Best Uconn team to NOT win the title

[HuskyFan1125]

For me, 2001. I loved watching that team play.

 

[VAUConnFan]

Great comments. 2001 was just an outstanding year in women's college basketball when you look at talent across the board. UCONN had more talent on that roster than they've ever had, Tennessee might have had their deepest roster ever, and Notre Dame had the nation's best starting 5. Aside from the power 3, Georgia had the Miller Twins, Deanna Nolan, Tawana McDonald and Christi Thomas, yet they were only a 2 seed. Duke had Alana Beard, Tillis, Georgia Schweitzer and a lot of solid role players. Purdue had Katie Douglas, Camille Cooper, and 2 stud freshmen in Shereka Wright and Shalicia Hurns--Hurns was outstanding as a freshman and probably would have been one of the top players from the 2004 class, but had major off the court issues that derailed her career. OU had all of their studs from their 2002 runner up season, Stiles was the best scorer in the nation, and other teams like LSU, Florida, LaTech, Iowa State, Vanderbilt, Xavier, Texas Tech and Rutgers all had really strong programs in 2001.


That said, in regards to the best UCONN team to not win a title, my vote is 2011. I really thought they would roll to another title even after the Stanford loss and the first close call with Notre Dame. UCONN just looked better than everyone, and Maya Moore could score at will and was finally taking over games on a nightly basis and dominating the statline after deferring to teammates her first three seasons. I really thought she couldn't lose as a senior, and I didn't see that happening against Notre Dame.

2001 had the most talent of any UCONN team, but it was never evident that UCONN was head and shoulders better than everyone in college basketball that year. As I noted above, so many teams had outstanding talent. Notre Dame proved the first win by 13 wasn't just a fluke and they could not only hang with UCONN, but was capable of beating UCONN. Tennessee was so much stronger back then, too, and both match ups during 2001 were extremely competitive. Looking back the talent UCONN had was out of this world, but no one back then could've predicted the following:

1. Sue Bird would go on to win 3 Olympic Gold Medals and be widely regarded as the best point guard in the world for a long period of time. In 2001, it wasn't evident she was the nation's best point guard, and was badly outplayed by Niele Ivey in 2 out of 3 match ups.

2. Taurasi would go on to be one of the best players of all time. She showed great potential in the NCAA Tournament and her monster night at Tennessee, but she had struggles as a freshman, she only averaged around 11 ppg, had moments where she played out of control, and she was awful her last game.

3. Cash and Jones would go on to be main stays in the WNBA and earn multiple All-Star nods. Cash made good strides in 2001 but was a solid role player who I don't think anyone anticipated would be as successful as she has been. Jones had potential but didn't seem much improved from 2000.

All of these players have obviously turned into huge success stories, but back then none of them were close to being as good as they would go on to be.

Excellent post!

Niele Ivey should have won the Lieberman Award in 2001. IMO, she was the difference for that Notre Dame team, especially in the two victories that season over UConn.

 

[hoophuskee]

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about the regular season loss to ND when UConn was at full strength.

For some of us, with that loss, it eliminated the excuse that they were best ever because you couldn't use the injuries as an excuse. With that said you can't count a game in December as proof you'd lose a game in March.

You often hear "teams get better" -- so somehow the thought for some is-- UCONN loses it's 1stteam all-american leading scorer, stealer, 2nd leader in rebounds and assists in her senior year who is starting to play the best basketball of her career and also loses their senior leadership in another all-american and we're supposed to disregard all of that because of what happened in a game in December?

UCONN won a game vs ND while during the game Ralph got hurt. You can't practice or plan for that. Same with Sveta when she got hurt it was vs Tenn --- you can't practice/plan for these type of things. Yet we have to read how we won on a buzzer-beater as if implying we were lucky? IMO that's absurd. Sveta and Ralph MADE UCONN better. Teams in December do not grow equally by the end of the season. To think without UCONN's best player and Ralph's leadership we couldn't have won by more than a buzzer beater and then in FF would have had to rely soley on DT just stretches the imagination way too far imo.

