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Hello and welcome to in the den WKNC Sports podcast. I'll be skipping the intro music today, and we going right into it. I will be doing an in depth, kind of like explanation of the rise and fall of Charlotte's former WNBA team, the Charlotte sting. I'll also preface that with a preview of this upcoming volleyball season. So, you know, get comfortable and let's get into it. It's gonna be a it's gonna be a doozy. That one opponent in question is
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South Carolina will be hosting them September 10 showdown at the net
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like just event.
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Let's see where was I
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future for this NC State Volleyball team is quite uncertain. With plenty of big names gone and an influx of talent, this could be a make or break year. Coach Luka Sable left, but new head coach, Megan Wargo Kearney has had over a decade of assistant head coach experiences at power four conferences,
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primarily Arkansas and North Carolina State University, starters like Sydney, Daniels, the senior Libero and Sophia groom a senior middle back Courtney Bryant as well outside hitter, they are all expected to take big steps becoming a high end starters, and they need to be Daniels and Brian both had good statistics and dig stats, while groom is second on the team and blocks this new look, NC State has it has the potential To make big moves this year, and can be sort of a dark horse candidate to win something big.
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Hold on. I expect the defense to be mostly the same. They have a lot of upperclassmen defensive specialists, Sydney Daniels, as I mentioned, Sophie, Grooom, Lila Cropper, Alicia Vilar and Lorna Kerr so they have, like, a good rotation of junior seniors who are strong defensive players. It's just going to be those offensive players trying to find young offensive stars who could help take over
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day one. Um, Becca ring probably has the best case to do that. I mean, six two freshmen,
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let's see Ashley mulling coming in should be helpful, but it would just kind of be with time we'll figure out what the starting roster looks like, and those out of conference games will be very important to figure out what direction NC State is going to be taken this year. Some notable
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games and offense, back to back away games against UNC and Duke to open conference competition from September 26 to 28th showdown at the net, as I mentioned in South Carolina, Home Away, back to back versus Wake Forest conference, I think national championship, Louisville at home, November 7,
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seeing what else is there. I can mention. Those are some of the like the big events. They open the season against Davis in college, August 23
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and they have a couple tournaments. They're going to be at Kansas for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas classic,
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or don't get play Kansas State. And after that, they are going to be playing until about Thanksgiving break.
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So hopefully,
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you know, they do well this year, it's going to be sort of a flux here for them, but let's just see how it goes. And last thing I want to mention, shout out to Julia Brown, who plays in one of the three professional volleyball leagues in USA for Houston, the lovb League, which I did not write down what it stood for league one volleyball, um,
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which, you know is obviously not as big as Athletes Unlimited.
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But you know she's playing professional. So, you know Beggars can't be choosers,
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all right. Um, speaking of professionals, we're going to start talking about the Charlotte Hornets women go from its fountains to its big finals run to how it all came apart and what the future could hold for North Carolina professional women's basketball?
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No,
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I wish I kind of had, like, advertisement or some transition thing just to make it a lot more seamless. But I'll kind of just, I'll get right into it.
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So just a little bit of an origin story behind the WNBA in itself, is that, you know, there was some momentum for professional women's basketball week with the growing success of the American basketball week, which is for women.
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It's basketball, and the NBA saw an opportunity, so what they did was with the 1996 Olympics, they took some of the biggest stars and basically made the dream team for women's in that 1996 run where they won gold and they're able to get enough viewership to justify the NBA owning a WNBA team. One of the owners who were interested was George Shinn, who is the owner of the Charlotte Hornets.
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He He just kind of took over
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and helped to he didn't take over, but he took over a team and became the owner of one of the eight original WNBA teams, the Charlotte sting, which is named this thing because of its affiliation with the Charlotte Hornet, which is named after, I think it was like some important battle um in history.
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It was Yeah, British General Cornwallis who allegedly described the city as a hornet's nest of rebellion following the battle chart.
