UConn-Villanova postgame

[Zarathustra]

Formerly #3 Texas failed to win the conference championship.

Oklahoma # 20 comes from behind in the final minute for the "W"! 71 -70!

 

[ucbart]

A tough, physical game played with a six player rotation. And Q only was in 14 minutes. No telling why Ice stayed on the bench while the starters had to gut it out. Too bad Ines and Amari haven't gotten to the point where they could sub in even for a minute or two here and there to give the starters a blow. It is what it is.

Villanova is an awful matchup for Ice. Villanova moves so well without the ball and we switch on screens. She isn't quick enough on defense for a game like that.

 

[freshler40]

I think our Huskies' legs are shot!
That's why most of their 3's were short and missed a bunch of layups as there is no spring left in their legs!
Even with last week off between games the legs are tired!

Why don't the coaches see this and adjust the playing time? With so many fouls being called, there was plenty to time to sub in and out. Our players need to see early that a game is being closely called. Would like to have our players and coaching staff make better in game changes. Hope we can cut down on turnovers often caused by being stripped or loose ball handling. Our sloppiness prevents any sustained runs and is head scratching at this point in the season.
We are better on paper than on the court with a few exceptions like Paige.

 

[HuskyNan]

Anyone know the gist of the two minute animated conversation between Denise Dillon and Geno at the handshake? Any lip readers watching?

I’m guessing they’ll send a joint letter to the head of Big East officials. Neither coach, nor any of the players, could believe the calls last night

 

[Rb335]

Villanova is an awful matchup for Ice. Villanova moves so well without the ball and we switch on screens. She isn't quick enough on defense for a game like that.

The goal though would be to become a greater matchup problem for the opponent. If Ice was good enough offensively to counteract the defensive shortcomings of a quicker team, she would’ve played. That’ll come with time hopefully.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

I’m guessing they’ll send a joint letter to the head of Big East officials. Neither coach, or any player, could believe the calls last night

It’s funny that Val Ackerman was there last night.

 

[Urshurak]

Few Thoughts:
*Ugly game but i guess it is better to win an ugly game than lose a beautiful one
*The refs were terrible for both teams. Paige's 4th foul is a joke of a call. if you call that a foul, you had to call what Dalce did a foul as well.
*This was a game that as everyone aside than Paige struggled to score, i was screaming at the TV whenever someone aside then Paige shot the ball
*Paige: An amazing player and she's got the best post moves on the team. When she was sitting on the bench the team looked totally disoriented. We won because we have Paige, and they didn't.
*AE: very strange game. Started so well and then just couldn't hit layups...i assume she just got tired. She does take a lot of abuse under the basket. Still had a double double which became the norm with her.
*Ash: what happened to her 3-point shooting ability? with that said, her 3 in the 4th quarter was huge.
*KK: great on defense but what is up with missing under the basket again and again.
*Nika: when she got injured it felt like the collective heart of UConn Nation stopped for a moment. If was great to have her back in the game and those baskets in the 4th quarter were critical.
*Ice: very few minutes and i assume it was because of the style of play by Vilanova which she is a bit slow for. Did ok in the few minutes she had aside than that shot from the foul line which didn't hit anything.
*Q: got so much potential, needs to get much stronger in the off season. I'm happy that she stopped just hoisting 3 pointers but trying to have a more varied type of game.
*when was the last game that UConn had more turnovers than assists? way too many turnovers and a lot of them were a real head scratcher as in what was she thinking...
*The defense on Olsen was remarkable. in both games this season UConn was able to contain her and while in the first game she had 15, in this game only 6.
*While UConn's offense was not good, the effort on defense was awe inspiring.
*Congratulations for this gritty team for winning the Big East regular season championship!




*

KK always seems....just a little short on the basket. Bounces off the front of rim. Seriously. 3-4 times a game it happens. Since the beginning of the year. I think if they shortened the basked to 9ft-11-7/8" then KK would be the most efficient scorer in the country.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Could be. But what I don't understand about Ashlynn is when the 3s aren't dropping, why she doesn't get in a position to take a mid range shot? And without having to dribble into the middle of the lane. Our freshmen often times don't do that very well.

I just think that Ash is now on every opposing coaches radar, when preparing for an upcoming game with UConn. In the early part of the season that wasn’t so. The upshot of this now is she is guarded much more closely, gets bumped more, and for all intents and purposes, beaten up more. Around the key her stop and pops are still automatic, as for her 3 pt shooting I think it’s partly the “freshman wall” and opposing players being much more aware of her. That being said, her shooting will improve, thanks to her coaches.

