Anticipation... UConn is blossoming

[Tonyc]

Well I cant wait for Saturdays game to see if we continue where we left off. Anna has been terrific the past 3 games. Her scoreing is consistent and her confidence is contagious. Anna and Liv have been coming on as scorers that we can depend on. Now we see where CW is. I beleive shes turned the corner. I think we see a continuatioin of where she left off. I do expect ups and downs are she progress's the next couple of games but I think shes made the jump. I beleive the passing of the damm ball and the aggressvie defense have helped get this team on track.

With Liv sick and Megan with 3 fouls we scored over 100 pts in the last game. Kyla wasnt hesitant and Griff took it to the hoop. Both shot the ball and scored. A huge leap coming off the bench. Thats huge for this team and it came at the right time. We've seen UConn getting better each and every game over the past few weeks and the Cinny game we all came alive. UConn is blossoming at the right time and gaining confidence. Everybody is involved, not alot of dribbleing and not alot of one on one. The next 10 days should be alot of fun to watch.

We caught fire the other nite. We had seen sparks fly in the previous games of players beginning to get going and getting better. All the practice, all the tweaking, all the repetition is showing now. Hey I dont expect us not to have ups and downs. However I dont expect us to revert back to where we were a couple of months ago. This is a different team. Its a team that has confidence and trusts what they are doing. Its a team that is coming on strong at the right time. We no longer have 3 scorers that we have to depend on. We have a team of kids who can score. We still need to make sure Liv doesnt get in foul trouble because her presence underneath is a major factor in where we go this season. Now we have a bunch of scorers and if CD or Meg are not having a great game we have others who can pick up the slack. Remember the Baylor game and the 4th qtr when we were down I basket and we couldnt score. We can now because we dont have to depend on 2 or 3 kids to score. Remember the SC and Oregon game when we were making comebacks and our shooting went cold. No more, not now, because we have more players who can score and who can help carry us.
We have matured and grown up. All the seeds the coaches planted are beginning to take a life of their own. We came together as a team. We now know what we can do. We've taken the game from that 3 inch court between our ears and executed it on the floor. We were firing on all cylinders for the first time in a long time. The most important thing is we're playing UConn BB.

 

[veryolddog]

Someone ought to report this post for being too optimistic. (LOL) I hope so. It really would be nice to see them play like this all the way to the AAC tournament and into the NCAA tournament. They will fool everybody and be the big surprise.

 

[Big Mick]

Look: we have 6 players. Come tournament time everyone else will get a few minutes at the end. Maybe - more that a few if we have a big lead. That's just being realistic. BTW: we have these "turned the corner" moment every year at this time.


Anyway, let me quote:

Someone ought to report this post for being too optimistic.

 

[Big Mick]

Definitely a Final Four team though.

 

[oldude]

We sometimes lose sight of the fact that nobody gets a team ready for the Big Dance better than Geno. By March, the freshmen are no longer freshmen, and that appeared to be the case the other night vs Cincinnati when both Anna & Aubrey played with poise and confidence.

There is one other thing that Geno does around tournament time that is often overlooked. Practice gets much easier. Geno understands that this late in the season, players are in peak condition and there is no longer a need to run them hard every day in practice. As a result, UConn’s players usually have more energy in games. Defensive energy goes up a notch. Shots that were missed earlier in the season on “tired legs” start going in.

If UConn faces any of the top 3 teams again in the tournament, I don’t know if the Huskies can win. What I do know is that those teams will face a different UConn team than the one they beat earlier in the season. It was an experience that a #1 seeded Louisville discovered last year in the Elite 8.

 

[Steelerone]

This is the first time in quite awhile that Geno is going to have to depend on freshmen and sophomores. The best thing we can do is to let them know they have our full support win or lose. The experience they have gained this year, along with the incoming class, bodes so well for the future. Can't wait to see some of the posts in next years boneyard.

