Arizona Postgame Thread | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Arizona Postgame Thread

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NOI33 said:
Honestly, it's just an overall lack of efficient post moves and footwork for ONO. If you watch SC's Boston on offence, she is extremely wise and patient when feeling out the defence. She has so many moves in her bag at such a young age. Other than ONO's fadeaway (very inconsistent) and her scoop shot, I can't list anything that sets her above other post players. Her shot-blocking is amazing, but that's not enough considering the number of minutes she gets. She needs to be a dependable scorer, period.
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On layups she shoots from her shoulders and that's why she can't score inside. I'm 6'1" and 57 and I will block that everytime. She hasn't improved in that area since she has been there.
 
To me, Arizona was very well prepared for this game and we seemed as though we weren't which we know is can't be the case. We ran all the same sets. We had no real changes in anything we did that I saw on offense or defense. We also did not exert the necessary energy except sporadically to at least try to make McDonald work for her points. The turnovers, mental mistakes, and lack of focus was so uncharacteristic of UCONN basketball.

They doubled and tripled Paige and Evina should have been going to the basket all night long and also shooting threes. She was listless for most of the game and content to make the first pass of the offense and then stay out of it. We got no real offense from AE or Liv and with them bottling up Paige, our oldest player should have played like it. We needed a big night from her tonight to win. When the ball went under there was no one who could finish. I don't understand it and why they were so out of it from the opening tip both mentally and physically. CW played hard but that no foul- foul is emblematic of how terrible the officiating is in the women's game. It needs a brand new training program and monitoring system. In the end, they shut us down because we did not move on offense and it was not only disappointing but at times downright embarrassing.

Olivia should have dominated underneath and she had one of the worst games of her career. She seems to be a non factor whenever the stakes are highest. We seemed nervous, unsure, and took some of the worst shots we took all year. We forced shots and passes and played defense with our hands and played their half court game all game long. We never picked up the pace, we never used our team speed. We never got out in transition. We had no sense of urgency. We played like a very young team would play in this spotlight and I am in shock at how poor a performance it was, and how unprepared they seemed especially after Baylor, who would have killed Arizona tonight underneath. We couldn't even make wide open layups. That usually means fatigue or pressure or uncertainty or all three. Other than McDonald, they had no one that matches up with us on paper but you still have to go out and play the game hard. They flat out did not.
 
Tonight was Williams' first game since Georgetown (1/23) where she had at least one rebound, block, steal, assist, and three-pointer.
 
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CTBasketball said:
As competitors, in the Final Four, how is that even a possibility.
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Because they’re human? Many of them freshmen? All used to winning?

It’s actually a great story for women’s basketball. Just not for UConn women’s basketball this season.
 
Why can’t our defenders do to other scorers what other teams do to Paige? This isn’t a new issue?
Also, where are all the layup apologists now?
 
Geesworld said:
I understand your point in this post. However Geno is is not and will not ever be a post team. Everything the bigs do in this offense is an after thought. The very start of this game proved that. We should've forced the action inside from the opening tip. Instead we allowed our bigs to hover around high post to set pics and have the players guarding them trap our wings aggressively. It threw our offensive out sync immediately. Soon as we get a few missed attempts we fall right back to jump shot offense. O-7 is bad. But if Paige goes 0-7 we keep telling her to shoot. Post dominance should've been established from the word go. Miss or make, keep attacking and put the pressure on them inside.
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Yup. Geno likes the passing game, the finesse game - but it can easily be disrupted by faster, more defensive minded teams like AZ tonight. No plan B. We ended up playing on the perimeter most of the game & then scrambling to get down low - which should have been our strength. No easy baskets as a result. Just a bad scheme & game plan by Geno tonight, even though the execution wasnt there either.
 
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Genno should recruit some bigs.
ONO may not be the answer in the champion team. She was super nervous against the smaller defensive players. Free throws 1-4 is not accepted.
The team's offense rythm was just ruined from inside to outside. AZ just trapped our perimeter easily.
 
