All you can do is All you can do

[Tonyc]

I gotta ask myself how does UConn continue to go on winning when being tired, overworked, not to many breaks, exhaustion, injuries and plain out running on fumes. I know Ive been exhausted at times and tried to continue to play a sport and at some point it just doesnt happen like it used to happen. Listening to Coach Megan Duffy remarks last nite about how they watched the UConn SC game and saw how physical SC played UConn makes me wonder if that didnt add to UConns play last nite. I think it did because I dont think it helped. When your tired and you get beat up well I guess you can understand what kind of condition your in when you go to play the next game.

Its been a tuff 2 seasons. Injuries have had its toll on UConn. UConn has overachieved. Lets face it. Playing 5 players for as long as we have may have caught up with us. We have looked like a NC team and there are game where our physical and mental tuffness have caught up with us. We're tired, exhausted at times and mentally drained. Add to that the physical play and its like getting beat up when your tired. I think tonite it caught up with us. Marquette played their game well and we had our chances and didnt cash it. We appeared to not have the energy and this isnt the first game we looked that way. The longivtivity of our records have been broken but the heart of team has not. This is no longer about the records which at some point would have to fall the rest of this season is about getting healthy and bouncing back. We've been bouncing back all season. Now we need to get our legs back, our minds clear and our injured healthy.

We have shown resilience, guts, fight, determination but the time comes when you body and brain tell you they need a rest and we havent been able to get the proper rest we need. Without rest and its just a matter of time before things dont go the way they used to. I hope we can regroup because Georgetown Creighton and Nova will be a fight and the BE tournament follows. We have gone a long time without key injuries. It caught up with us. We've had an unbelievable run. Now we have to be concerned about our injuries and more importantly we need a rest. We have 7 games left and not alot of time to rest.

Caroline seems to be almost ready to come back. Azzi is not far off. Two freak contact plays put them on the bench a few weeks ago. Will that happen again in a physical game? If it does what does that mean for UConn. With what we've been through and what we've been able to accomplish is truly amazing over the past 2 seasons. It aint over yet. We need to get healthy and stay healthy and we dont know how long that will take and we dont know with the tuff luck we've had if that time limit is a few weeks or a few months.

As much as we thought our tuff luck with injuries was over it aint over. We still have to be concerned about how serious the injuries are and can we get heathy and stay healthy.


We've been talking about next season. Next season could be unbelievable if we're healthy. We have 3 AAs recovering from some tuff injuries. We have an AA bench this season. When will they be able to play healthy again? Folks we have to love what this team has done, and understand they need our support and encouragement. We are fortunate as fans to witness what this group has accomplished. They are warriors who just dont quit. They are winners in every sense. They have done all they can do and all they have been able to do is enough.

 

[BBallF]

Yes, it's been an ordeal. 3 of our losses ( I'm excluding SC) came in away games in which we traveled by plane and had 1 or 2 days rest. Playing the minutes our starters have been forced to play, the mental and physical toll was inevitable. We played our hearts out against SC and it took a tremendous amount out of us. We had very little left last night. It's important to understand that last night wasn't our team, it was only last night's team. I remember the lows from last year, and suddenly we were in the NC game. The question is what will March's team look like. After the Big East tourney we will have at least 10 days before our next game. Then we play 2 games and have at least 4 days off. We will be ready. We always are.

 

[Bill In Georgia]

Good Show Tony!!!
We all knew that by burning the candle at both ends it was just a matter of time ...???
But we all have to tip our hats to the girls for a valent fight and remember the season is not over...!! Just a little bump in the road.
Question...am I dreaming but in the 80ies/90ies did not coach find ourselves short handed and did not coach go to the students and ask if any one was interested in trying out and playing for Uconn??

 

[TCC Kid]

I never played one game as a Uconn Women's Husky. I expended not one bit of physical energy on the court with these young ladies. So my view is simply as an outsider looking in.
From my poor vantage point I see:
VERY FEW young ladies expending physical energy and EMOTIONAL Energy with seconds of in game relief. One must ask: How long could they have kept this up? I think we just saw how long.
Marquette, played the game I expected EVERY opponent to use against a team without significant subs. It is part of the game. You play to win or you shouldn't play. Uconn kids always play to win.

It wasn't the SC game that took the energy from this team. Week after week, game after game, Geno, CD, Morgan the TEAM had no idea of who could show up for the next game.

Edwards, Nika, Lou, Dorka, Aubrey (the subs, with limited game experience were great--bless them all--if a team ever "LEFT EVERYTHING ON THE FLOOR" they did. If you are not PROUD of this group and I single out the "human" ping pong --Lou--find another team to dislike. No one will give you more!!

 

[Bigboote]

UConn still has a fair shot at the NCAA title. Geno says even with a really good team it takes a little luck to win a title. Well, last night was just the confluence of the season's injuries, bad timing after expending tons of physical and mental energy against South Carolina, and running into a good, highly motivated team.

There's no way I'm counting this team out of winning it all.

 

[Zarathustra]

I never played one game as a Uconn Women's Husky. I expended not one bit of physical energy on the court with these young ladies. So my view is simply as an outsider looking in.
From my poor vantage point I see:
VERY FEW young ladies expending physical energy and EMOTIONAL Energy with seconds of in game relief. One must ask: How long could they have kept this up? I think we just saw how long.
Marquette, played the game I expected EVERY opponent to use against a team without significant subs. It is part of the game. You play to win or you shouldn't play. Uconn kids always play to win.

It wasn't the SC game that took the energy from this team. Week after week, game after game, Geno, CD, Morgan the TEAM had no idea of who could show up for the next game.

Edwards, Nika, Lou, Dorka, Aubrey (the subs, with limited game experience were great--bless them all--if a team ever "LEFT EVERYTHING ON THE FLOOR" they did. If you are not PROUD of this group and I single out the "human" ping pong --Lou--find another team to dislike. No one will give you more!!

But it is noteworthy, I think, that Marquette also used 5 players (mostly): 32 minutes for King (she sat out half of the fourth
quarter with 4 fouls and came back in at 4:06 remaining) so she should have had 37 + minutes. Marotta: 39 minutes, Karlen: 38 minutes La Chapelle: 38 minutes. Hare had 15 minutes and one sub had 3 minutes UCONN's three subs had 10 minutes.
I think the home court and a fresh Jordan King (an excellent free throw shooter: 4 for 4 in the fourth) were the keys in
that last quarter.

 

[wingsfan055]

Marquette played out of this world defense. Constant pressure on the perimeter, grabbing rebounds from everywhere, steals, forced turnovers, etc. Its been a while since UConn's offense looked so out of sync for an entire game.

 

[Skeets]

Yes, it's been an ordeal. 3 of our losses ( I'm excluding SC) came in away games in which we traveled by plane and had 1 or 2 days rest. Playing the minutes our starters have been forced to play, the mental and physical toll was inevitable. We played our hearts out against SC and it took a tremendous amount out of us. We had very little left last night. It's important to understand that last night wasn't our team, it was only last night's team. I remember the lows from last year, and suddenly we were in the NC game. The question is what will March's team look like. After the Big East tourney we will have at least 10 days before our next game. Then we play 2 games and have at least 4 days off. We will be ready. We always are.

On top of everything else, the short turnaround between games with a plane flight sandwiched in the middle can't possibly be helping. Pack your stuff, get on the bus, get to the airport, fly to wherever, get on another bus get to the hotel, and just a few hours later, it's time for the shoot around.

Short turnarounds are unavoidable, but an away game followed by a home game has to be better than the other way around.