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So
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yeah, that's going to, you know, help kind of build a kind of proxy identity with a professional team,
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former head coach of Florida State University, marinelle meters served as the head coach and GM for this inaugural team, okay, for this inaugural WNBA team,
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for the initial pirate allocation, where they start to build their initial rosters. Charlotte sting took Vicky bullet, a center from Maryland who was originally with an Italian woman we called cecina Andrea Stinson, a guard from North Carolina State
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for the elite draft. They got Rhonda map, a center and forward out of NC State and for the amateur college draft, they selected the following players in order Tora Suber, guard from Virginia. Sharon Manning, a forward slash center from NC State. Deborah Williams, a guard from LA take take tech and Andrea congreaves, a F?C out of Mercer.
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So that's going to be your main roster heading into the season.
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And things were rough for the sting. Early on, they had three back to back blowouts, but won the first ever game at home against the EVA
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Nemcova lead Cleveland rockers
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in a major up down season, most wins were blowouts, as were their losses. The biggest win was against West conference leader Phoenix, Mercury by 20 points, and their biggest loss was their second ever game against La sparks, roughly around 20 points. I don't know why I didn't record how many, but it just No. Things were rough when a team went through grown paints, they've managed to finish with a four and three record and a 1513 on the season, which helped them sneak into that four seat. Andrea Stinson and Vicky bullet were the star duos for the team. We didn't basically every major step stat. They were the ones carrying essentially Ronda map and Andrea congrease Did also contribute
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with shooting and
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scoring in general, and rebound, all of these players helped the team to be second in a week in defensive rebounds and assists with one of the lowest turnovers in the league. However, since each game was individual and the semi finalists, they were blown out by the inaugural champion, Houston comments with Cynthia Cooper and Tina Thompson. I mean, it's a good start. They're hoping for a little bit more consistency, but they have a core that seems to have figured things out and is starting to win.
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All right. So their second
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season, they'll draft um, their future Rookie of the Year, Tracy Reuid from UNC and guard Christy Smith from Arkansas, they have which maintained a rebounding and assist turnover success, and the record improved from last year 15 - 13 to 18-12. It's 1998 last
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year was 97 with Tracy Reed now being the solid third option for the team, scoring on average 15.5 rebounds and two assists, the team went back into the fourth seed thanks to a three Oh record tiebreaker against the Rebecca Lobo LED New York Liberty. So kind of snuck in again.
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And in the first round blowed out. Okay, no, that was not the first round. That was in the final game this season was a blowout against the three and 27
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Washington mystics. So you know, going into the playoffs with a blowout is always good.
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However, in a three game series against the defendant champion, Houston. Comments, Vicky Bullet did not perform too well, and without that 123 punch, rather having 123 punch of Andrea Stinson, Tracy Reed and Tori Sauber, Houston blew them out in two consecutive games heading into
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Charlotte was hoping to make a big step to winning a playoff series with the rival week, American basketball week, disbanding a fresh COP of powerful players in a strong college class could give the sting that opportunity to build a
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powerful championship contender team.
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They start off with a bang. They take Dawnn Staley, yes, the the sorry, these Dawn Staley, the University of South Carolina women's basketball head coach now on that Mount Rushmore women's basketball coaches from Philly rage and current Indiana Fever head coach Stephanie white out of Purdue.
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So those two with Andrea Stinson and bullet round out a
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solid start in five that started five and seven including an 82-56 blowout from the Cleveland rocker rockers, lead into the firing of head coach and GM, Marilyn matters and step backs for Tracy Reed, who's falls out of the start of five teams stocked up a lot of turnovers and losses and at stretch,
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however, interim head coach Dan Hughes and
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Bob bass, a former head coach turned GM hope, the team to finish 15 - 17 on season And once again, sneak into the playoffs,
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this time as a third seed.