The game at UCONN already showed we had narrowed the gap. But we lost a 2nd a/a while winning. Now we had to rely on a frosh who as frosh their very characteristic is they are are inconsistent. It's not like UCONN wouldn't have gone to ff anyways. You put Sveta and Ralph in the lineup -- leading up to the final four we win all these games up to the point of the final four.

The reason I bring that up is that I've read in the past some say DT was so awesome in tourney leading up to that point. That's irrelevant. We know in wcbb there are a few teams capable of winning it all. And the moment of the ff can be daunting. UCONN had to rely on a frosh. That is NOT ideal when otherwise been able ot rely on tow all-amercians of which one was playing the best ball of her career and the other was a big time leader.

 

[hoophuskee]

sorry time limit police to change my prior post got me. Should be January 15 not December.

 

[asuwish]

UcMiami- - - I agree 100%! The 2001 team was the greatest WCBB team of all time! There were several factors that stopped them short of the Championship, but Geno's 1/2 time tirade and Shea & Svet's injuries were the two main roadblocks! DT's 1-15 shooting night vs ND wouldn't have occurred if Shea & Svet were healthy! UCONN with a victory in 2001 would have won 5 in a row with 2000. 2001, then 2002, and Diana Taurasi driving CT to the 2003, and 2004 titles! There were 7 AA on the 2001 team, DT, Bird, Williams, Jones, Svet, Shea, & Cash! Geno always has said the 2001 team was the greatest ever, whether they won a title or not!

I thought 2001 was the watershed moment for WCBB that never happened. It could have put the big dog, Uconn and the flair of DT against the great Jackie Stiles and little SWMS. I believe "people" (non wcbb fans) would have turned on the TV for this David vs Goliath game. This might have been to wcbb what Bird vs Magic was on the men's side, a must see game that reshaped interest in the sport. People forget that the men's madness wasn't close to what it is today before that game (I believe the most watched finals ever). Sadly the finals were vanilla vs vanilla, two teams of fundamentally sound players from Indiana that gave "people" no reason to watch.

 

[Wally East]

If I understand correctly, you're saying that UConn was the best team in 2001 despite three losses, including two to the same team?

 

[UcMiami]

BBallnut - nice post, but ... a little revisionist history re 2001 -
This was a team coming off a pretty dominating NC the previous year, with all important players back and adding DT to the mix. (36-1 losing on a last second basket to TN at home and avenging that loss with a 19 point win in the NC game.)
1. DT as a freshman did not start any games until Sveta went down in game 19 - she averaged 24 minutes a game, but prior to that point and the later loss of Shea was probably playing about 15-18 minutes a game. Her scoring average went up as her minutes went up but a scoring rate of .46 per minute playing with both Shea and Sveta for most of the year compares pretty closely to her .50 as a sophomore. And her 3 point shooting as a freshman was better than KMLs even including the final debacle.

2. Sue Bird established herself as the premier PG in WCBB in the 2000 season (her first Lieberman.) Statistically 2001 was a down year for her, probably somewhat due to the injuries to two key starters, and the team having to reinvent itself twice during the year, but she was still very very good.

3. The triumvirate of Jones, Cash, and Williams had already established themselves as very good players - they were still sharing minutes with Schuey - those four were averaging 37 ppg for the center and forward positions - or 18.5 ppg for each - not sure we have had that much production out of those two positions except with Maya/Tina in 2010 who matched it (Lobo/Wolters 95 were at around 16 ppg each. Cash led the way in minutes at 23+, Williams and Jones were both at 19+ and Shuey was at 16+.

4. All of those players increased their production in 2002 but a large part of that was replacing the 741 points, 369 rebounds, 228 assists, and 95 steals that graduated with Sveta, Shea, and Shuey.

No one talks about the 2008 team but they were a team also derailed by injuries losing Greene in game 8 and then Thomas in game 16 - after those two went down, they lost to Rutgers by 2 and then in the FF to a Stanford team they manhandled when they were whole early in the year.

In total - injury effected teams that might/were good enough to win:
1997 - Shea
1998 - Sales
1999 - Shea
2001 - Shea/Sveta
2008 - Greene/Thomas

Scary good.

