J.B.
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Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
Drexel has already had an interesting start to the season.
Big win at home vs. Penn State followed by an expected win at home against Delaware State. They battled Vanderbilt to the end on their really strange home court, but the Dragons were out-muscled at the end.
Tonight is their biggest test of the season when the face national semi-finalist, Syracuse at the DAC. Dragons played them at the Carrier Dome last year and actually got off to a really good start and led 22-9 after 1Q thanks to some great early 3 point shooting by Rachel Pearson. But Drexel still lost 83-62.
Drexel also faced the 'cuse at the DAC in the 2012 WNIT but lost 65-43.
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11-21-2016 12:50 PM |
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J.B.
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
Dragons hanging with the Lady Oranges (is that a thing?), 31-31 at halftime. Of course, they were tied 34-34 at halftime last year at the dome and got buried in the 2nd half.
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11-21-2016 07:51 PM |
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J.B.
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
Drexel 62, Syracuse 61.
What an incredible upset win at the DAC against the National Semi-Finalists.
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11-21-2016 08:58 PM |
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MedicSBK
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
If you didnt see the end of the game, they won it on a 3 with 8 seconds to go when they were trailing 61-59. What a finish!
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11-21-2016 09:03 PM |
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Timer
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
(11-21-2016 09:03 PM)MedicSBK Wrote: If you didnt see the end of the game, they won it on a 3 with 8 seconds to go when they were trailing 61-59. What a finish!
Eh, just another game at the DAC .....
One of the best games you'll ever see. Unless I'm off, DU's largest lead was 7 at 11-4 in the 1st and Syracuse's was up by 6 middle of the 4th.. Most of the game played within 3.
(This post was last modified: 11-21-2016 09:49 PM by Timer.)
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11-21-2016 09:49 PM |
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dan10
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
What a win. Denise is a blessing to have on our sidelines. She game plans so well for any game. Glad they got the upset.
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11-22-2016 07:34 AM |
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J.B.
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
Now that we've had a few hours to absorb and enjoy the win, it's time for the tough part.
The pressure is now on for this team. Had they lost this game, they could just look at it and say, "OK, now we just have to do as well as we possibly can, put ourselves in a position to win the CAA, and if that doesn't happen put ourselves in position to go back to the WNIT".
That's not the case now with this team. I know it's still early, and hopefully nobody on the team is reading this. But they've got 7 very winnable OOC games, and can't have a letdown. They have a chance to be ranked now and a remote position for an at-large bid. Delaware, JMU and ODU, and VCU put themselves in that position in the past so it IS possible in CAA WBB. Hopefully this will continue to be a really fun year for the Lady Dragons.
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11-22-2016 07:57 AM |
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jcohen42
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
Man, I really wanted to catch this game, too! Dang you, senior-year engineering...
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11-22-2016 09:23 AM |
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dan10
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
(11-22-2016 07:57 AM)J.B. Wrote: Now that we've had a few hours to absorb and enjoy the win, it's time for the tough part.
The pressure is now on for this team. Had they lost this game, they could just look at it and say, "OK, now we just have to do as well as we possibly can, put ourselves in a position to win the CAA, and if that doesn't happen put ourselves in position to go back to the WNIT".
That's not the case now with this team. I know it's still early, and hopefully nobody on the team is reading this. But they've got 7 very winnable OOC games, and can't have a letdown. They have a chance to be ranked now and a remote position for an at-large bid. Delaware, JMU and ODU, and VCU put themselves in that position in the past so it IS possible in CAA WBB. Hopefully this will continue to be a really fun year for the Lady Dragons.
I do not think it adds any pressure. We were picked 3rd in the CAA, so it is not like we were predicted to be pushed over this season. JMU is still the favorite and our history against them is not good.
We have typically scheduled difficult OOC under Denise and it has set us up for success in the post season. I do not see this as any different. We are playing well right now, but we need to continue to do so. Our teams have had great OOC before and then have a let down or two against bad teams in conference. That is usually what hurts the at large talks, and I do not see that as any different this year. Our style lends to close games when shots are not falling, which allows for upsets. I think we need to just stay our course and keep playing our game, and the cards will fall the way they will fall, which under Denise has been favorably.
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11-22-2016 09:51 AM |
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J.B.
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
(11-22-2016 09:51 AM)dan10 Wrote: (11-22-2016 07:57 AM)J.B. Wrote: Now that we've had a few hours to absorb and enjoy the win, it's time for the tough part.
The pressure is now on for this team. Had they lost this game, they could just look at it and say, "OK, now we just have to do as well as we possibly can, put ourselves in a position to win the CAA, and if that doesn't happen put ourselves in position to go back to the WNIT".
That's not the case now with this team. I know it's still early, and hopefully nobody on the team is reading this. But they've got 7 very winnable OOC games, and can't have a letdown. They have a chance to be ranked now and a remote position for an at-large bid. Delaware, JMU and ODU, and VCU put themselves in that position in the past so it IS possible in CAA WBB. Hopefully this will continue to be a really fun year for the Lady Dragons.
