[TheFarm07]

I was busy and couldn't watch but sure sounds like not much went well.  Getting out-rebounded like that and the poor defense are the scariest things.  Those are effort and hustle to a large extent.  Gonzaga is good but really, we have the talent to beat them, even on the road.  Some of our key players struggled a lot, actually most of them did, by the stats.  I hate to say this but maybe the optimism for the season was a bit premature.  Team is young and should improve a bunch but by now the upperclassmen should be farther along.

Not going to lie - today was depressing. Switching between UConn-Notre Dame and our game against Gonzaga was like going from Texas varsity blues to Vermont junior varsity. They were playing at a totally different level. We have a long way to go before we are competitive with the top teams. And it wasn't just lack of energy, but the little things: finding mismatches, finishing in traffic, creating spacing, crisp passing, getting back on defense. Given the way that Baylor is thrashing South Carolina, I think it's extremely unlikely we'll keep this losing streak at one...

I think a good part of it is our inexperience--and missing our least experienced starter Lexie.  Lexie showed early on that she could replace McPhee's points.  We really need her to make our offense work this year.  Gonzaga was playing Rice, Stockton, and Smith who are all seniors or redshirt seniors playing at home.  We had Smith who was off the court as much as she was on.  We are an extremely young team without a lot of experience playing in tough situations.  We will get a lot better as the year wears on.

Defense and rebounding can be coached.  And do they ever need to be.

While I don't disagree with your assessment, 81, I don't want to use youth as an excuse on a regular basis, year-in and year-out. Every year, we are going to lose players to graduation. Next year, Smith and Sniezek will be gone, our most experienced big and PG. The year after that, it will be Carrington and Fingall and so on and so on.

We need to be able to be more consistent from the get-go. Though Gonzaga is not a bad team and not as shocking a loss as some others we've had recently, I am troubled by the somewhat inexplicable losses every year, such as to Western Illinois last season or Santa Clara 3 seasons ago. These are games we would breeze through a few years ago. I remembered a time when the only games that would worry us would be a UConn or a Baylor, not a hot mid-major team.

I am hoping that with the classes that Tara has recruited over the next couple seasons, we will able to fight through inconsistency better.

[TheFarm07]

I was busy and couldn't watch but sure sounds like not much went well.  Getting out-rebounded like that and the poor defense are the scariest things.  Those are effort and hustle to a large extent.  Gonzaga is good but really, we have the talent to beat them, even on the road.  Some of our key players struggled a lot, actually most of them did, by the stats.  I hate to say this but maybe the optimism for the season was a bit premature.  Team is young and should improve a bunch but by now the upperclassmen should be farther along.

Not going to lie - today was depressing. Switching between UConn-Notre Dame and our game against Gonzaga was like going from Texas varsity blues to Vermont junior varsity. They were playing at a totally different level. We have a long way to go before we are competitive with the top teams. And it wasn't just lack of energy, but the little things: finding mismatches, finishing in traffic, creating spacing, crisp passing, getting back on defense. Given the way that Baylor is thrashing South Carolina, I think it's extremely unlikely we'll keep this losing streak at one...

I think a good part of it is our inexperience--and missing our least experienced starter Lexie.  Lexie showed early on that she could replace McPhee's points.  We really need her to make our offense work this year.  Gonzaga was playing Rice, Stockton, and Smith who are all seniors or redshirt seniors playing at home.  We had Smith who was off the court as much as she was on.  We are an extremely young team without a lot of experience playing in tough situations.  We will get a lot better as the year wears on.

Defense and rebounding can be coached.  And do they ever need to be.

While I don't disagree with your assessment, 81, I don't want to use youth as an excuse on a regular basis, year-in and year-out. Every year, we are going to lose players to graduation. Next year, Smith and Sniezek will be gone, our most experienced big and PG. The year after that, it will be Carrington and Fingall and so on and so on.

