UCLA postgame

[SEbluebood]

Agreed. It is hard to cut to the basket when defenders are not really guarding Nika and Aubrey. The lane is way too crowed for AE to work - hence all of her 15 footers. I know many on this site have Nika in the HOF and the WNBA and will quote her shooting percentages- but she must be a threat, shoot more and needs to get in the lane. I would say the same for Aubrey when she is not in the open court and running — these ladies give their heart and soul and have more offensive talents than they are showing right now. They hesitate before shooting and take way too much time thinking about it It looks awkward. ( Catch and shoot )
When you are not a threat you would struggle even making top 10 rosters.

While I agree that they both need to be more aggressive, it’s a bit ridiculous to say they would struggle to make other top ten rosters!! They both have plenty of other skills teams would love to have. Not everyone on every top 10 team roster is strong offensively.

 

[Zonepress]

Assessment was spot on.
Paige is going to suffer because she doesn't have anyone on the perimeter who can keep the offense honest outside of her and we're simply to damn small to have any options to help inside. The remedy is stop handcuffing the players and let them explore a bit. We tend to play rigid with in the Princeton offense.r

 

[JBK]

While I agree that they both need to be more aggressive, it’s a bit ridiculous to say they would struggle to make other top ten rosters!! They both have plenty of other skills teams would love to have. Not everyone on every top 10 team roster is strong offensively

While I agree that they both need to be more aggressive, it’s a bit ridiculous to say they would struggle to make other top ten rosters!! They both have plenty of other skills teams would love to have. Not everyone on every top 10 team roster is strong offensively.

While I agree that they both need to be more aggressive, it’s a bit ridiculous to say they would struggle to make other top ten rosters!! They both have plenty of other skills teams would love to have. Not everyone on every top 10 team roster is strong offensively.

True.
When Aubrey has it going she is definitely a game changer defensively and offensively. I guess we just do not know what kind of pain she may be in to play at that level more consistently.

 

[Centerstream]

From what I have read of your only critical posts to date, you don't seem to grasp the situation and circumstances regarding Ducharme at all. In short for your education, her hip surgery caused recovery problems through most of at least the first third of last season, then the neck stiffness, then the numerous hits to the head putting her into concussion protocol and the aftermath from that has been devastating. Through it all she was still able to win at least one game pretty much single-handedly, and she played pretty well considering what she's gone through. So Caroline's recovery has been much more than just a surgery. Welcome to the BoneYard! Please do your homework before talking about things you apparently know nothing about.

As to your ridiculous question, there is nothing about this game I don't understand!

Amari has been left on the end bench by arguably the best coach in women's college basketball for 2+ years. Some of you think just because she's 6'6 she deserves playing time. That's your opinion and you have a right to it. But you don't coach this team and never will. Geno gave her nine (9) minutes because he was forced to do so. She did very little with them. Of course I didn't expect her to be a world beater, although that would have been nice. We need a miracle worker who can score, rebound, make assists, not turn the ball over, block shots and defend the rim like crazy. Did you see any of that? Did I expect that from her, absolutely not but some of you do. She has been practicing her craft everyday for very many years. It's not like playing the game of basketball is something new to her. Yes, she had some type of surgery in the off season. To my knowledge we don't know too much about it. However, I didn't notice any difference in her. If she wants more minutes, she must become an animal out there when given the opportunity. Just fitting in isn't going to get the job done.

And, if I have left any question about it, I love Amari. She seems like a wonderful young lady and a great teammate. Heretofore, quite honestly, she has seemed satisfied with that.

Kudos to you!!!! Very good post.

 

[Zonepress]

Te the Princeton offense
It seemed that kk and Paige the most effective
Players offensively generally created their own shot
Imho UConn might benefit from a little of nba style
Run paige and AE in the high pick and roll
Run kk the same way in both losses the opposing bigs stayed inside the foul line and were never forced to play in space
I would have loved to see betts having to come to the 3 pt line
That being said the foul line jump shot was avaliable the whole game for the post players

 

[Geesworld]

Whether you watched the game or the box score you know that the coaches restricted her ”impact” to just nine minutes.
Actions speak louder than words.

