Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 4942967, member: 12088"] The basic formula is the same for UConn as it is for any team. If your offense has 3 pillars you are very hard to stop. But our third pillar is a freshman, Ash. It’s asking a lot of a freshman to play that large a role in April, but that’s where we are. Two scorers is not enough. Coach Lawson understood this and focused on stopping Ash. Geno seems to have anticipated it and ran several plays for KK and she came through with 12 points. That turned out to be enough. If we win this next one it will be because of Paige and Aaliyah, no doubt. But Ash and KK will have to play huge. What does USC have? The second best player in D1, but we don’t have to stop her. It’s the other two pillars we need to focus on, Marshall and Forbes and I think we have a shot at that. Juju will score 20-30. Nika just has to keep her from making her teammates better than they are, and she has to avoid fouling out. Even if Juju scores 40, it’s okay as long as Marshall and Forbes don’t get 20 between them. Are the girls up to it? Ideally yes. As long as they’re not too tired. KK is more than a match for Padilla. Aaliyah is too much for Marshall. Forbes and Davis have to control Paige and Ash. Are they up to it? We’ll see tomorrow. We all know our girls will start to falter in the 4th from fatigue. If they can build a lead in the third, maybe get up 15-20, they may be able to weather the inevitable USC run. But it is likely to be a very close call. Paige will score what she has to, 20-30, and Aaliyah could score 20 if Ash scores 20 as well. One thing that could surprise me is if Lindsay Gotlieb has Juju guard Paige. I don’t think even she can stop Paige, and the effort might take her out of her own offense. But it could be interesting. I expect Forbes or Davis to be assigned to Paige. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach