Post Mortem

[Skeets]

Well, I think Geno did start the game with his best team on the court, at least in his mind. But, when your "best team" loses the game in the first 5 minutes or so, any arguments about "fresh legs", playing the bench, etc. just don't hold water. I don't understand why UConn came out so disjointed early on, but they paid the price. After the early fiasco they did manage to play SC even most of the rest of the way. You just can't put yourself in a hole against a team like that.

 

[Teacherdeb]

I agree wholeheartedly with the first two sentences of the paragraph. I respectfully must disagree with the 3rd sentence...unless you mean that they're well taught to defensively counter UConn basketball.

No UConn offense has ever resembled the offense of SC's team this year. SC shot 43% from the field for the season, and 37% in the UConn game. They shot over 50% on seven games this year. By comparison, the 2015-2016 UConn offense averaged 53% shooting over the entire season. High percentage shooting is typical for UConn's other championship teams as well.

UConn has had some good slashers and drivers in the past. He's also had some good rebounders and rebounding teams in the past. But Geno has always utilized them differently. He has never built his offense around an unusually high degree of certainty that his team will get the offensive rebound.

The real ancestry of Dawn Staley's offense this year is not any Geno team, but rather that of Pat Summitt. Lest anyone think I'm being dismissive here, I'm not. Because when you have the right personnel to run that style and you're good enough to teach it to them properly, it can be quite effective...as Pat's record and the results of Staley this year show.

As far as Dawn Staley's defense goes, I think that she has a very good grasp of the zeitgeist of the current college basketball game, in terms of what they can do and can't do under the eyes of the refs. She has figured out the exact intensity of defense required to disrupt virtually any offense without getting called for too many fouls. And she's recruited in the correct way to hit that intensity. And that, truly, is to her credit.

Yes! Exactly what I was thinking. To counteract that style you need to shoot well.

 

[Cornell Lt]

My glass was 1/2 full with the results of the 2021-2022 season. I think the team got about the best result they possibly could given what they faced. That '21-'22 experience will pay dividends down the road .

 

[hoophuskee]

No, it has nothing to do with fresh legs or favorite players; Uconn had a team clicking on all cylinders that Auriemma praised to high heaven and he still chose to break up that team for the NCAAs.
Funny, all the fans who insisted he had to do that in order to WIN the championship, now are filled with excuses and rationale why they weren’t good enough to do that with the team they put on the court.
No one will ever know what the outcome would have been had he left the team that was playing so well prior to the NCAAs intact but the fact is he did what he did and they ran into a well coached tough minded team that completely took the game to Uconn in the finals and Uconn had very few answers. All the posts in the world is not going to change that because lists of minutes played has absolutely nothing to do with putting your best team on the floor. I don’t think he did, others may disagree.

You mean the team ""didn't click" when it made it all the way to the finals? What a disaster!!!

I don't understand your funny comment. Maybe I'll do and will post it below.

You're right. No one will ever know. But we can offer opinions. And imo they wouldn't have went as far unless he made the changes he made and gave the minutes he gave in order to win and beat other terrific teams leading up to the finals.

I think he did put the best team on the floor. Thus in regards to your "funny comment" imo maybe you're making the excuse you claim others are making that it was Geno's minute distribution?

 

[Wonder 12]

The beauty and attraction of the women's game was always that is was basketball in its purest form. Now, the NCAA seems hell bent on turning the women's game into a smaller, other gender version of the men's game. The tourney is incredibly exciting. The basketball not so much when it is not grace but brute force and size. Purists like me who grew up with the game are offended by referees changing the game by not enforcing the rules. You are right about the NBA. Really ironic that that is a truer version of basketball now than the college game. They enforce their hand checking rule. Our refs don't. Dribble drive garbage now, not cuts, back doors, motion offenses. Why dribble drive? You can't do anything else when you can't cut or move. All you can do is high post screen and go 1 on 1.

You are exactly right. I wish someone cared enough to do something about it. It’s a shame people embrace the act of getting away with something that is obviously wrong as ok as long as you don’t get caught or in the case of Boston and morrow punished.

 

[jdote33]

Has anyone watched the game again. I probably will in a couple weeks. I keep stumbling on clips from the Sue and Dee broadcast on YouTube. I keep seeing the score semi close and thinking we kinda have a shot. Lol. 39-46 in the forth.this is sort of being discussed in the other thread but I think we did miss Dorka. I think perhaps Dorkas best skill is her rebounding. Also the last game SC lost this season was because of a big getting hot and pulling SC away from the basket. I felt UConn just needed a couple more threes. Who knows if Dorka could've provided that. I hope that thought sortve fuels her.

I also really appreciate the post above. And jj Reddick also talked about this on his podcast well he was talking about the lack of spacing and cbb being sort of stuck. Watching SC all season I just thought they had no spacing, and no movement from side to side. But they do have a dominant post and good albeit streaky one on one players.

 

[eebmg]

Interesting follow up article on the season

Geno Auriemma might ‘lead the country’ in technicals while defending Paige Bueckers: ‘That kid gets fouled more than any kid in America’

Bueckers, the national player of the year as a freshman, played just 17 games as a...

www.thehour.com

Just about every member of UConn’s travel party left Minneapolis sick. Some had sniffles, others flu-like symptoms or a stomach bug. Still others came away from the Final Four with COVID-19 — though no players or coaches.


“Unless it turns out perfectly, it’s always tinged with ‘What if?’” Auriemma said. “While you’re going through it, you know what a struggle it is. But you look back and go, ‘Yeah it was a struggle, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle.’ So then you get to the final game and you go, ‘Shoot, all we’ve been through and we’re going to lose?’ It was like that movie with Chevy Chase when they go through all that stuff to get to Wally World — and it’s closed.”

