Congrats to Arizona...

[EricLA]

While I am incredibly disappointed that we lost, congrats to Arizona on a great game plan and on winning the game and making it to the NC title game. No one gave them a chance in this game, myself included. In fact, they were left out of the Final 4 promo put together by the NCAA. What a glaring and embarrassing oversight by an organization that disrespected the women from day one of the tourney.

UCONN was simply outplayed, out-coached, out-hustled and out-foxed by the better team tonight. Our freshmen all seemed overwhelmed by the moment and none of them played well, at least for a majority of the game. For all our size advantage and getting all 4 Arizona post players into foul trouble, Olivia and Aaliyah scored 9 points between them.

The only player who really showed out was Christyn, who pretty much matched McDonald in production, but the rest of the Arizona team was just better than the rest of the UCONN team. If this game were mid-season like the Arkansas game, the players and coaches would learn a lot from it, but sadly, the NCAA's are one and done. We battled hard in the 4th quarter, but just didn't have enough.

It was a terrific and enjoyable season that I'm sure will leave a very bitter taste for the entire team. Hopefully they stew on it and come back next year more motivated than ever. That goes for the UCONN coaching staff as well. At one point when Arizona was on a run and there was a timeout, Geno was walking with his head down sulking. Not a way to inspire confidence or energy for your very young team.

Bottom line, all the credit to Arizona. Tremendous game plan, better defense, better offense, and better coaching. What a bright future for them and best of luck in the NC game!

And very proud of our young ladies. By all accounts a tremendous year and WE WILL BE BACK!!

 

[JordyG]

I agree. But let's also underscore that UConn played poorly up front in just about every aspect. That kept the Ariz. defense tight on the perimeter against the shooters. I honestly think the moment got a little too big for most of the UConn players. C'est La Vie. Another year then.

 

[JordyG]

And congratulations to the best conference in WCBB for the last 3 years, the PAC 12.

 

[SimpleDawg]

Adia is Vic part 2.

 

[Hayven]

UofA came in with a great game plan and it worked. Hats off to them

 

[Stymie]

Yes.
Congratulations to a well played game.
They were ready.
UCONN was not.
You can’t hit 4 of 19 bunnies against a well prepared, motivated team in a big game and expect to win.
Another lesson for the young Huskies.
Just putting on the uniform does not entitle you to win.
The better team won tonight.

 

[DaConn]

Absolute no show by our post despite our clear advantage. How unfortunate to lose by missing all those layups. Smh. Go Huskies! Maybe next year.

 

[Huskie837]

While I am incredibly disappointed that we lost, congrats to Arizona on a great game plan and on winning the game and making it to the NC title game. No one gave them a chance in this game, myself included. In fact, they were left out of the Final 4 promo put together by the NCAA. What a glaring and embarrassing oversight by an organization that disrespected the women from day one of the tourney.

UCONN was simply outplayed, out-coached, out-hustled and out-foxed by the better team tonight. Our freshmen all seemed overwhelmed by the moment and none of them played well, at least for a majority of the game. For all our size advantage and getting all 4 Arizona post players into foul trouble, Olivia and Aaliyah scored 9 points between them.

The only player who really showed out was Christyn, who pretty much matched McDonald in production, but the rest of the Arizona team was just better than the rest of the UCONN team. If this game were mid-season like the Arkansas game, the players and coaches would learn a lot from it, but sadly, the NCAA's are one and done. We battled hard in the 4th quarter, but just didn't have enough.

It was a terrific and enjoyable season that I'm sure will leave a very bitter taste for the entire team. Hopefully they stew on it and come back next year more motivated than ever. That goes for the UCONN coaching staff as well. At one point when Arizona was on a run and there was a timeout, Geno was walking with his head down sulking. Not a way to inspire confidence or energy for your very young team.

Bottom line, all the credit to Arizona. Tremendous game plan, better defense, better offense, and better coaching. What a bright future for them and best of luck in the NC game!

