WNBA

Don't know if you are referring to me or not but I have been following Women's Basketball for many a year. I had season tickets to the UVA Women's team for about 13+ years starting in 1993, before I moved to North Carolina. I even traveled to some of their road games and went to the ACC Tournament 2 times. My favorite UVA player was Dawn Staley even though she graduated right before I got season tickets. My other favorite was Jenny Boucek who won honors as a defensive player and helped lead UVA to ACC regular season championship all 4 of her years. I also attended the UVA end of season Banquet many years. I had the occasion to talk personally with Jenny several times. She is now an assistant coach of the Indiana Pacers (men's team).
 
muggle not said:
Don't know if you are referring to me or not but I have been following Women's Basketball for many a year. I had season tickets to the UVA Women's team for about 13+ years starting in 1993, before I moved to North Carolina. I even traveled to some of their road games and went to the ACC Tournament 2 times. My favorite UVA player was Dawn Staley even though she graduated right before I got season tickets. My other favorite was Jenny Boucek who won honors as a defensive player and helped lead UVA to ACC regular season championship all 4 of her years. I also attended the UVA end of season Banquet many years. I had the occasion to talk personally with Jenny several times. She is now an assistant coach of the Indiana Pacers (men's team).
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muggle not said:
Don't know if you are referring to me or not but I have been following Women's Basketball for many a year. I had season tickets to the UVA Women's team for about 13+ years starting in 1993, before I moved to North Carolina. I even traveled to some of their road games and went to the ACC Tournament 2 times. My favorite UVA player was Dawn Staley even though she graduated right before I got season tickets. My other favorite was Jenny Boucek who won honors as a defensive player and helped lead UVA to ACC regular season championship all 4 of her years. I also attended the UVA end of season Banquet many years. I had the occasion to talk personally with Jenny several times. She is now an assistant coach of the Indiana Pacers (men's team).
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Absolutely not. I feel like you and I have gotten off on the wrong foot up here since our little Podium dustup. Dawg, I appreciate you. We've briefly discussed women's hoops in the past, and you and I both already know that the shoe doesn't fit you at all. There was no need for you to justify that, though I appreciate the post and your love for the game, as I do everyone's.

I was just a little frustrated yesterday. What I was trying and likely failing to articulate is just the same thing I've been repeating for all this time. This game is so subjective from a fan's perspective. We all look at this game differently, and different things are important to each of us. There's no objective right or wrong.

I'm not saying that logo 3s and insane passing aren't great. As I've said before, I do enjoy watching Caitlin play. I'm just not currently a member of her church, and I reject any notion that "everyone" is here for her and only her (or Angel, for that matter). No, man. I'm excited about both of our super rookies, but I'm not exclusively here for either one of them, and I know I'm not the only one. There are so many other good players in this league (and not all of them are superstars or even starters, by the way) who have earned my respect and who I enjoy watching.
 
Also, just in case it's unclear, I'm definitely using the "church" term humorously/in jest.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Angel Reese getting Player of the Week when Caitlin Clark broke numerous records, became the first rookie to record a triple double, beat the best team in the WNBA, and leads in points+assists shows that, no matter what, Angel Reese will be Rookie of the Year. And, yes, I think a triple double should change the calculus - especially when it was against the best team in the league.

It won't even matter either. Clark is clearly the best and most exciting rookie ... and in spite of the frantic efforts to push a new face of the sport, the TV ratings and attendance for the Caitlin Clark Experience continue to be insane.

It might be time for the WNBA to quit appeasing a very small but rabid minority and go back to promoting the reason people are here.
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Straw poll of AP voters yesterday had Clark as ROTY by a 9-5 vote, with one abstention. I think there’s a bit of a disconnect between certain sects of social media and the people who are actually going to be awarding the titles.
 
Mr. Gregory said:
Just ordered my Three-Jonai shirt. ^_^

Looks like I get a break today, but there are some good games on tap for the rest of this week. There's a bunch of action tomorrow.

- Sun/Liberty at 11 a.m.

- Fever/Mystics and Sky/Dream at noon

- Storm/Aces at 3 p.m.

