Louisville Postgame Thread

[Blue Ghost]

Caroline. Wow! She just keeps getting better every game. Clutch shots. Hustle.
Love that Dorka is starting alongside Liv. Her double digit scoring and rebounding has been impressive.
Liv’s passing from the high post gave Louisville fits today.
E being the primary ball handler and leader says it all. She controls the flow of the offense. Invaluable.
AE coming off the bench provides energy and another big. She even did a good job guarding Van Lith.
CW hit a big 3 with under a minute to go which was overturned to a 2. But other than that, looked hesitant to even drive to the basket. She is the one player besides Paige that can go one on one but for some reason maybe she has lost that aggressiveness.
Overall the team played well. Would have loved to see them pull it out but they lack the firepower right now with so many out with injuries.
Once they all come back this will be a team no one would want to have in their bracket at tournament time.
Even the short term future is good.

 

[CajunHusky]

I am very pleased with how they played today. Geno worked some magic I think. Vast improvement over how they played the last few games. I think will we see the team grow significantly the next couple of months.

 

[Centerstream]

I agree with you on this 100%, but the basketball court provided in today's games was from the Basketball Hall of Fame and not the Mohegan Sun.

Didn't the court have the Mohegan Sun logo on it?

 

[Gus Mahler]

The biggest surprise for me was Evian’s POOR decisions ALL GAME.

I'm not going to say you're all wet. Evina made some key boo-boos today.

We are barely a top ten team in my opinion.

We might well not be come tomorrow. I'd say 10th at best. Depends on how much voters factor in the injuries.

 

[cohenzone]

Olivia led the team in assists. She had 3 fouls, one dubious. He sat her late in the game I’d guess both because Dorka was playing better and with both playing, it kept the middle clogged.

I think Evina is the player affected most by Paige’s absence. Much more pressure on her to run the offense that probably affects her own production. When Nika comes back, though it wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t keep the current starting line up. His other choice would seem to be to start Nika and use one of the twin towers off the bench. When Azzi is ready, depending on her play, Christyn might be seeing her time reduced. Aliyah showed a couple of flashes of last year. Hopefully she is turning a corner.

 

[MSSportsGuy]

I watched the entire game and I've read the posts here. UConn played very well overall considering and some of the criticisms here are a little harsh.

Ducharme was fantastic and Dorka played well too. Louisville stepped up when needed. They are a tough team but if UConn's existing Huskies play this well when the injured reserves come back this team could easily win it all.

No the team wasn't perfect and there is room for improvement but I think the glass is half full after this one.

 

[jdote33]

The focus on CW has caused us to overlook that Aaliyah continues to be a non factor. Only 16 minutes.

I thought Aaliyah played well in her minutes. She hustled and attacked the offensive glass. She had a deep seal and score at one point as well. I know the team missed Dorka a lot on those, but Aaliyah does a great job of holding her position and then finishes quickly. I get the 16 minutes though, Dorka had a solid game. But when the team is so short handed, Geno probably needed to get Aaliyah on the floor a little bit more.

I said this in the game chat, but Dorka missed a couple bunnies. I don't know if it is the sped up thing that Geno is always talking about, but she could've had 20 this game.

 

[ochoopsfan]

I see some of the posters are upset that CW was getting on Amari for "not being in the right place and missing a cutter." Isn't that what a senior should be doing on the court, to get the freshman to learn the system, or play? Or is it only okay if the senior is playing well for her to be okay to do it?

 

[Postie]

How can you be a great player but only contribute under certain circumstances? That's ridiculous.

CW has been in the program 4 years.What you see is what you are going to get .She is a Dow Joneser up and down.

 

[01Neaggrad02]

The other teams that beat UCONN this year should enjoy a well earned win. No one can take that win away from them. That said... when we are full strength it will be nice to see who is smiling and jumping around the court. Enjoy the day...

 

[Postie]

Olivia led the team in assists. She had 3 fouls, one dubious. He sat her late in the game I’d guess both because Dorka was playing better and with both playing, it kept the middle clogged.

