Arkansas Postgame Thread

[Vowelguy]

Geno says it was EW's best game at CT. Great in all facets of the game.

 

[jaydee602]

Please don’t blame the refs. They had nothing to do with the loss

The refs did not cost us the game & Arkansas only made two more foul shots than UCONN. But they let Dungee commit several pushoffs. Not sure she gets away with that in most games. I thought the officiating was uneven the whole game.

 

[Biff]

How do you know I'm not Mechelle Voepel?

Because you were spotted together....

 

[ABCDFE]

Wow just wow. I am at a lost of words about our juniors, except Evina. So proud of the Freshman and Evina tonight. Really shows us the future is bright.

• Paige is so good it’s not even funny. We do not need to run offense for CW. Paige has it and I am so excited to see her play with girls who have it and that dawg mentality. Unfortunately right now we don’t have that in Liv and CW. Paige showed the country she is already one of the best players right now
• Evina is getting better each game. I trust her so much now with her offensive game and defensively she’s solid just not as quick probably right now due to the knee but she is much further along than I anticipated. These types of games will only increase her confidence
• Liv - garbage game. I couldn’t believe she was getting knocked around and dribbling for no reason. I’m just shocked at her game tonight. I really hope she will take this game to heart. We need her desperately because she is something on the defensive end that we can’t replace.
• CWill- good player but she’s just not clutch. She just doesn’t have that factor when you see a smart ball player. Her shot is good early but you cannot count on it when the game is on the line. I never thought I’d say this but I was hoping that she wouldn’t shoot when open rather dribble drive and. Kick to Evina or Paige our only reliable three point shooters right now
• Aubrey needs to hit open shots period. No defense is going to be within 3 feet of her if she continues clank these open shots going forward. This makes our offense Foir in five and Liv will suffer from that type of scenario. She needs to improve otherwise she is a liability when we play the better teams
• Nika played well. I said that she didn’t belong yet and she proved me wrong. She played solid defense and was under control. She Didn’t hesitate and you can tell that when she has confidence and plus under control she is super solid player. Not elite but solid for us
• AEdwards played well, but too many teams are catching her physicality now and flopping a little each time. Her improvement needs to be her ability to move her feet and not count on pushing people around to crest space. She played well in her limited minutes. Actually outplayed ONO.
• Mir was full of energy and we needed it. I see her competitiveness and she hit a three when the game was still being decided. Some nice defensive plays and nice charge taken. Proud of her minutes
  

 

[Geesworld]

Your Bigs are only as good as your Littles. If you have poor spacing, poor cutting, poor shooting and poor perimeter defense and your only job as a big is to set screens for poor shooters and dribble penetration then it will be hard to put a stamp on any game. It’s time to give the bigs a real chance to be a presence. I say add another rebounder/Inside player so that so much attention isn’t paid to the one and only big we seem to always play with. Three point shots are always available to our opponents because we have to commit all five to the defensive rebounds.

 

[Fore!]

How do you help AE to not foul?

Some players never develop the body control and spacial awareness necessary to become effective defenders. Let’s hope AE isn’t one of them.

 

[BBallF]

Please don’t blame the refs. They had nothing to do with the loss

I specifically said that it did not cost us the game. There are times however where referees do make mistakes that are of critical importance and do change the final result. If you thought that was a well officiated game rewatch the replay where Dungee punches our player in the throat to get free on a drive. Geno went crazy on the sidelines and even mimicked the punch. No call and there are 3 of them out there. They are getting paid to be fair, professional and competent. I would like to know where the refs were from: i.e. what conference?

 

[MSGRET]

Dungee kicked our arse. Period.

She should have fouled out before the half with all the push off's. She will not be able to do that in the Tournament.

 

[Sanka541]

Arkansas is definitely a team you’d want to avoid in the tourney as they can go OFF on you with 3s like tonight. You don’t want to meet a hot shooting team in the tourney

 

[HuskyNan]

I specifically said that it did not cost us the game. There are times however where referees do make mistakes that are of critical importance and do change the final result. If you thought that was a well officiated game rewatch the replay where Dungee punches our player in the throat to get free on a drive. Geno went crazy on the sidelines and even mimicked the punch. No call and there are 3 of them out there. They are getting paid to be fair, professional and competent. I would like to know where the refs were from: i.e. what conference?

Big East refs

UConn committed fouls that weren’t called, too.

 

[Cuango]

Idc what any other BY'er says Geno needs to bench Liv and play Edwards. Aaliyah is so foul prone but hell give Mir those minutes. She was very effective. Liv smh she has soooo much potential, will it ever show ?!