- Mercury/Wings also play at 3:30 p.m., but I'll probably skip that one

Every game but the first one (at least for me) should be watchable live via League Pass, subject to local blackouts. The Fever/Mystics game is also available on NBA TV. I'll definitely have to make myself scarce on here for a minute until I can get fully caught up.
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Camp day around the league, those arenas are going to be loud lol
 
Caitlin Clark: 29 points, 13 assists + 5 rebounds. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

More questionable coaching by Christie Sides in this one. Took a red hot Caitlin Clark out while trailing and put Erica Wheeler in to do ... I don't even know.
 
Furious rally from Indiana comes up short at home against Washington in the matinee. Fever were down 21 at the beginning of the 4th and cut it down to a possession in the final minute. Foul trouble was a struggle, Boston picked up 5 quickly and played only 21 minutes. Unfortunately this is the kind of game Indy need to win.

29/13/5 on good efficiency plus 5 steals and 3 blocks from CC. Great individual performance.

Nice leaner from Sabrina Ionescu to seal the win in a big game between New York and Connecticut earlier today as well.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Caitlin Clark: 29 points, 13 assists + 5 rebounds. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

More questionable coaching by Christie Sides in this one. Took a red hot Caitlin Clark out while trailing and put Erica Wheeler in to do ... I don't even know.
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She got 38 minutes, she needs a breather at some point. I think the bigger concern is coming out sluggish at home against one of the worst teams in the league. I know it’s an odd start time and all, but you can’t go down that big early against the Mystics. That’s just bad preparation.
 
FLRacingFan said:
And completely true. Happened at the end of the Minnesota game a week or two ago as well. It’s blatant statpadding. Gotta call that out at any level in any sport.
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She looks at the clock to see how much time she has left to draw a foul too.

Chicago continues to go out of their way to be unlikeable.
 
FLRacingFan said:
WNBA and NBA

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After letting those stats soak in for awhile, they are truly amazing. To see CC get the stats in so many different categories is remarkable. Some players have good stats in 1 or 2 areas but to collect those stats in 6 different categories boggle the mind. Unless something drastically happens, CC will unquestionably be ROTY.
 
Hotrod said:
Another entertaining Fever mid day game. With their
slow start, I really thought the Mystic would win by
20 or so. Fun hearing all the kids screaming as the Fever
brought it close.
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The good thing for the Fever is, their schedule is easier from here on out. But they should've been able to beat the Mystics.

In other news, Dijonai Carrington has quickly become my least favorite athlete. She's incredibly talented and attractive, but she is everything Angel Reese is accused of being in terms of character. She clearly hates Caitlin Clark and it's clearly because of Caitlin's skin color. Once again, pulling the race card this week and playing the victim.

When the Fever and Sun play each other again, I sure hope Caitlin's teammates have her back when Dijonai Carrington does Dijonai Carrington things. But I doubt they will with NaLyssa Smith being Dijonai Carrington's girlfriend and all that.
 
muggle not said:
After letting those stats soak in for awhile, they are truly amazing. To see CC get the stats in so many different categories is remarkable. Some players have good stats in 1 or 2 areas but to collect those stats in 6 different categories boggle the mind. Unless something drastically happens, CC will unquestionably be ROTY.
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What's funny is elements of the sports media and social media keep saying Caitlin Clark's game is one dimensional and that's why Angel Reese is the unanimous Rookie of the Year, when it's so clearly the other way around. Reese's game is "rebounds" and being "Double Double Queen" and that's it. And then there's the fact that Caitlin Clark's not focused on stat lines, she's focused on playing the game. Like any great player, she'll sacrifice stats to feed Aayliah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
What's funny is elements of the sports media and social media keep saying Caitlin Clark's game is one dimensional and that's why Angel Reese is the unanimous Rookie of the Year, when it's so clearly the other way around. Reese's game is "rebounds" and being "Double Double Queen" and that's it. And then there's the fact that Caitlin Clark's not focused on stat lines, she's focused on playing the game. Like any great player, she'll sacrifice stats to feed Aayliah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell.
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Clark is literally the worst defender in the WNBA, statistically.
 
