Freshmen....Rickea Jackson, Aliyah Matharu, J. Mingo-Young, and Jayla Hemingway

Miss. State women's basketball freshmen
- Rickea Jackson (Detroit, Michigan)
- Aliyah Matharu (Forestville, Maryland)
- JaMya Mingo-Young (Loranger, Louisiana)
- Jayla Hemingway (Germantown, Tennessee)

My opinion, this is one of the top 3 freshmen classes in women's college basketball. Appears on par with South Carolina's #1 rated class of 2019, and Stanford's #3 rated 2019 class as well.

Extremely difficult to stay with Coach Schaefer's group in the transition game, and dribble drive type action. These youngsters appear a big key to a possible deep run the NCAA Tourney this season. The addition of this talented freshman class to the roster helps give Miss. State the potential to litterally just go out, and outscore teams. Also, adds greatly to the team's ability to bring ball pressure.

I won't say one of the top 3 classes of WBB, but definitely the most talented class we've had come through imo. Was really impressed with the play of Matharu & Mingo-Young last night and love the offense they provide when Mya is resting. Can see Mingo-Young pushing for more of a 50-50 PT split as the season progresses.

And Matharu was definitely an offensive spark plug last night, just wish she had more PT in the 2nd half. But should not have had her throwing the ball in at the end of last night's game (maybe Bibby or someone taller and more seasoned).

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Originally Posted by jdelta02

Miss. State women's basketball freshmen
- Rickea Jackson (Detroit, Michigan)
- Aliyah Matharu (Forestville, Maryland)
- JaMya Mingo-Young (Loranger, Louisiana)
- Jayla Hemingway (Germantown, Tennessee)

My opinion, this is one of the top 3 freshmen classes in women's college basketball. Appears on par with South Carolina's #1 rated class of 2019, and Stanford's #3 rated 2019 class as well.

Extremely difficult to stay with Coach Schaefer's group in the transition game, and dribble drive type action. These youngsters appear a big key to a possible deep run the NCAA Tourney this season. The addition of this talented freshman class to the roster helps give Miss. State the potential to litterally just go out, and outscore teams. Also, adds greatly to the team's ability to bring ball pressure.

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This team is really a year or two away from contending for the big prize. They are good but in two years they will be great.

IMO, next year we are the team to beat.

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Originally Posted by WSOPdawg

...when Mya is resting.

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With the way they are playing she needs to be resting more.

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Originally Posted by Dawg-gone-dawgs

With the way they are playing she needs to be resting more.

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Can't argue with that.

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Originally Posted by trob115

IMO, next year we are the team to beat.

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Agree. I think we are a Sweet-16 team that can push for Elite-8 this year, but next year we should be back pushing for a top seed / #1 bracket seed.

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Originally Posted by trob115

IMO, next year we are the team to beat.

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We will be extremely good, but South Carolina is every bit as young as we are, if not more so.

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Originally Posted by WSOPdawg

Agree. I think we are a Sweet-16 team that can push for Elite-8 this year, but next year we should be back pushing for a top seed / #1 bracket seed.

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I can see this. I think our ladies are about the 8-10th best team in the country right now. They're getting better, with more consistency, and playing time/experience for the freshmen, we could make a run to 8.

But next year......maybe another back to back for 21-22.

They are young, but they have two very good senior guards. And one of their freshmen is the number one recruit and a Big-T type difference maker (and probably further developed than T as a Frosh).

Honestly Vic biggest struggle right now is his loyalty. We are significantly upping our talent profile over previous seasons, but Vic is still sticking with his veterans to a fault. As we continue to recruit at this level the program will elevate as we no longer have gritty players that lack athleticism compared to their top peers. If we continue to develop this team can make a nice run the SC game proved that.

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Originally Posted by revdrdawg

They are young, but they have two very good senior guards. And one of their freshmen is the number one recruit and a Big-T type difference maker (and probably further developed than T as a Frosh).

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And our best player is a senior guard.

I'm just saying, you can't just look at how young we are and say, well, we're obviously the team to beat come next year. Because if we're saying that, South Carolina is definitely saying that.

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Originally Posted by smootness

And our best player is a senior guard.

I'm just saying, you can't just look at how young we are and say, well, we're obviously the team to beat come next year. Because if we're saying that, South Carolina is definitely saying that.

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But Monday night showed that we are perfectly capable of beating them. We will never waltz to a national title, and we may not be the clear undisputed favorite the next few years, but we should certainly be legitimate contender.

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Originally Posted by Captain Falcon

But Monday night showed that we are perfectly capable of beating them. We will never waltz to a national title, and we may not be the clear undisputed favorite the next few years, but we should certainly be legitimate contender.

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I don't disagree with that at all. I was just taking issue with the 'we are the team to beat' claim...and it sounds like you would take issue with it as well.

an important thing to notice from our loss is we played some zone defense. Also at the end of the game both Carter and Morris were on the court.

In Vic's press conference yesterday, he sounded like he was going to make some changes to the starting lineup.

Team can make a deep NCAA Tourney run this season....aided heavily by these very talented freshmen. Freshmen scored over half of Miss. State's total points against South Carolina. Also, freshmen were a big keys
to Miss. State's huge near comeback against former #1 Stanford.

Remember....
A very young Syracuse team won the whole thing (National Championship) back in 2003 starting. 2 freshmen, 2 sophomores, and 1 senior. Had another freshman and sophomore as key off the bench. Freshmen Carmello Anthony and Gerry McNamara were the catalysts with this team. Another freshmen....Billy Edelin was huge off the bench. This group played a lot of zone defense, had 6-9 power forward Hakim Warrick and 7 foot center Craig Forth helping hold things down in that zone.