We need to be able to be more consistent from the get-go. Though Gonzaga is not a bad team and not as shocking a loss as some others we've had recently, I am troubled by the somewhat inexplicable losses every year, such as to Western Illinois last season or Santa Clara 3 seasons ago. These are games we would breeze through a few years ago. I remembered a time when the only games that would worry us would be a UConn or a Baylor, not a hot mid-major team.

I am hoping that with the classes that Tara has recruited over the next couple seasons, we will able to fight through inconsistency better.

[BosCard]

I agree that it seemed like the focus and effort just weren't there for 3 quarters.  Lots of missed layups, telegraphed passes and poor rebounding.  But the team mounted a furious comeback in the fourth quarter.  I just wish we could have seen that starting at the beginning of the second quarter.  The consistency is frustrating because players like Fingall and Carrington have great games or quarters and then sometimes disappear.  I have hope that in their junior year we will see more consistent performances from them.

A note of optimism, the 2016-2017 team also lost to Gonzaga (and that game was at Maples).  And that team went on to have a pretty good regular season (5 losses) and then shocked the world by making the Final Four.  My hope for this year is that kind of season.  Play at a pretty high level, get better through the year and then give ourselves a chance at an upset of a top team in the tournament.  Next year, with our incoming recruiting class, my expectations are get back to the level of top team.  Be in the top 5 of the rankings consistently, solidly beat good teams like Gonzaga, feel like the teams we had with Chiney leading the way and expect to be in the Final Four.

[BosCard]

I agree that it seemed like the focus and effort just weren't there for 3 quarters.  Lots of missed layups, telegraphed passes and poor rebounding.  But the team mounted a furious comeback in the fourth quarter.  I just wish we could have seen that starting at the beginning of the second quarter.  The consistency is frustrating because players like Fingall and Carrington have great games or quarters and then sometimes disappear.  I have hope that in their junior year we will see more consistent performances from them.

A note of optimism, the 2016-2017 team also lost to Gonzaga (and that game was at Maples).  And that team went on to have a pretty good regular season (5 losses) and then shocked the world by making the Final Four.  My hope for this year is that kind of season.  Play at a pretty high level, get better through the year and then give ourselves a chance at an upset of a top team in the tournament.  Next year, with our incoming recruiting class, my expectations are get back to the level of top team.  Be in the top 5 of the rankings consistently, solidly beat good teams like Gonzaga, feel like the teams we had with Chiney leading the way and expect to be in the Final Four.

[TheFarm07]

A note of optimism, the 2016-2017 team also lost to Gonzaga (and that game was at Maples).  And that team went on to have a pretty good regular season (5 losses) and then shocked the world by making the Final Four.  My hope for this year is that kind of season.  Play at a pretty high level, get better through the year and then give ourselves a chance at an upset of a top team in the tournament.  Next year, with our incoming recruiting class, my expectations are get back to the level of top team.  Be in the top 5 of the rankings consistently, solidly beat good teams like Gonzaga, feel like the teams we had with Chiney leading the way and expect to be in the Final Four.

Not just with the Chiney-led team, but the teams with Appel, Nneka, Pohlen and Pedersen, where we swept through the conference undefeated and usually only lost to UConn, for quite a stretch.

Now I am not expecting us to breeze through the Pac-12 with the emergence of Oregon, the strength of Oregon State and the great recruiting class USC is bringing in, like we did a few years ago, but I would like us to be favorites in nearly all of our matchups again, where instead of us having to play well to win, our opponents have to rise up to defeat us.