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Vickie Bullock continues her all star dominance with Andrea Stinson and Dawn. Staley is our number two and three, Stephanie white and Ricky Charlotte Smith, who they got us. San Jose lacers were producing strong members off the bench with Tory solver and Tracy Reed rounding up the start in five heading into the playoffs, they want a first playoff game against the Detroit Shock thanks to a double double from Andrea Stinson with 16 points, 14 rebounds and Ronda maps 16.9 rebounds,
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to win 60 to 54 but the second round against the Liberty, you know, we took a playoff round from them, so they just straight up took the playoffs from us. Stars, Crystal Robertson and camp Hampton racked up steals, boards and blocks to offset the scoring prowess of the Charlotte sting. They will try to get to three. They won their second game, but we lose the series overall, as they just cannot handle the web DJ defense, and they will lose the Liberty. Will lose against the Houston comets for a second time in the national championship game. All right,
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2000 I just realized that, um,
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Dan Hughes does not last very long.
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Dan Hughes will leave for the Cleveland rockers and will get replaced by former nuggets player TR done, the
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team is looking to make big moves to get to the next step. Again, they're trying to get to the conference finals. You're trying to get to the WNBA championship, but always seem to be stuck in that second round.
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It would trade away all star Vicky bullet to the Washington mystics in exchange for center Shalonda, Enos, Enos en is and which right draft center, summer herb, from NC State, while also acquiring from free agency, their new starter, Cass Bauer Bilodeau, the all time free throw leader in The abo, but you can't name one team from the NBA. Yeah, abo,
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I can't either
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the team would lose their defensive rebound and identity breaking near the bottom and steals blocks and defensive rebounds. Your offensive performances cannot keep up either they.
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Were bottoming the majority of major stats, and basically everybody on the team was prone to turnovers and poor shooting, if their name is not. Andrea Stinson TR Dunn would be fired after one season.
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former East Carolina University head coach and Donovan will take over the program and a new book was necessary to return to the playoffs. This is their first time missing the playoffs in there,
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7894,
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years of existence
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with the second overall pick, Charlotte sting, swing and miss sweat and Kelly Miller, board from Georgia,
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when I could have had Hall of Famers, Tamika Catchings or Jackie stills, who were drafted
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four and three like right after Kelly Miller
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Andrea Stinson, Don Staley return us the one two, but the star and five is rounded up with newcomer Allison Feaster from the LA sparks. And they drafted Tammy Sutton brown out of Rutgers, a random map was traded for a Muslim beak
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player for the sparks, Clarice, Sean Guana, I don't know if I pronounced that right.
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They start to season one and 10, the tree of Feaster, Stinson and Staley Whedon and the majority of the major stats. They would have a rotation for the last two starting spots with um
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Kelly, Miller, Tammy, Sutton Brown,
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carishanguana, shalanda, Enos, summer herb.
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They just couldn't find that right combination of winning.
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However, it took
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the contributions of their rookie, Sutton Brown, who would steal that fourth start, a four starting spot,
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and Shawna Enos finally being healthy and ready to go with Tanya Edwards of free engine sign in, And Michelle Guana sort of rounding that starting seven. Who's their eighth? Kelly Miller as their eighth.
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Yeah, second overall to be the eighth best player on team. They would
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get back to 500 within a week of the playoffs, and with a five game winch, five game lead and a six game win streak, Stinson would head into the fourth stinging four seat, heading against the Cleveland rockers with day Hughes Dan Hughes Dan Hughes. He's back for revenge, and he brings with him all stars, chesty, Melvin maarkia Jones and a heavy defensive death chart. You know there's some, because you could get like, three, four steals, one or two blocks off the bench with this Cleveland rockers roster, and it was an uphill battle. Um,
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so this is the big one. We're gonna go game by game with this.
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Despite Feaster going scoreless in game one, Charlotte Smith would step up in the offensive production. Despite five steals by guard Helen Darling and malarkey Jones scoring seven assists, rockers couldn't catch up with the dominant performances of Stinson and Staley. 5453
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46 Charlotte and Staley. She's not
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your best scorer on a team, but she can rack up like 567,
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assists a game. You know, her intelligence on the court is just as visible as it is on the sidelines
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with the amount of assist she's able to get. Game Two, as I mentioned on Staley, she gives six assists and three steals to add on to feasters, 11 points performance. So bounce back game Feaster Don Staley
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gets a step ahead whoever it's Cleveland that does the dominant scoring with bench players, Penny Taylor and Rushia brown scoring 10 and 14 respectively. Not the wheat and scores the wheaton squares where you're you know, Makia Jones and Chesley Melvin. But just to have double digit points by multiple players off the bench just shows that you didn't really have a shot. The shooting in turnovers were terrible for the steam headed into this game,
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and Cleveland will win 69 to 51
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so they have game three. They are headed back to I believe they're headed back to Cleveland for this run.
