[thesportscritic]

I was saying elite meaning top 25 as you said we beat a team receiving top 25 votes earlier in the thread....when you talked about JMU. We have no shot at being a top 10 team....those teams all have multiple things we haven't had in a Carey Green team. Crazy team speed and ball handling with the ability to create your own shot at will.

I already said that we have a very long way to go before we are an elite (top 10). Elite in my opinion is the top 10 because there is a big difference between them and 11-25 IMO. We are not fast at all, we don't jump when going for a rebound but we box out pretty well for the most part. We are missing speed and quickness and enters Coach Sherard who i think will change that (in terms of recruiting athletes with speed and quickness).

[LUconn]

Women's bball is a funny animal. The top 5 teams are 20 points better than the 6th place team.

[thesportscritic]

Women's bball is a funny animal. The top 5 teams are 20 points better than the 6th place team.

agreed.

[Rocketfan]

I was saying elite meaning top 25 as you said we beat a team receiving top 25 votes earlier in the thread....when you talked about JMU. We have no shot at being a top 10 team....those teams all have multiple things we haven't had in a Carey Green team. Crazy team speed and ball handling with the ability to create your own shot at will.

I already said that we have a very long way to go before we are an elite (top 10). Elite in my opinion is the top 10 because there is a big difference between them and 11-25 IMO. We are not fast at all, we don't jump when going for a rebound but we box out pretty well for the most part. We are missing speed and quickness and enters Coach Sherard who i think will change that.

Im saying ( and im sure im gonna get hatemail for this ) we pretty much have 0 chance at ever been ranked top 10. Recruiting the way it is, we would have to get top teams to schedule us, beat them consistently (on the road) and recruit a totally different athlete.

[thesportscritic]

I was saying elite meaning top 25 as you said we beat a team receiving top 25 votes earlier in the thread....when you talked about JMU. We have no shot at being a top 10 team....those teams all have multiple things we haven't had in a Carey Green team. Crazy team speed and ball handling with the ability to create your own shot at will.

I already said that we have a very long way to go before we are an elite (top 10). Elite in my opinion is the top 10 because there is a big difference between them and 11-25 IMO. We are not fast at all, we don't jump when going for a rebound but we box out pretty well for the most part. We are missing speed and quickness and enters Coach Sherard who i think will change that.

Im saying ( and im sure im gonna get hatemail for this ) we pretty much have 0 chance at ever been ranked top 10. Recruiting the way it is, we would have to get top teams to schedule us, beat them consistently (on the road) and recruit a totally different athlete.

and you are 99% correct that we will never get that far. the one percent is hope but i don't see us in the top 10 not even the top 5 anytime soon. and if i am wrong sometime down the road i will come back here and delete this post.

[LUconn]

I've always thought the hope lies with what has happened in the men's game. It has evloved into a place where there is tons of partiy but there are some "established" powerhouses and also established elite mid-majors. This hasn't happened in wbb yet (aside from powerhouses). Assuming it does as the game evlolves, I think we can get in on it.

[bigsmooth]

not a bad performance considering our last trip to chapel hill. now let's get the spiders!

[jcmanson]

No, in the Big South we will never reach top 10. It's too hard to recruit that level of player in this conference. As long as we are in the Big south, our goals should be to win the conference ever year, with an occasional (1 in 3 at least) win in the NCAA tourney.

I don't think we will run the table the rest of the way because the BSC has improved since the last few years. Even Katie & co couldn't run the table every year. We shouldn't lose more than 2 conference games though. We may win out, but I doubt it. That doesn't mean we are mediocre. This team is good. Good IMO is a top 40 team, and that's what this team is.

[thesportscritic]

No, in the Big South we will never reach top 10. It's too hard to recruit that level of player in this conference. As long as we are in the Big south, our goals should be to win the conference ever year, with an occasional (1 in 3 at least) win in the NCAA tourney.

I don't think we will run the table the rest of the way because the BSC has improved since the last few years. Even Katie & co couldn't run the table every year. We shouldn't lose more than 2 conference games though. We may win out, but I doubt it. That doesn't mean we are mediocre. This team is good. Good IMO is a top 40 team, and that's what this team is.

Playing the teams in the Big South this season ought to be interesting this year. The teams i am concerned about when we face them is Radford, High Point. CCU could give us problems possibly. Hopefully we will have a better showing this year in the league.

[jcmanson]

Yes, and I think we will have a better showing. I feel that Coach has these girls focused after losing last year. It got them that spark in the tank that they needed.

[JK37]

Division I teams Carolina beat by more than they beat us:

NC Central
Elon
Coppin St
Syracuse
Furman
College of Charleston
Wofford
Coastal
Western Kentucky

Rough night. Don't rub it in.

[SuperJon]

If I wanted to rub it in, I would've highlighted it like you did.

[JK37]

I've always thought the hope lies with what has happened in the men's game. It has evloved into a place where there is tons of partiy but there are some "established" powerhouses and also established elite mid-majors. This hasn't happened in wbb yet (aside from powerhouses). Assuming it does as the game evlolves, I think we can get in on it.

You are correct, for the most part. The light bulb may go off as to why once you begin to ocnsider men's basketball and women's basketball two different saports, rather than the same sport being played by each gender. Aside from the fact that they are two entirely different games when played on the floor, they are also governed very differently by the NCAA, starting with the number of scholarships in each program. (13 for men, 15 for women...a Title IX fixture for schools struggling to be Title IX compliant).

Your previuous statements about women's baksetball being so top-heavy are pretty close to accurate. It's not just the top 5 anymmore; mostly the top 10-12. And, its not by 20 points anymore. Maybe 10-15 points. Small difference,s but there is growing parity in the sport. As for established mid-majors, Middle Tennessee State and UTC are the only distinctly established ones that come to mind.

[ATrain]

JK-don't forget ODU as an "established" mid-major

[BJWilliams]

JK-don't forget ODU as an "established" mid-major

Youd think winning your conference 16 years in a row and coming one game from winning a national championship in 1997 as well as having knocked off teams like Tennessee, UCONN and Stanford would make you an established mid-major

[olldflame]

IMHO ODU is almost a seperate category for wbb teams. They are a major power, having won national championships in the pre-NCAA days and challenged in the "modern era", but happen to play in a mid-major conference. To be honest, for now where they are is where we should aspire to be. They kind of disprove the theory that a team from a weaker conference can't reach the highest level. The Colonial is obviously better than the Big South, but not by that much.

[BJWilliams]

I see your point. Being from that area Ive had a chance to follow the ODU women's program for a very long time. Wendy Larry really has done an amazing job there and to be able to continually keep that program at or near the top of the CAA as long as she has, and to have never lost a tournament game in her tenuere, even after losing some very VERY good talent over the years...(and of course remember that they ran LU out of the building the only time they ever met) they really should be in the discussion as an upper echelon team in WBB

[JK37]

JK-don't forget ODU as an "established" mid-major

That's my mistake. I would deifnitely consider tham an established mid-major. Good points made above about them maybe not being ocnsidered for that because of their sustained success. But, does that mean that in 10 years, if Gonzaga is still successful on the men's side, we stop thinking of them as mid-major? IMO, no. What these athletic departments have to do to establish themselves is far more difficult than what the BCS schools have to do. That is why no matter how sustained the success of ODU's women's program is, they are still a mid-major. Just a very, very successful one.