As shown yesterday, we are still quite a ways off from that. I am hoping that getting Jones, Belibi, Jump and Prechtel next year and Brink the year after won't make us dependent on one superstar like we were in Chiney's final two years, but rather multi-faceted and difficult to defend at most, if not all of the positions. Plus

[TheFarm07]

A note of optimism, the 2016-2017 team also lost to Gonzaga (and that game was at Maples).  And that team went on to have a pretty good regular season (5 losses) and then shocked the world by making the Final Four.  My hope for this year is that kind of season.  Play at a pretty high level, get better through the year and then give ourselves a chance at an upset of a top team in the tournament.  Next year, with our incoming recruiting class, my expectations are get back to the level of top team.  Be in the top 5 of the rankings consistently, solidly beat good teams like Gonzaga, feel like the teams we had with Chiney leading the way and expect to be in the Final Four.

Not just with the Chiney-led team, but the teams with Appel, Nneka, Pohlen and Pedersen, where we swept through the conference undefeated and usually only lost to UConn, for quite a stretch.

Now I am not expecting us to breeze through the Pac-12 with the emergence of Oregon, the strength of Oregon State and the great recruiting class USC is bringing in, like we did a few years ago, but I would like us to be favorites in nearly all of our matchups again, where instead of us having to play well to win, our opponents have to rise up to defeat us.

As shown yesterday, we are still quite a ways off from that. I am hoping that getting Jones, Belibi, Jump and Prechtel next year and Brink the year after won't make us dependent on one superstar like we were in Chiney's final two years, but rather multi-faceted and difficult to defend at most, if not all of the positions. Plus

[bl82]

A note of optimism, the 2016-2017 team also lost to Gonzaga (and that game was at Maples).  And that team went on to have a pretty good regular season (5 losses) and then shocked the world by making the Final Four.  My hope for this year is that kind of season.  Play at a pretty high level, get better through the year and then give ourselves a chance at an upset of a top team in the tournament.  Next year, with our incoming recruiting class, my expectations are get back to the level of top team.  Be in the top 5 of the rankings consistently, solidly beat good teams like Gonzaga, feel like the teams we had with Chiney leading the way and expect to be in the Final Four.

Not just with the Chiney-led team, but the teams with Appel, Nneka, Pohlen and Pedersen, where we swept through the conference undefeated and usually only lost to UConn, for quite a stretch.

Now I am not expecting us to breeze through the Pac-12 with the emergence of Oregon, the strength of Oregon State and the great recruiting class USC is bringing in, like we did a few years ago, but I would like us to be favorites in nearly all of our matchups again, where instead of us having to play well to win, our opponents have to rise up to defeat us.

As shown yesterday, we are still quite a ways off from that. I am hoping that getting Jones, Belibi, Jump and Prechtel next year and Brink the year after won't make us dependent on one superstar like we were in Chiney's final two years, but rather multi-faceted and difficult to defend at most, if not all of the positions. Plus

[bl82]

A note of optimism, the 2016-2017 team also lost to Gonzaga (and that game was at Maples).  And that team went on to have a pretty good regular season (5 losses) and then shocked the world by making the Final Four.  My hope for this year is that kind of season.  Play at a pretty high level, get better through the year and then give ourselves a chance at an upset of a top team in the tournament.  Next year, with our incoming recruiting class, my expectations are get back to the level of top team.  Be in the top 5 of the rankings consistently, solidly beat good teams like Gonzaga, feel like the teams we had with Chiney leading the way and expect to be in the Final Four.

Not just with the Chiney-led team, but the teams with Appel, Nneka, Pohlen and Pedersen, where we swept through the conference undefeated and usually only lost to UConn, for quite a stretch.

Now I am not expecting us to breeze through the Pac-12 with the emergence of Oregon, the strength of Oregon State and the great recruiting class USC is bringing in, like we did a few years ago, but I would like us to be favorites in nearly all of our matchups again, where instead of us having to play well to win, our opponents have to rise up to defeat us.

As shown yesterday, we are still quite a ways off from that. I am hoping that getting Jones, Belibi, Jump and Prechtel next year and Brink the year after won't make us dependent on one superstar like we were in Chiney's final two years, but rather multi-faceted and difficult to defend at most, if not all of the positions. Plus