November 9, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Who have been the most impressive freshmen to start the 2024-25 season?
By The Next
Several of them faced off on Monday when South Carolina narrowly topped Michigan
In the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, Hunter Cruse, Emily Adler and Lincoln Shafer talk about the freshmen in women’s college basketball who have impressed them most in this young season.
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They begin with Michigan, which lost 68-62 to No. 1 South Carolina on Monday despite 27 points and 12 rebounds from freshman guard Syla Swords. Adler breaks down what Swords and her fellow freshmen showed:
“The Michigan trio of freshmen is something really fun. And obviously, I think you see flashes in Mila Holloway. You see things with Olivia Olson that are — she, I think, is going to be a very good player, just based on some of the flashes we saw there.
“But there’s a difference between looking at a freshman’s first game against an elite college team and being like, ‘OK, this is the flashes. This is the makings of a good player,’ versus what you see with Syla Swords, which is … where we look at [her performance] and say, ‘Yes, this is what a special player looked like when they were 18 and played their first college game.’ Not saying that she will be, but my God, there’s a lot there.”
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Staying in the Big Ten, Cruse talks about Ohio State freshman guard Jaloni Cambridge, who had 31 points on 12-for-14 shooting, six rebounds, six assists and five steals against Cleveland State on Monday:
“My early takeaway was Ohio State [head coach] Kevin McGuff is going from having the best transition player in the country in Jacy Sheldon to maybe the next best transition player. [Cambridge] scored 20 points in transition in her first game. And these weren’t just open-court transition where it’s [coming from] a steal [or] pressing. This was her in semi-transition. Three players are back on defense, and she just beats all of them down the court. She’s incredible.”
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Other freshmen Cruse, Adler and Shafer discuss include South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards, USC’s Kennedy Smith and Louisville’s Tajianna Roberts. Plus, they mention some upperclassmen who stood out this week, too.
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