Five Out: Notre Dame's fall, a potential USC corner turn, and a full plate of Thanksgiving Week Takeaways
After a stacked slate of games across the Thanksgiving Week (if you paid), Tyler is here with his thoughts for this week's Five Out.
Hello! Tyler here subbing in for Andrew again for this week’s Five Out. There were some real hoops across the nation with the season officially picking up some steam, most behind a paywall during the annual FloHoops week, but real hoops occurred nonetheless. Let’s talk about some of it!
Ta’Niya Latson needs to be talked about
I’m not sure what else needs to be seen to get Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson consistently in the dialogue of women’s basketball players.
Latson currently leads the entire country in scoring by nearly an entire point at 26.1 PPG. She also just put up her first career triple-double against Gonzaga with 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.
Florida State asks a lot out of Latson which sometimes causes the numbers to look less efficient than you might like. But let me tell you, if you are having a conversation about bucket getters in women’s basketball, not only should Latson be in the conversation but she has a great argument to be at the top of the list.
Eye emojis on Kentucky
The last time I subbed in for Five Out was directly after the Battle of the Bluegrass between Louisville and Kentucky. When writing that, I mentioned that Kentucky has more “now” pieces than Louisville does in the grand scheme of the rivalry. Folks, those now pieces are showing up way more than I had anticipated.
Clara Strack showed flashes at Virginia Tech last year during her freshman campaign and after following Kenny Brooks to Kentucky, you can forget flashes; the lights are ON! Brooks was able to find the next player in the Liz Kitley avatar cycle and the early returns have been phenomenal. Strack might end up being the most improved player across the country going from 4.5 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 0.7 APG, and 2.9 BPG last season to 18.3 PPG, 11 RPG, 4 APG and 2.9 BPG this year.
And thar’s just one standout. You have her partner down low in Teonni Key who is nearly averaging a double-double in her own right while also averaging 3.6 BPG, which is good enough for 3rd in the country. If Georgia Amoore can get the shooting splits closer to where they were at Virginia Tech? Kentucky could get even more dangerous.
SEC play will realistically tell all for this Kentucky team but following a really great win against #19 Illinois, there is a lot to like right now.
USC’s potential corner turn
Look, the vibes early for the Women of Troy have been…off. HOWEVER, I think the second half against Saint Louis might have been the corner turn.
I’m not exactly sure what changed. Maybe it was something said at halftime, maybe it was Lindsay Gottlieb putting her hair up in to the ponytail, which then got a graphic on the broadcast, but something changed.
Regardless of what happened, that second half felt like an exhale for every USC player. They were laughing on the bench and in-between whistles. Simply put it looked like they were having fun for the first time this season.
This is a team that literally is starting from ground zero in terms of chemistry. From the transfers to the freshman, there are so many new faces.
The vibe shift was something so incredibly evident and they played some of their best basketball in the 2nd half resulting in JuJu Watkins and Kiki Iriafen combing for 64 points, Talia von Oelhoffen having her clear best game of the season, and USC taking a five point lead at the half and turning it into a 39 point victory.
If, emphasis on if, we see USC truly start to build momentum and there looks to be a corner turned, the second half for Saint Louis will be what kick started it all.
S’Mya Nichols has been overlooked
I completely understand how ridiculous last season’s freshman class was. In fact, I made a video about it. With that being said, there were several freshman who in a “normal” year would be in the Freshman of the Year conversation but found themselves overshadowed for a multitude of reasons.
Kansas’ S’Mya Nichols was one of those players. Nichols has been given a lot more responsibility this season after several key Jayhawks graduated and she's taking it in stride.
After the KU’s win over Auburn where Nichols sealed the game with a three and free throws in crunch time, Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider said “when you have the best player in the tournament, you have a chance to win.” and Nichols is one of those players.
A three level scorer on offense and an active defender. Don’t sleep on S’Mya Nichols.
So uh…Notre Dame?
Before we get into some Notre Dame thoughts, allow me to touch on one thing. This is just a reminder and not directed at any particular fan base because I have seen cause for this reminder all over, but healthy dialogue is good. And when teams lose, there will be dialogue. There will be questions. That is sports and in a season that is shaping up to be one of the most volatile at the top that we have seen in a long time, it is bound to happen. Now I emphasize HEALTHY dialogue because it can get wicked on social media, but generalizing, the dialogue is a great sign for women’s hoops!
NOW, what in the world happened to Notre Dame? Following the massive statement win against USC in Los Angeles where they dominated the game, they lose first to TCU (find my full immediate reactions to that game here!) and then to Utah.
I touched on this in the immediate reaction on the No Cap Space YouTube, but Notre Dame relied on their individual offensive talent this week, not their offensive talent as a team. During the USC game there were several eye-popping passing connections, especially between Hannah Hidalgo and Olivia Miles, that were not there in these two losses.
My educated guess for this is frankly early exhaustion. Sometimes it can generally be hard for teams to “stay up” after a major win like the one Notre Dame had. Then you add the injury factor for Notre Dame which has them playing with a limited rotation right now and it could be an additional toll taken on these players.
Normally, I’d say this is fairly easy to shake off. Get back home, sleep in your own bed, reset a bit, pick up a win and keep it pushing. It just isn’t that simple for Notre Dame. Yeah, you’ll get a familiar sleep but you are waking up to #5 Texas coming to town, playing at Syracuse, and then coming back home to face #2 UConn.
I’m not gonna say I’m worried about Notre Dame yet because a lot of what I saw in these losses was not there in the USC game, which I feel is much more reflective of the level of team they are. With that upcoming schedule though? Things certainly have a chance to get worse in the loss column before they get better.