And very proud of our young ladies. By all accounts a tremendous year and WE WILL BE BACK!!

well said

 

[darkstar1]

I don’t think the Huskies were poorly coached at all. The idea was clearly to take the ball inside where UConn appeared to have a huge advantage. Plenty of layups. Unfortunately many gimmies just missed. If 1/2 of the missed bunnies made, very different game. Not poor coaching. Poor finishing. Congrats to Ariz. they played with a lot of heart.

 

[Topdawg]

Our production from the forwards was way off. We also did not get many fast breaks. Lots to work on for next year..

great season, given that we had no seniors on the team..

 

[Topdawg]

Games at the end of the season are mental.. takes time to mature..

 

[ochoopsfan]

UConn never got the "run" they always seem to get at least once a game.

U of A is a scrappy tough team to play against.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Adia Barnes is a great coach. Magical run for Arizona. Good for them. Don't have much hope they can knock off Stanford. They will be emotionally sapped from this game like Mississippi State was when Morgan William hit that buzzer beater against us.

 

[LoyalFanCT]

Cate Reese is an amazing player.

 

[nickp91]

Great coaching by Adia Barnes

 

[Nyskier]

Congratulations to Arizona. Great game plan by Adia Barnes

 

[GMP 65]

Absolute no show by our post despite our clear advantage. How unfortunate to lose by missing all those layups. Smh. Go Huskies! Maybe next year.

Was ONO okay? I've never seen her play so poorly

 

[Childhood]

Give credit to Adia Barnes, really good coach.

 

[MSSportsGuy]

While I am incredibly disappointed that we lost, congrats to Arizona on a great game plan and on winning the game and making it to the NC title game. No one gave them a chance in this game, myself included. In fact, they were left out of the Final 4 promo put together by the NCAA. What a glaring and embarrassing oversight by an organization that disrespected the women from day one of the tourney.

UCONN was simply outplayed, out-coached, out-hustled and out-foxed by the better team tonight. Our freshmen all seemed overwhelmed by the moment and none of them played well, at least for a majority of the game. For all our size advantage and getting all 4 Arizona post players into foul trouble, Olivia and Aaliyah scored 9 points between them.

The only player who really showed out was Christyn, who pretty much matched McDonald in production, but the rest of the Arizona team was just better than the rest of the UCONN team. If this game were mid-season like the Arkansas game, the players and coaches would learn a lot from it, but sadly, the NCAA's are one and done. We battled hard in the 4th quarter, but just didn't have enough.

It was a terrific and enjoyable season that I'm sure will leave a very bitter taste for the entire team. Hopefully they stew on it and come back next year more motivated than ever. That goes for the UCONN coaching staff as well. At one point when Arizona was on a run and there was a timeout, Geno was walking with his head down sulking. Not a way to inspire confidence or energy for your very young team.

Bottom line, all the credit to Arizona. Tremendous game plan, better defense, better offense, and better coaching. What a bright future for them and best of luck in the NC game!

And very proud of our young ladies. By all accounts a tremendous year and WE WILL BE BACK!!

Classy post. You will be back. I think the fact there was a season at all let alone one this enjoyable should be celebrated. It was only 6 months ago I was thinking it may not happen.

In 2016 we had a Uconn team that fulfilled their destiny as the greatest team in history. We also had 3 new FF participants and the games were to most fans......boring. Uconn hasn't won since then but the since have been incredibly competitive and that's great for the game.

At the end of the 2019 FF we crowned a very good Baylor squad champs and were awaiting the arrival of a star studded class at SC, the return of Ionescu, seeing ND almost repeat and fans here lamented the Huskies were losing KLS and Collier while not having as much recruiting success compared to other top programs. No one heard of Covid either.

ND and MSU have now disappeared for the foreseeable future but Uconn shows no signs of slowing down. Baylor and SC are tough programs to contend with and it's great that a few others are moving back into the spotlight. However, Uconn remains the king of the mountain. It's why teams celebrate so much when they beat the Huskies, it's because Uconn is the standard.

