So I've been thinking about this and have a slightly different take. Please excuse the length of this post as I'm rambling thoughts together.
First, in that 2nd half, SC played their A- game, and we played our C game. part of the reason we played and shot poorly was because of SC so kudos to them. But I agree with those who say we lacked toughness.
Azzi wilted. Sarah, for all her gifts, is not an Alpha. KK, for all her intense defense, and terrific A/TO ratio, seemingly won't attack the basket if she thinks she will draw a whiff of physical contact. Ash, for all her toughness and physicality on defense almost never drives to the basket - preferring 3 point shot, or pull up jumper. The 2 toughest players on our team are Blanca and Kayleigh. I'm not sure about Morgan.
My first 2 thoughts are that we need a tough physical forward/post player. Someone like a Tina Charles. I don't mean an AA or NPOY like she was, but someone who will grind thru the physical contact and give as good as she gets. I don't think Jana can do that without fouling out and I'm not sure about Olivia.
My second thought is we need a 6'4" athletic type with long arms who actually knows how to play in the post. Uche from Syracuse comes to mind.
Having thought about all that, I watched UCLA absolutely destroy SC without a single elite athlete on the floor for UCLA. I suppose Rice is their most athletic, but the rest of the team was just tall, fundamentally sound, and mobile enough. So I'm not necessarily thinking we need more athletes, and maybe go back to needing more toughness.
All season long, a few of us noted (and were criticized by others on here for it), that while we would win games by 40 or whatever, we were incapable of putting together 40 minutes of quality basketball, and more often than not it was about 20 minutes of really good basketball and 10 minutes of below average basketball (by our starters) as Geno usually had the reserves in during the last 10 minutes. Our scoring numbers looked great when we played teams we could turn over and turn that into fast break points, but our half court offense was really average for long stretches of uninspired play.
UConn is not a program that thrives on one-on-one play. A player like Juju who takes 20+ shots most every game to get her points would not mesh well with how Geno runs offense. And as much as our offense looked "pretty" with lots of passing and motion and what not, it was sloppy and ineffective far too often.
I am not a smart enough offensive technician, but if even my couch potato eyes could see how much we struggled in the half court against woefully inferior competition for stretches that lasted far too long, surely Geno and the staff could see it too. I hope Geno can figure out a new wrinkle, and add maybe a new player or 2 for next season that helps address it.
Geno's shown over the years to be a true master of changing with the times and adjusting our offense and defense to best take advantage of the strengths of the team and mask the weaknesses. Against SC it seemed to be lack of length, inability to score over or around length, and lack of toughness. Oh, and if the 3's aren't falling... you know the saying, if you live by the 3, you can die by it too.