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In.
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And you know, a win is necessary to kind of
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stop that streak, I guess, of falling out of the the
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first round, first second round, they want to get to that conference finals.
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And they do. Stinson Sutton Brown, both rock the ball and score big stay away in particular, not just a desist in two blocks,
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Shawanda Enos and Tanya Edwards score double digits off the bench. The whole team out rebounds. Cleveland, 35 to 19, including nine from Enos,
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so she almost gets a double double.
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Um coming off the bench is crazy, Andrea Stinson is shooting lights out. It's normal. Tammy Sutton Brown is
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proven herself to be a
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starter, and Charlotte will win the series two and one with a 72 to 64 round.
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All right, returning foes, this time the Liberty,
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a familiar foe and Teresa Witherspoon, Vicki Johnson and a new star, Tari Phillips. They've lost three finalists, and are hoping to make their fifth one.
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They lost three finals, and they're hoping to make it to the fifth so
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they win one.
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Okay, no,
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I think when I meant they are trying to make their fourth because they lost three finals to the
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Houston comets. Anyways,
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they're trying to get back. They have made it here before they know what they're doing. Game one, they dominate
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that the Turner overs and rebounds on her side and beat char was 61-57
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the stain Staley Stinson duo is the strongest ever, if they can minimize their multitude of turnovers.
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Stinson gets 18.8 rebounds and eight assists, matched with 11.8 rebounds from Feaster and 18 points from stately so you're starting Star Three of Stinson Feaster and Staley is performing really well heading into game two, that rebound and out scored a liberty in every way possible. Anytime we tell if the Liberty were just looking ahead to game three as their field goal percentage was sloppy, they had more shots, but they just didn't make as much, and char was able to capitalize off of that, with all the rebounds from Stinson Feaster and son Brown,
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and they were able to actually score because Andrea Stinson is great shooter, and Don Staley is a great player. Feaster has proven herself to be a star and ahead to game three, tied one one.
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Sting has a great defensive performance in game three by Andrea Stinson with four steals and seven defensive rebounds, paired with Sutton Brown's three total blocks,
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while the Liberty also had a strong defensive game, with 18 total defensive rebounds, just from the starting five.
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The Sting took the lead late into the game, ran away with it with a foul on Stinson lead into a four point lead with seconds on a clock,
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48 to 44 the sting will move on to WNBA finals, where they will face the LA sparks.
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You know, they had to deal with Lisa Leslie
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Wadi mapika. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. Ronda. Map, is there some other stars that we should Milton Jones,
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Tamika Dixon,
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the odds are stacked against the sting since the start of the season, and you you see it here with the
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LA sparks, but the very able to go from a one and 10 starting a season and going eight
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for 24 not even two years ago, they were able to have a two year turnaround to become the WNBA champion.
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It'd be amazing for not only the team, but for the city of Charlotte and for women's basketball as a whole. Because, I mean, you can, it's not just the big stars anymore. It's really, I mean, anyone could really come together to create a great performance, especially since
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on no Charlotte horn sting has won a major step to.
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Up to this point, not major stat like MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, comeback Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year.
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No Charlotte sting players. Why not? They're not the stars always sparks are
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maybe, maybe they got shocked.
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We Lisa Leslie and DeLisha, Milton Jones, both notch double doubles. Lisa last week, it's 24.8 rebounds for assists, paired with the
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Delicia middle and Jones, 19 points, a rebound to five assists,
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75 to 6016,
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head into game two. Charlotte. They're great Andrea Stinson, Don Staley, Allison Feaster, Tammy sent brown shirt at fifth. Starting spot is kind of a question mark, but Shalonda Enis can play well when she's healthy.
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You have,
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you know, great players off the bench with Tony Edwards um Machinguana.