Kiante said:
Clark is literally the worst defender in the WNBA, statistically.
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She's 12th in steals per game and 15th in blocks per game. The latter, she's much higher on the stat sheet than Angel Reese. She's the fastest guard to record 20 blocks in WNBA history. Not bad for a "one dimensional" player.

And when people say Caitlin Clark is "one dimensional," they're saying all she does is chuck up three pointers. Go to the College Basketball thread and that's what some of her critics were saying in there too. The Indiana Fever offense runs through Caitlin Clark, which is why she's in these games for like 38 minutes.
 
Kiante said:
Clark is literally the worst defender in the WNBA, statistically.
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I think she’s middle of the pack in DRtg on her own team, which kinda speaks to just how bad the Fever are defensively. I think Wallace, KLS, NaLyssa Smith, and Mitchell are all worse in that metric if the significant minutes getters.

I don’t think she’s got the lateral quickness or the strength to be a good on-ball defender for a few years at least. She does get lost or blown up on screens, though not nearly as badly as early in the season. I think what she does well is help defense (grabs steals and blocks this way) and has good vision and passing lane intelligence, and gets a lot of her steals that way too.

I think if she simply adds 10 pounds next offseason she won’t be such a liability though. But the Fever are also a poor defensive unit in general and I don’t think that helps.
 
Caitlin Clark literally records the two greatest rookie performances in WNBA history in back-to-back games.

ESPN once again declares Angel Reese the best rookie.

www.espn.com

WNBA rookie rankings: How Angel Reese surged to No. 1

We're roughly halfway through the 2024 WNBA season, and rookie stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are making their mark. So where do they rank?
www.espn.com www.espn.com

You cannot objectively make this argument after the last two games, especially now that we're seeing the stat padding.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I think she’s middle of the pack in DRtg on her own team, which kinda speaks to just how bad the Fever are defensively. I think Wallace, KLS, NaLyssa Smith, and Mitchell are all worse in that metric if the significant minutes getters.

I don’t think she’s got the lateral quickness or the strength to be a good on-ball defender for a few years at least. She does get lost or blown up on screens, though not nearly as badly as early in the season. I think what she does well is help defense (grabs steals and blocks this way) and has good vision and passing lane intelligence, and gets a lot of her steals that way too.

I think if she simply adds 10 pounds next offseason she won’t be such a liability though. But the Fever are also a poor defensive unit in general and I don’t think that helps.
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She's going to improve, that's all it is. Like, I've watched her and positionally in one one one situations, she's okay. Just when it comes to going over screens and switching on defenders, she gets blown up, a lot.

I think with a full-offeseason under her belt, she'll improve. She's got a good floor, but I will say she has a potential to be a fantastic scorer and has the potential to be a floor general.


Just with me, I like Reese's ability as well and she'll improve as well. Just happy to see the WNBA getting it's shine because these ladies have been killing it for a while. Just nice to see more love given back from all sports fans, alike.
 
Kiante said:
She's going to improve, that's all it is. Like, I've watched her and positionally in one one one situations, she's okay. Just when it comes to going over screens and switching on defenders, she gets blown up, a lot.

I think with a full-offeseason under her belt, she'll improve. She's got a good floor, but I will say she has a potential to be a fantastic scorer and has the potential to be a floor general.


Just with me, I like Reese's ability as well and she'll improve as well. Just happy to see the WNBA getting it's shine because these ladies have been killing it for a while. Just nice to see more love given back from all sports fans, alike.
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The Indiana offense already runs through Caitlin Clark. It's the primary reason she's "leading the league in turnovers," because she's the distributor. Those turnovers are getting cut down now that her teammates have gotten acclimated to her speed.
 
Kiante said:
She's going to improve, that's all it is. Like, I've watched her and positionally in one one one situations, she's okay. Just when it comes to going over screens and switching on defenders, she gets blown up, a lot.

I think with a full-offeseason under her belt, she'll improve. She's got a good floor, but I will say she has a potential to be a fantastic scorer and has the potential to be a floor general.


