but I watched the whole game tonight. Even though they lost ...they battled the whole game and I will always be able to say I watched Brianna Kiesel play. She certainly reminded me of another BK the way she battled...Brandon Knight!
I've never watched more than a few minutes of WBB..
- Thread starter Atlanta Panther
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That's a great post! Kiesel made herself a lot of money tonight, that's for sure! As much fun as this team was to watch tonight and this season, they're gonna be even more fun next season, and the next few years. #H2P
Next season is going to be another strange one for Pitt from a roster standpoint. Only four scholarship players who played this season will be back next season -- they are the three freshmen starters Stasha Carey, Yacine Diop, and Aysia Bugg, and Sophomore Fred Potvin (the second sophomore, Chelsea Welch, was recently dismissed from the team).
Pitt will pick up SEVEN players next season - the 5 incoming freshmen, and the two players who sat out this season with injuries. Those players are the 6'11" Bubbles Anderson and the 5'8" guard Brittany Gordon.
Brittany Gordon is more of an off the bench player, having started 10 games as a freshman (when the team was really, really horrible) but only 1 as a sophomore. She has some skills - I always thought she should have played more. To me, she seemed like that a better basketball player, but not a better athlete, than the women who played ahead of her.
Bubbles redshirted her first year, played about 12 games her second year before blowing out her knee, and played zero games in this, her third season, due to a second knee injury. So she has little experience, though she did show some nice potential in the 12 or so games she played before getting injured in her red-shirt freshman season. She is quite an imposing figure at 6'11". Before turning 20, she had the title of the tallest female teenager on the planet. She has two years of eligibility remaining, (unless she would petition for an extra year).
So, that means that next year's team could look like just about anything. I'd be shocked if the incoming 5 freshman can come in and play as maturely as this season's 3 freshmen did. Next year's team will not have a senior leader like Kiesel to rely on -- practically the whole team will be young and inexperienced. Suzie is going to have her hands full.
Put it this way - I was amazed that Pitt got to the NCAA tourney this season (I thought a .500 season was the best they could hope for...); and I'll be even more amazed if they get to the tourney next season with all the growing pains they are going to go through. But the future is indeed bright - and with players like Diop & Carey - and Wise & Walters - it's going to be fun to watch them grow into a formidable team.
Go Pitt.
This post was edited on 3/23 9:56 PM by MajorMajors
Pitt will pick up SEVEN players next season - the 5 incoming freshmen, and the two players who sat out this season with injuries. Those players are the 6'11" Bubbles Anderson and the 5'8" guard Brittany Gordon.
Brittany Gordon is more of an off the bench player, having started 10 games as a freshman (when the team was really, really horrible) but only 1 as a sophomore. She has some skills - I always thought she should have played more. To me, she seemed like that a better basketball player, but not a better athlete, than the women who played ahead of her.
Bubbles redshirted her first year, played about 12 games her second year before blowing out her knee, and played zero games in this, her third season, due to a second knee injury. So she has little experience, though she did show some nice potential in the 12 or so games she played before getting injured in her red-shirt freshman season. She is quite an imposing figure at 6'11". Before turning 20, she had the title of the tallest female teenager on the planet. She has two years of eligibility remaining, (unless she would petition for an extra year).
So, that means that next year's team could look like just about anything. I'd be shocked if the incoming 5 freshman can come in and play as maturely as this season's 3 freshmen did. Next year's team will not have a senior leader like Kiesel to rely on -- practically the whole team will be young and inexperienced. Suzie is going to have her hands full.
Put it this way - I was amazed that Pitt got to the NCAA tourney this season (I thought a .500 season was the best they could hope for...); and I'll be even more amazed if they get to the tourney next season with all the growing pains they are going to go through. But the future is indeed bright - and with players like Diop & Carey - and Wise & Walters - it's going to be fun to watch them grow into a formidable team.
Go Pitt.
This post was edited on 3/23 9:56 PM by MajorMajors
Major--I see it as you do. This season happened because they found Monica Wignot . She filled the lack of front court players problem until the freshman got comfortable with the college game.
I see a treading water season next year at best. Weaker early on and getting better later in the season.
I see a treading water season next year at best. Weaker early on and getting better later in the season.
I think....
your prognostication is the most likely. To be better next year than this year they will need all the returnees to take a step forward and they will need several of the freshmen to be contributors. And I don't mean contributors as bit players, I mean at least a couple of them would have to be ready to play at a pretty high level right from day one. Possible? Yeah, maybe. But likely? Probably not.
But watching this team grow and develop the next couple of seasons should be fun.
your prognostication is the most likely. To be better next year than this year they will need all the returnees to take a step forward and they will need several of the freshmen to be contributors. And I don't mean contributors as bit players, I mean at least a couple of them would have to be ready to play at a pretty high level right from day one. Possible? Yeah, maybe. But likely? Probably not.
But watching this team grow and develop the next couple of seasons should be fun.
I wanted to comment....
on the notion that Kiesel made herself a lot of money tonight, since the color commentator also mentioned it. My response to that would be do people think that the people doing scouting for the WNBA and the foreign teams didn't know who Kiesel was before tonight? She was first team all conference in what is by far the best conference in the country for womens basketball. And she got that honor by doing pretty much exactly what she did tonight. OK, she scored more points tonight than normal. But that was because she took a lot of shots, mostly because I think she recognized that no one else was really having a good game offensively and she needed to take control. But she played the same way tonight that she did against Notre Dame and North Carolina and Louisville and a whole host of other top 25 teams. That game tonight wasn't an aberration for her, that's what she does. I guarantee WNBA general managers knew all about Kiesel long before tonight.
on the notion that Kiesel made herself a lot of money tonight, since the color commentator also mentioned it. My response to that would be do people think that the people doing scouting for the WNBA and the foreign teams didn't know who Kiesel was before tonight? She was first team all conference in what is by far the best conference in the country for womens basketball. And she got that honor by doing pretty much exactly what she did tonight. OK, she scored more points tonight than normal. But that was because she took a lot of shots, mostly because I think she recognized that no one else was really having a good game offensively and she needed to take control. But she played the same way tonight that she did against Notre Dame and North Carolina and Louisville and a whole host of other top 25 teams. That game tonight wasn't an aberration for her, that's what she does. I guarantee WNBA general managers knew all about Kiesel long before tonight.
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