I’m sorry, but that’s just silly! Aaliyah had one more point than she did fouls in 13 minutes. Until she stops impersonating a bowling ball in the lane she cannot replace Liv. Sure, Liv played poorly. This was a bad matchup for her to have her worst game of the season but no way should she lose her starting role to Aaliyah! I will say that it is perplexing how the two juniors don’t seem able to correct their weaknesses. Actually, correct is the wrong word. They don’t seem to understand their weaknesses!

 

[npignatjr]

Overall I thought UConn played well. They put up 87 points. We just ran into a hot shooting team. I thought Nika Muhl played surprisingly well. She didn’t play scared. I thought overall the freshmen did a really good job. We had 3 freshmen on the floor at one time. This game will go along way in this teams development. More than any Big East game UConn will play.

Actually at one point 4 with Evina

 

[MooreMayaNY]

Loss and pandemic aside(probably the cause of all the craziness), this has been one of the most exciting seasons of WCBB since arguably 2004-05! So much parody. I don't think any 1 team is a lock for the Final Four just yet, it's been all about match-ups this year!!!! Super exciting.

 

[Hoops66]

ONO's post moves are predictable. She needs to add more to the arsenal other than two dribbles one way and spinning (and pinning the defender with her elbow) the other way. Paige was outstanding, Westbrook too. Mir stepped up. Geno will use this as a learning experience.

It might help if she didn't keep bringing the ball down when she gets a rebound. They swarmed her and fouled her too but took it away from her nearly every time.

 

[tomcat]

Dreadful defense. I've never seen a UConn team that is just average, defensively, but this one is. It's unfortunate, but ONO plays soft against big teams. Edwards will be great as soon as she figures out how to not foul like that. The high point was Nika, in terms of exceeding expectations. Evina was good. Not great, but good.
Paige is allowed to disappear for whole chunks of time. It seems that her teammates figure out how to find her maybe halfway through the third quarter of these games, and then she responds. There is something weird going on there. Don't know what.
CW continues to light up the game on early offense and be invisible on defense, most of the time. And her failure to call time at the end was puzzling. Mir made mistakes, but was really active and looked good on many plays.
I cannot imagine what Geno's practices will look like. Defense. More defense. More defense. That'd be about right.

 

[BBallF]

I saw CW make 1 shot. A putback of her own missed layup. I think it’s rather obvious she has lost some confidence. If PB takes every shot of hers - we win. She needs to get in the gym. Just my opinion. Now I’m going to check the box and her shooting percentages. She is (currently) - brick city.

Agree. I don't think the gym is the answer however. She takes the most shots on the team no matter what and some of them are just forced and was 7-12 from 2 point range but 0-5 from 3 point range. The obvious answer- let Evina and Paige shoot the 3s and let CW drive and pull up. The consecutive misses in the second half really hurt us.

 

[Brad Palmer]

A weird game in a weird season (sport-wide). Arkansas shot way, way above their normal percentages, and I don't agree with the discrepancy of foul calls based on the way the two teams were playing. All that added up to a "mere" 3 point win, though.

I am still glad UConn took this game. They actually exorcised at least one of the usual demons (not shooting well), they kept it competitive as a team...and yet there are still lessons that individual players will hopefully learn here. Not to name names, but there was some boneheaded and/or disjointed stuff from certain players. Massively, epically boneheaded and/or disjointed in a few cases. Losing while committing said boneheaded stuff will hopefully make the lesson stick.

Arkansas shot 51% from the floor (season average 44%) but only 55% from the line (75% season average) so not crazy out of the ordinary. But they did shoot 56% on 3's (season average 37%), which obviously was huge..

 

[jaydee602]

Big East refs

UConn committed fouls that weren’t called, too.

Those were Big East refs?? I didn't recognize them & I thought ESPN said they were from the SEC. My mistake!

 

[npignatjr]

The refs did not cost us the game & Arkansas only made two more foul shots than UCONN. But they let Dungee commit several pushoffs. Not sure she gets away with that in most games. I thought the officiating was uneven the whole game.

What did happen on 2 of the most egregious push offs was U Conn was called for fouls and she shot FTs

 

[RockyMTblue2]

Listen to E in the postgame. My kind of no BS leader.

 

[LETTERL]

Idc what any other BY'er says Geno needs to bench Liv and play Edwards. Aaliyah is so foul prone but hell give Mir those minutes. She was very effective. Liv smh she has soooo much potential, will it ever show ?!