 

[meyers7]

I loved this post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I "like"d it, literally.

 

[meyers7]

If I understand correctly, you're saying that UConn was the best team in 2001 despite three losses, including two to the same team?

Most talented.

Here's an argument for you. A couple years ago I did a poll playoff of all the NC teams (8 at the time). The 2002 team won easily and is considered by many to be the best all time (WCBB). Just a devastating team. The 2001 team was basically the 2002 team with Ralph, Abrosimova and Schumacher and Kennitra Johnson added. Think about that.

Maybe next month when it starts getting really boring, I will do another poll with all 10 teams. Have to do play-in games.

 

[UcMiami]

Most talented.

Here's an argument for you. A couple years ago I did a poll playoff of all the NC teams (8 at the time). The 2002 team won easily and is considered by many to be the best all time (WCBB). Just a devastating team. The 2001 team was basically the 2002 team with Ralph, Abrosimova and Schumacher and Kennitra Johnson added. Think about that.

Maybe next month when it starts getting really boring, I will do another poll with all 10 teams. Have to do play-in games.

So ... what you are saying is that we are going to leave the ranking of Uconn teams to the uneducated, ignorant, misguided, and mindless thinking of a group of people who hang out at a place called 'the boneyard'. That should settle the question for ever!!


(As Geno says - if it comes down to a vote, is it really worth winning! )

 

[meyers7]

So ... what you are saying is that we are going to leave the ranking of Uconn teams to the uneducated, ignorant, misguided, and mindless thinking of a group of people who hang out at a place called 'the boneyard'. That should settle the question for ever!!


(As Geno says - if it comes down to a vote, is it really worth winning! )

Well it should settle the Boneyard argument anyway.

 

[hoophuskee]

If I understand correctly, you're saying that UConn was the best team in 2001 despite three losses, including two to the same team?

Not quite - close -- but not quite.

What I'm saying is UCONN wasn't the best team because of their injuries.

If they had Sveta - they would have had a good shot to beat Tennesse. Check out the box score Feb 1st from below - Sveta played just 25 minutes. She was 7-12 from the floor and 3-4 from 3 along with 8 rebounds. UCONN missed their best palyer. UCONN won vs ND on a buzzer-beater but doesn't it stand to reason that our best player (a 1stteam all-american) along with Ralph could have helped? Or is it that because in January we lost we had no chance to beat them?

And the game vs ND at FF- isn't the final four a bigger stage than the other rounds? Thus wouldn't it stand to reason that a freshman has a greater chance to "crash-and-burn the more you put on her back on the final four? Do people really think UCONN would have been living and dying with DT jump shots once she clunked a few vs THE SENIOR Sveta who WAS playing the best basketball of her career before she got hurt?

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...5/misc_non_event/2000-01AllGamesBoxScores.pdf

 

[Wally East]

Not quite - close -- but not quite.

What I'm saying is UCONN wasn't the best team because of their injuries.

I don't think so. Obviously, at the end of the season, UConn missed Sveta and Shea. Obviously. But, if you look at the boxs scores of the two losses to Notre Dame, they're pretty similar. Yes, the route taken to the losses was different, but:

Jan 15 vs. Mar 30
92-76 vs 90-75
36% shooting vs. 34%
giving up 46 FTs vs 36
33% 3-pt vs. 20%
Bird scores 18 vs. 18
Tamika scores 10 vs. 10
DT scores 6 vs 4
Swin scores 7 vs 8
28 bench points vs. 26
2nd-half ND scores 52 vs. 53

(In the first loss, Shea had 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting in 20 minutes and Sveta had 20, going 7-17 in 36 minutes.)

Some of the names changed but it didn't matter much. ND was just better that season despite the obvious overload of talent UConn had, even with season-ending injuries to two All-Americans.

 

[hoophuskee]

I don't think so. Obviously, at the end of the season, UConn missed Sveta and Shea. Obviously. But, if you look at the boxs scores of the two losses to Notre Dame, they're pretty similar. Yes, the route taken to the losses was different, but:

Jan 15 vs. Mar 30
92-76 vs 90-75
36% shooting vs. 34%
giving up 46 FTs vs 36
33% 3-pt vs. 20%
Bird scores 18 vs. 18
Tamika scores 10 vs. 10
DT scores 6 vs 4
Swin scores 7 vs 8
28 bench points vs. 26
2nd-half ND scores 52 vs. 53

(In the first loss, Shea had 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting in 20 minutes and Sveta had 20, going 7-17 in 36 minutes.)

Some of the names changed but it didn't matter much. ND was just better that season despite the obvious overload of talent UConn had, even with season-ending injuries to two All-Americans.

The two box scores from January and March/April are irrelevant. Every game is different. The circumsatances are different. In basketball as we know Ruth Reilly for example-- one player can make a huge difference,. Sveta was beginning to peak in her senior year. That's a much different dynamic. The defense has to account for that.

If we look at game 2 - you'll see Ralph played extremely well before she went down. I don't have the box scores -- but just as Ralph improved - I'm sure game 2 with Bird her level of play improved from game 1. In part - Ralph's presence and level of play helped Bird and Bird's helped Ralph's. You tale away a star- it's much harder for the other star to maintain a certain level of excellence. If Ralph's presence in game 2 and her level of play was so high - then could you imagine if we had Sveta for game 2 and game 3? The numbers you provided would be much differnet because you'd have to account more for Sveta and Ralph with your defense. Everything would be different because UCONN would be attacking with Sveta as both a slasher and a shooter and Ralph was an excellent passer- especially her senior year - you can see how her assists vs turnovers was excellent. You have all of this plus senior leadership the dynamics of how UCONN plays is completely different than game 1 vs Notre Dame.

Just look at Shea's game 1 vs game 2. Add that game 2 plus her experience. It changes. You can't disregard She's performance in game 2 before she went down. Then you can't disregard Sveta's overall level of lay and how the team's dynamic would have played off of that.

 

[Wally East]

The two box scores from January and March/April are irrelevant.

Oh, you mean the detailed results of what actually happened?



I think we're done here.

 

[hoophuskee]

Oh, you mean the detailed results of what actually happened?



I think we're done here.

Hmmmm – I think you are having an argument with another poster on this thread that said this:


don't think so. Obviously, at the end of the season, UConn missed Sveta and Shea.

So what you’re essentially saying is – UCONN missed Sveta and Shea but the game THEY DIDN”T PLAY in is more relevant than even the 2nd game in which at least one of them played a portion of the game. Interesting twisted point of view you have here, Mention UCONN missed 2 all-americans of which one was staring to play at her peak level and you want to use the game in which both didn’t play as some sort of barometer. Just --- WOW.

Secondly, here is a little history lesson for you. It is true that teams that have lost to another in a the regular season have beaten the same team in the NCAA’s. Did you happen to miss the game UCONN beat ND in Stewie’s frosh year? Or how about a couple years earlier ND knocked out Maya and TAM knocked out Baylor? I believe a year before that Baylor beat Tennessee in NCAA's– but earlier in year Tenn beat the frosh Griner. Yet somehow YOUR EXAMPLE of a January game is relevant? Sure---- okay. Nobody can overcome a regular season January loss-- because you say so.

Third I see how you conveniently ignored Ralph’s game 2. Instead game 1 is more relevant for you. S0- in other words – what happens earlier in the year is more relevant to you than the improvement and play we saw from Ralph in the Big East Tourney Finals (Game 2). Wow. Just – Wow.

You’re right. We’re done here.

 

[Wally East]

Hmmmm – I think you are having an argument with another poster on this thread that said this:

don't think so. Obviously, at the end of the season, UConn missed Sveta and Shea.

I said that to you. It's right there in the quote header. Yes, of course UConn missed those two players. But they weren't enough to overcome ND. If they were, UConn would've defeated ND in January. They did not. It was not close, never in question.

Yes. I think the two games that UConn played and lost are more important than the one game they played and won, at home, by virtue of a buzzer beater -- especially when the two losses look virtually identical. (Your history lesson about teams beating opponents they'd lost to earlier in the season is nice but there are far more examples of teams continuing to lose to an opponent that had already defeated them.)

Incidentally, I don't think the stats support your contention that Sveta had elevated her game after the January ND game or for her senior year as a whole. Her non-conference scoring was actually higher than it was in conference games (most non-coference games happening prior to that game). Sure, she had a 25-point game again Syracuse in the 18th game of the season but she had a 23-point game against Washington in the 3rd game of the season. But, in the two games prior to the Syravuse game, she didn't fare well: against Pittsburgh, she didn't score in double-digits and didn't have more than 12 against Miami. She didn't rate a mention in the AP article about either game. Not exactly the play of someone who had elevated her game.

Sveta's PPG were down seasonally, too: 14.5 as a frosh, 16.6 as a soph, 13.4 as a junior and 14.1 as a senior. Her rebounding was steady: 5.4 rpg as a frosh, 6.6, 6.2, and 6.5. Assists, 3.1 apg as a frosh, 3.7, 4.2, and 4.1 as a senior. Elevating her game after a step back as a junior? Sure. Her best basketball ever? I don't think the stats support that. (It was her best year in terms of FG%.)

Further, Shea didn't have a great senior season. It was her lowest scoring sesaon by a good chunk, she average 9.7 ppg, as compared to 11.4 her freshman year, 16.7 as a soph, and 14.9 as a junior. (So, her scoring was down more than 5 points per game comparing her senior season to her junior season.) Her FG% was also at its lowest point: 55% as a frosh, 59% as a soph, 62% as a junior and 52% as a senior. (To be sure, 52% is still very good.) But, all in all, she wasn't the player she was in prior seasons. Shea was not an All-American that season.

So, specifically, what were Sveta and Shea going to do in March that they didn't in January that would've prevented Notre Dame from scoring 53 points in the second half? Why didn't they do whatever you propose in January to prevent ND from scoring 52 in the second half?

Neither was a terrific defensive player and that was the problem this team had against ND. They could not keep them from scoring. When you give up more than 50 points to a team in a half -- TWICE -- there are serious defensive problems. Those defensive problems did not get fixed between January and March (which, obviously, because otherwise it wouldn't have happened in March).

What it comes down is that UConn had no way to stop Ruth Riley plus ND was very balanced offensively.

All of these stats support why I think what I do.

We all know that something went wrong with the '00-'01 team aside from the injuries. Other than Kelly Schumacher, not a single player on the team played her best season that season, which is definitely a sympton of something larger.

 

[bballnut90]

BBallnut - nice post, but ... a little revisionist history re 2001 -
This was a team coming off a pretty dominating NC the previous year, with all important players back and adding DT to the mix. (36-1 losing on a last second basket to TN at home and avenging that loss with a 19 point win in the NC game.)
1. DT as a freshman did not start any games until Sveta went down in game 19 - she averaged 24 minutes a game, but prior to that point and the later loss of Shea was probably playing about 15-18 minutes a game. Her scoring average went up as her minutes went up but a scoring rate of .46 per minute playing with both Shea and Sveta for most of the year compares pretty closely to her .50 as a sophomore. And her 3 point shooting as a freshman was better than KMLs even including the final debacle.

2. Sue Bird established herself as the premier PG in WCBB in the 2000 season (her first Lieberman.) Statistically 2001 was a down year for her, probably somewhat due to the injuries to two key starters, and the team having to reinvent itself twice during the year, but she was still very very good.

3. The triumvirate of Jones, Cash, and Williams had already established themselves as very good players - they were still sharing minutes with Schuey - those four were averaging 37 ppg for the center and forward positions - or 18.5 ppg for each - not sure we have had that much production out of those two positions except with Maya/Tina in 2010 who matched it (Lobo/Wolters 95 were at around 16 ppg each. Cash led the way in minutes at 23+, Williams and Jones were both at 19+ and Shuey was at 16+.

4. All of those players increased their production in 2002 but a large part of that was replacing the 741 points, 369 rebounds, 228 assists, and 95 steals that graduated with Sveta, Shea, and Shuey.