Rblack335 said:
ONO is such an enigma to me. I don’t think the road to a championship runs through her in the post. I expect Bueckers to be incredible next year, and CW is a more than capable off guard. But until we get Edwards a legit counterpart, it’s hard to have an inside outside game. Fudd will address our outside shooting issue, but who is going to address our inside game. Edwards will be a great 4, but we need to find that great 5. From the film I’ve seen of Amari, I don’t know if that’s her. But it could be.
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The chance of Amari being what you want to be imo is slim to none. They're going to have to win with perimeter offense being better than it was this year. It would be great ot have a counterpart but don't expect it. And if you don't expect it- you aren't going to give up, are you?

***A "2nd Paige Buckers" caliber player on the perimeter (Azzi) with all the experience returning might be enough. Think of the more successful your offense is-- the better your defense will probably be.
 
I was amazed at how many of our fans had us winning by 15-25 points. I think we disrespected Arizona’s defense. And didn’t realize how young we are. I’m thrilled to see a hard working underdog beat us. The women’s game is going in the right direction. And we will be “bad for basketball” next year!
 
oldude said:
Some thoughts on the Arizona game:
  • Arizona is the most experienced team UConn has faced in the tournament, and their defense never allowed UConn to settle into its offensive comfort zone.
  • Christyn was one of the few Huskies to show up on offense, and I actually believe she played pretty good defense, but it didn’t matter when McDonald hit shots from the cheap seats with a hand in in her face or threw more moves at UConn's defense than Elvis.
  • The 5th foul on Christyn was an awful call, a complete phantom foul.
  • Paige and Evina got going a little in the second half, but UConn needed more from everyone.
  • There is certainly much to criticize about UConn’s play, but I will leave that to others. The Huskies fought to the very end tonight.
  • It has been a great season for these young Huskies. The future is incredibly bright. Hoping we can make it back to the promised land next year and finally get that 12th banner for Gampel.
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Arizona was superior from the outset. They were faster and more hungry. No one can stop McDonald. Arizona shut down Paige and made it impossible for anyone to get a reasonable shot. Olivia proved that she is a good rebounder but awful as an offensive player. She missed lay-ups, put backs and fade away jumpers. Just no use at all. Williams was well defensed and did what she could, but had one of those games where she was way off early, and it affects her mentally. I don't know why coach played Muhl, she looked slow and helped not at all. Aubrey couldn't find the basket, and mis-used her athleticism on drives. The idea is to miss running into the defenders on the way to the hoop. Edwards needs more to her game, too. She needs to light it up from distance.

I believe Arizona can beat Stanford, if they play like this. But the likelihood is; they burned all their juice on this game.

As others have said, the Lady Huskies gave us a great year. The win over Baylor will remain a classic. Many of us ( including me ) felt the elite 8 would be our ceiling this year, and we actually went one level over that . And the future is bright. We need more speed, better defense, and more fire power.

All on the way.

But give credit to Arizona....they played amazing defense, and had a player who could score at will from anywhere on the court. They deserved the win. No arguments.
 
I think we ran one catch and shoot play for Paige, and it resulted in an 18 foot jumper on the baseline. Or two if you count the late 3. Maybe some of it was Paige not cutting aggressively looking to shoot, or our other players not setting good screens - or both. But it never really looked like we were trying to run stuff for her to score. Arizona did some switching on off the ball screens, but even when a big switched on her, she just swung the ball and cut, and allowed them to switch back.

it feels like we allowed our best weapon to be just an ordinary player. Maybe she has a brutal 5-20 night if we force fed her against that defense, but I feel like I’d have rather seen more of that than her just sort of drifting around and getting the ball in non-scoring positions, giving it up, and hiding on the weak side while other players initiated offense.
 
Geno Auriemma: “It was incredibly difficult for us to get anything done. The intensity level that they played with and the aggressiveness on the defensive end; we just didn’t respond the way I hoped we would."
 
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ccwarrior said:
Why can’t our defenders do to other scorers what other teams do to Paige? This isn’t a new issue?
Also, where are all the layup apologists now?
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Umm UCONN got to the final four. You realize that, right? They lost TWO games. I think our defense did do well. UCONN was preseason ranked about 3rd and will end up about that.