 

[Carnac]

We sometimes lose sight of the fact that nobody gets a team ready for the Big Dance better than Geno. By March, the freshmen are no longer freshmen, and that appeared to be the case the other night vs Cincinnati when both Anna & Aubrey played with poise and confidence.

There is one other thing that Geno does around tournament time that is often overlooked. Practice gets much easier. Geno understands that this late in the season, players are in peak condition and there is no longer a need to run them hard every day in practice. As a result, UConn’s players usually have more energy in games. Defensive energy goes up a notch. Shots that were missed earlier in the season on “tired legs” start going in.

If UConn faces any of the top 3 teams again in the tournament, I don’t know if the Huskies can win. What I do know is that those teams will face a different UConn team than the one they beat earlier in the season. It was an experience that a #1 seeded Louisville discovered last year in the Elite 8.

Except for extremely cold shooting, we would have been in the 3 games we lost. When you don’t score, you fall behind quickly, then play catch up the rest of the game. We held SC to 11 points in the 1st quarter. That was an exceptional effort on our part.

The problem was our shots simply were not falling. SC didn’t do anything out of the ordinary that night. There was a lid on the basket on our end of the court. If our shots were falling in the games we lost like they were Wednesday, we probably would have won all 3.

To piggyback on tonyc’s narrative, I would add that if our shots are falling, we’re right where we want to be. Olivia’s presence on the floor is crucial. She must stay on the floor if we are to go deep in the tournament.

I would like her to abandon the “fly swat” blocking technique. It’s not working for her. I’d like to see her use a little more (aggressive) finesse on the block when going to the basket. No more offensive fouls, and no more traveling violations. She'll be 20 years old in August. I'm surprised she's progressed this far in her athletic development, and no one has broken her of that "bad" habit yet. Hopefully Jemelle can help her with that.

Liv can easily average a double double going forward. She can do that by halftime. She needs to go into every game the remainder of the season mentally prepared and determined to play 40 minutes.

Right now, Liv needs to step up and be the player her team and coaches need and expects her to be. No one else on the team can bring the presence to the floor that she can. Geno said “we’re a different team with Liv on the floor .”

I’ll be looking to see if we can sustain the level and intensity of play we displayed on Wednesday these last two games. If we can, it will make following them that much more fun and exciting.

I think we could all use a little excitement in our lives during March madness, especially if our team shows a real and legitimate chance of making the final four. Unlike some of the other top ranked teams, UConn has won all of the games they were supposed to win.

If all of our girls show up with an attitude and ready to play, a devil may care mindset (the lower case d in devil on purpose) and their shots are falling, they’re going to be a real nasty piece of business for their opponents. That is exactly what I expect to see from this team the remainder of the season. If you’re going to go out, go out balling, and balling hard. So it is said, so it shall be done!!!

 

[bluedevil]

We might not be the same team that faced Baylor early in the season but the same thing could be said about Baylor..

 

[Carnac]

We might not be the same team that faced Baylor early in the season but the same thing could be said about Baylor..

That’s true. Let’s lace ‘em up and find out. I doubt if Te’a Cooper can drop 27 points on us again, or that we shoot 29% from the field again.

A true champion fears no one. They will play anyone, anywhere at anytime (sound familiar?). Who ever wins the NC will have to beat Baylor at some point. Bring them on. If we can’t beat them, then we don’t deserve to be the national champions. No fear!!

 

[Jingo]

Well I cant wait for Saturdays game to see if we continue where we left off. Anna has been terrific the past 3 games. Her scoreing is consistent and her confidence is contagious. Anna and Liv have been coming on as scorers that we can depend on. Now we see where CW is. I beleive shes turned the corner. I think we see a continuatioin of where she left off. I do expect ups and downs are she progress's the next couple of games but I think shes made the jump. I beleive the passing of the damm ball and the aggressvie defense have helped get this team on track.