No one talks about the 2008 team but they were a team also derailed by injuries losing Greene in game 8 and then Thomas in game 16 - after those two went down, they lost to Rutgers by 2 and then in the FF to a Stanford team they manhandled when they were whole early in the year.

In total - injury effected teams that might/were good enough to win:
1997 - Shea
1998 - Sales
1999 - Shea
2001 - Shea/Sveta
2008 - Greene/Thomas

Scary good.

Good points made here. For your 2nd point about Bird, she was one of the premier point guards in the nation that year along with Miller and Niele Ivey, but I honestly thought she was better as a sophomore than as a junior, and then obviously had her best season as a senior. In 2000, I can't recall a single game where she didn't have complete control over the game's tempo, she always had the upper hand in every match up. In the three losses in 2001, she didn't have control of the game. She was still very good in 2001, but if we traveled back 14 years, I don't think many people would have predicted that she'd go on to have the career she has had compared to the likes of Niele Ivey and Kelly Miller.

The foursome you mentioned was very effective, but for good chunks of the season, Cash played small forward which dilutes those numbers. From what I recall, after Ralph went down, UCONN had Cash play SF and had Jones/Schumacher as posts in the starting 5, with Williams coming off the bench. They were very good, but in 2002 the trio made up unquestionably the best front court in women's basketball. That was not evident in 2001, as Tennessee had an outstanding frontcourt of Catchings/Jackson/Snow, Notre Dame with Siemon/Riley, Purdue with Cooper/Hurns, etc. UCONN's front court was very good, but in 2001 no one would have predicted that Jones/Cash/Williams would go on to be incredibly successful at the next level compared to players like Gwen Jackson (who dropped 28/14 on UCONN in 2001) and Ruth Riley.

2008 was an interesting team as well. They only lost a close game at Rutgers and in the Final Four, but they should have lost to a mediocre DePaul team if it wasn't for a choke job down the stretch, and games against Rutgers (NCAA), Syracuse, Louisville and LSU could have easily been losses for UCONN.

Maya Moore was sensational as a freshman, but outside of her and Swanier, no one had really strong seasons for Connecticut. Montgomery's shooting was horrible, Charles/Houston were in Geno's dog house at the end of the year and Geno tried a slew of different lineups looking for the magic combination. There wasn't a ton of cohesiveness nor consistency with this squad outside of Moore and Swanier. Having Thomas and Greene would've been very helpful, but 2008 was also an incredibly competitive year for women's basketball. Tennessee was the eventual champion and had the nation's best player and the best defense by the end of the season. Stanford had the best ball movement of any team, Rutgers was immensely talented but had no offense, LSU was loaded with seniors and played outstanding defense, Maryland and UNC were both #1 seeds, Texas A&M was good, etc. Outside of UCONN, all of the top programs had their top players as seniors in 2008. Lots of really good and experienced teams that season. I do think Tennessee was the best team in 2008, but it was a more open field than it was in most seasons. If the NCAA Tournament was played out 10 times, there could have been 6-7 different champions.


And in regards to your list, here are my thoughts:
1997-UCONN definitely could have won it this year. Tennessee was really really good at the end of the season with a healthy Jolly and Holdsclaw playing some of the best basketball of her career, so that game would have been a dog fight if Ralph played. If they beat UT and make the title game (assuming they beat Notre Dame), they would've faced a LOADED Stanford or ODU squad. Stanford might have had the nation's best team in 1997 once Folkl came on board, and you could make the same argument for ODU considering they beat Stanford twice. In hindsight, the fact that a ten loss team would go on to win the title when there were 3 other teams that in total combined for 1 loss (excluding head to head matchups) is crazy and will probably never happen again.

1998-I don't see UCONN coming close to Tennessee. 1998 was a weaker year for Connecticut. They had a nice 1-2 punch in Sales/Abrosimova, but Tennessee was just untouchable that season.

1999-UCONN was very good, but incredibly young. All of their best players were freshmen and sophomores, they lost by 11 at home to Tennessee (granted it was without Bird), but I don't think they had the maturity or experience to compete with Tennessee or Purdue had they matched up in the NCAA tournament.