 

[Ozimoto]

It is win, move on, and survive time in the season. That is exactly what they did. Nika and others are going to be sore this morning. Defense won this game. Need to find some more offense besides Paige and Aliyah. Handled that adversity of Paige being unavailable for parts of the third and fourth quarter ok. Nice to see the team lock down defensively and pull away when the score differential got below 10. They didn't panic and some big shots were made. Nice that they didn't play scared when things went sideways.

 

[donalddoowop]

It is win, move on, and survive time in the season. That is exactly what they did. Nika and others are going to be sore this morning. Defense won this game. Need to find some more offense besides Paige and Aliyah. Handled that adversity of Paige being unavailable for parts of the third and fourth quarter ok. Nice to see the team lock down defensively and pull away when the score differential got below 10. They didn't panic and some big shots were made. Nice that they didn't play scared when things went sideways.

Some of those big shots were made by three freshmen. They can at times, be clutch.

 

[Surly1]

While I am certainly in the camp of having Paige shoot more often, I think it is more important as to when she shoots during the game. Paige will never be a volume shooter like Caitlin Clark or JuJu Watkins. She is an efficient shooter with the ability to assert herself and take over a game. The past two contests, she's scored 30 or more, taking 15 shots each game. More importantly, she's gotten to the foul line making 18 of 20 free throw attempts. Hard to argue with her effectiveness and execution.

As the team enters tourney time, Paige will be more aggressive, picking her spots, passing to another after trying to create for herself or trying to score in whatever manner seems appropriate. I feel she got into a bit of a rut taking 3's over the last 10 games, but I love the recent attacking the basket. She has so many moves, amazing body control that makes it almost impossible for a defender to stop her without fouling.

Yes, it would be nice for Ashlynn to be a more reliable third option, but as long as Aaliyah and Paige produce and remain aggressive offensively, UConn will be in the game.

I liked that Geno strongly "emphasized" his displeasure to Paige at the end of the first half when she passed the ball instead of trying to create for herself,

 

[Bone Dog]

Is it a freshman wall or is it just that every team is simply playing better defense now? Ash and KK played remarkably tough and focused. But they struggled finding open shots, and Ash missed a few open 3s. Tough D will do that to you. Q caught a number of teams by surprise early on and burned them from the perimeter. Those opportunities are fewer these days. But on the positive side she’s taking more midrange shots and driving more.

I really like Q on offense. She shoots, she drives, she rebounds her own misses. On defense, she is less sure of herself, still occasionally gets lost on switches, and finds herself out of position. This is where she needs to grow. On the plus side, she dives for loose balls and is crafty on the defensive boards.

 

[CTBballfan243]

Why don't the coaches see this and adjust the playing time? With so many fouls being called, there was plenty to time to sub in and out. Our players need to see early that a game is being closely called. Would like to have our players and coaching staff make better in game changes. Hope we can cut down on turnovers often caused by being stripped or loose ball handling. Our sloppiness prevents any sustained runs and is head scratching at this point in the season.
We are better on paper than on the court with a few exceptions like Paige.

Geno see's it. However, the 5 players out for the season make it tough for them to come off the bench and play any meaningful minutes.

 

[JAMBall]

Ash's mid-range shooting is very good, I am not sure why we are not using it more. A screen to open her open at the foul line would almost be money!

 

[Kat]

The other top-ranked teams are playing much tougher opponents. Sure, it wasn't pretty but let's be thankful that this BE schedule is a gift that keeps on giving.

 

[HuskieDawg]

Is it a freshman wall or is it just that every team is simply playing better defense now? Ash and KK played remarkably tough and focused. But they struggled finding open shots, and Ash missed a few open 3s. Tough D will do that to you. Q caught a number of teams by surprise early on and burned them from the perimeter. Those opportunities are fewer these days. But on the positive side she’s taking more midrange shots and driving more.

I really like Q on offense. She shoots, she drives, she rebounds her own misses. On defense, she is less sure of herself, still occasionally gets lost on switches, and finds herself out of position. This is where she needs to grow. On the plus side, she dives for loose balls and is crafty on the defensive boards.

I think we have to remember KK and Ash are true freshman playing huge minutes for a very good team. No one, anywhere, could have expected them to play as much as they have before the season started. Without them playing good solid basketball the team would not be where it is today.