With Liv sick and Megan with 3 fouls we scored over 100 pts in the last game. Kyla wasnt hesitant and Griff took it to the hoop. Both shot the ball and scored. A huge leap coming off the bench. Thats huge for this team and it came at the right time. We've seen UConn getting better each and every game over the past few weeks and the Cinny game we all came alive. UConn is blossoming at the right time and gaining confidence. Everybody is involved, not alot of dribbleing and not alot of one on one. The next 10 days should be alot of fun to watch.

We caught fire the other nite. We had seen sparks fly in the previous games of players beginning to get going and getting better. All the practice, all the tweaking, all the repetition is showing now. Hey I dont expect us not to have ups and downs. However I dont expect us to revert back to where we were a couple of months ago. This is a different team. Its a team that has confidence and trusts what they are doing. Its a team that is coming on strong at the right time. We no longer have 3 scorers that we have to depend on. We have a team of kids who can score. We still need to make sure Liv doesnt get in foul trouble because her presence underneath is a major factor in where we go this season. Now we have a bunch of scorers and if CD or Meg are not having a great game we have others who can pick up the slack. Remember the Baylor game and the 4th qtr when we were down I basket and we couldnt score. We can now because we dont have to depend on 2 or 3 kids to score. Remember the SC and Oregon game when we were making comebacks and our shooting went cold. No more, not now, because we have more players who can score and who can help carry us.
We have matured and grown up. All the seeds the coaches planted are beginning to take a life of their own. We came together as a team. We now know what we can do. We've taken the game from that 3 inch court between our ears and executed it on the floor. We were firing on all cylinders for the first time in a long time. The most important thing is we're playing UConn BB.

Yes TonyC, very astute!
We are finally agreeing to shelve the Big 3 narrative that was pushed earlier in the season .. and the team is much better for it, eh? i m excited about our prospects for the post-season

 

[FridaFriend]

I think we could handle Oregon as well. I watched the last Oregon-Stanford game and Tara had put together a good game plan. As with UCONN, Stanford was unable to stay with Oregon at the beginning of the game, because they could not hit open shots, shots they normally made. Oregon only won by 8 in the end.

Geno will come up with a good game plans well, and, if we can hit the shots, I'm optimistic about the result.

 

[and one]

There are too few things in life you can just count on. Two things you can count on are 1. @oldude will start the postgame thread and 2. @Tonyc will have something positive to say about UConn bb. 7:17 AM and Tonyc is already hitting the send key with a long, cogent bit if reasoning on why UConn is a good and dangerous team. And he is right of course. The team is getting better as the season goes along and numbers 1, 2 and 3 ha good reason to worry about meeting UConn a second time.

 

[Conndog]

But...what happened with Ono? Thirteen minutes and zero points? Did Geno sit her after not doing much so that she would learn a lesson? Going to be hard to win against top teams without her scoring.
Itt was great to see the outside shot falling, but you live and die by it, and we've seen where the best teams play smothering defense against UConn and that outside shot isn't there anymore. UConn still needs to go inside but not sure they have the personnel to play that game.

 

[oldude]

But...what happened with Ono? Thirteen minutes and zero points? Did Geno sit her after not doing much so that she would learn a lesson? Going to be hard to win against top teams without her scoring.
Itt was great to see the outside shot falling, but you live and die by it, and we've seen where the best teams play smothering defense against UConn and that outside shot isn't there anymore. UConn still needs to go inside but not sure they have the personnel to play that game.

Liv was sick during the Cincinnati game. As a result, her minutes were limited.

 

[Jingo]

Liv was sick during the Cincinnati game. As a result, her minutes were limited.

Not only sick but nursing a badly banged-up nose from the prior game .. she still managed a coupla three awesome blocks in her few minutes of play

 

[Littlemin]

We shall see. The true beauty of sports, the unknown......................

 

[Conndog]

Okay, well I'm an idiot, didn't know she was sick and didn't even consider her broken nose. Hope she gets better soon, and go UConn!

 

[oldude]

Okay, well I'm an idiot, didn't know she was sick and didn't even consider her broken nose. Hope she gets better soon, and go UConn!

No, you’re certainly not an idiot. But as I personally have learned many times here in the BY, if you post something that’s not quite correct, there’s a couple dozen knowledgeable boneyarders who are ready and willing to set you straight....

