beaver side of the bench, it is tough to count on her point production because it fluctuates so much from game to game.
Another thing that contributes to apprehension about this year's team is that its strength is a structured defence (not the helter-skelter ball-hawking defence of USC) and a structured, methodical offence (not the fast break, flamboyant offence of UCLA or Oregon.). So, the excitement factor is not there for the Beavs even though the production factor is.
At any rate, we have a great team with good athletes and a remarkable coaching staff. They're a top 15 team that has already beaten two teams expected to make it to the Elite Eight this year. They play the game right. They're organized and schooled. They're good athletes but not great (as we'll clearly see when they line up against Tennessee on Sunday - -or, as I'm afraid, Friday morning against WKU) !
But they get more out of their athleticism than any team I've seen in a long, long time. They're competitors, they're tough and disciplined. They're winners in a winning program.
And right now the Tennessee coaching staff is hoping like hell they don't have to play them.
GO BEAVS !!
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Post by skyrider on Mar 13, 2018 17:30:04 GMT -8
Freshman, Thank you for the insightful and thorough response. You clarified and illuminated a lot of what I was feeling but did not say nearly as well as you did!
I am sorry Beaverfever believes that I was "bagging" Kat Tudor. I believe she is an excellent player and a solid part of the team. That being said, it is still hard to understand how she can be extremely good and then just disappear in terms of scoring points. Perhaps off season work with Coach Rueck will bear strong dividends for next year!
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Whatever?
Mar 13, 2018 17:37:41 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by Werebeaver on Mar 13, 2018 17:37:41 GMT -8
skywriter - - Based on the lack of commentary here at Benny's I kinda agree with you about the wait-and-see attitude a lot of us have on the upcoming tournament.... If the games were played in Corvallis things would be a lot different....simply because the Beavs win much more consistently here than on the road - and being on the road in Nashville gives a lot of us the shivers. At least it does me. Part of the deal is that the team itself is hard to figure. If an accurate poll was possible I'd guess that most fans in Beaver Nation would say something like this. "I think the Beavs have a good chance of winning the first game on Friday (although it's certainly not a sure thing) but they have very little chance of winning on Sunday against Tennessee at Tennessee." Fans live on hope so we hope for 2 wins, but if it came to betting wages my guess is that even hardcore Beaver fans would not bet on getting out of Nashville with 2 wins.... Despite what beaverfever thinks "the wildly varying point production of Kat Tudor" IS a legitimate part of why the Beavs are so hard to predict this year... I know I'd hate to game plan a defence against them because Kat can kill you; on the other hand, from the Beaver side of the bench, it is tough to count on her point production because it fluctuates so much from game to game. Another thing that contributes to apprehension about this year's team is that its strength is a structured defence (not the helter-skelter ball-hawking defence of USC) and a structured, methodical offence (not the fast break, flamboyant offence of UCLA or Oregon.). So, the excitement factor is not there for the Beavs even though the production factor is. At any rate, we have a great team with good athletes and a remarkable coaching staff. They're a top 15 team that has already beaten two teams expected to make it to the Elite Eight this year. They play the game right. They're organized and schooled. They're good athletes but not great (as we'll clearly see when they line up against Tennessee on Sunday - -or, as I'm afraid, Friday morning against WKU) ! But they get more out of their athleticism than any team I've seen in a long, long time. They're competitors, they're tough and disciplined. They're winners in a winning program. And right now the Tennessee coaching staff is hoping like hell they don't have to play them. GO BEAVS !! Knoxville, not Nashville. |
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Post by OSUprof on Mar 13, 2018 18:02:19 GMT -8
Beaver fans are funny that way. This year's team has one of the 5-best winning percentages for any season in the history of the women's program. Yet as you say, fans are quiet about this team and have shown little recent enthusiasm.
If the men's team had the same record and was a 6-seed in the tourney, fans would have thrown a parade.
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Post by Werebeaver on Mar 13, 2018 18:13:14 GMT -8
Beaver fans are funny that way. This year's team has one of the 5-best winning percentages for any season in the history of the women's program. Yet as you say, fans are quiet about this team and have shown little recent enthusiasm. If the men's team had the same record and was a 6-seed in the tourney, fans would have thrown a parade. Couple of things: Matchup was announced yesterday afternoon, game isn't until Friday. There have been a number of posts on this board, not enough I guess. I know nothing about WKU or their conference. Kinda hard to get all juiced-up about playing a team/program you know less than nothing about. I'm looking forward to the game. Hope my workday will allow me to follow it at 9:00 am PDT. The percentage of OSU WBB fans that post on this board are a tiny fraction the total. I wouldn't draw a direct relationship between the posts on this board and interest in the game by OSU WBB fans. Go Beavs. |
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Post by 411500 on Mar 13, 2018 18:44:16 GMT -8
Knoxville....not Nashville....