They re also going through their freshman year grind of college and being away from home. So there is a lot they are managing. Can’t expect them to perform at consistent level game in and game out,

Ash shot fell earlier in the season, it isn’t now. Shooters go through ups and downs, all you can do is keep shooting. It will come back around, I feel confident in that. I dont view KK as a real scoring threat for where she is in her development. I think points from her are gravy, we need her to push the pace of play and play very strong defense.

Q needs a study in the term ”shot selection”. On one hand I love her tenacity in wanting to score, but in the other hand so much seems forced or that she’s predetermined she is shooting no matter what.

 

[ERWUC65]

A tough, physical game played with a six player rotation. And Q only was in 14 minutes. No telling why Ice stayed on the bench while the starters had to gut it out. Too bad Ines and Amari haven't gotten to the point where they could sub in even for a minute or two here and there to give the starters a blow. It is what it is.

Now I am sure Geno has some type of problem with Ines. This was a perfect opportunity to use her in a game where none of the freshman were playing well and Nika went out. She certainly couldn't have done any worse. She is fast and a good defender and knows the plays, so...?

 

[darrell]

How awesome is Paige?

 

[Rowdy831]

If I was preparing to play UConn I would make them shoot from outside and sag into the lane to eliminate AE. This team has two players that can score and the others are not very good from long range. If they can't get an inside presence from Ice they are going to get a lot of this in the tournament.

Geno hasn't done anything to develop this team to do anything other than play small and when teams decide to make the guards beat them from outside I think they could struggle. The good news though is they still win when things don't go their way as long as the other team can't play them straight up in the post and double Paige.

At some point they could have worked on a 2-3 zone with AE, Ice on the wings and Amari in the middle with Paige and Nika up top just to give other teams something to consider. It will be interesting to see how far a one dimensional team can get when they don't have a dominant post game.

 

[Centerstream]

I am going to post this separately too.
The Nova UConn replay is available on the Fox Sports App

 

[Centerstream]

It’s funny that Val Ackerman was there last night.

She was there to present the Regular Season Championship trophy to the Huskies.
But I hope she was taking notes...

 

[HuskyNan]

How awesome is Paige?

Dan is a big fan of both basketball teams and, of course, football team. For those who don’t know, Dan is a former UConn quarterback and is now on ESPN

 

[Centerstream]

The little girl also was given a BE Championship shirt by CD and Paige and had pictures taken then too.

 

[DefenseBB]

Maybe Geno is sending her a big message!! I realize that she’s trying to gain some stamina after not playing at all last year, but she needs to become a consistent contributor to the team. If she’s able to make 3-4 baskets every game, defend, and stay out of foul trouble, then UConn would become a much better team. I’m still hoping for an improvement from her.

My season seats are behind the UConn bench and many, many times, Ice simply makes poor shot decisions and when she gets yanked out of the game, like last night, Geno or CD have a rather stern discussion with her. To me, for every step Ice takes forward, she takes 2 steps back. Her game is not strong enough yet to justify her taking 18 foot jumpers like she is often prone to do and the coaching staff let her know that again when she was removed.

I also disagree with a poster who says Q wasn't effective, I actually think she has improved and does well on defense now. She doesn't look to just hoist 3 point shots any more and looks to drive and take a mid-range shot AND she gets involved underneath in rebounding (not as successful as I would like but...).

We ultimately need Ice to give Aaliyah a breather and to defend the bigger front court players to allow Paige to focus more on offense. If Ice doesn't continue her development, we are sunk. Maybe last night's limited minutes were the "shot across the bow" to Ice that she needs to keep on working and a reward to Q that her hard work has earned earlier playing time.

Yes, the game was sloppy, yes our shooting from the freshman was atrocious but we still won by 21 points and despite 'Nova closing it to 7, no one felt this game was in jeopardy.

The long discussion with Denise at the end of the game was a "jovial" chat, as Geno and Denise do have a good relationship and despite the game getting a bit "chippy" this was not "UCF style". What hurt Villanova the most was the poor fouling by Dalce who only played 6 minutes. Until she gets her propensity to foul under control, the Wildcats will struggle as she is their 2nd best player (albeit a non-popular opposition player-just ask the UConn student section).

Lastly, at halftime, the school honored all the student athletes who attained a 3.0 or higher GPA last semester and the Women's team had 11 members recognized. The Men's team had 5.