10:15 this morning, supposedly, somewhere on this link:

https://www.youtube.com/FIBA

http://www.fiba.com/world/u19women/2015/games

Have read unfortunate reports of Kristine not getting much playing time during exhibition games (although making the most of them: e.g., 4 points and 6 rebounds in 8 minutes); I hope she's feeling OK. Was it here that I read about coaches at such tournaments favoring their own players and recruits?

Yes and are you freaking joking. This is some BS going on. No way should Kristine be playing so few minutes. Staley taking out players who go on runs as they may out score her own player, playing players who she and Walz are recruiting. Totally disgusted right now after watching how well Kristine did in Worlds last year and has improved greatly since then.

"Totally disgusted" is right. K.A. was allowed about 5 minutes, 2 in trash time when the USA was way ahead. She did get two points off free throws, a couple of TOs, plus a beautiful (and swift) vertical-dive of a block.

Don't know what's going on, but Dawn Staley has a sterling reputation to uphold; I hope her reason for messing with Anigwe's P.T. is a good one.

http://www.fiba.com/ls/#8051&11717-B-2

BearBint;842515669 said:

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"Totally disgusted" is right. K.A. was allowed about 5 minutes, 2 in trash time when the USA was way ahead. She did get two points off free throws, a couple of TOs, plus a beautiful (and swift) vertical-dive of a block.

Don't know what's going on, but Dawn Staley has a sterling reputation to uphold; I hope her reason for messing with Anigwe's P.T. is a good one.

http://www.fiba.com/ls/#8051&11717-B-2

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Yeah, Dawn seems like such a cranky coach when I watch her games! lol plus that thing she did with Kelsey Bone a few years back when she transferred

So Kristine is there for whole of training camp and everyone I know says she is a very hard worker, Slocum goes straight from the plane and gets in before Kristine and plays over 15 minutes with 5 turnovers!!! And yes guess who is recruiting Slocum!!

califan;842515692 said:

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So Kristine is there for whole of training camp and everyone I know says she is a very hard worker, Slocum goes straight from the plane and gets in before Kristine and plays over 15 minutes with 5 turnovers!!! And yes guess who is recruiting Slocum!!

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And this is a surprise? Staley doesn't get paid close to a million dollars a year to annoy potential recruits. Of course she played Slocum and her players -- why wouldn't she? Is USA Basketball more important to her, or any Power 5 coach, than the job that pays her mortgage?

I see it's even been noted on Rebkell.net that "the Cal fans are furious" and Rebkell are not a bastion of west-coast fandom.

Anyway, if anyone wants to complain to USA Basketball:

Craig Miller, FanMail@usabasketball.com

No, it's not a surprise, given how tightly university sports are entangled with university finances and university politics and a few other things. Still disappointing and infuriating, and Bear Insider is a place we can vent about it.

...and Slocum is still undecided, right?

Unfair. I've watched two Team USA victories in the Pan Am Games and the team is built around two UConn players. Kelsey Plum played 1 1/2 minutes in the Brazil game and a bit more versus Puerto Rico. I predict Canada will defeat the US for the Pan Am gold. Only a single Pac 12 player participating (Plum) on this lackluster "team"...

puget sound cal fan;842515811 said:

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...and Slocum is still undecided, right?

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According to a Rebkell commenter, Slocum's now looking at "Duke, Maryland (both of which she's visited this summer), South Carolina, Louisville, Notre Dame, and TN."

If this were a heartwarming sports film, young Destiny--what a title!--would find Staley and Walz too pushy, and start thinking about that nice, enthusiastic youngish coach out there on the west coast dot dot dot

(She claims to want to join a team that's on the rise, after all.)

Don't worry--I'm not counting on this scenario.

ClayK;842515800 said:

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And this is a surprise? Staley doesn't get paid close to a million dollars a year to annoy potential recruits. Of course she played Slocum and her players -- why wouldn't she? Is USA Basketball more important to her, or any Power 5 coach, than the job that pays her mortgage?

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Actually no. But I don't like it and I think there are some good coaches with better standards than these 2. USA has dropped the ball, especially if they want anyone to support them

So Anigwe didn't play at all against China, in what appeared to a comfortable win, so she could have at least gotten garbage minutes. Maybe she's ill or injured?

