Georgia Tech Postgame Thread [Merged Thread]

[jaydee602]

In the good old days, UCONN would have played an AAC patsy tonight & had time to adjust their game without Paige. They weren't up to the challenge of a road game vs. a well coached, motivated team.

 

[SLY63]

Can some reach out to Canada and ask them to return AE to us?

 

[CTtoSanDiego]

Well, we now got a glimpse of what UConn is without Paige. I know we were very shorthanded, but still, it's a bit of a surprise, given all the highly ranked players we still put on the court (many more than GT).
For those who thought Ducharme was the answer.. no, not yet at least. She was fairly useless tonight.
I can see people missing 3pt shots, but CW consistently misses by an unbelievable amount.
For those who had been claiming AE is the second coming, I'm baffled by how bad she has been. Can't even make a layup.
Evina has been far below expectations.
Liv has been okay, but tonight, not much more than that.
Juhasz has been a disappointment -- I definitely expected much more from her.
A good glimpse of Amari... hoping she can build on that.
Our streak of not losing two in a row is certainly in jeopardy, unless our ladies can dig deep!
I remain hopeful, but barely so...

 

[UcMiami]

So ... was that the first loss to an unranked team since St. Johns in 2012?

 

[CTGirl15]

This was a painful game to watch; one of the worst performances I've seen from a UConn team.

They had a lot stacked against them with the injuries, but this team had the pieces to win this game tied at the end of the 3Q, then everything fell apart, just like the SC game. Even with the injuries, the starting lineup includes 3 highly ranked players that are now seniors, an All-Conference transfer, and an Olympian. They should have been able to win this game.

I don't know why this senior class has never seemed to gel or find their confidence when they are pushed by their opponents and their energy always seems low. They should have won this game, but Georgia Tech made all the plays down the line; they hustled and had all the energy. Kudos to them on this win, they absolutely earned it today by outplaying UConn down the stretch and not backing down.

This UConn team has some soul searching to do; from both the coaches and the players. They've got a long few weeks ahead of them right now and it only gets harder from here. This game either lights a fire under these players or is a sign of things to come until February.

I think Geno needs to take a step back and figure out how to coach these players. For whatever reason, his coaching style just doesn't seem to work for these seniors and if they want to survive these next few months, they need to figure out how this group can win games. I'm not sure what that looks like, but it can't be worse than what happened on the court today.

 

[Bigboote]

This is a team playing its first game since losing its starting point guard and backup point guard (who started at PG half their games last year). When a team is missing its point guards, I expect a lot of turnovers and a lot of crappy shots. Turnovers weren't much worse than usual. There were more possessions than usual, though, with prayers lofted or players shooting threes just because they couldn't think of anything else to do.

The outcome was worse than I expected, but the flow was about what I expected. What I didn't expect was all the missed bunnies. I agree with Rebecca that something has gotten inside Edwards's head.

I thought Ducharme played pretty well other than not shooting well. I liked the little bit of DeBerry that we saw.

 

[my2cents]

My wife came into the room while I was watching the game and asked me why I had a paper bag on my head. Just told her it was the first time since forever that I was embarrassed to be a UCONN fan. The good news I didn't cut out the eye holes, why wreck a good bag over one game?

 

[Rb335]

It's going to be a really tough stretch. I think we have the potential to beat UCLA, but Louisville looks really challenging. Then Marquette could be a win. But this version of the team will struggle to score with Depaul. I for one see the back to back loss streak finally coming to an end.

 

[X conn]

Hard to watch, especially late in the game....makes me wonder if CW needs lasik for her eyes, I don't think she sees the rim clearly from the 3 pt line. AE missed too many bunnies. It has to be a tough loss...everyone knows we were way under staffed. I liked seeing Amari Berry on the floor.

Needs Lasik? Don't go where you are not educated.

 

[UConnCat]

In the good old days, UCONN would have played an AAC patsy tonight & had time to adjust their game without Paige. They weren't up to the challenge of a road game vs. a well coached, motivated team.

No, they would not have played an AAC patsy on December 9th in the old days. Try again.

 

[Huskie02]

Biggest problem was offense. No creativity, few if any player screening, turnovers galore, even when open many shots didn't even hit iron. Where were offensive plays run by UConn? GT looked like a good team that knew what to do, and they could execute as well. Not sure Geno can create some basic offensive plays in short amount of time but that is what's needed.

31% shooting overall 13% on 3pt attempts, and 5 points in the fourth quarter. Terrible loss! I don’t think we could beat ND again if we had to play them without Paige. Can’t believe CW was the #1 recruit coming out of high school. Teams are lining up to clean our clock over the next 8-10 weeks. i don think it makes any difference as to how many of the walking wounded return. Nothing will change until Paige returns.