Your post is typical - that you lose --and you want to lash out.
 
When UCONN lost the past semifinals, I couldn't sleep for days from the heartbreak of OT losses. But tonight's loss doesn't sting as much because we ran into a buzzsaw & we had a very successful season with a young, inexperienced team. The only major disappointment was that we were heavily favored to win which raised expectations.
 
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The outcome of this game is pretty simple to break down- Arizona’s defense was a whole lot tougher and more aggressive than UConn’s offense. Arizona was the more physical, and tougher team from start to finish, and you just have to tip your cap to them. Important lesson for the young players because when the other team is more aggressive and tougher no offensive sets or defensive adjustments are going to work. We had some players shell shocked from the get go by how confident and aggressive Arizona was & those players never recovered. Great year, and I’m convinced even better times are ahead.
 
hoopsfan22 said:
That was just an amazing team. Just absolutely incredible and you really appreciate it now looking back. I said it during that game. Soak it in because you'll never see it again and it was the pinnacle of UConn WCBB.
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That team would sock the opponents in the mouth from the start & they could never recover. Tonight, Arizona came out hitting threes and UCONN gave them confidence that they can beat us.
 
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BBallF said:
Went down several notches in my book with that move. I hope Stanford blows them out.
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Why? Can you read lips? Maybe it was for the press that did not pick Arizona, or a huge majority of fans who did not pick Arizona, or winning despite the poor refereeing, or the betting line with had them +14, or some other reason?
 
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chrissaran said:
If the announcers were right, after another layup, we were 5 for 20. Fifteen more layups we could have had. We just didn't seem to have enough fight in us. Great season, Huskies. See you next year. Olivia had 1 point. Just don't get it. She has the ability, but it doesn't translate to the biggest moments. Against Baylor, she hasn't played her best. Same tonight.
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Early in the 1st half she had a low post layup and the ball was shot so hard it clanked nothing but backboard. It was a layup. How can you coach that?
 
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
the band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
and somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
but there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.
Ernest Thayer

Uconn just never got anything going, with the exception of CW. Arizona was too quick on both ends of the floor and left Uconn reacting rather than asserting. This is a young team that has a very good group of freshmen coming in next season. Making the final four was a good accomplishment for this team and better days lie ahead.
 
VA Huskie said:
I was amazed at how many of our fans had us winning by 15-25 points. I think we disrespected Arizona’s defense. And didn’t realize how young we are. I’m thrilled to see a hard working underdog beat us. The women’s game is going in the right direction. And we will be “bad for basketball” next year!
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Started with our All time favorite Coach slighting Arizona. That Baylor should be final four talk was fuel for sure. ⛽
 
What was that dig by Geno on Paige - she needs to get better & not just on the court?!? Does he mean practice, prep...Very insulting, imo. Paige is the only Freshman NPOY. Geno needs to call out ONO for not showing up, instead of Paige. UConn is barely a Top 15 or 20 team this year without Paige.
 
Geesworld said:
I understand your point in this post. However Geno is is not and will not ever be a post team. Everything the bigs do in this offense is an after thought. The very start of this game proved that. We should've forced the action inside from the opening tip. Instead we allowed our bigs to hover around high post to set pics and have the players guarding them trap our wings aggressively. It threw our offensive out sync immediately. Soon as we get a few missed attempts we fall right back to jump shot offense. O-7 is bad. But if Paige goes 0-7 we keep telling her to shoot. Post dominance should've been established from the word go. Miss or make, keep attacking and put the pressure on them inside.
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Nooooooooooo. The UCONN posts just need to be able to hit layups. If they can't hit layups you aren't going to win.

There is a difference if Paige is going 0-7 vs Liv. If Curry goes 0-7 he is supposed to stop shooting?

You go down losing with your best. Your best is Paige. If she goes 0-15 so be it. And if you ever want a Paige type again as a recruit and if you want to play the exciting running style -- you better not let her be an afterthought in a big game.
 
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