What We Learned From The Beach Bubble
The 2020 Gulf Coast Showcase was unlike any other, but the basketball was still great and we learned a lot about every team that participated
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The 7th Annual Gulf Coast Showcase, like everything in 2020, looked very different from previous iterations of the tournament. Most importantly, the teams played in a bubble in Fort Myers, Florida, with no fans in attendance. The Showcase was dubbed the Beach Bubble and should have given WNBA fans some deja-vu after this summer’s “Wubble” in nearby Bradenton. Also, the Showcase was not a tournament. The organizers could not field eight teams and decided to have each of the six teams play three opponents at Alico Arena on FGCU’s campus. While the details were different than previous Showcases, the basketball was fantastic and we learned a lot from each team that played.
Maryland shows its potential
The Maryland Terrapins went 2-1 in the Beach Bubble with one of the most impressive wins in the country. The No. 14 Terps demolished the No. 16 Arkansas Razorbacks 115-96 in the Gulf Coast Showcase finale.
The win showed the upside of this Maryland group. Harvard transfer Katie Benzen put up 28 points on 8-of-14 shooting from three-point range to complement Big Ten Player of the Year Ashley Owusu’s near triple-double (12 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists). Every starter had at least 12 points, and the team looked very connected on both ends of the court.
While Maryland came into the season ranked 12th in the AP Top 25 poll, they still had plenty of question marks. Four of the Terps’ top five leading scorers left the program in the offseason, either by graduating or transferring. Only two of the team’s five starters had played together before 2020, so it was still hard to believe in the team as a championship hopeful without watching them play.
We can believe in Maryland now. The Terps are scoring 93.7 points per game and assisting on over 51% of their field goals. The theory of this team with Benzen and Mississippi State transfer Chloe Bibby spacing the floor for Owusu, Diamond Miller, and freshman Angel Reese worked very well against Arkansas. Owusu is the leader, but Reese is quickly showing why she was the No. 2 recruit in the country. She is putting up 1.04 points per play, blocking 8.4% of opponents’ 2-point shots, and throwing some nice passes.
Defensively, the Terps showed flashes of length and quick feet that can smother teams. However, they still have a lot of room for improvement on that end. Maryland also needs to clean up their turnovers. Before beating Arkansas, Maryland gave up a 16-point lead to Missouri State in the third quarter. They coughed up 23 turnovers in the game and couldn’t crack the Lady Bears’ stout half-court defense. The loss was disheartening, but the problems it revealed seem fixable. Given the team’s lack of experience together and how they responded against Arkansas, the big takeaway from the Beach Bubble is that Maryland has a championship ceiling.
Defensive Concerns for Arkansas
Arkansas came into the tournament with similar expectations to Maryland. But they are leaving with more concerns. While the Razorbacks’ 19-point loss to the Terps makes that statement seem obvious, there was also a lot to clean up in the team’s two wins against Wake Forest and FGCU.
Arkansas’s most-pressing issue is its defense. The team allowed all three of their opponents in the Beach Bubble to score over 80 points and finished the showcase with a 107.5 defensive rating. Some of the problems come from poor execution and communication like this failed pick-and-roll show followed by a missed box-out against Maryland.
While these glitches can be written off as early season mistakes, the Razorbacks also have structural issues. Head Coach Mike Neighbors runs a fast-paced offense, and it takes up a lot of his team’s energy. In the Neighbors era, Arkansas has ranked 308th in 2017, 203rd in 2018 and 130th in 2019 in defensive rating. With a slightly above average defense last season, the Razorbacks and their potent offense were posed to challenge for a championship. Since Arkansas does not need an elite defense, the challenge for this year’s group is to get the defense to last year’s levels.
Arkansas’s guard-heavy starting five poses a problem on the defensive end. Due to a relative lack of size, the team struggled with Angel Reese, a big scoring threat, and gave up 40 combined offensive rebounds to Maryland and Wake Forest. Destiny Slocum and Amber Ramirez are fantastic offensive players but are limited on defense. Those two and the rest of the team are struggling to stop ball-handlers at the point of attack.
The Razorbacks are an excellent team, and they’ll win a lot of games this year. But this team is expected to take the next step and compete for championships. The offense is already at a championship-level. They are scoring 94 points per game, get to the line at an elite rate and rarely turn the ball over. They simply need to get better on defense to reach their goals. Coach Neighbors has an extremely talented group, and fans should expect them to improve on both ends throughout the season.