I do not think it adds any pressure. We were picked 3rd in the CAA, so it is not like we were predicted to be pushed over this season. JMU is still the favorite and our history against them is not good.
We have typically scheduled difficult OOC under Denise and it has set us up for success in the post season. I do not see this as any different. We are playing well right now, but we need to continue to do so. Our teams have had great OOC before and then have a let down or two against bad teams in conference. That is usually what hurts the at large talks, and I do not see that as any different this year. Our style lends to close games when shots are not falling, which allows for upsets. I think we need to just stay our course and keep playing our game, and the cards will fall the way they will fall, which under Denise has been favorably.
I felt that even before the season started that this was a very talented team, maybe as talented as the 2009 CAA or 2013 WNIT championship teams. I agree with you about how their reliance on the 3 point shot, and their knack of cold shooting spells has caused them to have a lot of disappointing losses over the years against teams they should beat. We're going to have to wait and see if the talent and depth on this team and health (always a factor) is strong enough to take them to the next level. They've been to the WNIT a bunch of times and just getting their shouldn't be good enough anymore. We'll have to see if this team can finally go toe to toe with JMU and get to the NCAAT.
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11-22-2016 12:56 PM |
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J.B.
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
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11-23-2016 03:05 PM |
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dan10
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
And our response to that big win was a loss at Bucknell who was coming off a loss to conference foe Elon. Syracuse followed up their loss to us playing in the Gulf Coast Showcase with an opening win by 3 over George Washington, a 5 point loss on Saturday to #8 Ohio State and then a blowout loss by 24 on Sunday to #18 DePaul. This weeks rankings dropped Syracuse to #20 after their 3 losses.
In other women's basketball news, Virginia Tech is now 6-0 after just beating Tennessee. This is VT's first season under former JMU coach Kenny Brooks.
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11-28-2016 01:53 PM |
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J.B.
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
It's amazing that a team like Syracuse can lose 3 games this early...lose to a CAA team, and STILL be ranked in the top 25, while if a strong mid-major has one slip up, they pretty much have no chance of being ranked all season.
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11-29-2016 07:52 AM |
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dan10
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
(11-29-2016 07:52 AM)J.B. Wrote: It's amazing that a team like Syracuse can lose 3 games this early...lose to a CAA team, and STILL be ranked in the top 25, while if a strong mid-major has one slip up, they pretty much have no chance of being ranked all season.
Well in their defense 2 of those losses were to ranked opponents. But I agree any team losing 3 games in a week should drop out of the rankings, even if just for a week. Women's basketball rankings are well known for this type of behavior of keeping big programs highly ranked while not giving the smaller guys any chance.
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11-29-2016 01:02 PM |
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J.B.
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
Dragons pulled away from a really good Cornell team to get their first road win of the season. Nice to see them come back and pull one out after losing to Bucknell last week.
It changes every moment, but at this time, Drexel's RPI is up to 25, best in the CAA. The CAA as a group is ranked 8th in RPI just below the 7 power conferences.
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2016 03:43 PM by J.B..)
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12-03-2016 03:41 PM |
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dan10
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
It was a nice win but lets not act like Cornell is that great. Yes they lost to a good Pitt team, but they also lost to Towson. Towson is not good. This was a game we needed to win for sure, even on the road
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12-03-2016 10:36 PM |
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J.B.
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
Dragons 69-57 winners over Niagara at home tonight. Drexel is now 5-2. RPI is currently at 23. They're ranked 4th in the ESPNW mid-major poll, and only #18 in the College Insiders Mid Major Poll.
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12-13-2016 06:55 PM |
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dan10
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
(12-13-2016 06:55 PM)J.B. Wrote: Dragons 69-57 winners over Niagara at home tonight. Drexel is now 5-2. RPI is currently at 23. They're ranked 4th in the ESPNW mid-major poll, and only #18 in the College Insiders Mid Major Poll.
I would trust the mid major poll a bit more since they actually focus on the mid majors all of the time. ESPNW goes with rash decisions based on little evidence. Like us jumping so high after beating syracuse while not even being ranked prior to that. Massive jumps like that should always be suspicious.
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12-14-2016 07:32 AM |
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J.B.
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
Today, Drexel extended Denise Dillon's contract to the 2023 season. They clearly see her value and know how tough it would be to get a coach as good as she is to come to Drexel. I will admit that I don't know much about college basketball coaches contracts, but I wonder if there's stipulations that would cause other schools to pay large sums of money to Drexel if somebody tries to steal her.
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12-15-2016 08:34 PM |
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Water Boy
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RE: Drexel Women's Basketball 2016-17
(12-15-2016 08:34 PM)J.B. Wrote: Today, Drexel extended Denise Dillon's contract to the 2023 season. They clearly see her value and know how tough it would be to get a coach as good as she is to come to Drexel. I will admit that I don't know much about college basketball coaches contracts, but I wonder if there's stipulations that would cause other schools to pay large sums of money to Drexel if somebody tries to steal her.
I think she will likely be at Drexel until Harry Perretta retires from Villanova. Hopefully we would get something from them, but I would imagine that she wouldn't sign something that would keep her from being able to leave for that job.
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12-15-2016 09:41 PM |
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