Yup that's the UCONN way. Single out certain spots or individuals. Might be the reason we can't get one top tier big to join this program. Amari doesn't show in the stat sheet, but we end the half down by 4 after being down 19 points. Half time adjustment was to sit her in the second half. That makes sense.

 

[ERWUC65]

Win or lose, play everyone until you find that 2nd outside shooter (Q, Ashlynn) and the best big for in the paint (Amari ,Ice). Noting the positive, we have ball handlers (Nika and KK), and 2 swiss army knives (Paige and Aubrey). Again, forget the record, just develop that team that will be the best for the tournament in March. Got to rest Paige, not only for her well being, but to get the team to stop relying on her to run every play and make every basket. Difficult but doable. Now for Aaliyah, at a loss here, healthy, experienced, great potential, but when the going gets tough she disappears (fouls, rebounds, etc.). Bring her in off the bench against the easier teams, we don't seem to start well anyway. Plenty of time left, Geno will find the answers...

 

[nwhoopfan]

There's not "so much parity in the sport." There's one top team and a bunch of also-rans. Just the way it has always been. Tennessee then UConn got to be that top team for years, and now it is someone else.

Who? Last 6 Championships have been won by 5 different teams.

 

[Classof87]

Ok!

That was not great, but I only want to say one thing. Paige not looking for her shot immediately has been the only detriment to her game since she got here, IMO. She has got to shoot the ball every time she touches it(if a shot is there). She passes the ball way too much to open games. If her teammates see her shots going in, it gives them confidence. Unfortunately, she waits far too long to call her own offense.

Respectfully disagree with you on Paige shooting it every time she touches it. She DOES need to look for her shot more, but it has to be within the flow of the offense. I think with the refs really looking for the illegal screens it is harder for our shooters to come off of picks and get an open look (including Paige).

 

[Classof87]

Didn't see the game, but did see the box-score. 0 Points, 0 Rebounds, 0 assists, 0 blocks, 0 steals, but she did have some stats, 2 turnovers and 1 foul. A little hard to imagine good minutes with that stat line.

She pushed their big out of the lane on D. With our current post players (AE, IB) she was basically camping out under the rim and getting easy looks and easy O RBs. Amari got her off the block, and that was enough.

 

[Classof87]

Some of the commentary on Twitter suggested Paige was getting mugged on drives. Did anyone see this?

Also, I dread watching the replay, but it doesn't surprise me that Aaliyah struggled when I see how poorly the perimeter shooters other than Paige did. If we don't have a perimeter threat, then Aaliyah is bound to get crushed in the low post. For UCLA it's the opposite -- we need to hit 3s to open the post, they need to attract double teams in the paint to open up the perimeter. Who exactly are our outside threats now that Azzi and Caroline are out?

A lot of Edward's misses were the 12-15' jumpers from the top of the key. She normally makes a lot of them and her shot was simply not falling.

 

[Classof87]

She’s an overmatched freshman! This team is too short, too slow, not athletic enough, is clearly disheartened, and basically is undermanned! How did we come to this? If everyone were healthy, we could probably overcome our deficiencies but the simple truth is that the swallows (read; recruiting failures and injuries) are coming home to roost!
We have to throw any ideas of a championship out the window and Geno needs to reset this team back to simply trying to improve incrementally for the foreseeable future. We are far from a contender at this point! I don’t want to go overboard with the despair thing as it is true that we are missing much of our team to injuries but the simple truth is, we are just not very tough, and not very athletic! That is a very bad combination at a time when those qualities are on the rise all around the country! We do still have Paige but she is going to need lots more help than she got tonight!

Oof... you say you don't want to go overboard with despair, but it sure sounds like you have. UCLA is ranked #2 for a reason - they're really good! If we were all healthy and this happened, I'd feel different, but don't forget, the team just got the news about Azzi, that has to affect morale, and then Ducharme is a game-day scratch due to neck spasms. Any team would get out of synch with starters going down, especially the freshmen. It's NOVEMBER... try to remember that when wailing and gnashing your teeth over the state of the program. Anything can happen over the next 3 months, and once we get to the NCAA, you don't have to beat everybody, just the ones in your bracket.

 

[snowkot]

... Amari doesn't show in the stat sheet, but we end the half down by 4 after being down 19 points. Half time adjustment was to sit her in the second half. That makes sense.