I thought, watching this game, that Edwards seemed to play much more physical basketball than ONO. Of course, ONO was saddled with foul trouble and just never seemed to get going.

 

[SVCBeercats]

OK! Mr. Pessimism has left the building. Mr. Optimism here! UCONN has won 5 NCAA championships with at least one loss and as many as 4 losses, twice..

 

[eebmg]

Yes, Neighbors was a good guy but I think we proved how "inviting" our team could be on the court.

 

[BBallF]

It might help if she didn't keep bringing the ball down when she gets a rebound. They swarmed her and fouled her too but took it away from her nearly every time.

She also starts every move when her back is to the basket by pausing first and then dribbling, thereby allowing the double team to come. I don't understand why she doesn't receive the ball, keep it high, wait for the double and then kick it out. If she does that and we make some 3s, the double teams will stop. Very poor effort by her when all we needed was a modest effort ( maybe 8 points and 6 boards) to win.

 

[Rb335]

Christyn was playing (and scoring) well and then (as she has several times this season) decided she should be a three point shooter, promptly missed four and then fell apart. I think she should never shoot more than four threes unless she makes at least two of her first four! She is not and probably will never be a great shooter! However, she could be a very good scorer. Why not play to your strengths?

I completely agree. Her strength is going to the basket and the midrange. But she is so passive sometimes. Floats around the 3 point line, jacks up shots from long distance, and consistently shoots a pretty poor percentage. Today she started well, then effectively chocked when the game was close. As a former top recruit and junior, she should be the leader. Yet Paige played with 10x the sense of urgency. I just feel our freshman have more to offer long term than what our upperclassmen can offer right now.

 

[BBallF]

Big East refs

UConn committed fouls that weren’t called, too.

That's right. They are supposed to call all the fouls though, n'est pas?

 

[uconnever]

ONO needs to decide if she wants to take that next step or not because I truly believe she is the difference between us being a championship team or not. Even still, if we play them again we win by at least 15, they couldn’t miss tonight. That I’m sure of

 

[CTBballfan243]

Dreadful defense. I've never seen a UConn team that is just average, defensively, but this one is. It's unfortunate, but ONO plays soft against big teams. Edwards will be great as soon as she figures out how to not foul like that. The high point was Nika, in terms of exceeding expectations. Evina was good. Not great, but good.
Paige is allowed to disappear for whole chunks of time. It seems that her teammates figure out how to find her maybe halfway through the third quarter of these games, and then she responds. There is something weird going on there. Don't know what.
CW continues to light up the game on early offense and be invisible on defense, most of the time. And her failure to call time at the end was puzzling. Mir made mistakes, but was really active and looked good on many plays.
I cannot imagine what Geno's practices will look like. Defense. More defense. More defense. That'd be about right.

Paige “allowed to disappear for whole chunks of time” you must have watched a different game. UConn ran into a hot shooting team. It’s not that complicated, really.

 

[SLY63]

Lot's of comments, so nothing new but some random thoughts:

Arkansas earned this win. I can't remember the last time I saw a team shoot such a high % against us. Would be interesting to see when this last happened. Dungee is a monster. Quick release. WNBA drive. She killed us all 4 quarters. Ramirez really showed up for Arkansas.

I thought Arkansas wanted it more, rebounded better than expected and ripped the ball out of our hands a number of times. Also, losing the TO battle hurt us too.

On our side:

• Paige is great. Need her to take over earlier (see Dungee above).
• EW played great. Incredibly efficient.
• CW was inconsistent. Wish she realized she should have called a TO at the end
• AE, still like her game, but I think she need to play smarter with regard to "empty" fouls
• ONO really struggles against athletic posts. Scores at will against Big East competition, but I'm getting nervous that she can't be counted on against top opponents.
• AG struggled tonight. I thought she would clean up on the boards.
• Nika was bright spot. Showing good trajectory
• MM brought great energy

 

[BBallF]

I completely agree. Her strength is going to the basket and the midrange. But she is so passive sometimes. Floats around the 3 point line, jacks up shots from long distance, and consistently shoots a pretty poor percentage. Today she started well, then effectively chocked when the game was close. As a former top recruit and junior, she should be the leader. Yet Paige played with 10x the sense of urgency. I just feel our freshman have more to offer long term than what our upperclassmen can offer right now.

With the exception of Evina. She had a quiet 19 points but I think she should be shooting and driving and pulling up much more. She is an acknowledged leader also and that is very important.