2001-This one has been actively debated on here. I think Notre Dame wins regardless of whether Ralph and Abrosimova are healthy, but people have varying opinions on this.

2008-Total toss up as noted above.

2011-Not injury, but Walker's mid season departure had lasting effects for Connecticut. Against Notre Dame, Dolson got into foul trouble and UCONN had to play long stretches of small ball with no one over 6-0 in the line up. As a result, they were dominated on the glass and in the time that Dolson was benched after her 4th foul, Notre Dame outscored UCONN by 7 and never relinquished the lead. I don't know if Walker would have made a difference, but with hindsight being 20/20, it couldn't have hurt UCONN considering the end outcome of that game.

 

[jcoton56]

The other 20 in any order ;-)

 

[hoophuskee]

I said that to you. It's right there in the quote header. Yes, of course UConn missed those two players. But they weren't enough to overcome ND. If they were, UConn would've defeated ND in January. They did not. It was not close, never in question.

.

1--- When you have all-amercians—particularly UCONN all-americans – and ones that are seniors and one that is regarded as one of the best 5 players in America – these all americans make other players better. There is no way you can look at that January game and then surmise that Sveta wouldn’t have improved the team when you consider that game 2 we already had improved a great deal from the drubbing we took. Shea Ralph improved in that 2nd game, what makes you think Sveta wouldn’t have helped make her teammates better in game 3? If She Ralph can do it, so can Sveta.

2--- You keep bringing up game 1 and then tying it into game 3. They are NOT similar because BOTH all-americans did NOT play in game 3. In Game 2 when just ONE of them played (Ralph) - she outstanding. When I bring it up—a lot I hear is “buzzer-beater.” But when we speak of Ralph’s play—why would the subject be immediately turned into buzzer beater? Let's talk about game 2- the more recent than game 1- of which UCONN was a little more at full strength than game 3. Look at her stats in Game 2—she was 4-5 from the floor- was 1-1 from 3, had 11 points and 6 assists with no turnovers in just 14 minutes. How does your mention of game 1 and game 3 have any relevance to these numbers put out by Shea in just 14 minutes? Thus why are you using game 1 Shea stats and not game 2 Shea stats?

3--- There is a myth that just because a player doesn’t score as much or shot as well from the floor it means they are a having a bad season. Maybe it’s a sub-par season for the player but hardly is the player playing bad. Thus we have Shea Ralph. Her stats were down but she had 122 assists vs only 57 turnovers. In Her jr year it was slightly above 2-1 – but all in-all for two consecutive years she was a terrific passer. How can that passing not be applied to game 3? How can her performance in game 2 of just 14 minutes not figured that it would be a great help in game 3? We are talking the player Shea Ralph – not the fact UCONN won on a buzzer beater. Did she Ralph improve a lot from game 1 to game 2? The answer is yes. Wouldn’t have Sveta improved? Why wouldn’t she? She was having her best year. You say she wasn’t but the stats show otherwise.

4--- Sveta was having her best season. In terms of average - she was shooting better from the floor from 2 and from 3. She was rebounding higher slightly higher than her jr year but slightly less her soph year, and her assists were slightly higher her sr year than her jr year but much better turnovers. Much much better. So in summary we have Sveta a better shooter than any point in her career, a much better passer than any point in her career and only missed out by .1 in having her best rebounding year, -- and you are suggesting that as you say “I don't think the stats support your contention.” So fundamentals of shooting, passing and rebounding overall don’t suggest this?

In summary we’ve seen evidence that Ralph did turn her game around from game 1 to game 2. Thus we saw the turn-around from the team as well from getting blitzed in game 1 to winning game 2. We see overall that Sveta shooting improved along with her passing improved overall a lot over her career. You can point to her frosh year shooting but add Sveta’s frosh passing and overall the total package of Sveta - improved greatly. So we’ve seen Ralph’s improvement form game 1 to game 2 – so we are supposed to ignore that Sveta along with Ralph’s numbers wouldn’t translate to a positive in game 3? Shea’s numbers already did in game 2. And Sveta was a better player. Gimme seniors alla-americans and great passer and one of the best player's in wcbb that -- wins.