Just with me, I like Reese's ability as well and she'll improve as well. Just happy to see the WNBA getting it's shine because these ladies have been killing it for a while. Just nice to see more love given back from all sports fans, alike.
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If your choice was Reese or Clark to have on your team, which one would you take. :)
 
muggle not said:
If your choice was Reese or Clark to have on your team, which one would you take. :)
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Reese for me.

The thing is her defense and rebounding ability is up there. Especially as a rookie she's the best offensive rebounder in the WNBA. Her flaws can be changed. Now, offensively she's not very efficient herself. Her layup and shot mechanics need work, for sure.

However, right now I like her floor currently and her defensive impact. Once she gets an offensive repertoire, she'll be a problem.

I've always been more of a person who likes to see bigs at the 4 and 5 get more love as well.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Caitlin Clark literally records the two greatest rookie performances in WNBA history in back-to-back games.

ESPN once again declares Angel Reese the best rookie.

www.espn.com

WNBA rookie rankings: How Angel Reese surged to No. 1

We're roughly halfway through the 2024 WNBA season, and rookie stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are making their mark. So where do they rank?
www.espn.com www.espn.com

You cannot objectively make this argument after the last two games, especially now that we're seeing the stat padding.
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ESPN BET has Clark -800 and Reese +450 to win ROTY. Shameless farming for wagers on Angel. **** should be illegal.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
I’ve never done any sports betting thing, ever. Most of these betting line stats are Greek to me.
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ESPN’s own sports book has Caitlin Clark as a heavy favorite to win ROTY. If you put money on her right now and she would up winning, you’d hardly win **** (place $100 to win $112.5).

How a massive entity in the space of broadcasting and “journalism” gets to have their own sports book is beyond me.
 
FLRacingFan said:
ESPN’s own sports book has Caitlin Clark as a heavy favorite to win ROTY. If you put money on her right now and she would up winning, you’d hardly win **** (place $100 to win $112.5).

How a massive entity in the space of broadcasting and “journalism” gets to have their own sports book is beyond me.
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All while ESPN is declaring Angel Reese as the best rookie in history. That’s weird.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
All while ESPN is declaring Angel Reese as the best rookie in history. That’s
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If I was building a team and had a choice, I would take Cameron Brink and Kamilla Cardoza before I selected Reese. I believe that each of them will become more important to their team than Reese, although Reese is undoubtedly a good player. Both Brink and Cardoza proved their worth in College ball and will get much better in the WNBA given a little time.
Nothing needs to be said about CC. Her play speaks for itself, she is doing things that no other player has ever done in her rookie year., and she will only get much better. She is not a one category player. Fans recognize her ability and that is why all the games are sold out.
 
muggle not said:
If I was building a team and had a choice, I would take Cameron Brink and Kamilla Cardoza before I selected Reese. I believe that each of them will become more important to their team than Reese, although Reese is undoubtedly a good player. Both Brink and Cardoza proved their worth in College ball and will get much better in the WNBA given a little time.
Nothing needs to be said about CC. Her play speaks for itself, she is doing things that no other player has ever done in her rookie year., and she will only get much better. She is not a one category player. Fans recognize her ability and that is why all the games are sold out.
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Agree on Brink and Cardoso. There’s a reason they went second and third. We’ve only seen a small sample from both in the WNBA right now. Cardoso’s impact on Chicago is criminally underrated. I would even argue they need to feed her more. But Chicago’s top priority right now seems to be getting Angel Reese to win Rookie of the Year.

It’s fitting the show Shameless takes place in Chicago, because what they’ve done the past couple days with stat padding and prioritizing Angel’s streak over the game itself is shameless.


Having Cardoso ride the bench when she was playing lights out so they can feed Reese, only to put her back in once Reese secured her double-double is absolutely criminal.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
All while ESPN is declaring Angel Reese as the best rookie in history. That’s weird.
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You’d make a lot more betting on Reese if she won at those odds, it’s a much more enticing bet. Prop her up as the best rookie at the moment, take a bunch of wagers on her for ROTY since it’s “free money”, and then when she fails to win at the end of the year…🤑 I think it’s crazy that they’re able to use their influence like that.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
But Chicago’s top priority right now seems to be getting Angel Reese to win Rookie of the Year.

