SMU WBB Season Stats 1 3 25 (PDF) - SMU Athletics

I watched the entire Stanford loss to SMU. The Mustangs are not a good matchup for the Bears. They have a tandem of two small, fast guards (like Clemson) and they play two strong post players in their starting lineup. The Stanford game was filled with offensive runs by both teams when negligible defense was being played. SMU exploded out of the gate with a 10-0 start. They expanded their margin to 16 points before the Cardinal finished the half on a run, cutting the deficit in half to 8 points.

The second half was similar as SMU bollted out to an 18-point spread. Stanford went to a zone defense because they could not matchup "man-to man." The Cardinal trailed by a dozen points (64-52) with 1:58 seconds left. Believe it or not, they rallied to w/in 1 point (64-63). A trio of three-point plays closed the gap before the Mustang's speedy PG, Zanai Jones, drove to the basket for a layup. Final: 67-63. Stanford connected on 9 treys.

I predict SMU will defeat Cal by a similar score of 68-65. This is a rematch of the two HCs from 2022-23 in the championship game of *Raise The Bar* invitational. The Mustangs possessed three super-fast guards that day that dictated the outcome of the game. SMU won 70-56.

2024-25 Women's Basketball Roster - SMU Athletics

SMU (9-5) is hot right now and has won 4 straight games. The Mustangs are 7-1 at home in Dallas. I expect their guards to neutralize Cal's backcourt and their two "bigs" will dominate the boards inside. The Mustangs grab 44 rebounds per game including approximately 17 offensive boards. Jessica Peterson is #3 in the nation in rebounding (12.5) and averages 5 "O" boards per contest. The 6-2 player averages a double-double and has a nice right-handed hook shot. She also is an excellent shot blocker with 21 on the season. Husky 6-1 Chantae Embry scores 11.7 points and secures 7.2 rebounds. As a soph, she had a strong game in Berkeley with 13 points and 9 boards.

Two transfer guards are coming together at mid-season. They both tallied 20 points on Thursday night. Nya Robertson is a 5-7 junior transfer from George Washington and leads the Mustang's offense w/ 20.1 ppg. She is SMU's primary three-point threat w/36. Robertson is more of a scorer (like Jayda Curry), hitting 35.1% of field goal attempts. She is second in steals but turns the ball over 3x per game. I would think that Cal would assign Kayla Williams to defend her. Zanai Jones is a 5-5 grad transfer PG from Villanova. She is a sound ball-handler with 3.8 assists/ 1.6 turnovers per game. She adds 9.1 ppg but can go off on scoring spurts like she did in the second half vs Stanford.

TK Pitts is a 6-1 junior athletic wing and their fifth starter. She is their best all-around defender and leads the Mustangs with 28 steals and is 2nd in blocks w/12. Pitts is 3rd in rebounds with 5.4/g. TK adds 5.5 ppg.

Their sixth man is 5-8 Aussie point guard, Ella Brow. As a freshman, she started & played 34 minutes at Cal and contributed 4 assists and only 1 TO. This six player rotation averages between 23.4-33.3 minutes per game.

The only weakness that is evident for the Mustangs is one-on-one defense. Their starting guards are only 5-5 & 5-7 so they can be posted up or shot over the top of for treys. Stanford stayed in contact w/ Southern Methodist by hitting 9 three-pointers. If the Bears can find their long-distance stroke, they could take this game.
The Mustangs force 15.1 TOs but turn the ball over 14.8x themselves.

I hope Cal can gain a split on the road but their offense was MIA against Clemson. GO BEARS!

If you both are correct, I'm going to have to consider retiring from this endeavor. The next three ACC opponents appear to be even tougher than these two teams. It could be a rough conference schedule if Cal doesn't get back to playing their best basketball. GO BEARS!

Like they always say, "it's why they play the games."

Two tough stats for us - 4-15 on threes and Oniyah/Abigor with a combined 4 fouls in a combined 12 minutes.

Three Cal starters picked up 2 fouls each between 7-9 minutes in 1st half. They missed an entire quarter.
Cal not playing much defense. SMU is hitting 60% on threes. At least some of the Bears are hitting their shots today. Forty points scored at half and only leading by 4. Shootout in Texas!

Strange game calls made by the ACC officials. There were so many whistles that it prevented any real flow from developing...I NEVER discuss officiating but there were inexplicable foul calls against Cal that I could not believe.

Cal's scoring (81) returned this afternoon, and the Bears outrebounded SMU by a large margin (40-29). However, the problem areas of turnovers (20), personal fouls (19) & weak defense were ever present. Nobody was defending Nya Robertson (#3). The Bears allowed her to drive to the basket for uncontested layups. She fired up 10 treys and was wide open the majority of the time. Luckily-she only made three.

Anastasia Drosouni (#23) has demonstrated a reserve that doesn't make many errors. She also can shoot both from the field and the free throw line. She contributed 7 points off of the bench. It might have been the best performance by a reserve this season. Giselle Maul tallied 10 points once, but she has faded into the background since. Anastasia has been steadily improving, and her performances have been more consistent.

Jayda Noble plays hard and led the team in rebounding with nine. Her minutes are richly deserved.

I'm happy that I was wrong on my prediction and that Cal is in possession of 14-2 record. GO BEARS!

10 on us, 4 on them.

Two of our 3-point shooters had to sit during the 2nd quarter. Lulu sat the whole 2nd quarter because of 2 fouls and Marta played less than half of the quarter.

Krimili and Williams back to back 3's. We are killing them on the O boards

RIDICULOUS

I don't know why we let opposing players go to the strong hand

A couple of bad turnovers, fortunately not at a bad time.

It was close, but a late run got us to 20 turnovers.