RebKell's Junkie Boards

[GlennMacGrady]

Feel free to opine as to who will, or even what order the teams will finish.

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[NoDakSt]

Year of the Beaver!!

[blaase22]

Have a feeling UCLA finally will.

[ClayK]

Stanford has a chance, certainly, but instead of being the clearcut favorite, the Cardinal are just one of a group of teams that have a legitimate shot.

Cal, Oregon State, UCLA and USC all are solid teams, Washington could be good, and though Kelly Graves is downplaying Oregon, the Ducks could contend as well.

And Arizona State had a nice season last year too.

But even though Stanford doesn't have the starpower it's relied on for the past decade (or more), there are still a lot of pretty good players, and everyone in the program should be pretty highly motivated this year to prove that the Cardinal were more than just the Ogwumikes.

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[patsweetpat]

Love my Bruins and will have courtside seats yet again this season to see what kind of noise they can make in the Pac, but until someone goes out and knocks off the Cardinal, I gotta give 'em my vote, just on principle.

[IM in OC]

[FollowtheCardinalRule]

It'll be interesting to see whether this year is the year that the tables turn on Stanford. For the purpose of analysis, I'm specifically looking at how these teams may match up with Stanford. (Arizona, ASU, Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, and Colorado.

Arizona (5-25) - Is there room for improvement? Definitely, the question is whether Butts has it in her to get her team to come together and make some strides after a challenging season. Losing two of the top three scorers is not a good sign for a team that averaged just 57 points and garnered a single win against Pac-12 Competition with a shock victory over Arizona State. This team likely wanders aimlessly in the cellar again as they muddle through another season at the bottom of the Pac-12--can we get BYU Women's Team into our conference instead of Arizona? The arrival of Taryn Griffey might help matters, but unless a significant improvement occurs....expect Butts to be on her way out.

Arizona State (23-10) - Gone are stalwarts Joy Burke, Adrienne Thomas, and Deja Mann as the leadership of the Sun Devil's is handed over to the youngesters Kelsey Moos and Sophie Brunner--but as usual the Sun Devils will rely on a committee to get their wins--which included a shocking win over a VERY talented North Carolina squad last season--however considering the inconsistency that the Sun Devils showed at times (a loss to Arizona?) this team might drop a bit--but never count out Charli Turner Thorn and her Sun Devils--and the freshmen could provide a spark as Ayanna Edwards highlights the incoming class.

California (22-10) - The biggest departure from Berkley this season may have been in the form of Katy Steding who is taking over the job at Boston University as head Coach; furthermore, Cal loses Afure Jemerigbe and Gennifer Brandon to graduation. While that seems fairly significant, the return of Brittany Boyd and Rashanda Gray along with the arrival of an impressive Freshman Class consisting of Gabby Green and Mikayla Cowling Cal should be right back in the mix if it can stay healthy and drama free as the situation surrounding Gennifer Brandon certainly proved challenging for the team to maintain it's consistency throughout the season. Gray will have to find a way to produce consistently if Cal has a hope of beating Stanford to the crown. The alarming fact about last season is that Cal didn't really beat any of the elite teams and ended up with some head scratching losses such as the George Washington and perhaps even the Washington State loss falls into this category.

Colorado (19-15) - The return of Arielle Roberson and Jamee Swan seem to indicate good things in Boulder, however, the guard situation has grown even more dire with the departure of the Wilsons. Lexy Kresl remains to lead the guards as they attempt to combat the tough slate put before them by the Pac-12 Conference. Colorado is good, but still lacks the elite presence that it needs to match up with the best guards in the conference.

Oregon State (24-11) -This is one of the incredibly young talented teams--Oregon State was led by the Sophomore/Freshman trio of Wiese, Weisner, and Hamblin who will all be a year more experienced and could be a challenge especially seeing how hot they got towards the end of last year--reeling off 11 straight games in Pac-12 Play before falling to USC in the Tournament Championships and throttling a dangerous Middle Tennessee in NCAA play before falling to South Carolina. The slight concern is the way that Stanford bombarded Oregon State last year with Greenfield and Thompson combining for 32 points--but if you don't have Chiney going off inside, it might prove to be difficult for Greenfield and Thompson to get open to score in a rematch with Oregon State next year. Hamblin will be a threat inside--but returning to the game against Stanford--McCall had 6 points and 4 rebounds in just 9 minutes against this Oregon State team that virtually remains the same. The question really comes down to whether Stanford has the pieces in the post to match Oregon State and keep the outside open.

Oregon (16-16) - The arrival of Kelley Graves marks the beginning of a new era for Duck Basketball--and with it a lot of questions about how improved Oregon will be under his tutelage. Jillian Alleyne was monstrous against Stanford just a season ago--scoring 26 points on 11-15 shooting and nabbing 15 rebounds. Kelley Graves presence should help rein in Rowe's tendency to shoot the ball from wherever and help create more consistency in the offense. Graves faces a challenging task--but his cupboard has far more tools than what Rueck was presented with when he took over Oregon State. I'm expecting this team to surprise some, and perhaps be tourney worthy.