Missouri State dominates the boards
In the past two seasons, Missouri State has reasserted themselves as the class of the Missouri Valley Conference. They won the MVC tournament in 2018-19 en route to a Sweet 16 appearance, then won the conference regular season title in 2019-20 before the COVID shutdown. In head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton’s second year, the Bears might be aiming for more with a veteran group.
No. 12 Maryland was the highest-ranked opponent that the program has beaten since 2001 when the Bears made it to the Final Four. With 10 juniors and seniors on the roster, Missouri State was able to stay the course and come back from a big deficit against the young Terps. Fifth-year senior Brice Calip earned MVC player of the week honors due in large part to her 26-point performance against Maryland.
The Bears dominated the glass in all of their games, including a letdown loss to Wake Forest at the end of the Showcase. They rank 16th in the country in total rebound rate at 59.8% and 8th in defensive rebound rate at 82.6%. Against two teams with big strong frontcourts in Maryland and Wake, Missouri State won the battle on the offensive boards 36-14. The team was at this rebounding level last season, so these stats aren’t just a blip on the radar.
Being able to get extra possessions and end defensive possessions with rebounds will be a huge advantage for the Bears. The team’s veteran leadership and chemistry should be as well. The roster features 10 upperclassmen, and eight of the nine players who averaged 10 minutes or more are back. While experience and chemistry are crucial every season, those attributes become even more important in 2020. The Bears’ familiarity with one another will help them get over the early season troubles that plague teams like Maryland and Arkansas, as well as keep them together when they hit rough patches or have games canceled.
Wake Forest building on last year
ACC Coaches and the media pickedWake Forest to finish 12th in the conference this year. But it looks like the Demon Deacons may outpace those expectations. They beat then-No. 24 Missouri State to snag their first win against a ranked opponent since February 2017 and hung tough with a very good Arkansas squad for a half.
After going 0-6 against ranked opponents last season, these results are encouraging for head coach Jen Hoover as the Deacs will have to beat some very good teams to improve on their 11th-place finish in the ACC. Hoover brings back four of the team’s five starters. Preseason All-ACC selection Ivana Raca leads the group. Raca couldn’t buy a bucket against Arkansas, but scored 25 against Davidson and 23 against Missouri State. Senior point guard Gina Conti is a great floor general and Alexandria Scruggs provides a solid third scoring option.
We will have to wait and see if Wake Forest is the team that beat Missouri State or the one that got thoroughly outplayed by Arkansas in the second half. For now, Wake seems to be building on last season’s ACC Tournament run to the quarterfinals. That’s a nice step for a program that has not played in March Madness since 1988.
FGCU’s transfer success
The host of the Beach Bubble, Florida Gulf Coast, may have the most interesting pair of transfers in the nation with Kierstan Bell and Tishara “TK” Morehouse. Bell comes in with a ton of fanfare after making the Big Ten All-Freshman Team with Ohio State last year. All she did in her FGCU debut against Davidson was become the first player in program history to put up 20 points and 20 rebounds in a game and lead the Eagles to a 23-point win.
Morehouse is coming from the opposite direction as Bell. TK played her first two college seasons at Western Nebraska Community College and made the NJCAA First-Team All-American team. All she did in her FGCU debut was put up 35 points in a near-upset of Arkansas and earned conference player of the week honors.
Bell and Morehouse are two of six transfers on FGCU’s roster. While some coaches and critics have bemoaned that transfers will ruin small programs across sports, FGCU is proving that thought wrong and benefiting greatly from transfers. They’ve won the Atlantic Sun regular season title in 9 of the last 10 seasons and were the unanimous pick to win it again this year. If Bell and Morehouse are playing at this level all season, the Eagles might be in line for more than just another conference championship.
Things will get better for Davidson
Davidson had a rough weekend. They lost every game that they played by at least nine points, and they never had a lead. Of the 36 teams that have attempted 50 threes, only nine are shooting worse than the Wildcats at 27.9%. They currently rank 218th in defensive rating.
While no team wants to start the season like this, Davidson can look ahead to better times. Suzi-Rose Deegan, the program’s first-ever Preseason All-Conference selection, and Sarah Donovan, a third-team All-Conference pick, did not play in the Beach Bubble. Maryland, Wake Forest and FGCU are probably better than the rest of the teams on their schedule. The Wildcats will get some wins and put the Beach Bubble in their rear-view mirror.
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