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Message: [QUOTE="JoePgh, post: 3324359, member: 1131"] I can't tell whether some people took BigPetunia's post literally. I just re-watched the game after attending in person yesterday. My general reaction is that reports of UConn's uncontrolled fall from the sky of WCBB are greatly exaggerated. It's easy to confuse bad shooting with bad play, and it appeared to me on a second viewing that UConn's offensive problems yesterday were related to bad shooting rather than failing to get good shots. I counted 3 [I]uncontested[/I] missed layups, plus one or two more that were somewhat contested but very makeable. I also observe that UConn was 13-21 on free throws. So between 6 points from layups and 4 more from free throws (if they make a reasonable 17 of 21), that is 10 points and a 22-point victory of 82-61. Better defense on Cal's one and only hot 3-point shooter (Anastasieska) might have reduced Cal's point total by as much as 6 points. That is low hanging fruit that they can clean up. Then if they can get the ball to move better on offense (through passing rather than just penetration by Crystal and Christyn), that would add further to the margin. I'm not sure that Anastasieska was identified in pre-game scouting as a major 3-point threat. If she had been, I think the defense would have been different. I think the reason that Molly didn't play is that Crystal and Christyn were scoring successfully, and in that game, UConn needed every point. It would have been different if either of them were having a bad game. I did see a number of good things in the replay, and I think they deserve to be pointed out: 1. ONO was making some "Dolsonic" passes -- better passes than I remember Stef herself making as a sophomore. One of the missed layups was on a beautiful backdoor pass from her to Crystal early in the game. 2. Aubrey was making some serious defensive plays, leaping to grab or deflect passes. That was her inner Gabby. She had some trouble keeping players in front of her on defense, but that will certainly come. Apparently this is the first time that she is being expected to do that. 3. I'm still not sure why Anna didn't get a few rebounds, but she was playing effective defense (staying in front of her man better than Aubrey, in my opinion) and getting steals and deflections. She played well in general even though she shot poorly. But I remember how KLS couldn't hit a 3-point shot to save her life for the first 8 or 10 games of her freshman year. 4. Christyn and Megan were scoring aggressively, which is exactly what the team needs them to do, particularly on a day when the passing offense isn't clicking for whatever reason. I'm beginning to think that will be one of the "reliables" for UConn this year, just as Napheesa's play in the paint was a "reliable" for UConn last year. 5. After a cold start, UConn outscored Cal by about 10 points in the paint, despite giving up size. Admittedly the Cal bigs weren't the most athletic big creatures in WCBB, but this is still a positive marker. [/QUOTE]

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