December 28, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Previewing Power Four conference play
By The Next
Who will win the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC?
In the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, The Next’s Emily Adler and Lincoln Shafer preview conference play for each of the Power Four conferences: the ACC, the Big 12, the Big Ten and the SEC.
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Adler and Shafer begin with the Big Ten, which is home to four teams ranked in the top 10 of the latest AP poll: No. 1 UCLA, No. 4 USC, No. 8 Maryland and No. 10 Ohio State. Here’s Shafer’s take on the Bruins’ outlook for their first season in the conference:
“They are big and deep and will just pound you to death with offensive rebounds. They have offensive skill, they have a ton of defensive talent, and they’re the prohibitive favorite in the Big Ten, along with the other new addition in Los Angeles. … USC’s probably also in that top tier. It helps to have the best player in the conference [sophomore guard JuJu Watkins].”
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Next, Adler and Shafer move to the ACC, which has six top-25 teams led by No. 3 Notre Dame. Adler talks about why No. 14 Duke has the right roster construction to potentially win the conference:
“This is what you want out of a team that is going to be, I think, quantitatively, a top-three defense in the country [and] qualitatively, maybe the best defense in the country. … You have sort of lockdown ability. You have help defense [at] every position. Everyone is at least a decent enough contributor on offense to make team sets happen. But … who is going to score 20, 25 points among the wings and the posts? Sometimes it’s none of them. Sometimes it’s both Reigan Richardson and Oluchi Okananwa, or it’s Ashlon Jackson. That’s sort of the construct you want to be sort of high floor, high ceiling.”
Related content:
- Locked On Women’s Basketball: Ta’Niya Latson is making history at Florida State
- High-powered offense has Georgia Tech undefeated and ahead of schedule
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