"Off-Nights" | The Boneyard

"Off-Nights"

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How often, in opponents' post-game interviews after playing UConn, have you heard the phrase from players and/or coaches, "I/we just had an off-night?" Does it strike anyone besides me how remarkably coincidental it is that opposing teams' off-nights so often come against Geno-coached defenses? While we hear this particular lament from many quarters, Duke and ND players, coaches, and backers inevitably lead the chorus.

Indeed, in a post-game piece in the Notre Dame press, come dimwitted columnist advanced the idea that while the Huskies certainly cemented their #1 ranking last night, they failed to prove that they had the #1 team in actuality, on grounds that, what?, what?, yeah, you guessed it, the Irish simply picked the wrong night to have an off-night.

The more statistically astute Boneyarders can fill in the blanks as to the number of points below their season scoring average that the Irish were held. All I can say is that while the game of basketball has undergone plenty of change, great defense still wins games and championships, and that remains the main reason why any team put on the floor by Coach Auriemma will always be formidable!
 

Waquoit

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How often, in opponents' post-game interviews after playing UConn, have you heard the phrase from players and/or coaches, "I/we just had an off-night?"

And conversely, you don't hear too much about UConn's off-nights. Like yesterday, UConn had an off-night with their outside shooting. So they adjusted, by driving more. End of off-night. A win going away leaving the other team to whine about free throws. Most of the disparity coming from ND hacks on UConn drives.
 

RockyMTblue2

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Indeed, in a post-game piece in the Notre Dame press, come dimwitted columnist advanced the idea that while the Huskies certainly cemented their #1 ranking last night, they failed to prove that they had the #1 team in actuality, on grounds that, what?, what?, yeah, you guessed it, the Irish simply picked the wrong night to have an off-night.

That jerk was from the student paper, so he gets a pass as not a "real" journalist; not that there are a heck of a lot of those these days.
 

Aluminny69

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Speaking of "off nights", of the five starters, KLS, Collier and Williams have been fairly consistent offensively. OTOH, Nurse has had only one great offensive night, while Chong has only had one half. Were the other eight games "off nights?"
 
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I suppose it's better than saying.... Boy, we really stunk last night....:rolleyes:
 

Zorro

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Yeah, BigP, I read that too, and it made me think about what someone said about Koufax; he was just lucky enough that whatever team he pitched against happened to be in a batting slump at the time.
 

huskeynut

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Yeah, BigP, I read that too, and it made me think about what someone said about Koufax; he was just lucky enough that whatever team he pitched against happened to be in a batting slump at the time.

Priceless!!!!!!
 

oldude

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The universal truth is that WINNERS FIND A WAY TO WIN and losers make excuses.....
 

EricLA

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I thought it was interesting in her presser that Muffet mentioned something like "the only thing we did well was defend the 3-ball", noting that UCONN shot poorly from the arc. She did NOT say that UCONN had an off night...

But she continued in her comments that all of ND's woes were a product of their own doing (or not doing), not giving credit to UCONN's tremendous defense. As much as people may not like Doris Burke, she correctly noted on numerous occasions, often praising Kia Nurse, for terrific help defense, or calling for other defenders back over when we had to switch, causing ND to have a favorable mismatch against us.
 
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Speaking of "off nights", of the five starters, KLS, Collier and Williams have been fairly consistent offensively. OTOH, Nurse has had only one great offensive night, while Chong has only had one half. Were the other eight games "off nights?"

Chong's "off night" was caused by Turner's elbow crashing down on her face in the first half. (Didn't look intentional though)
 

UcMiami

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I think something that gets missed by many observers is the difference between blocked shots, in your face defensive pressure, steals, and the other obvious 'stats' of great defense, and the intangible but much more devastating to my mind disruption of rhythm and flow of an offense. ND had plenty of open shots many of which clanged off the iron if they touched anything so the 'statistical' presence of the defense wan't all that obvious. On the other hand, ND usually runs a very pretty brand of offense with lots of assists (typically top 5 range for D1 teams each year), great shooting percentage, and a clear rhythm - none of that was present for most of the night. They were thrown off their rhythm and while you can't point to exactly how Uconn did it, they are the culprit, and they do it to most teams they face. If you want to call it 'an off night' fine, but as others note above, seems Uconn is the by far the luckiest team in the country over the last 30 years because just about everyone they have faced during that time has had their worst off night of their season coinciding with the Uconn game.
 
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In my mind the off night thing is caused by a state of mind. You do see Uconn opponents missing wide open shots, shots they normally make consistently. I think this is a product of two things. First, a lot of opponents are pretty well defeated before the game starts. They make mistakes out of fear. Second, some of the teams are there to compete and they eventually start making unforced errors because they're being harried. They eventually start making decisions too quickly even when UConn isn't forcing the issue.

Both of these things are generally compounded by the fact that their mistakes are turned into points. When you combine the unforced errors with the forced errors the score starts to get out of hand. At that end it's easy to point out the missed opportunities and discount UConns involvement in them.
 
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