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What happened? I think they just, it
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just wasn't their year, and they always sparks. They were just too good.
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Game Two, only Tammy something brown scores double digit points. Everyone else barely gets past five points.
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Turnovers were all over the place. Lisa Wesley scores 24 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, with seven blocks. Tamika Dixon scores seven assists. Milton Jones, not just 15 points. Just had no shot. Lisa Wesley is one of the goats, and she gets her finalist MVP and her ring here with this
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blowout in the WNBA finals.
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Well, I mean, 2002 Charlotte's hoping to
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get back. They're hoping to get back there, and they are willing to make big moves for it. They trade away Luis shankwana Two to Orlando miracle to draft Baylor guard Shelia Lambert with
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their ninth overall pick. They have two first time picks this year. They drafted Shazunski gortman
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immediately train her to Minnesota for additional deaf pieces who I do not name, because when I say deaf, I mean,
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like third stringers,
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it'll be the year. Just watch,
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okay, I'll give them this. They do have one of the better offenses in the week. They score about 105 points per game, have one of the best assisted turnover ratios in a week, 23 assists to 19 turnovers. Doesn't sound amazing, but that's best a week. I don't, I don't make stats. Andrea Stenson now is in Feaster. We just team is scoring with 12 and 13 respectively, paired with five assist a game. Dawnn Staley, and six rebounds and a block per game by center. Tammy Sutton-Brown, still don't have that star fourth player, though, right now it's um,
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I think it's shalana Enos, who is taken over for the team in a fifth spot.
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Yes, I know you mentioned it. Hey, didn't they just draft um, don't they have Kelly Miller? They drafted her in a high spot.
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They have chewy a Lambert.
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You heard them really
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play any minutes that come Charlotte Smith, who I believe I mentioned earlier, is the player to get that this spot and run with it. She,
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yeah, the best, one of the best player in Charlotte, free agent signing from the San Jose lasers in 1999 she's one of the best on the team.
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I don't know what else
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to say. Um,
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they're trying.
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They have an issue rebounding a star level, and that could come and bite them in the butt. Because, I mean, if you get out rebounded, you can very easily get out scored, and if you get out scored, you lose. I don't once again. I don't make the rules here, but this team would slip into the first seat
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thanks to a head to head tie. Break Over to Liberty. So the second time getting a good okay, their second the first time they did it, just sneak into the playoffs head to head record. This time they get that number one seed due to head ahead record
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the third seed, Washington mystics is who they play against. They're led by fakey bullet and double double average engine. Shamik holds call, and they're one of the best rebounded teams in the WNBA. You.
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Uh,
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Sting did what they should do. Um,
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disperse in the game between Stinson Feaster and Staley, but I can keep up holds claws once again, a double double and Vick bullet. She gets three steals, two blocks, eight assists by point guard. Anne La Fluer the point guard, not just 26 points, 12 rebounds and ball mount, 6474
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62 I don't know why I keep getting them mixed up. 74-62
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Game Two wasn't entirely different.
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Sting didn't hold a weight until the end of the first half, and they never got it back once they lost it begin it
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early into the second half.
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Mystic star Coco Miller scores 21 with hold claws, 15 points and 11 rebounds. Arson feast or notch her 12 rebounds, but will not score. This is again, this is a game where she just does not show up to score. Vicky bullet had the same issue too, and she had it during this playoff series, and last year, when the mystics got knocked out of the playoffs,
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say we sent Brown, didn't have anything. Um,
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you only players who really even showed up today were the death pieces that mentioned trade and for Aaron Purpur, glue and well, you know, Charlotte Smith, the starter, she got some minutes. Well, 62-59
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bounced out again,
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and just as an insult to injury. And Donovan would leave for the super bird. The Super birds, the Seattle storm and GM Bob bass would leave for the New Orleans Hornets. Yeah, the team got relocated,
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and the week was bleeding a little bit. They, um,
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they lost the haven't
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watched the Houston comets yet. I think what they have lost so far?
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Um, let's see.