It’s fitting the show Shameless takes place in Chicago, because what they’ve done the past couple days with stat padding and prioritizing Angel’s streak over the game itself is shameless.

Having Cardoso ride the bench when she was playing lights out so they can feed Reese, only to put her back in once Reese secured her double-double is absolutely criminal.
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I think even a lot of Sky fans woke up to this tonight. The optics behind giving Cardoso not even 20 minutes, then pulling Reese for Cardoso with over two minutes left right after she got her 10th rebound, just aren’t good.
 


Kamilla Cardoso looks less than pleased. I would not be surprised if she requests a trade. I know it won't happen, but it would be cool to see her play for the Fever.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:


Kamilla Cardoso looks less than pleased. I would not be surprised if she requests a trade. I know it won't happen, but it would be cool to see her play for the Fever.
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I just watched that game (and all the games I wanted to watch up until today). She looked less than pleased at the beginning of that highlight clip because she committed her second foul in the first quarter and had to sit.
 
Mr. Gregory said:
I just watched that game (and all the games I wanted to watch up until today). She looked less than pleased at the beginning of that highlight clip because she committed her second foul in the first quarter and had to sit.
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Plenty of other photos out there of Cardoso being less than pleased riding the bench in recent games.

I know you're an Angel Reese fan, but it's so transparent what's happening now that it can't be denied anymore. And more and more people are gonna hate Reese for it. Rightfully so, I might add. If Reese was half the team player Caitlin Clark is....
 
So, over the last few days, I've watched the Sun/Liberty, Fever/Mystics, Sky/Dream, and Storm/Aces games from Wednesday, and the Liberty/Sky game from last night. I was disappointed by the first game since I was rooting for the Sun, but I enjoyed the rest of the games. I have too many thoughts but want to focus first on Fever/Mystics.

Fever/Mystics was almost a mirror image of the Liberty/Sun game, with the Mystics as the Liberty and the Fever as the Sun. Both the Sun and the Fever looked tired and lackadaisical out there for most of the game and didn't really decide to start playing until the end (in the Fever's case, the 4th quarter). You have to show up ready to play, no matter what time the game is (they were both early games), and you can't sleep on your opponents no matter who they are. Full credit to the Mystics, who showed up and showed out. Give them their flowers.

I've watched that Mystics team play 3 or 4 times now, and I've really enjoyed watching them each time. I wasn't surprised at all to see them beat the Fever but was very proud of them. They're not loaded up with superstars but are definitely better than their record suggests and will absolutely keep you honest. They've dealt with crippling injuries all season long and are currently down three players, but they're well coached, they have good chemistry as a group, they move the ball very well (they're somewhere in the top 3 in the league in assists if I'm not mistaken), and most important of all, those girls hustle.

They also have some crafty veterans who can shoot, like Big Mama Stef Dolson (who actually leads the league in 3-point percentage), and Ariel Atkins, who is a good two-way player. Their "rookie" point guard, 31-year-old Julie Vanloo, who plays overseas, is fearless. Shout-out to the leader of the bench mob, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough. I love her swag. She cracks me up with that cheeky little Skip to my Lou dance she does after a big play.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Plenty of other photos out there of Cardoso being less than pleased riding the bench in recent games.

I know you're an Angel Reese fan, but it's so transparent what's happening now that it can't be denied anymore. And more and more people are gonna hate Reese for it.
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It shouldn't surprise you to hear this, but it may. I was very disappointed to see Angel go for that double-double at the end of the Sky/Dream game. I was literally shouting "NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" when I saw her call for the ball and post up Tina Charles. People playing out the last few seconds and going for shots when the shot clock is off at the end of games is a pet peeve of mine. Absolutely unsporting.

Andrew, yes, I'm a Sky fan, but I'm not a homer for them or any other team or player and can acknowledge when my favorites make mistakes. I just called out another of my favorites, Chennedy Carter, for her ridiculous flagrant foul on Jewell Loyd the other day. Respectfully, don't try to play that card with me, man. I'm a homer for this league. Period.
 
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