 

[mbr33ct]

 

[hart2hart]

I have a really good feeling about today’s game. It’s all about Team Work—Play great defense, make those passes, cuts and have fun! Keep moving the ball and run hard! I just love the word Blossoming TonyC and agree with you 300%! Can’t wait until 3 PM!

 

[jabstep]

Will the team that we saw against Cinci show up today or will the team that was unconfident and hesitant show up. Will Anna who really impressed me with the drive to the hoop and a beautiful step back jumper in the left corner as the clock was running out show up. Or Megan Walker who pulled up for a short jumper versus driving into three people. We all hope the CW we saw against Cinci will show up today. I doubt they will hit the percentage of three's they did against Cinci but a continuation of good ball movement, cutting, and open shots will do. Let's go Huskies. We are so scary when we play well.

 

[jumpstart]

Except for extremely cold shooting, we would have been in the 3 games we lost. When you don’t score, you fall behind quickly, then play catch up the rest of the game. We held SC to 11 points in the 1st quarter. That was an exceptional effort on our part.

The problem was our shots simply were not falling. SC didn’t do anything out of the ordinary that night. There was a lid on the basket on our end of the court. If our shots were falling in the games we lost like they were Wednesday, we probably would have won all 3.

To piggyback on tonyc’s narrative, I would add that if our shots are falling, we’re right where we want to be. Olivia’s presence on the floor is crucial. She must stay on the floor if we are to go deep in the tournament.

I would like her to abandon the “fly swat” blocking technique. It’s not working for her. I’d like to see her use a little more (aggressive) finesse on the block when going to the basket. No more offensive fouls, and no more traveling violations. She'll be 20 years old in August. I'm surprised she's progressed this far in her athletic development, and no one has broken her of that "bad" habit yet. Hopefully Jemelle can help her with that.

Liv can easily average a double double going forward. She can do that by halftime. She needs to go into every game the remainder of the season mentally prepared and determined to play 40 minutes.

Right now, Liv needs to step up and be the player her team and coaches need and expects her to be. No one else on the team can bring the presence to the floor that she can. Geno said “we’re a different team with Liv on the floor .”

I’ll be looking to see if we can sustain the level and intensity of play we displayed on Wednesday these last two games. If we can, it will make following them that much more fun and exciting.

I think we could all use a little excitement in our lives during March madness, especially if our team shows a real and legitimate chance of making the final four. Unlike some of the other top ranked teams, UConn has won all of the games they were supposed to win.

If all of our girls show up with an attitude and ready to play, a devil may care mindset (the lower case d in devil on purpose) and their shots are falling, they’re going to be a real nasty piece of business for their opponents. That is exactly what I expect to see from this team the remainder of the season. If you’re going to go out, go out balling, and balling hard. So it is said, so it shall be done!!!

Now wait a minute...you held South Carolina to 11 points...but you only scored 2 because your shots weren't falling...lol...That can be reversed and said...South Carolina could have scored more but their shots weren't falling and they held us to 2....be realistic and optomistic. It's doable.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Blossoming!

 

[willtalk]

The biggest problem in evaluating where Uconn is right now is the AAC. That is somewhat true every year, but especially true this season. Does the better play reflect improvement or does it reflect weaker competition? Probably both, but how does one assess how much should be attributed to each?

 

[Dokey]

The AAC barely qualifies as a D-1 program. Frankly, only one word in the Big East is correct. UConn’s incredible record of wins has come by defeating a lot of stumblebums. Still, UConn was a diamond in a box of costume jewelry able to beat the best teams in superior conferences. Those 11 national championships were well deserved. That may be changing. The SEC is more than South Carolina and the PAC-12 is loaded top to bottom, it’s last place team could probably win the UConn-less AAC. The Big 10 is showing growth. Baylor dominates the Big 12 but other teams are making moves. The AAC is down a bit because Norte Dame is down but they’ll be back (sorry).