Wife and I are headed to Nashville for a week of music, food and drink in April.
Must have clouded my thinking....
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Post by avidbeaver on Mar 13, 2018 18:51:32 GMT -8
Past success sometimes make it seem like there is no interest in a teams success. My guess is that fans are so spoiled by the success of the womens team they expect a lot. Therefore, the appearance of being disinterested before a tournament game.
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Post by beavsteve on Mar 13, 2018 19:02:27 GMT -8
Freshman, Thank you for the insightful and thorough response. You clarified and illuminated a lot of what I was feeling but did not say nearly as well as you did! I am sorry Beaverfever believes that I was "bagging" Kat Tudor. I believe she is an excellent player and a solid part of the team. That being said, it is still hard to understand how she can be extremely good and then just disappear in terms of scoring points. Perhaps off season work with Coach Rueck will bear strong dividends for next year! People need to keep in mind that it is not all Kat Tudor’s fault that her point production has fluctuated. It is a strong function of how the opposing team plays defense against us. What I’ve seen is that they’ve been on Kat like glue in the games where her 3 output is low. It is more about her getting fewer shots up than about poor shooting. |
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Post by believeinthebeavs on Mar 13, 2018 19:31:50 GMT -8
Freshman, Thank you for the insightful and thorough response. You clarified and illuminated a lot of what I was feeling but did not say nearly as well as you did! I am sorry Beaverfever believes that I was "bagging" Kat Tudor. I believe she is an excellent player and a solid part of the team. That being said, it is still hard to understand how she can be extremely good and then just disappear in terms of scoring points. Perhaps off season work with Coach Rueck will bear strong dividends for next year! Off season workouts are led by elected leaders of the team, unless we are able/qualified to go overseas next year Rueck is not able to lead practices until next October. None of the other coaches can either. I think they are able to get input from the strength and conditioning staff but not about basketball. |
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2ndGenBeaver
Sophomore
Posts: 1,826 
Grad Year: 1991 (MS/CS) 1999 (PhD/CS)
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Post by 2ndGenBeaver on Mar 13, 2018 21:08:12 GMT -8
skywriter - - Based on the lack of commentary here at Benny's I kinda agree with you about the wait-and-see attitude a lot of us have on the upcoming tournament.... If the games were played in Corvallis things would be a lot different....simply because the Beavs win much more consistently here than on the road - and being on the road in Nashville gives a lot of us the shivers. At least it does me. Part of the deal is that the team itself is hard to figure. If an accurate poll was possible I'd guess that most fans in Beaver Nation would say something like this. "I think the Beavs have a good chance of winning the first game on Friday (although it's certainly not a sure thing) but they have very little chance of winning on Sunday against Tennessee at Tennessee." Fans live on hope so we hope for 2 wins, but if it came to betting wages my guess is that even hardcore Beaver fans would not bet on getting out of Nashville with 2 wins.... Despite what beaverfever thinks "the wildly varying point production of Kat Tudor" IS a legitimate part of why the Beavs are so hard to predict this year... I know I'd hate to game plan a defence against them because Kat can kill you; on the other hand, from the Beaver side of the bench, it is tough to count on her point production because it fluctuates so much from game to game. Another thing that contributes to apprehension about this year's team is that its strength is a structured defence (not the helter-skelter ball-hawking defence of USC) and a structured, methodical offence (not the fast break, flamboyant offence of UCLA or Oregon.). So, the excitement factor is not there for the Beavs even though the production factor is. At any rate, we have a great team with good athletes and a remarkable coaching staff. They're a top 15 team that has already beaten two teams expected to make it to the Elite Eight this year. They play the game right. They're organized and schooled. They're good athletes but not great (as we'll clearly see when they line up against Tennessee on Sunday - -or, as I'm afraid, Friday morning against WKU) ! But they get more out of their athleticism than any team I've seen in a long, long time. They're competitors, they're tough and disciplined. They're winners in a winning program. And right now the Tennessee coaching staff is hoping like hell they don't have to play them. GO BEAVS !! Good points.... Indeed one question will be "how closely can WKU guard Kat?" - in games where someone is assigned to stick to her, and that opponent is quick enough