I am usually not one to jump on the bandwagon when people cry foul about a certain coach, but reading all the stuff that is being said certainly gives me a feeling that there is a pattern to what Staley is doing. Cox who hasn't looked good at all, is getting in relatively early and playing minutes and Slocum gets minutes without practicing a second. There are players on the team who seem to be doing well and then are suddenly subbed out.

"USA Basketball received your email. As is the case with all USA Basketball teams, playing time is a function of the number of factors including the number of players at each position, their experience and age. Additionally, this is a tough age range as you have a mix of college players who have a level of physical and basketball maturity that often times high school players may need extra time to develop. Those things, combined with an intermittent illness, have limited Kristine's playing time. Specifically, tonight she was ill, which was noted the the game story."

Hmmm. The "game story" is a collection of stats and graphics, and the "game report" is a short prose piece; neither the Spain-USA nor the China-USA game reports mentioned Anigwe at all. She was sitting on the bench at both games, seemingly polite and enthusiastic. So who knows? Perhaps K.A. was warned she'd play strictly garbage minutes, but there have been a lot of garbage minutes and very little Kristine.

Sometimes it's hard to be a homer. I'll hope Kristine gets some P.T. tomorrow against Egypt.

Other than the reference to Kristine being ill, it's a canned answer. They must get a lot of the same question.

The best post player in the 2015 class can't get minutes?! Something tells me if Coach G was in this position she wouldn't pull this. Class act!

Not really related to FIBA U19 but another Cal player is on her National Team and about to play in International competition in the FIBA Oceania Series.
Penina Davidson is part of the Tall Ferns of NZ. This is an Olympic Qualifying event so she will playing against top players from Australia, Japan, S. Korea, and Chinese Taipei.

PLAYERS SELECTED
Guards/Small Forwards
Micaela Cocks, Townsville Fire (AUS)
Jordan Hunter, Auckland Counties Manukau Lady Hawks
Stella Beck, Saint Mary's College of California (USA)
Samara Gallaher, Hume City Broncos (AUS), Oceana Gold Rush Otago
Natalie Taylor, Gladstone Power (AUS)
Kalani Purcell, Brigham Young University (USA)
Chevannah Paalvast, Southern Peninsular Sharks (AUS)
Jacinta Beckley, Seattle University (USA)

Forwards/Centres
Lisa Wallbutton, Willeton Tigers (AUS)
Jess Bygate, Gladstone Power in (AUS), Nelson Sparks
Megan Craig, Lakeside Lightning (AUS)
[COLOR="#0000CD"]Penina Davidson, University of California (USA)[/COLOR]
Tessa Boagni, California State University (USA)
Josie Stockill, Colgate University (USA)

Link below has schedule listed too
http://www.basketball.org.nz/News/tall-ferns-squad-named

"Something tells me if Coach G was in this position she wouldn't pull this."

Yeah, I like to think so. If Staley really is favoring her own player and possible recruit(s) this much, even when the team is ahead 20 points in a game, I'm disappointed in her. I think her job and her mortgage are safe for the time being.

Let's hope that Kristine's illness has miraculously cleared up and she'll get some P.T. this morning.

Congrats to Penina and thanks to you for bringing the news to our attention.

Yay Kristine gets to play, all be it only 4 mins but she has already shown she is much better than Cox, white and even Wilson in this game who is abysmal and forcing shots to try and get her own points. Of course Kristine was the last to go in of the whole group. I for one will never support Staley from this point on.

I get it now. See previous thread.

Perhaps all the national adoration of Staley was the desire to see someone dethrone Geno. Off of Staley's behavior here, Geno may get get the NCAA Coaching Humanitarian of the Year Award. Success breeds jealousy and I certainly fell victim to it by my touting of Staley when she did not deserve it. Looks like Staley was the Black Knight and Tonya Cardoza the White Knight. I wonder what their relationship was like at UVA, lo, those many years ago.

dfineguy;842516262 said:

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I get it now. See previous thread.

Perhaps all the national adoration of Staley was the desire to see someone dethrone Geno. Off of Staley's behavior here, Geno may get get the NCAA Coaching Humanitarian of the Year Award. Success breeds jealousy and I certainly fell victim to it by my touting of Staley when she did not deserve it. Looks like Staley was the Black Knight and Tonya Cardoza the White Knight. I wonder what their relationship was like at UVA, lo, those many years ago.

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Wait - maybe it's just because I haven't actually had a chance to watch all of the games (not to mention tryouts and practices) and analyze them for myself, but I'm not sure I get it yet.... How exactly is all this supposed to work?