I think Evina is the player affected most by Paige’s absence. Much more pressure on her to run the offense that probably affects her own production. When Nika comes back, though it wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t keep the current starting line up. His other choice would seem to be to start Nika and use one of the twin towers off the bench. When Azzi is ready, depending on her play, Christyn might be seeing her time reduced. Aliyah showed a couple of flashes of last year. Hopefully she is turning a corner.

Azzi has to play better defense if she expects to take minutes away from CW

 

[LoboDays]

I don’t consider this game a moral victory. If our seniors showed up and played well but lost to a better team, then I would call it moral victory. But if they showed up today against a good not great Louisville team, it would have been an outright victory.

How does CW just disappear like this?

We don’t take advantage of opponents weaknesses. When Louisville puts 4 short players, why not get our 3 bigs in there and get the ball inside? That’s where our mismatches were.

 

[tchalla1]

Some thoughts on the Louisville game:

• This was always going to be a really tough game today. A shorthanded UConn team played hard against a very good Louisville team. To paraphrase a quote attributed to Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain), “Reports of UConn WBB’s death are greatly exaggerated.”
• The more I see of Caroline, the more I love everything she brings to this team. She kept the Huskies in the game today.
• Geno threw a 2-3 zone at Louisville to start and then switched back and forth between zone and man during the 1st half. That gave Louisville some trouble at first, but once the Cardinals started knocking down 3’s, they forced the Huskies out of the zone.
• It’s extremely difficult to play with only 3 guards on your active roster. There’s no rest for anyone and it greatly limits the adjustments UConn could make at both ends of the court.
• On paper UConn had an advantage in the paint. But Louisville did a really good job of denying easy entry passes to UConn’s post players.
• Hopefully, UConn will get some of the walking wounded back after Christmas.
• Everyone, hang in there.

Very nice assessment, Old Dude, it was a gritty performance, but why we could not take more advantage of our height advantage inside is baffling...

 

[Postie]

The other teams that beat UCONN this year should enjoy a well earned win. No one can take that win away from them. That said... when we are full strength it will be nice to see who is smiling and jumping around the court. Enjoy the day...

All UConn loses occurred due crash and burn poor play with 5 minutes or less in 4th quater.

 

[Tonyc]

I see some of the posters are upset that CW was getting on Amari for "not being in the right place and missing a cutter." Isn't that what a senior should be doing on the court, to get the freshman to learn the system, or play? Or is it only okay if the senior is playing well for her to be okay to do it?

Gotta agree with you and thats the point I thought I made. The reason Amari isnt seeing more minutes is because she doesnt have the system down.

 

[tchalla1]

I don’t consider this game a moral victory. If our seniors showed up and played well but lost to a better team, then I would call it moral victory. But if they showed up today against a good not great Louisville team, it would have been an outright victory.

How does CW just disappear like this?

We don’t take advantage of opponents weaknesses. When Louisville puts 4 short players, why not get our 3 bigs in there and get the ball inside? That’s where our mismatches were.

Spot on analysis...

 

[MSGRET]

What does that mean "provided?" Like Mohegan Sun has no court if not for the Basketball Hall of Fame? Doesn't Mohegan Sun own enough wood to make a court on its own? Why would someone else have to provide the wood and such to make a court?

The Mohegan Sun does have their own court with the Conneticut Sun logo. This was the Hall of Fame games today, with the HOF logo at center court and is the same one the HOF used last year. @Centerstream, the HOF logo was not the Sun's logo.

 

[Darnell17]

How can you be a great player but only contribute under certain circumstances? That's ridiculous.

Exactly!!!

 

[Tonyc]

Very nice assessment, Old Dude, it was a gritty performance, but why we could not take more advantage of our height advantage inside is baffling...

IMO the reason is we're not hitting our outside shots. Today with Evina at the point again she was guarded. CW is a slasher and Caroline wasnt known yet. So Caroline went off, Evina was basically shut down, CW couldnt penetrate and LVille made sure when the ball went down low they were there to defend. When we start hitting more shots from the outside things in the middle will open up like what we did in the UCLA game in the second half

 

[TeamFirst!]