DT wasn’t the passer these seniors were in her frosh year. She had just 109 assists vs 72 turnovers. We had to “live-and-die” with DT’s shooting. When you have Both Sveta and Shea—you have two fabulous passers – you have more ways to win. More ways to attack. We already beat them with a part-time Shea. The stats of game 2 are more realistic of the outcome because we did win the latest game with just one of our 2 missing all-americans. You can’t ignore game 2 with a part-time Ralph. Add Sveta, a superior player to Shea, in the mix it would have been over.

Hell Sue Bird even had a bad back and considered not playing the Big East Title game- though that's not the same as Sveta and Ralph-- their passing that year made players better. DT's passing as a frosh not so much. Ralph was a beast in her 14 minutes vs ND and Sveta would have had even more of an impact. Game 2- Ralph's improvement highlighted the improvement probability. Sveta was among the top 5 players in the game- not just a scorer- she was more like top 3. THAT is an impact player. Ralph's game improved and impacted Game 2 so would have Sveta.



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[baylorprof]

I haven't read all of this so excuse the duplicate. Two years ago while a wishing and a hopin and reading the postseason program, one stat stood out in my mind that I've seldom seen mentioned about Auriemma. Perhaps it is among you guys, but the hinterlands who've never sniffed a final four probably don't.

Of the many trips you've made to final four (?) IF Geno gets to the final game, he wins it! That is a unique stat worth never growing old.

 

[Wally East]

[ ... ]

Yes, you have said a lot of things but:

What would have Sveta and Shea done in the third game that they didn't do in the first game, especially with regards to defense? Why didn't they do those things in the first game?

Of course the two games are linked -- in terms of team stats, they were identical and so were the outcomes. ND scored 52/53 points in the second half. That's not a coincidence.

 

[UcMiami]

I haven't read all of this so excuse the duplicate. Two years ago while a wishing and a hopin and reading the postseason program, one stat stood out in my mind that I've seldom seen mentioned about Auriemma. Perhaps it is among you guys, but the hinterlands who've never sniffed a final four probably don't.

Of the many trips you've made to final four (?) IF Geno gets to the final game, he wins it! That is a unique stat worth never growing old.

He once said of the FF he has reached it with teams that were not ready to win an NC, but he has never reached the NC game with a team that wasn't ready to win the NC. I always found that an interesting statement. It doesn't mean that he hasn't lost a semi-final game with a team ready to win an NC, just that all the teams that did win semis were also ready to win the NC.

 

[hoophuskee]

Yes, you have said a lot of things but:

What would have Sveta and Shea done in the third game that they didn't do in the first game, especially with regards to defense? Why didn't they do those things in the first game?

Of course the two games are linked -- in terms of team stats, they were identical and so were the outcomes. ND scored 52/53 points in the second half. That's not a coincidence.

Why ask about the 1st and 3rd game of Shea when you already saw Shea's 2nd game? You keep ignoring the 2nd game for some reason.

The two games of 1 and 3 aren't linked. Game two showed you the improvement of UCONN and Shea for that matter. There is no reason to believe Shea couldn't play very well vs ND in game 3 in that she showed you in game 2 she played very, very, very, very well. And what Shea could do - Sveta was just flat out better than Shea her senior year.

 

[Wally East]

Why ask about the 1st and 3rd game of Shea when you already saw Shea's 2nd game? You keep ignoring the 2nd game for some reason.

The two games of 1 and 3 aren't linked. Game two showed you the improvement of UCONN and Shea for that matter. There is no reason to believe Shea couldn't play very well vs ND in game 3 in that she showed you in game 2 she played very, very, very, very well. And what Shea could do - Sveta was just flat out better than Shea her senior year.

So, you're saying you don't know what Shea and Sveta could have done in the third game defensively that they didn't do in the first game. Fair enough. They weren't especially good defensive players.

The 2nd game is the obvious outlier, so, yes, it means less. That's how those things work.