Staley and Waltz are competing to recruit Cox, so that they can win the only competition that matters - finally dethroning Geno; but Cox is not scoring enough so they concoct some family issue excuse to send KLSamuelson home, thereby depriving Geno of crucial development opportunity for his recruit and maybe more importantly, of the juice that comes w being able to get all his recruits on prestigious national teams; and replace her with Slocum, another Staley/Waltz recruit who doesn't even play the same position, but instead PG - all the better to make sure Cox gets properly fed; and Staley & Waltz agree behind closed doors that they will flip a coin after the tournament to see who gets to draft their choice between Cox/Slocum....

Maybe this Anigwe kid, who used to be probably the best post recruit in the class but has now jumped ahead of all the bigs on the roster with college experience as well, is becoming a little too chummy with the aforementioned undecided recruits - so Waltz and Staley banish Anigwe to the end of the bench where she can't distract the stars. But Staley and Waltz let themselves get a little too distracted by a recruit from piddling Cal - as well as their intricate point-shaving scheme - and somehow let another UConn recruit/sworn enemy steal the most playing time on the team, and another the starting PG job from Slocum.

For some reason, it all just doesn't seem to add up. I also wish Anigwe was getting more time. I also assume coaches may have some bias towards their own players and recruits - they also have more familiarity/trust with what those players can and can't do, and that's probably going to play some role in dividing up PT. But without having seen them play for this team, I don't think it's totally unreasonable that Kristine would be behind the 4 college bigs - so that's not a lot of court time left for Cox & Anigwe. Maybe Anigwe should be ahead of Cox, but maybe Cox plays a more complementary role to the college talent (less upside/fewer mistakes?) - and there's also UConn HS recruit Collier, who I thought was more of a SF but is leading the team in rebounds; maybe she makes some of Anigwe's rebounding & athleticism less needed. And it's a small sample size obviously, but Anigwe's performance so far hasn't screamed for more PT over anybody else. (as a PG, I don't see that Slocum's PT is necessarily directly related to Kristine's - and there are fewer guards than bigs on the team, so more time to go around)

The cumulative stats are here file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/15%20wu19%20stats%20USApdf%20(2).pdf

And I did see Anigwe's illness reported here http://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2015/07/usa-u19-women-defeat-china.aspx

Am I missing something?... because I don't see such obvious evidence of a conspiracy. I thought if there was adoration of Staley it was based mostly on her decorated resume as a player, including a lot of success for the national teams. I would think she'd still have some loyalty and devotion to the U.S. program that would at least factor somewhat into her coaching, rather than promoting her S. Carolina agenda at all costs. And she's pretty ambitious -- makes sense that she'd want to coach the olympic team (there'd probably be a decent financial incentive to that too)... but I don't know how much sense it would make to jeopardize that for a chance at a couple recruits.

Not that there aren't conflicts of interest and flaws in the whole process -- but things usually aren't just black & white.

Logic and reason on a message board? May be time to ban someone ...

Interesting post, really. I'll read it and think about it.

Part of the problem seems to be lack of concrete information that is easily found: e.g., someone from USAB e-mailed me that there was mention of Anigwe's illness "in the game story," which was not so; the game story is a collection of stats and graphics. And most of us don't have time to read and sift through all these bits/bytes; we sometimes leap in with assumptions that may or not be based on fact, always a problem with fan boards. (Which is the nature of many fan boards, although I can do without the occasional ad hom insult or insinuation.) Anyway, thanks.

Coach Charmin landed in Moscow (Russia and not Idaho) 3 hrs ago. My guess she will be attending the U-19 games and checking up on Kristine and any other potential recruits !!


Tweeted by the coach

Charmin Smith ‏@21charmin 3h3 hours ago
I'm in Moscow!! @ Moscow Domodedovo International Airport - Dufry Duty Free https://instagr.am/p/5evaH0jfLX
0 retweets 4 favorites

I don't know Really, maybe you should get out more and talk to some people! But the fact remains Anigwe was better than Cox last year on the U17s and she had just scratched the surface of her ability. I and others have watched her development which has been huge over the last year and she has become a force. Cox has no post moves, she dislikes contact and she is not in great shape. This was all conformed by people I know at the USA try outs. In fact i was told that she was the least active of all the posts there, asking for subs every game as she was so out of shape. When you are not given the same opportunities as others on the team, you can lose your confidence, not knowing if you are going in the game etc. It must be nice to be Wilson who gets to play no matter how many turnovers, 6 in 1 game, misses, and poor hustle on D, and the fact that Slocum arrives off the plane and goes in the game before some who have been in training camp.....I would say thats pretty obvious. As far as others getting rebounds, well they are playing some games against poor competition!! The teams they have played have been completely underwhelming.