This.

Reminds of my post after the 2021-2022 64-49 loss to So. Car. in the National Championship game. Or the 28 total minutes (more 1st half) for Azura in the 91-89 OT loss to ND in the final four. 2nd quarter adjustments v 2nd half follow-ons...

 

[uconnfan68]

Yup that's the UCONN way. Single out certain spots or individuals. Might be the reason we can't get one top tier big to join this program. Amari doesn't show in the stat sheet, but we end the half down by 4 after being down 19 points. Half time adjustment was to sit her in the second half. That makes sense.

Kara Wolters, Rebecca Lobo, Ashja Jones, Kelly Schumaker, Jess Moore, Tina Charles, and more say “wut?”

 

[HuskyNan]

Kara Wolters, Rebecca Lobo, Ashja Jones, Kelly Schumaker, Jess Moore, Tina Charles, and more say “wut?”

Kiah Stokes, Jess Moore, ODO, Paige Sauer, Liz Sherwood… many were highly sought out of high school

 

[Classof87]

Paige played very good. A lot of her misses were her shooting threes in the end of the game. And her being the only one doing anything she had to force some shots. Paige was definitely the best player on the floor it’s just her team wasn’t helping much. Kiki had help so we couldn’t just focus on her. She is really good too, I’m not saying she isn’t. But I agree about the firsts and as good as Paige is, I believe these other players aren’t up to UConn standards in regards to the kind of players we’ve gotten in the past. Some may disagree, but I’ve thought that for awhile. We aren’t athletic as a lot of teams and are to soft. Geno needs to recruit better. As I’ve said recently, these next two recruiting classes will be very telling as to where this dynasty is heading. We have two excellent pieces next year now he needs to focus on some tough athletic skilled bigs and more shooters, one is not enough.

"Geno needs to recruit better."
you aren't seeing what is happening in the women's game. There's 30+ excellent players coming from high schools and overseas. He can't offer all of them a scholarship...

 

[Classof87]

She is their best perimeter defender. Period.
She is also very good at distributing the ball (remember all of those assists she racked up last year?).

 

[Classof87]

Geno needs to stop going over seas looking for talent and focus on the kids here. It’s ok to have a couple of players from over seas but we are always not as athletic or tough as the better teams we play.

That is one way to send the program into mediocrity. What exactly do you have against foreign players? You don't think Lou Lopez was tough last year?????????? smh

 

[Classof87]

There's not "so much parity in the sport." There's one top team and a bunch of also-rans. Just the way it has always been. Tennessee then UConn got to be that top team for years, and now it is someone else.

Respectfully disagree.

 

[npignatjr]

0 points, 0 rebounds, 2 fouls & 1 to

Not always in the numbers, she was there during the comeback, played good against their centers. Also got called for a bogus foul that wiped out a Nika 3.

 

[npignatjr]

Just checked out the box score. UConn had more FTs, 7 more FTAs and only 3 less 3 point FGs. We missed too many inside the arc, that was the difference.

Most of those by AE were open shots

 

[npignatjr]

That is one way to send the program into mediocrity. What exactly do you have against foreign players? You don't think Lou Lopez was tough last year?????????? smh

Many of the best NBA players are from Europe

 

[npignatjr]

Why does someone post here about a game but didn't watch it? Box scores are nice but never the whole story.

 

[Jokerman619]

Well I saw that uconn didn't show up in the first quarter. I did see Audrey put a spark in the game. I then saw Paige kick it in. And then the uconn team kick it in. Just like NC game, Minnesota game. So which team do we get tomorrow against Kansas. I really think Aubrey deserves a big kudos. She does this every game. No slowing down. The ever ready Bunny. And now we know that the ncaa board will drop uconn hard. It's just how they feel about uconn. So we know that they will meet again. And I look for it to to be a different outcome. Look at how the team did last year after losing more than one major player. So sometime you need to be taken to the woodshed, to realize who you are. So I will be in full support against Kansas. And Texas coming up around the corner. And I still believe with all my faith that uconn women's basketball will rise to the top as it is destin to be.
So GO HUSKIES.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

I'm angry and disappointed but NOT at the UCONN players or coaching staff but at once again our girls are saddled with extreme injuries that rob UCONN of their huge talent!