to trail her closely and savvy enough to not go under the screens, it is difficult for her to make her presence felt. In games where that is not the case OR some of our other outside shooters are hitting, we do well. Of late we see KTMac starting to look for her shot more, and on occasion Mik and Taya can hit from the outside, but of late the opponent strategy has been to double/triple Marie and don't lose Kat. "how quick are WKU guards?" - our difficulty with jitterbug quick guards (USC/UCLA come to mind) is well-chronicled. Luckily, most of the country doesn't have guards of that quickness or caliber. "Can the 4 spot be a threat?" - If we had effect 4 spot play against ASU, we might be more excited right now. When Maddie can drive or hit the midrange, and when Taya can connect on the 3 ball, it becomes harder to double down on Marie (or have to do it with a guard, leaving the outside shot open). Unfortunately the 4 spot has been up and down all season. "Can we get Marie breathers against an opposing lineup that allows Joanna to be effective?" - games where Marie was able to sit for extended minutes while Joanna still scored and/or defended effectively were usually Ws. Quicker forwards and posts gave her fits, causing us to leave Marie in longer...... "Can the bench contribute?" - I kept waiting for Kalmer to go off in some game this season, but now it will have to be in the postseason. Aleah saved our bacon against WSU, another performance like that (but with the rest of the Beavers firing on all cylinders) would be timely. SR has had two weeks to work on all of these questions (and more), so I expect to see some nice strategic tweaks from the team..... From an excitement point of view, fans may have gotten a bit spoiled by us both being a conference winner 3 years in a row and a factor in the Pac-12 tournament, and neither was the case this season. That said, SR has set up well for coming years assuming his new 4s and 5s are effective. I am really hoping that the Beavers can get past WKU (I am a nervous nelly about it - I don't have a lot of information on them, and I don't think they are an easy out - but it is a winnable game) - we will need to be up for WKU and get on them early with a lot of energy......but if we can get past WKU, I think we will see an epic battle against Tennessee, as the Beavers will get *up* for that game. My Completely baseless (hopeful) Prediction - we look good against WKU, squeak by Tennessee, but Baylor gets payback for their Excellent Eight loss to us in the next round. And Mulkey throws her coat again, narrowly missing her baseball son..... Go Beavers! |
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Whatever?
Mar 13, 2018 21:50:54 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by albanianbeav on Mar 13, 2018 21:50:54 GMT -8
Freshman, Thank you for the insightful and thorough response. You clarified and illuminated a lot of what I was feeling but did not say nearly as well as you did! I am sorry Beaverfever believes that I was "bagging" Kat Tudor. I believe she is an excellent player and a solid part of the team. That being said, it is still hard to understand how she can be extremely good and then just disappear in terms of scoring points. Perhaps off season work with Coach Rueck will bear strong dividends for next year! People need to keep in mind that it is not all Kat Tudor’s fault that her point production has fluctuated. It is a strong function of how the opposing team plays defense against us. What I’ve seen is that they’ve been on Kat like glue in the games where her 3 output is low. It is more about her getting fewer shots up than about poor shooting. I agree, though I don’t think skyrider was casting blame, but rather wondering why. I think you answered that well. I am eager to see Kat become more than a 3-pt shooter. She showed great athletism and an ability to finish when she would drive the lane. Unfortunately, it seemed she only drove the lane if the shot clock was winding down and she happened to have the ball. I would like to see the ball in her hands more, creating offense or finishing. Get her driving, add a mid-range jumper to her 3 game, & she will be tough to handle, every game. Please note: I did note see every game, so may be drawing from a smaller sample set than you all. |
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Post by beaveragain on Mar 14, 2018 22:46:35 GMT -8
It seems that turnover's/steals are many people's favorite ill for the team. OSU got hammered by UCLA/USC with the turnover bug and fixed it. Since those games the only times OSU has lost has been from losing the rebound battle. Unfortunately WKU is good at offensive rebounding, however they are just as bad at defensive rebounding so it's hard to say how this game will go. But then my heart says to my brain "what's your problem? They are gonna smash 'em". Sooooo.....
UT will be a hard game to win. Their weakness is turnovers, not the Beav's strength, and their strength is rebounding. I'm going to be so happy when they amaze me by winning.
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