diggerfoot
Humanity Hiker
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2011
- Messages
- 1,591
- Reaction Score
- 8,935
Because of my situation I never watch a game in real time these days. I'll use a tracker to keep abreast and I'll read what people post on the BY, but I don't actually observe the game until afterwards. By that time I know WHAT has happened (filtering out the usual pessimism that occurs on any Internet forum); that then enables me to focus on WHY.
In watching the first 12 minutes or so of the game, the guard from the Fairleigh Dickinson men's team almost 20 years ago came to mind (since it was long ago, some of my details may be fuzzy). He scored over 40 points against us while guarded by what everyone considered to be the best defensive guard in the country at the time, and still the best defensive guard in the history of UConn men's basketball, Ricky Moore. Moore, in fact, was responsible for the final defensive stop that gave us our first championship, against a future NBA player.
My point being that Jesperson was like that Fairleigh Dickinson guard for the first part of the game. There was nothing wrong in how she was being guarded. She made contested shots; she made difficult shots. That happens, just as it also happens that even the best players have shooting slumps. (Btw, wish I had a dollar for every time I saw a thread that proclaimed "I've never seen so many missed lay ups!") I also noted how well USF moved and caused us to constantly switch on defense. They were executing well at trying to get favorable match-ups, with limited success (except for Jesperson, in which case it didn't matter who was guarding her for awhile).
Yet despite a well-coached team that knows us well, and a player that was unstoppable for awhile, we stilled played well defensively and we still found players who shot the ball well. That happens when ALL your players are potential high scorers. Some fans have to worry about one, two or three players having an off night, for us to be in trouble we would have to worry about four, five or six players having an off night, while the other team has a player who has become unstoppable for that game. It could happen, but I like our odds.
In watching the first 12 minutes or so of the game, the guard from the Fairleigh Dickinson men's team almost 20 years ago came to mind (since it was long ago, some of my details may be fuzzy). He scored over 40 points against us while guarded by what everyone considered to be the best defensive guard in the country at the time, and still the best defensive guard in the history of UConn men's basketball, Ricky Moore. Moore, in fact, was responsible for the final defensive stop that gave us our first championship, against a future NBA player.
My point being that Jesperson was like that Fairleigh Dickinson guard for the first part of the game. There was nothing wrong in how she was being guarded. She made contested shots; she made difficult shots. That happens, just as it also happens that even the best players have shooting slumps. (Btw, wish I had a dollar for every time I saw a thread that proclaimed "I've never seen so many missed lay ups!") I also noted how well USF moved and caused us to constantly switch on defense. They were executing well at trying to get favorable match-ups, with limited success (except for Jesperson, in which case it didn't matter who was guarding her for awhile).
Yet despite a well-coached team that knows us well, and a player that was unstoppable for awhile, we stilled played well defensively and we still found players who shot the ball well. That happens when ALL your players are potential high scorers. Some fans have to worry about one, two or three players having an off night, for us to be in trouble we would have to worry about four, five or six players having an off night, while the other team has a player who has become unstoppable for that game. It could happen, but I like our odds.