The player that some have just told me about that was not given an opportunity and was clearly the better PG of the group was Cooper and even Holly Warlick was quoted as saying she didn't understand it and she was at every USA session. If you don't know who Cooper is then you will, she was MVP of the McDonalds game.

Some of my Duke buddies told me that Wilson had a bad attitude at try outs, talking back to Staley and she could do whatever she wanted.

Lauren Cox has always been an enigma. She has enormous talent and occasionally shows it -- and I guess her potential is what is beloved by USA Basketball (the reasoning being, presumably, that if she puts it all together, she will be a very good player on the Olympic team). Perhaps they don't feel the ceiling is as high for other players.

Te'a Cooper is just the opposite. She's always looked great to me at USA tryouts, but only once did she make the team. For whatever reason, she just doesn't get the love some others do.

But historically, that's always been the case. Some players (Andrea Stinson, Becky Hammon, Vickie Johnson) get shut out; others get gold medals for no apparent reason.

BearBint;842516712 said:

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Interesting post, really. I'll read it and think about it.

Part of the problem seems to be lack of concrete information that is easily found: e.g., someone from USAB e-mailed me that there was mention of Anigwe's illness "in the game story," which was not so; the game story is a collection of stats and graphics. And most of us don't have time to read and sift through all these bits/bytes; we sometimes leap in with assumptions that may or not be based on fact, always a problem with fan boards. (Which is the nature of many fan boards, although I can do without the occasional ad hom insult or insinuation.) Anyway, thanks.

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I agree on the lack of good info... I've noticed before that recruiting also causes a lot of speculation because there's so little info out there (though that's probably not as easily fixed due to the ncaa regs).

califan;842516740 said:

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I don't know Really, maybe you should get out more and talk to some people! But the fact remains Anigwe was better than Cox last year on the U17s and she had just scratched the surface of her ability. I and others have watched her development which has been huge over the last year and she has become a force. Cox has no post moves, she dislikes contact and she is not in great shape. This was all conformed by people I know at the USA try outs. In fact i was told that she was the least active of all the posts there, asking for subs every game as she was so out of shape. When you are not given the same opportunities as others on the team, you can lose your confidence, not knowing if you are going in the game etc. It must be nice to be Wilson who gets to play no matter how many turnovers, 6 in 1 game, misses, and poor hustle on D, and the fact that Slocum arrives off the plane and goes in the game before some who have been in training camp.....I would say thats pretty obvious. As far as others getting rebounds, well they are playing some games against poor competition!! The teams they have played have been completely underwhelming.

The player that some have just told me about that was not given an opportunity and was clearly the better PG of the group was Cooper and even Holly Warlick was quoted as saying she didn't understand it and she was at every USA session. If you don't know who Cooper is then you will, she was MVP of the McDonalds game.

Some of my Duke buddies told me that Wilson had a bad attitude at try outs, talking back to Staley and she could do whatever she wanted.

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So let me see if i've got this straight: You and your people think Cox is so much worse than Anigwe that there couldn't possibly be any reason other than Staley's corrupt agenda to give Cox more playing time. That other basketball minds besides Staley, including the selection committee and all the other top coaches recruiting her, think her play or her potential (as Clay touched on and which is extremely hard to project at this age - even more so because Cox is a year younger) might be worth giving an opportunity at this level... cannot override the 'facts' of your scouting report.

The fact that Cox' has out-performed Anigwe so far can only be explained by Anigwe justifiably looking over her shoulder in games. Because even though, as you said, Anigwe had "already shown she is much better than Cox, white and even Wilson" with her first 4 minutes in the game vs Egypt (when she hit her 2 putbacks)... she must have then gotten more nervous when she went back in for the 4th quarter, even though the U.S was up by 40 and proceeded to shut out Egypt 24-0 -- because she shot 0-4 with 4 TOs while playing the whole quarter.

And even though she got to play through all that (must be nice, right) she had to still be nervous vs Argentina cause she went 1-5 w 3 TOs in her 10 minutes, even though it was another 50pt blowout where everybody played double digit minutes. That almost all of Anigwe's stats came from these pressure-free games (and where she played only a few minutes less than Cox) can't change your reasoning.

