The state of WBB

For fan discussion of the Vanderbilt Commodore women's basketball program, games and recruiting.

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Go Vandy!
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The state of WBB

Post by Go Vandy! »

First, i have to apologize. I HATE to be like this. And I understand i use a completely different frame of reference compared to the rest of the 25 or so remaining VU WBB fans. While 77 to 73 in the NET ratings is improving, St. J's is 159, so-

Everyone except me compares Ralph's tenure to White's, which is their right. In that comparison no one could help but look better. (Even tho there were the exact same number of Ws in their first seasons. 14 didn't get White's team into postseason, did get Ralph's in.)

I know i'm the only one old-or stupid- enough to compare each season's team to '92-'93, during which the Commodores spent 1/3 of the season at #1. Much of the rest at #2. Maybe that is completely unfair. And I would NEVER expect a #1 ranking every season. But i don't think spending more weeks in than out of the top 15 is unreasonable. As opposed to not sniffing the top 25 (or 50).

Maybe the most telling fact is neither of the other 2 sites even had a thread on the game.

Let the attacks and permanent ban commence.


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Re: The state of WBB

Post by doredane »

Isn't Ralph just six games into her second season? Also, I believe two starters went down with season-ending injuries before the start of the season. This team will likely be in the bottom half of the SEC this season, but substantial progress has/is certainly been made.
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Re: The state of WBB

Post by Ndorefin »

Go Vandy! wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 3:53 pm First, i have to apologize. I HATE to be like this. And I understand i use a completely different frame of reference compared to the rest of the 25 or so remaining VU WBB fans. While 77 to 73 in the NET ratings is improving, St. J's is 159, so-

Everyone except me compares Ralph's tenure to White's, which is their right. In that comparison no one could help but look better. (Even tho there were the exact same number of Ws in their first seasons. 14 didn't get White's team into postseason, did get Ralph's in.)

I know i'm the only one old-or stupid- enough to compare each season's team to '92-'93, during which the Commodores spent 1/3 of the season at #1. Much of the rest at #2. Maybe that is completely unfair. And I would NEVER expect a #1 ranking every season. But i don't think spending more weeks in than out of the top 15 is unreasonable. As opposed to not sniffing the top 25 (or 50).

Maybe the most telling fact is neither of the other 2 sites even had a thread on the game.

Let the attacks and permanent ban commence.
I will not attack but I believe your assessment is way off base! When you speak of our team of 30 years ago, the game was totally different. Very few were taking the women’s game seriously. It was primarily VU and ut and we were absolutely loaded in talent. Following that team, we had the #1 player in the country and the best point guard in our history (Anderson and McKinney). In addition we had an excellent supporting cast. USC, LSU and Ms State were afterthoughts and Ky didn’t have much either.

This team today is relying on Freshmen for depth and an undersized Soph for our inside presence. We lost 3 starters who we were counting on for this season to injuries. With those players we could arguably be a top 25 team. CSR has a good class coming in next year and I doubt we will have room for any transfers. The player from Poland is going to be a contributor on day one and we should have plenty of depth to utilize CSR’s system. The competition in this league is unprecedented and it’s going to take a few years before our program will be in contention for some of the best players in the nation. There is no quit in Coach Ralph and she will not be satisfied until we will be able to compete against the top teams in the country, including UConn. It will take some patience because she will not build this program with disgruntled players transferring into VU like many teams which will be the norm going forward.
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Re: The state of WBB

Post by charlestonalum »

Ndorefin is spot on and Go Vandy, with all humility I may be older than you, but not necessarily wiser. I am in class of 65 and 79 y.o. I think Shea Ralph is a great coach and she has a good staff. She has recruited well and without the devastating injuries that knocked out 60% of our starting team, we would be making noise in what is now a very good conference. Give her time and even normal incidence of season ending injuries and we will be contenders. Next year we will see the results and this year you will see steady improvement. By the way, Shea has proven she can recruit graduate transfers out of portal, something very hard to do at Vanderbilt. So I am very optimistic.
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Re: The state of WBB

Post by Dore2Dore »

Consider the player losses of these first 2 yrs - last year: 2 former starters transfer & are starting on top 25 teams & we have 9-10 ?? healthy players; think the team & coaches did remarkedly well all things considered; saw player improvements/development across the board - we were much better at end of year vs beginning.
This year - 1 important former starter transfers to Md & helping them significantly, 1 former freshman goes back to Ga that had real potential; devastating injuries (as above) decimated our starters & severely shortened our bench again, thank goodness for our 2 gad transfers. I truly believe CSR & staff getting most out of what is available. Am impressed with the "coaching" videos, CSR interviews, the teams buy-in.
We cant compare to the early-mid 90's teams or even Balcomb's early years. Athleticism overall has greatly increased women's game, strategies have changed because of it, COVID year extra eligibility, plus transfer portal eligibility ( so many dont want wait their turn & develop so transfer). It is a different game now. We have the right coaches - they just need some time to prove their system works to attract high level recruits & retain developing players.
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Re: The state of WBB

Post by MrMemorial »

Go Vandy! wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 3:53 pm
Maybe the most telling fact is neither of the other 2 sites even had a thread on the game.
One of the other two is notoriously anti-female because half of them never got laid until they were 35.
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Re: The state of WBB

Post by VandyJim »

Hi GoVandy. No attack here. Just a couple more things to consider. Before Coach Ralph arrived, the VU women didn't even resemble a basketball team on the floor. White had messed things up so bad that it was painful to watch the Dores play. At times they looked worse than a high school team. Ralph has changed that. The game yesterday was frustrating, but not painful. I imagine we will be in for many games like that this season too. Remember, turning defense into offense was so important last year, but we've lost our defensive queen. So those type of scoring opportunities will not come as often as we had hoped going into this season. We've also lost our best 3-point shooter, and yesterday we struggled from the arc the entire game.

Thanks for the memory of the 92-93 women. I remember that team well. The men were awesome that year too under Fogler. I'm so optimistic VU basketball is headed that direction again.
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Re: The state of WBB

Post by moxiedore92 »

Comparing what Coach Ralph inherited to what Coach Foster inherited 30 years ago is laughable. :lol: he inherited Heidi Gillingham for crying out loud, and multiple Top 10 recruiting classes. :roll:
got moxie?
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