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All right, yeah, at this point, they have lost to Cleveland rockers, Miami soul and Portland fire to just being straight up defunct,
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and Charlie, it looks like they're on the chopping block to be next.
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However, George skin, he will find a buyer. Robert L Johnson, co founder of B, E, T, Black Entertainment Television, if, case you don't know, and it's the first African American billionaire around the time that he purchased this team. It's also the first African American to have majority ownership of a major league team taken over to show it Bobcats as well. So he bought both teams
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as the city's biggest pro basketball team. I mean,
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yeah, yeah, you know Charlotte, um, bobcats won't come back until later. So right now, the Charlotte sting are the biggest professional basketball team in North Carolina.
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Are you gonna watch him over. Duke,
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no,
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but I digress.
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Former and Donovan assistant coach Trudy lacy is promoted to head coach and former Seattle SuperSonics head coach Bernie Bickerstaff. He's been a lot of other places. So that's the only team I mentioned, because that's the only team he made the NBA finals with.
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He takes over his GM.
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Only one player is new on this team, Russia, Brown.
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They They sign her out of free agency, but some of their other signage Jocelyn, Penn, Dana, Sherry, Nadine Malcolm, they're all waved by the start of the season,
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team would manage to go 1816 with their high flying offense still producing this by one of the league's worst defenses.
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They would um
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be swept by the Connecticut suns, Todd McWilliams, Franklin and Shannon Johnson.
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Um McWilliams scoring, 18.7 rebounds with and Johnson's. Shannon Johnson's 11.3 rebounds, five assists. So I haven't changed much at all. They're kind of just trying to run well, I guess if and Donovan was still here, and
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they aren't willing to do that, because clearly, it's not working. They go from blown out in the WNBA finals to be blown out in the semi finals and then being blown out in the first round. I.
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They need change. And Trudi Lacey, she's ready to take over this team as hers bring a bigger staff. He's gone treaty lacy takes over his GM
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for the last few years.
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Yeah, I'll go over this quick, because it gets kind of ugly,
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starting five from last year is still there. They trade a future first to sweat Nicole Powell, a wing out of Stanford over Hall of Famer winsu Wayland, who is the next pick.
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It also draft Kelly massante, a forward from Penn State, and it was signed Olympia Scott off of a knee injury from Indiana, and Tanisha Lewis and State alum from the now defunct. No, they're not defunct yet. They get defunct in 2008
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Houston commons,
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stay away. Feasters, the duo, um, that's their star. duo is expected. They.... Team, points, rebounds, assists.
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Feaster, Staley, their names are plastered everywhere, but Andrea Stinson takes a major step back.
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Tammy son takes over us at third star with 9.6 rebounds and no assist, with two blocks
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and
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well, they will miss the playoffs for their second time in 7890123,
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in their eight years, this is their second time missing the playoffs,
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and things aren't looking good. Tynesha. Louis looks like the six man. Nicole Powell does some real gaining minutes. Would be a sky Kelly massante. They don't get much either.
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So it's like we just kind of get a bunch of death pieces and then they just
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don't work out when the starters don't work out.
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And three blowout losses from Connecticut, San Antonio and Detroit results
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in missing the playoffs by just one game.
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Now that they're considered one of the worst teams in the league, they just need to start
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building better. Andrea Stinson would leave for Detroit. She would eventually retire.
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And second round pick was traded select Minnesota six woman, Helen Darling, who I think I mentioned earlier.
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Yeah, she was part of that,
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just realizing that she was part of that Cleveland rockers team that went defunct that
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to beat in the first round heading into their finals run. So now can't beat them. Join them
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Seattle storm champion and teammate of Sue bird and who played with Anne Donovan Sherri Sam was 6th man Tangela Smith was traded from Sacramento toe for Nicole Powell, Olympia Scott and Aaron Purpur glow.
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So now our new certain five stay we Feaster, Sam Smith, Sutton Brown, Helen Darling, off the bench, Janelle McCarville was drafted ninth overall as part of that um, kind of it's almost like a trade for Helen Darling.