 

[Dokey]

A non-UConn fan, not a UConn hater, more neutral, from Florida, a fellow Colorado alum, emailed me to say it looked like UConn had an easy game with Arizona. I emailed back to say Arizona had a super star and was battle tested in the toughest conference and this could be the classic trap game. UConn sailed through the Big East against competition that gave us a false sense of confidence and didn’t expose our weakness at the post.
With Arizona and Stanford in the big game, the PAC-12 shows why a strong conference prepares teams for the big dance. Stanford remains packed, Oregon will bounce back, UCLA is moving up. Colorado just got a boost when senior All PAC-12 pick Mya Hollingshed, projected to go in the middle of the second round of the WNBA draft, announced she would return for a fifth year. Colorado finished 6th in PAC-12 and would have finished second in Big East (I hear the sputters. Remember last night and with it).

 

[RogueDave]

Rooting for Arizona to win but will be tough familiar foes. Should be a great game.

 

[Dillon77]

I watched the Arizona - Indiana game and was struck by how the tenacious in-your face defense on IU's guards took a toll.
It tires teams out and to my mind, made IU's usually unflappable guards tentative. Grace Berger would give the ball up rather than attack downhill. It wasn't pretty offensively for either team (defense takes energy!), so you've got to keep attacking (Adia Barnes tells her team to keep hoisting the threes and she's got McDonald to catch fire, which she did.)

The only thing that constently worked for IU was going down low to Mckenzie Holmes, who had 20 points. Geno & staff saw that and did attack down low against AZ's Reese and Ware, but the close-in shots were rimming out. Out on the perimeter, McDonald worked Paige hard, just like IU did to Berger. Williams kept the Huskies in reach. End result for both games was pretty close at the end of the day: Arizona in the 60's, opponent in the 50s.

McDonald is a like a younger version Nate "Tiny" Archibald: quick hands, quick feet, lefty (and try to stop me!) and never moves in a straight line. Difference maker.

 

[oldude]

If parity ever truly comes to WBB, this is what it will look like: a tough, senior dominated team under a great young coach with and improbable star player. UConn clearly didn’t play their best, but AZ had a lot to do with that.

Before the game I suggested that UConn try to post up Paige on McDonald. The Huskies did try several times, but McDonald’s “water bug” defense made it extremely difficult to get Paige the ball. The one time Paige got the ball in the low post and turned towards the basket, AZ triple teamed her forcing a turnover.

Today’s WBB players are bigger, stronger and more athletic. In the future UConn will need to match up better physically with teams like Baylor & AZ. Aaliyah will get there. Hopefully Amari as well. Ice and Ayanna are on the horizon.

 

[Dillon77]

If parity ever truly comes to WBB, this is what it will look like: a tough, senior dominated team under a great young coach with and improbable star player. UConn clearly didn’t play their best, but AZ had a lot to do with that.

Before the game I suggested that UConn try to post up Paige on McDonald. The Huskies did try several times, but McDonald’s “water bug” defense made it extremely difficult to get Paige the ball. The one time Paige got the ball in the low post and turned towards the basket, AZ triple teamed her forcing a turnover.

Today’s WBB players are bigger, stronger and more athletic. In the future UConn will need to match up better physically with teams like Baylor & AZ. Aaliyah will get there. Hopefully Amari as well. Ice and Ayanna are on the horizon.

Good post. I'll to go the first game to support your point: did you see Stanford had Brink, Belibi and Prechtel in the game at one point to combat Boston, Amihere and Saxton? That was tall and sturdy on both sides! And Beal vs. Jones was compelling.

Niele Ivey said she's going to be putting teams together of teams that have a few bigs fronted by players that all can play multiple roles. Think of Jess Shepard/Bri Turner fronted by three Jackie Youngs. Tall, athletic guards who can attack hard and rebound (Lexie Hull?). Paige, Clark all fit that mold.

While a McDonald-like player will find her place, you're right: games gettting taller and stronger. Stay tuned.

 

[Cecil9]

Today’s WBB players are bigger, stronger and more athletic. In the future UConn will need to match up better physically with teams like Baylor & AZ. Aaliyah will get there. Hopefully Amari as well. Ice and Ayanna are on the horizon.

No kidding--Arizona was like running into a human buzzsaw. Very quick and tenacious and the threes just kept dropping through the net.