“Not even close,” Auriemma said (about Paige being herself) . “And when you’re trying to come back, you’re trying to do it against the best competition you face all year. So that was a challenge. And she’s got a challenge this summer. She’s got to get stronger.”


“Azzi overthinks things sometimes. And when she doesn’t, there are times at practice when that kid will go a week without hitting the rim [all swishes]. Then you say to yourself, when she passes up some open shots, ‘What could be going through her mind?’ How’d you like to be coached like this? ‘Hey, Azzi, every time the ball touches your hand, shoot it.’”


“I said this to Azzi once: I think some people can help you with your confidence but I don’t think confidence is something you order at a sandwich shop,” Auriemma said. “You can’t walk in and go, ‘Can I have a confidence sandwich?’ Confidence comes from putting the time in and doing it to a certain level every day, doing it against competition, and then going home and going ‘I got this.’ Confidence doesn’t come from someone else saying, ‘You got this.’ That’s a part of it, but it’s not the biggest part of it. Self-confidence is way more important than someone else having confidence in you.”

 

[KingKong139]

The amount of fans crying ‘South Carolina is too physical, they’re hurting the game, the refs are in their pocket’ is embarrassing for UConn. Some of y’all have turned into the pundits from 2016 when UConn and Stewie were ‘ruining the game.’ Dawn Staley and SC aren’t doing anything but winning and growing the sport. If it’s the physicality that presents an issue for UConn, then they need to adjust.

 

[BRS24]

Interesting follow up article on the season

Geno Auriemma might ‘lead the country’ in technicals while defending Paige Bueckers: ‘That kid gets fouled more than any kid in America’

Bueckers, the national player of the year as a freshman, played just 17 games as a...

www.thehour.com

Just about every member of UConn’s travel party left Minneapolis sick. Some had sniffles, others flu-like symptoms or a stomach bug. Still others came away from the Final Four with COVID-19 — though no players or coaches.

Quite a few journalists at the FF also testing positive for covid last week, some now unable to attend the WNBA draft.

 

[bbsamjj]

Hypothetically, how many WNBA stars would Coach Auriemma have produced in his first 14 seasons in Storrs? South Carolina has produced as many WNBA Rookies of the Year as the storied program at Stanford, and one more than Notre Dame. There are, likely, a number of factors at play when young ladies choose to matriculate at South Carolina. Good players will make it to the WNBA regardless of where they played their college ball, and great players will become great pros regardless of where they developed their skills in college.

This, and also, 7X WNBA all star Candice Dupree, who ranks 4th in career points in WNBA history, played for Staley at Temple.

 

[visitingcock]

Time to declare post mortem on the negativity in this thread.

UConn is not dead. The season might be, but not UConn. Let;s face it, UConn's runnerup finish is the best since 2016. Final fours are nice but UConn played for it all this year despite having an excess of injuries.

Yes, SCar will hold an inside edge next year. Uconn will have an outside edge.

Both teams have NOPYs returning. UConn's should have two more years, Scar's? only one. Dare I use the word "generational" for both?

SCar has the disadvantage of being the hunted. UConn will be the hunter.

Who will be more motivated in the offseason?

Get over it. SCar, UConn Stanford and somebody else will almost certainly be the powers of next year, None hold a true advantage. Same as this year.

Get over it folks!

 

[bbsamjj]

Finishing runner up, as tough as it is, is not an unsuccessful season; particularly when SC came in as the #1 ranked team and UConn faced a bevy of injuries/obstacles all season long. As Geno said in the presser, of his 11 championships, he thinks 10 of them UConn legit had the better team; he did not think UConn had better team against SC. You need some luck to win a championship when you're not the very best, and sometimes even when you are. UConn played three #1 seeds in succession in NC State, Stanford, and SC. Winning 2/3 games is incredibly impressive. I think the only team in the country that could beat NC State, Stanford, and UConn in a row is SC, the worthy champions.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

The amount of fans crying ‘South Carolina is too physical, they’re hurting the game, the refs are in their pocket’ is embarrassing for UConn. Some of y’all have turned into the pundits from 2016 when UConn and Stewie were ‘ruining the game.’ Dawn Staley and SC aren’t doing anything but winning and growing the sport. If it’s the physicality that presents an issue for UConn, then they need to adjust.

The amount of crying we would've heard from SC fans had they been on the other end of a 26-4 FT disadvantage would've been biblical. Also, your coach blamed the basketball for her loss at Storrs. Maybe you should stow your crying comment.

 

[KingKong139]

The amount of crying we would've heard from SC fans had they been on the other end of a 26-4 FT disadvantage would've been biblical. Also, your coach blamed the basketball for her loss at Storrs. Maybe you should stow your crying comment.

Why on earth are you saying ‘your coach’? I have a news flash for you, we share the same coach. UConn born and bred here. Not every critique is automatically from an opposing fan. To address the free throw disparity, OUR team needs to get more physical as I eluded to, we had one player that would look to drive through contact.

 

[Dognusty]

Why on earth are you saying ‘your coach’? I have a news flash for you, we share the same coach. UConn born and bred here. Not every critique is automatically from an opposing fan. To address the free throw disparity, OUR team needs to get more physical as I eluded to, we had one player that would look to drive through contact.

Also some fail to realize that 14 of those 26 attempts where within the last 7 minutes off the game. 12 for the first 33 mins. Then break down how many paint attempts each team took and u see why there is a big margin in attempts.