Baylor Postgame Thread

[Citrusdog]

I just want CW to practice FT shooting. 1 of 4? ...should have been 3 of 4. Small ball... big hoop, #1 player in HS coming out, details make a player great... love her to death...but work is in order...asap

 

[jazz]

GA = Geno, CD = Chris Dailey, J = Jamelle, PB= Paige, NM = Nika, EW = Evina, Liv = Liv, CW = Christyn, AE = Aaliyah, AG = ‘The great Aubrey Griffin’, Mir = Mir, PG= Piath, AM = Anna, the Polish Rifle, PS or Poff = Saylor, AC = Autumn.

My 2 cents on the first half

Baylor getting some bounces on their 5 offensive boards in the quarter – not all Uconn’s fault. Some bounces are just going Baylor’s way. Baylor is a savvy team: for example – nice slide in and box out by Smith on AE to get her second foul. Baylor is built like trucks throughout. Seems like we are the skinny team playing a bunch of older, muscled up players in their late 20s. Baylor got some bounces of the ball in Q2 as well. They are just bigger and stronger, we tip the ball and they get the ball. Anyway, it happens...

Missed two open layups, one short shot from PB and CW goes 1-5 going to the basket (looked like she was fouled at least twice!). That makes 1-8 at point blank range in Q1. We should have scored 30-35 easily. To CW’s credit, she is taking the ball strong to the hole, knowing she will get hammered and knowing she will NOT get the call. But she keeps answering the bell! Tough kid!

EW hits a couple threes to help keep it going. EW expending a lot of energy on the box outs of Smith in Q2. AE needs to watch EW to know how to get it done. Really inspiring to see her muscle/positon a bigger/stronger player! Unfortunately, it is taking its toll. EW slow on a few close outs and loose balls…has been all year, but more so here, seems really tired about half way through the 2nd qtr. Why no AM for at least 2-3 minutes? I don’t get that. Fresh AM is better than exhausted EW all day.

Liv was great – blocks, passes, rebounds and tough as a junk yard dog! Keeps ripping down rebounds, fighting stronger players for position and getting hammered going to the basket. Announcers said it was a block, but I never saw the player get ball – only ALL of Liv’s arm! Later she rips down another rebound in traffic. She is not backing down despite the strength disadvantage and not having other big bodies to help her out. Baylor is a great rebounding team but they have nothing on Liv! She is taking this challenge personally! Takes an elbow to the ribs by Egbo (more of a foul than the one Liv just got called for), then Liv still challenges the shot and rips down the rebound. Liv saved us in Q2. Great half! She has become a tough player the last few weeks!

PB getting the DT treatment. Tugged, grabbed and bumped all half. Another tough performance – really fighting through it and still scoring even though Baylor is doing everything to slow her down.

AG got mugged going to the hoop (player ripped her arm away from the ball =assault in most states!) and they call a ridiculous charge when the player was in the circle. What a damn kick in the teeth!! Why can’t they go to replay for this if the damn ref is so blind??? Terrific half by AG on defense, making Smith work hard, disrupting shots. 2 blocks, steal – no credit for it for some reason, 2 rebounds and hit a nice jumper too.

 

[Kevin G]

That should clearly have been a foul on Edwards. Elbow in the face. But the officiating was not that great all game.

Agree.

There were A LOT of fouls not called throughout the game on both sides. In the end, there are other reasons why you are in the situation of being down 1 with the last shot to win. You didn't. Move on.

 

[hardcorehusky]

So when UConn wins by double digits, we are bad for the game. When we win a close slugfest, the other team was robbed. I sense a 26 year trend....

 

[Kevin G]

Paige Bueckers = NPOY

 

[Bama fan]

Woody Allen is credited with saying “80 percent of success in life is just showing up.”

He surely read Hunter Thompson, so perhaps he was paraphrasing? Or did Hunter hear Woody? Either way, it is a good line.

 

[JonathanXIV]

She was also hit on the arm before running into Richards 2 bad calls one play

Exactly. And despite being fouled twice on the play, she gets the foul called on her. Literally three mistakes on the one play.

 

[PoppaBear]

This thread just won't end. Lol. Best of luck going forward.

If I were a UConn fan I would be more concerned about the possibility this referee crew works any more games. Especially if South Carolina makes it through.