Unknown Speaker 38:35
So
Unknown Speaker 38:37
optimism is there, but need to see some excess from the effervescently consistent
Unknown Speaker 38:48
stinks. I mean, they're good. They're like, um,
Unknown Speaker 38:52
it's not one team I like the Steelers right now, where it's just like you can expect, all right, I'll finish one or two games above 500 to get bounced the first round.
Unknown Speaker 39:03
No the rank dead last, and offensive and defensive metrics all across the board, going three and 21 for firing Trudy waste and replacing them with muxy Bogues. If you don't remember Mugsy Bogues, he is the shortest NBA player in history. And what's his connection with Charlotte? I think he just wanted a team. He came from Wake. Wake Forest
Unknown Speaker 39:30
played with the Hornet for 8889 97 when he retired, actually, the Charlotte sting were just getting started,
Unknown Speaker 39:39
and he would spend the year as the head coach for the Charlotte sting.
Unknown Speaker 39:55
The team still gets worse, though, the only real thing that they do to try to change.
Unknown Speaker 40:00
Things around is they,
Unknown Speaker 40:05
they draft Monique curry. Who is? Hold on.
Unknown Speaker 40:10
I apologize.
Unknown Speaker 40:12
She is from,
Unknown Speaker 40:19
see
Unknown Speaker 40:22
Duke.
Unknown Speaker 40:24
EWWWWWWW.
Unknown Speaker 40:28
She's the third overall pick, and she started that one year with the Charlottes Sting, which was unfortunately, the last year they can't justify a team anymore.
Unknown Speaker 40:41
Poor players mean poor performances. Poor performances mean bad team. Bad team means weak low audience of less than 6000 a night in one of their biggest arenas.
Unknown Speaker 40:53
Robert L Johnson had no choice but to set a team, but it's hard to sell a team that's bleeding $2 billion worth of assets a year, especially since Cleveland folded a year earlier in expansion teams, Miami, soul, important fire, also folded this year, couple years ago too.
Unknown Speaker 41:13
So despite offers from Kansas City to take over the team, Charlotte sting are no more,
Unknown Speaker 41:22
which sucks because, you know, there's a big market for women's basketball of NC State, UNC Duke, same thing as there is for men's basketball, and we're starting to see an expansion of WNBA, where Cleveland, Detroit are getting their teams back, but Charlotte isn't even being considered.
Unknown Speaker 41:39
Maybe that's because the Hornets suck and nobody wants to watch him.
Unknown Speaker 41:44
Yeah, yeah, that explains it.
Unknown Speaker 41:49
Maybe they just don't want to compete and, well, no, they're not competing for viewership with the
Unknown Speaker 41:55
college because WNBA is we smart enough to play in the summer where they don't have to compete for viewerships , because you can either watch WNBA or big three.
Unknown Speaker 42:07
I don't know which one you'd rather watch, but I know which one I'd rather watch. I'm kind of kind of away from the mic right now. Let me get back to
Unknown Speaker 42:16
it. Um, stay we would play one year with Houston before becoming women's basketball, head coach for temple and then, you know, South Carolina. But we don't need to mention that Tammy sent Brown would go on to play with the Indiana feathers and Fenerbache. I don't know. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. It's like their biggest basketball team from Turkey. Seen him in the Euro week a lot, I think, um, there have been some good players that came out of there.
Unknown Speaker 42:47
She's one of them.
Unknown Speaker 42:50
I'm sorry if you there's like a little bling noise that kind of came from my thingy. Um,
Unknown Speaker 43:01
I believe Denny of DJ, okay, Bogdan Bagonovic bonovich is one. Um, guess, I
Unknown Speaker 43:09
don't really know I need these guys,
Unknown Speaker 43:13
but yeah, uh. Marco Milicic, I'm kind of rambling here. Tammy sound Brown, she won a championship with them. She also won a championship in 2019 with the Indiana Fever.