 

[Carnac]

Something to think about……how many Big East teams could we beat playing like we did tonight? What are our chances of going undefeated again this year in conference play? UConn may drop out of the top 25 with another loss to an unranked team. Massey has GT ranked #40.

 

[BobbyJ]

Not pretty at all. Neither will this post be. It's a bit of a rant so let me just get it out of my system...

I get the team is re-acclimating after losing Paige and Nika, but this is a team that starts 4 top 5 recruits and now 1 former Big 10 all star. 44 points in a game? 2 quarters where we scored single figures and one where we scored 11.

Are the coaches recruiting the wrong kids? Are they coaching them wrong? How many HS AA's does Ga Tech have? I have no words for the mess we just saw. At this moment, this team is not even a top 25 team, and to think that 1 player makes that much of a difference says a lot about the quality of the other players on the team and/or how they play together.

I'm not going to pick on specific players, but IMHO both the coaches AND the players need to look in the mirror and do some serious soul searching. This might be the worst game I've ever seen a UCONN team with this much talent play.

Not sure what Geno and Jamelle were barking at each other about. Would love to have been a fly on the bench at that moment.

Was nice to at least see Amari get some PT and do more in the stat sheet than Liya.

We lost Q4 18-5. Can't blame that on 3 games in 3 days.

Thanks for pointing out something that should be obvious to anyone who understands the game, but still seems to be difficult for a lot of folks to grasp. HS rankings mean nothing in the college game. Dominating 16-17 year old kids, most of which are basically rec league level talent does not equate to having 18-22 year olds who take the game seriously up in your face competing. College coaches don't care how many points you scored in HS. As soon as they see you're not that good they're going to expose you. As for your comments on recruiting and also on development, have at it. It's a fair question that HS rankings can't answer.

 

[HuskieDawg]

Something to think about……how many Big East teams could we beat playing like we did tonight? What are our chances of going undefeated again this year in conference play? UConn may drop out of the top 25 with another loss to an unranked team. Massey has GT ranked #40.

If we play like tonight? We could lose to any team. There is no excuse for the way they played. Can’t blame it on youth or lack of talent. They played tight. The shooting was atrocious. They looked poorly coached.

 

[npignatjr]

Here is my take. E isn't a PG. CW isn't a PG. Our PG is the best player in WCBB and she is hurt. We were losing this game the second Paige went down on Sunday. I don't care who is on the floor, you're only as good as your guards and no Paige changed everything about this team.

I mean-our 4 injured players could be 4 of our 5 starters next year. This is going to be an UGGGGGLLLLLYYYYYYY 6-8 weeks and we will probably lose 5 straight.

One last thing-does anyone else feel Rebecca tries really hard to not seem like a homer?

Because the 2 senior guards you mentioned aren't PGs even after Paige went down against an average ,slow, team with Nika playing they would be ok. Especially the 4th quarter was a senior guard dumpster fire.

 

[jdote33]

honestly, I thought we would be ok when Paige went down. But to have Nika go down is really tough. I just think having a point guard or person who makes the right plays stabilizes the offense. Look at Cubaj on the other end. Obviously not a point guard but player who was just looking to make plays all night. She had 5 points but dominated the game.

CW is great at attacking and manipulating screens to attack. I think she played a bit better than the box score shows. She forced a lot of shots in the 4th.

I didn't understand starting Dorka at the 3, but I guess it was a bit of an opportunity for her to step up. I just think the whole team is out of position and not very confident. That's my biggest worry.

 

[jaydee602]

No excuses, but UCONN was down FIVE players tonight, Paige, Azzi, Nika, & Aubrey are injured while Aaliyah still hasn't returned from Canada!

 

[msf22b]

I w

UConn may drop out of the top 25 with another loss to an unranked team. Massey has GT ranked #40.

I was thinking that too...and it may not matter
I'm not saying its surely the scenario...but we could lose 4 or 5 games
(really not unlikely)
and when the walking wounded return; be a final 4 team

 

[housekeys]

Offensive woes aside, hold them to 43 points and we win this game. If you can't score, stop them from scoring. UConn will be back. It's a chemistry issue, it is a mental issue, it is an injury issue. Talent is there. Coaching, while not as virulent as years back, is also there.

 

[Bigboote]

Good question. That missed layup was brutal.

Her hand was about 6" from the basket when she missed that, plenty of time to gather herself. I'm clueless what happened there.

 

[npignatjr]

One thing missing without Paige, obviously, but shorter term, hopefully, is the grit Nika and Aubrey bring, I cannot believe either of those two would fold like tonight.

 

[Centerstream]

I am really hoping that Aaliyah and Dorka can contribute on both ends of the court. They probably get the most reps in practice and then step on the game court and just seem to get lost. Not contributing consistently puts too much pressure on every one else, including the bench.