Best of luck.

 

[JonathanXIV]

I wonder if they have the facilities in place to put her in a nice ice batch for 15 minutes?

Given the NCAA facilities and accommodations for the women this year, it's going to have to be two dozen trips to the ice machine down the hall to fill up her bathtub.

 

[npignatjr]

Baylor lost because UConn had 2 more points than they did. The closeness of the game has led to an uproar about a single call in another poorly officiated game. Hopefully next year and for the foreseeable future UConn will be back to winning every game by double digits so the losers won’t be able to moan about a single call costing them the game,

Easier on me

 

[BBallF]

The no-call on Carrington's shot was a clear foul. The last two minutes of the game should be officiated the same as the first two minutes. The bad officiating was against BOTH teams........................but that does not excuse bad officiating. "Taking the whistle out" of the mouth at the end rewards illegal play. Remember.......................refs do not commit fouls, players do. It is the ref's job to call the foul.....................during the entire game.

(Full Disclosure: I am a former basketball referee.)

First of all the refs are seeing the game in real time and in real time it was a lot different than in still photos and stop action which you saw after. You shouldn't change the way you are officiating all game long in the last 2 minutes, or in the last play. If the game was cleanly called all the way through I would agree with you and UCONN would be up by 8 or 10 but it was not and it is a real problem in the women's game because this is not the first time nor will it be the last. "Letting them play" when you have a most physical team like Baylor is an outrageous way to approach a game in an Elite 8 setting which should have, could have been the NC game. How do I know they approached it that way? Lobo said so and implied that it was communicated to the players, either expressly or by the way they were calling the game. Either way, calling all the fouls all game long is a necessary and sound principle that was violated relentlessly last night. We shot 2 FTs in the first half, they shot 11. Rewatch the game and watch the number of uncalled fouls on Baylor in the first half alone. All that is forgotten though. In the end, this is women's basketball which is the last vestige of pure basketball. I don't know about you, but I don't want to see a lesser version of the men's games slugfests. I think the answer is better referees. The ones last night were horrible and should not be on this stage.

 

[uconnever]

You know I am sooo happy with our ladies finding ways to win when things are tough. I stopped short of complaining a little against Syracuse and more so against Iowa. Now I want to say it. Has anyone else noticed with each game, I know the teams are getting better, but we are making poor decisions that we haven’t made all year? I think these last two games were to my surprise, close only because we shot ourselves in the foot time and time again. Uncharacteristically. I know we are young, but man we could have had the last two rounds a lot easier than they were. We will beat Arizona playing like this, but if it Stanford we get in the final, we are in for another nail biter because they don’t make too many mistakes.

 

[npignatjr]

Not a criticism since I don't know how anyone could play ever minute in a game like this, but Paige at times looked gassed at the end. Rather than commenting on Evina's turnover, I would rather compliment her on stepping up every time UConn seemed out of sync.

3 guards all played 40 minutes. Need Nika back. Why not even a few minutes from Anna, Baylor is not a fast team.

 

[npignatjr]

This thread just won't end. Lol. Best of luck going forward.

If I were a UConn fan I would be more concerned about the possibility this referee crew works any more games. Especially if South Carolina makes it through.

Best of luck.

Might be Dee coming up.

 

[Happydad745]

View attachment 66395

After the game, Mulkey only talked about the last missed foul call because it gave her an excuse for losing.

 

[JonathanXIV]

You really missed the subtlety of my comment. Rec leagues have someone in a striped shirt, but they aren’t officials.

Subtlety? This is the Boneyard.

 

[tchalla1]

That should clearly have been a foul on Edwards. Elbow in the face. But the officiating was not that great all game.

Maybe so, but I thought they called the game even--Paige and CW got bumped a lot of times going to the basket...

 

[npignatjr]

Maybe so, but I thought they called the game even--Paige and CW got bumped a lot of times going to the basket...

Even?

 

[Lynx23]

The refs have to make a split-second decision. We as fans have the benefit of replay, still pictures, and a debate that will last for days, maybe months, and perhaps even years. The refs (or umpires, etc.) are a human part of the game and we win or lose based at least in part on their decisions, right or wrong. Let Twitter explode and conspiracy theories abound. It doesn't change the outcome. We move on. Period.