I honestly agree with this. It seems like after every game, we hear how player x's game isn't suited to this type of defense. If you are a great player, you have the ability to score in multiple ways, against multiple defenses. If for example, your only way to score is off the drive, then you aren't versatile enough to be effective.

Even Lebron James has some games where he is a non factor. It happens. It happens every night in the NBA.

 

[cohenzone]

Azzi has to play better defense if she expects to take minutes away from CW

Azzi looked slower then expected but then her injury was probably the reason . I hope. Let’s see how she performs when healthy.

 

[ABCDFE]

Not as optimistic as some, unfortunately. This is a game we could and should have won, playing at home and having the lead for most of the game, including parts of the fourth quarter. But the inability to run any coherent offence against elite-level defense has been the bugaboo of this program not just today, but really since 2017. Props to Geno for at least trying to develop an inside game, but you have to have some level of outside shooting to open that up. And our seniors were not good again today. Except for defensively, which is the one bright spot with this team right now.

Ducharme is going to be an All-American. A superstar. 2 full years with her, Paige and Fudd will be insane.

Ducharme is starting to remind me a bit of Ashley Joens, who is one of the best players in the country right now. But even bigger and possibly a better shooter at least now as a Freshman. Just a restless worker on both ends, specifically on the offensive end whether it be with the ball or without the ball. She's a bucket.

Honestly, for the future, rather lose and have her go off than win a close game where we are carried by CW and EW.

The silver lining is that with Caroline getting these minutes against tough teams, we will be a much different team IF Paige can come back this year and not miss a beat. It’s a big IF. So I do like our chances of Azzi and Caroline amd Paige are on the floor with Dorka and Liv. AE, Westbrook, CW, Aubrey, Deberry coming off the bench. This is even against South Carolina.

 

[BobbyJ]

CW has been in the program 4 years.What you see is what you are going to get .She is a Dow Joneser up and down.

I'm aware of that. I'm not the one who called her a great player.

 

[tchalla1]

The tough preseason schedule was a good idea in the summer. Not having any easy games has made it impossible for Geno to develop his bench. Amari and Piath need minutes and he can’t afford any.

If she stays healthy, Caroline Ducharme is going to have a monster career at UConn. Completely fearless and wants the ball when the game is close.

My frustration with CW continues. Her 40 minute stat line for a senior is just not good enough for a big game. She had a key TO at the end and not spotting up for a three at the end was inexcusable.


I wish Geno would have rotated the guards with CW playing the point some. Evina needs more rest than she got today. As brilliant as Caroline Ducharme was, I thought she was gassed at the end. Especially on defense.

Walz pressuring the guards full court was an effective ploy.

UL played as good of half court defense as they will see all year. They totally smothered a good Michigan team.
later in the season.
UConn had moments of effectively feeding the post but not nearly enough.

I like your analysis--yes, CD has it all but most importantly, she is fearless--did you see her work for her shots in crunch time--she has what several of our upper classmen lack and she is developing very quickly out of necessity. due to the injuries, but it's going to pay big dividends. I have completely moved on from CW--her inconsistency and lapses in judgement that produce stupid turnovers (like the critical one in crunch time) plague us so, and have made me have a nihilist's view of her: I expect nothing therefore I am never disappointed by her...

 

[MSGRET]

I thought Aaliyah played well in her minutes. She hustled and attacked the offensive glass. She had a deep seal and score at one point as well. I know the team missed Dorka a lot on those, but Aaliyah does a great job of holding her position and then finishes quickly. I get the 16 minutes though, Dorka had a solid game. But when the team is so short handed, Geno probably needed to get Aaliyah on the floor a little bit more.

I said this in the game chat, but Dorka missed a couple bunnies. I don't know if it is the sped up thing that Geno is always talking about, but she could've had 20 this game.

I think that Dorka was fouled on both of her bunnies near the basket, but the refs didn't call them. Many times in the game the Louisville players were pushing with their arms in the back of the UConn posts and the refs seemed to let them get away with it.