Baby Trojans survive

It appeared KSU wanted to shut down all drives to the basket by having high post, low post and middle personnel on one side or the other of the lane. And two people playing perimeter D.

I think the idea was. Give Marshall and Kiki the open looks from 10 in the wings because they KNOW Marshall can't and won't shoot them. And Kiki failed.

Then that left the perimeter. The 2-3 other defenders could contest some shots by Howell and get in the way of Smith. That left Heckel or Samuels open to do whatever they wanted. And when they drove the lane they got put on their backsides with no calls. And neither really had the guts to shoot 3's in a tight game.

Game was won because Smith took over the Juju role and drove the lane. Took contact. Hit 4-10 foot jumpers and stepped up in a way KSU didn't expect. KSU expected Kiki to hit shots and have to deal with that. They didn't expect the freshman Smith to go off and score 9 in the first quarter. That screwed KSU all up and basically wound up being the difference for USC

USC's offense was Smith driving and drawing contact or finishing at the rim. And Howell shooting well from 3. She's a good shooter. In some ways USC benefitted from juju but then when the offense turned into a halfcourt slog they really missed her ability to create.

Jazzy Davidson, Kennedy Smith, Juju and then the higher expectations of these frosh like Heckel, Howell and the soph Samuels is going to create an issue for USC next year. Not enough basketballs. Someone needs to go grind and do the dirty work.

When I state kept hitting fallaways I looked. And sure enough the center I 6-6 and about everyone else they have is 6-1 or 6-2

I probably should have written it like usc did not have their accustomed size advantage.

Samuels. Heckle and anyone going down the lane gor stuffed

Did you catch that the KSU center once scored 61 points in a game? Damn that’s a BIG number

Yep. Night and day. I was switching back to Cooper Flagg and SC game.

Exponentially Bigger stronger faster.

No real man or real

Athlete would EVER want to compete against the girls. Only losers

....but the Lakers can't have babies.

And jasmine Davidson coming in. And not to sit. This girl is a top 3 recruit. So someone needs to move to forward or usc will have Howell. Watkins. Smith. Davidson and heckle as well as Samuels. That’d a lot of talent in the backcourt. Even if you run a 3 guard offense they run 6 guards deep.

As I’ve mentioned before they need to go find two transfers who are 6’3 or taller who actually can move. Not many of those out there. These wkmen over 6’ or 6’2 just aren’t athletes.

Jujus injury may give them the excuse to play her at forward. If she buys in. That would be a really nice solution. Could have her at 6’2 at forward. Davidson at 6’2 at guard. And smith at 6’1 and Howell at 6’ at guard. That height would help a lot. Still would need a large body in the middle or two.

But Trojan women have a ton of talent on the team and much of it is young

Kennedy had some good moments on D with some highlight reel Steals turned into tough layups.

The KSU forward (sundell?) cooked her many times Too. Sundell

Was doing her best Kevin McHale imitation.

Was sundell the one with the behind the head fallaways? Very rare I see girls doing stuff that causes me to say “whoa that was nice”. Like oh I can’t do that. Pretty much an entire nba game is oh I can’t do that Girls not so much

And there was another who was on fire poin Dexter maybe? And then the big girl Lee I think

Ksu had 3 girls all over 6 foot who were playing tall. So what I mean is when a girl shoots a set shot from 3 from her chest? Shes playing short. Rebounds into her chest? Playing short.

KSU girls all played tall. Very impressive. Rebounds. Shots. I didn’t expect them to be so good. 5 seed?

Elite 8 rematch with UConn. Too bad they can’t borrow that hotshot frosh who is coming in. Kennedy smith for now will have to do. She plays like a poor man’s Juju watkins. And that’s no insult. Smith is a quality player