 

[Artifact]

That game gets a "!!!" from me , dawg.

Sad that it took a brutal injury but UConn attacked.

Seems so strange that with all clicking for the 'Lady Bears' & surging ahead with the score, it all of a sudden 'stopped' ! The game scoring reversed itself to the other team. Many say it was the 'hamstring leg injury', that had occurred. Some will attribute it to bad luck ? Humm! Before I forget, have a 'Happy Easter' !

 

[baggerbob]

For that to happen, the NCAA would have to do something they have demonstrated they are relunctant to do: spend more than the bare minimum on the women's tournament.

It would make sense for the conference's to get together as a group, and start schools to instruct officials. Right now you see in both major sports a lot of blown calls. It would improve all the games, and make it more enjoyable for the fans. And the fans are the ones who pay the money.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Might be Dee coming up.

Kantner will for sure be in one of our remaining games. I think if they work the semi-final they can't work the final or something like that, so probably she calls the final.

 

[Golden Husky]

He surely read Hunter Thompson, so perhaps he was paraphrasing? Or did Hunter hear Woody? Either way, it is a good line.

"Things just haven't gotten weird enough for me yet."
--Hunter S. Thompson

Any HST reference deserves a hearty "Like."

 

[hoopsfan22]

Seems so strange that with all clicking for the 'Lady Bears' & surging ahead with the score, it all of a sudden 'stopped' ! The game scoring reversed itself to the other team. Many say it was the 'hamstring leg injury', that had occurred. Some will attribute it to bad luck ? Humm! Before I forget, have a 'Happy Easter' !

Kim also has a roster of 13. One of the other 7 kids many of whom are upperclassmen should have been able to give them something. 7 of UConn's 12 players are freshman, and 2 others are sophomores. Baylor was positioned much better to weather an in-game injury like that. It wasn't like they lost Smith or Carrington early in the game, and Richards still played 30 minutes.

 

[Carnac]

View attachment 66398The media isn’t crying about this no call

THIS picture should be THE rebuttal to any pictures Mulkey or anyone else wants to present. If this was not a foul (and it wasn't called), then the Carrington play was not a foul!!! Calls were missed and not called the entire game. THIS is just one instance. Paige got mugged on several occasions, and did not get a whistle. Yes, it was a bad no call, but it was just one of many during the tournament. Iowa State and Michigan can give you chapter and verse about bad calls or no calls. Please folks, let's move on. We've got other fish to fry here.

 

[faithfulfan]

Reality is UCONN played a game where one of their players was out hurt, the refs allowed a physical game which benefited the opponent, they played not so great down the stretch (like the Ark. game), played against a really good team of 3 seniors and 2 juniors, and they still WON!
With the high school recruits coming in the next 2 years, UCONN gonna heat up that debate again about UCONN and everybody else, good times lololololololololololololololol
Geno will be patrolling the sidelines with a walker in a decade with recruiting classes like these!

 

[NEforceUConn]

I know Rebecca mentioned that Geno was probably composed and encouraging at halftime, but maybe he took this approach:

 

[Mdoggie]

Liv and Edwards played 29 and 26 minutes respectively. While they didn't play the full 40 like our guards, they were out there most of the game. Aubrey played the other 25 minutes. Out of our front court we got a grand total of 9 pts, 10 blocks, and 10 fouls committed.

2 of those 9 points was the difference!!

 

[victor64]

Aubrey played the other 25 minutes.

AG took some heat in the chat. Not sure why. She took two charges, hit a perimeter shot and held her own guarding arguably one of the best front court players in the country NaLyssa Smith. If Geno wasn't pleased, we probably would have seen Anna. (Probably should have seen her a little anyway for EW.)

 

[Littlemin]

Nika was a starter. Really wish people would stop marginalizing her contributions to this team.

A little hard to understand how disrespected she is by so many posters here. On the other hand, many have the opposite view. IMO, the game last night would have been much different if she played. Baylor would not have been able to take the ball wherever they wanted, which they did for a good portion of the game. Besides the rub off effect her tenacity has on the rest of the team.
Having said that, that is just an opinion, while the fact is the players available found a way, which I have to honestly say, I did not think was going to happen when they got down by ten.