Unknown Speaker 43:25
Speaking of the fever, um, as I mentioned, there was that Stephanie Smith. She was kind of that 6/7 man for
Unknown Speaker 43:35
a good chunk of WNBA. Short, why do I say WNBA? Charlotte's best years she would go on to be the head coach for the Indiana Fever specifically hired to work for Caitlin Clark. Allison Feaster is currently vice president of Team operations for the Boston Celtics. Charlotte Smith has been a head coach for women's basketball at Elon University, since she has 11 shout out her dress Stinson. She's not wearing a basketball anymore, but her number was retired by the show at sting and NC State before her retirement,
Unknown Speaker 44:16
or before the team was gone after her retirement. So you know, she used to go in our hearts, right? Guys,
Unknown Speaker 44:25
yeah, um, and that is the
Unknown Speaker 44:30
tragic history of the
Unknown Speaker 44:37
Women's Basketball NC State team.
Unknown Speaker 44:44
There is a future,
Unknown Speaker 44:45
though, there's this small upcoming minor week women's basketball or it's professional, but it's minor. Is that it's not really
Unknown Speaker 44:58
known yet.
Unknown Speaker 45:00
It's called Upshot. It's ran by a lot of the kind of
Unknown Speaker 45:05
people who work with some of the minor, weak teams in the southeastern
Unknown Speaker 45:11
United States.
Unknown Speaker 45:14
They're just looking to be a the
Unknown Speaker 45:18
women's specimen week of southeastern US having teams in
Unknown Speaker 45:24
let's see. They have teams in Charlotte, Greensboro, Jacksonville,
Unknown Speaker 45:30
I think Jacksonville, Florida and Savannah, Georgia.
Unknown Speaker 45:35
So it's, it's great to see that there is something out there, and we hope to
Unknown Speaker 45:41
see the upshot week, have some success.
Unknown Speaker 45:47
See this, it literally just got announced in January. They hit the court may 2026,
Unknown Speaker 45:54
and if you'd like to join the ascent, just go to HTTPS
Unknown Speaker 46:00
https://theupshotleague.com/
Unknown Speaker 46:04
because the team is weakest based and has a team in Charlotte. You can also go and vote on a team name. I haven't came up with anything yet, but I would definitely look to contribute.
Unknown Speaker 46:17
And, um, I guess one more thing, just to kind of stretch it out to a good 50 minutes. Um, I'm worried about the future for NC State.
Unknown Speaker 46:27
Last time I checked, there were only nine players left on the women's basketball roster. There are a lot of transfers leaving out, and we don't seem to be getting any good prospects coming in.
Unknown Speaker 46:39
What I'm worried about
Unknown Speaker 46:42
is the
Unknown Speaker 46:45
that now that Nio is starting to become a thing,
Unknown Speaker 46:50
Duke and UNC could start taking over. Yeah, Duke has a five star commitment and
Unknown Speaker 46:59
2026 already, and they want a conference 2020,
Unknown Speaker 47:05
live recruiting class. They
Unknown Speaker 47:08
have one of the best in the league
Unknown Speaker 47:15
or not, best in the week, best in the country. Yeah. UNC has two five star recruits. We can't land a five star recruit. For some reason,
Unknown Speaker 47:23
we went, no hate to the four star. You know, newcomers at a later and again, and destiny went on.
Unknown Speaker 47:32
But I
Unknown Speaker 47:34
hope that we're not starting to see NC stay in a downward trend, because competitively with the NAO, we can't, we can't compete. We're the little brothers and or little sisters, and we,
Unknown Speaker 47:49
hopefully NC State can continue to their dominance as the best women's basketball team in North Carolina. But only time will tell on that, and I'm not super optimistic.
Unknown Speaker 48:02
Yeah, look at that little gloomy note to end the episode. I hope you enjoyed listening to it. I think I mentioned I was gonna do something for this episode that's different than what I actually did and not proud of it,
Unknown Speaker 48:19
not incredibly ashamed of it.
Unknown Speaker 48:22
All right. Next episode will be around the end of the month. We will be going over cross country men's and women's team, and we start to head into our football hype. It will be one month away from the first college football game for NC State, and we'll be going over some of their top football draft prospects, and we'll be doing the story NC State's last bowl game victory, which was a lot longer ago than you think.
Unknown Speaker 48:54
All right. Well, thank you for listening. Have a good day and go pack you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