You and your friends are also positive that Slocum walking off the plane and onto the court ahead of Anigwe can only be seen as supporting your argument. That Kristine earned the right to go out and guard the other team's PG because Slocum had the gall to slack off and not put in all that hard practice work - even though the team expressly dis-invited her until KLS had to go home.

Clearly it follows perfectly logically that Staley had enough sway to force the selection committee to choose an out-of-shape stiff like Cox - but not enough to have her other prized recruit, Slocum, named to the team until the unforeseen KLS departure; that Staley was cowed by Wilson and her bad attitude, even though Staley made it thru the whole ncaa season not letting her second-highest scorer crack the starting five (to the bewilderment of many); that Warlick's comments about her own player, Cooper, would be purely unbiased when they agree with your conspiracy theory, while Staley can only be biased when it comes to hers.... And in your mind, all of these things just happen to be unquestionably true and proof positive of Staley limiting Anigwe's minutes solely for recruiting purposes.

Yes, I can see now I definitely need to get out more and talk to some people -- I'm pretty sure they're not the people you're thinking of though. Please tell us your Duke friends (Duke fans are known for always remaining impartial btw, right?) are not just message-board-buddies -- and that these are not the only "people" at tryouts you used to confirm your Cox scouting report....

So let's look at the stats.

Anigwe played 30 minutes, equivalent, pretty much, to a full game: She had 15 points and 12 rebounds, and though she only shot 25% from the field (pretty abysmal for a post) she did get to the line 12 times, which is very good. She had one blocked shot, and one steal, but on the flip side, had five fouls and just two assists to 10 turnovers. Ten turnovers in 30 minutes is going to get you to the bench at almost any level, even if you're doing some other things well.

Conveniently, Cox played precisely 60 minutes, so we can just divide her totals by two: She would have had 10 point and 15.5 rebounds in her 30 minutes, shooting 33% from the field and only getting to the line four times. She would have had three blocks but four turnovers and five fouls (I count fouls as turnovers, basically).

So really, the biggest difference is turnovers, and for me as a coach (and all coaches are different), turnovers drive me nuts and given a relatively equal option, I will play someone who turns the ball over less and give up something in other stats. I just feel turnovers, especially live-ball turnovers, are killers, and I would have a lot of trouble justifying more minutes for a player who, in 30 minutes, missed nine shots (say six go to the other team via defensive rebounds), fouled five times and turned the ball over 10 times. That's 24 negative outcomes in 30 minutes.

Cox would have had 17 negative outcomes in the same amount of time, so if that's your measuring stick, the substitution pattern makes sense. If you prefer trips to the line over blocked shots, then maybe Anigwe moves up, but the bottom line is she didn't play as well Cox (in my estimation) and didn't deserve as many minutes.

Yes Really I do. And my buddies are not on the Duke board as they think it's stupid. Did you watch the game today? Anigwe was at the top of the zone just like Wilson was and her movement was much better than Wilsons, she trapped and got tips. Oh but there are no stats for that so she must suck right. Cox was at the back so yes she picked up a lot of rebounds, so are you saying that Anigwe must suck at rebounding also when she was on the top of the zone? Oh and are you saying that a player who gets to start or gets to go in early is not in a better position confidence wise than a player who was barely played during blow outs at the beginning should feel confident about herself. Clay interesting that Anigwe got extra time today, and Charmin was at the game but I must be just delusional right. I actually support KA and do think she has performed better leading up to this point on an even playing field. And yes, I do not think this is an even playing field!

ClayK;842517067 said:

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Ten turnovers in 30 minutes is going to get you to the bench at almost any level, even if you're doing some other things well.

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Can't argue with that.

I didn't see any of the games so I'm curious about the nature of Kristine's turnovers. Were they from dropped passes, holding the ball to low, dribbling in traffic, bad outlet passes? Or did she suffer steals from double teams or bad passes into the post? Something else? Is this a first for Kristine or a pattern from her high school career?

I expect our coaches will work on it.

Looks like Kristine has not been feeling well on this trip. So the results are inconclusive, both for the player and the coach.

It doesn't really apply here, but Bobby Knight used to have a great saying about benching even his best players at times temporarily: "Coach sends player to bench. Bench sends message to butt. Butt sends message to mouth. Mouth sends message to coach: Yes, coach, I am now willing to follow the game plan."