Arkansas Postgame Thread

[Dokey]

She would of played 2 minutes tonight

Ha ha ha ha. That’s why you are on Boneyard and Geno is the coach.

 

[oldude]

For those who didn’t see Arkansas’s matchup vs Baylor, this is what they are capable of doing. Didi Richards couldn’t cover Dungee either. Arkansas was only 5/20 from the arc but they drove the lane all game long as Smith & Egbo were helpless to stop them, as they either made layups or ended up at the foul line where the Razorbacks were 30/39.

 

[Jmsdawg]

Sorry but I disagree. The replay showed the ball was still on Ramirez' fingers when the shot clock expired. Also, if you watch it carefully, CW stops dribbling after timeout was called and the clock keeps on going. I am not saying that costs us the game but I thought it was emblematic of a very poorly officiated game.

It was a close call but the call on the floor was Not a clock violation. The replay was not convincing to me, it was so close I could not make a decision, that Is why it stayed with the original call.

 

[Citrusdog]

Christyn made a mental error when she didn't call time out immediately after securing the rebound. She dribbled away 3 seconds. If she had immediately called Time Out, UConn could have advanced the ball to half court with 3 seconds on the clock.

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.

 

[Fore!]

Anna is a major defense liability against a team like ARK; offensively she would struggle to find open looks against their quicker defenders.

 

[maccca3232]

Games this season (up to and including 24-Jan-2021)

Home Team Scores 90+ their record is 170-5 (win 97.1%)
Away Team Scores 87+ their record is 77-7 (Win 91.7%)

ARK this year:
Have lost scoring 90 or more (Maryland @ ARK 115-96)
Have won allowing 87 or more (ARK @ Missouri 91-88)

 

[Martin]

Some thoughts on the Arkansas game:

• UConn shoots 59% in the first half and heads to the locker room with a 2-pt lead. At that point I knew UConn was in trouble. Arkansas is one tough team to play against, and Dungee belongs in the pros, although I’m not crazy about that flying chicken-wing of hers.
• Every time UConn threw the ball into the post, Arkansas swarmed all over it, generally neutralizing UConn’s size advantage.
• Pleased with Nika’s minutes off the bench. She didn’t try to do too much or play too fast, and she knocked down several key shots.
• I guess we’re back to playing with another 5’11” center?
• Paige and Evina both came up big tonight, but it wasn't enough
• I know there will be criticism about players, coaching strategy, etc., but the simple truth is that Arkansas was a better team than UConn tonight. They shot it well, took better care of the ball, played tough team defense, boxed out and hit the boards. They earned the W.

Missed the game. Had a death in family unfortunately. Not sure I want to watch a replay........

Watch it. Its a fun game to watch. Sorry about your loss.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I agree with this completely. I really think Aaliyah needs to find the line between playing aggressive and fouling out. She will get there eventually. I was very disappointed in the loss (obviously) but I need to keep reminding myself that this team is extremely young and all the freshman have kinks to work out. On the positive, this will be a good learning experience

Nika was looking for that line too. She seems to be finding it. Hopefully, Liya will soon too.

 

[Plebe]

Arkansas had UConn right where they wanted them the entire game. The match was definitely played at their pace which is HUGE mistake against a team like Arkansas that can any team in the country point for point. To beat Arkansas you need transition and a dominating post game. I thought UConn's freshman post player had the right mindset, just needed more from a few other players.

To me that's the part that is disappointing. The battle for tempo is THE key battle against Arkansas, and it wasn't even clear to me that UConn was aware of how critical this was. Everything else that went badly, in my view, was secondary to the failure to control tempo. UConn's weakness at post is an easy talking point, but it sure wasn't what caused Baylor to lose in Fayetteville either.

 

[Bajan Best]

1) As poorly as UCONN played at times the good news is they were still in this game...
That bids well for this team if they live up to their competitive billing/spirit going forward..

2) It was good to see a few players off the bench come in and made some plays at key intervals of the game when things were going south for the team.

3) I do not understand why ONO after being blind-sided successfully with double teams did not adjust by pivoting, face up and just shoot over her shorter defenders.. or pass to her teammates who should be cutting to the basket. You don't have to be point blank to have an offensive impact.

4) Christyn Williams should not be leading this team in shot attempts unless they are mostly layups. Paige and Evina have proven to be more consistent from the outside, So we simply have to find a way to get them more shots during games.

5) Our man-to-man defense is not as terrible as the coach would have us believe with the right personnel on the floor, they were key stretches when our small ball was effectively defending this team, which has aggressive scoring guards we simply cannot rely on Zone defense especially when a team is shooting the ball that well...

6) I thought throughout most of the game the refs were allowing one team to be aggressive and calling the other for fouls. But with that said we have to put players in the game who can react to the way the game is being called. and try to take more charges on aggressive guards instead of trying to block their shots.

 

[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.