[FollowtheCardinalRule]

[patsweetpat]

[bullsky]

Stanford was very dependent on Chiney. I don't think they win the title. Should be an open race, though.

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"Don't do something until you get it right, do it until you can't do it wrong."
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[calbearman76]

[ClayK]

[CalwbbFan]

[ArtBest23]

Doesn't seem to be much love for USC, considering how they were playing at year end. Did they lose much? Do they add much?

It does look like the PAC should be the most internally competitive it's been in years. A big question is whether there will be any nationally competitive teams.

[#Occasionalwnbafan]

I Like USC as a sleeper pick to win the pac next season or come close. They needed a big time volume scorer and McKenzie Calvert should be that player. she didn't make any All American teams, but she looks like the real deal. UCLA will need time from what I saw in the Micky D game Canada will be ready to go from day 1, Caldwell and Drummer will need time. Drummer also looks like more of a wing then a post.

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[ClayK]

I think SC will be good too ... but losing Harberts is a blow, and I'm not sure Calvert is ready to make an impact at the Pac-12 level as a freshman.

But I like what Cynthia Cooper is doing, and I think there's a chance the Women of Troy could be right in the thick of things all year.

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[ClayK]

I have been dubious about Jillian Alleyne because of the Westhead system, but then I did some figuring:

Chiney Ogwumike took 17 shots every 32 minutes and generated 1.4 points per shot (free throws included). She also got 15.5% of the available rebounds.

When I ran the numbers for Alleyne, I was thinking her counting stats would not reflect her value, but as is often the case, I was wrong.

Alleyne took 14.4 shots per 32 minutes, and generated 1.5 points per shot. And she got 17% of the available rebounds.

Now I'm not claiming Alleyne is better than Ogwumike, but I was surprised to see that her rate stats were better (lots of possible reasons), and that makes me feel her pro potential might be higher than expected.

Of course, we'll see how she adjust to Kelly Graves and a brand new system, but I'm certainly more optimistic than I was.

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[Ladyvol777]

UCLA by 2 games

[myrtle]

i agree it will certainly be more competitive, but while discussing new players,you have to notice that Stanford is bringing in 3 more in hoopgurlz top 30...including an athletic 6'3" post. I don't think Stanford is going to just roll over and die. I actually disliked the tendency last year to always try to force the ball inside so am hoping for a more balanced attack.

I think the Pac will be more competitive nationally as well.

[IM in OC]

[ClayK]

[FollowtheCardinalRule]

I mean, if you really want to get into efficiency per minute, I could point out that Erica McCall grabbed 3.2 rebounds on average for every 10 minutes she was on the court. If you expand that to roughly 30 minutes, that average comes out to around 9.6 rebounds per 30 minutes. Now, there are questions as to whether that math actually works--but given the usage rate being applied to Alleyne's scoring efficiency, I don't see why it shouldn't be applied to McCall. McCall likely replaces Mikaela Ruef in terms of rebounding and scoring ability as she also scored 3.3 points per 10.5 minutes, whereas Mikaela scored just 7.1ppg over 29.2 minutes per game. Chiney is the more challenging person to replace, and will likely be done by committee by whoever emerges out of the rest of the posts. Erica McCall also is a presence on the defensive side who actually had more blocks than Mikaela Ruef did throughout the year.



Kailee Johnson, Tayler Greenfield, Kaylee Johnson, and Erica McCall all come in at 6' 3''. I think that Kaylee Johnson's really going to have to come in and make an impact if Stanford wants to have a chance at winning, but also, Erica and Kailee should have improved over last year--and given who they were playing behind, it's no surprise that they didn't get a lot of playing time. I mean, Chiney and Ruef were both outstanding.

[sammieee]

Stanford will be fine. They should at least be a Top 15-20 team. That should put them in the Top 3 in the Pac 12.

Lili Thompson by the end of the year looked very good, like a Top 10 recruit. Amber Orrange has shown she can be a very good player (she looked VERY good in both games against UConn, and have shown to show up in big games). I expect McCall to improve with minutes. She did play behind Chiney AND Ruef. Look how well someone like Isabelle Harrison improved after getting playing time and not having to play behind Glory Johnson. McCall was highly rated coming out of HS, made various US teams, so I think she'll be fine with playing time. I actually think their success of Stanford depends on Kailee Johnson. They need another big to play well to help McCall.

Jordin Canada is very good, but she's not Diamond DeShields. I don't see UCLA pulling a UNC next year and becoming a Top 10 team like UNC did. Plus UNC had Gray and Mavunga. Haven't seen Caldwell, but Drummer is not better than Mavunga.

I don't know about Cal, sometimes they look terrific, other times, not. Oregon State should be good, and I wouldn't sleep on Washington. Kelsey Plum is the real deal, and she'll be a sophomore next year. They stilll have Davis, Aminah Williams, Talia Walton and is this the year Katie Collier is finally healthy?

[GEF34]

[GEF34]