Congrats to the Women

[art4life]

Great win by the women.
To be fair, I don't watch a lot of their games and until last night the ones I did happen to watch this season were all losses (3 to ND and 1 to Baylor?).
They were definitely due & to win in such a convincing fashion is remarkable!
Go win it all Tuesday night ladies.
Let's Go Huskies!

 

[intlzncster]

Dolson turned the ball over like she was mad at it during the three overtime loss to Notre Dame, but she really had a monster game in the Big East final.

Unique player.

Looks like she is struggling to walk right now.

 

[uconnfan68]

My suggestion then is stay on the bench........she looked fine running up and down the court........listen not fair to hammer on her except she was utterly awful tonight, which is unusual!!

If you had watched her in other games you could tell the difference. She was hobbled so badly I wondered why he kept her in. The only reason I can think of is that she couldn't get any worse from playing on it. She has a stress fracture in 1 leg, and plantar fasciitis in the other foot.

 

[jibsey]

At a time when Uconn desperately needs to get back in the National spotlight, leave it the Lady Huskies to come through again! Great game tonight!!!

I was actually thinking about that during the game, not to take anything away from the women but it doesn't hurt the men one bit. It won't stop the best players from coming to them the way they schedule, even though it's different for us. Geno could care less what league he's in.

 

[mauconnfan]

If you had watched her in other games you could tell the difference. She was hobbled so badly I wondered why he kept her in. The only reason I can think of is that she couldn't get any worse from playing on it. She has a stress fracture in 1 leg, and plantar fasciitis in the other foot.

Okay I get that....but then tell him you can't play or hopefully Geno sees she can't because she was dreadful and ND didn't make a shot outside of 12 feet for most of the 1st half it was a lay up line........I'm all for playing hurt but hurting your team playing isn't a good choice.........hope she gets better

 

[RichZ]

I thought it was a great win, with a few reservations. Faris and Stewart were both incredible doing what they do best. Faris' defense on Skylar and the way she assumes ownership of every loose ball, and Stewart's well, Stewart is good at pretty much everything you can do on a basketball court.
KML talked about needing to look for her shot more pregame, then seemed to look for it less, once the ball was in play. And it wasn't because she was covered that well. But her lack of daggers was made up for by McBride's apparent inability to put the ball in the hole, so that was kind of a wash.
But I thought Hartley played a horrid game. Six turnovers, and more importantly she ran 5 fast breaks without scoring on them. Every time, she took the ball directly at the defender(s) and got blocked or threw up some awful shot, and every time, she had a trailer or an open player on the wing to drop the ball off to, or at least fake a pass to to move the defender. But she just took it to the hole herself and failed to score.
Finally, is Stokes all right? Why only one minute? The kid is NOT Heather Buck. With Dolson hobbled, I expected to see a lot of Stokes.

 

[bobbygt]

I thought it was a great win, with a few reservations. Faris and Stewart were both incredible doing what they do best. Faris' defense on Skylar and the way she assumes ownership of every loose ball, and Stewart's well, Stewart is good at pretty much everything you can do on a basketball court.
KML talked about needing to look for her shot more pregame, then seemed to look for it less, once the ball was in play. And it wasn't because she was covered that well. But her lack of daggers was made up for by McBride's apparent inability to put the ball in the hole, so that was kind of a wash.
But I thought Hartley played a horrid game. Six turnovers, and more importantly she ran 5 fast breaks without scoring on them. Every time, she took the ball directly at the defender(s) and got blocked or threw up some awful shot, and every time, she had a trailer or an open player on the wing to drop the ball off to, or at least fake a pass to to move the defender. But she just took it to the hole herself and failed to score.
Finally, is Stokes all right? Why only one minute? The kid is NOT Heather Buck. With Dolson hobbled, I expected to see a lot of Stokes.

Yup- Stewart and Kelly were the two best players on the floor last night. Breanna looked like the best player in wbb last night, while Kelly was absolutely nasty- blocking shots, steals, HUGE offensive rebounds.

I thought KML played within herself and within the offense well. She had a couple of big baskets (I guess all of the baskets were big!).

I agree with you about Hartley. She just gets that bulldog, tunnel vision mind when she's on the fastbreak. She just never passes the ball on the break.

But, she played lockdown defense on McBride- who really was ND's biggest weapon in the previous three meetings. This balanced things out.

Stokes' playing time is indeed perplexing. When she's in there, she plays great- athletic, runs the floor well, rebounds. My guess is that Geno felt more comfortable with Dolson because she is better at the high post and that is how Geno wanted to run the offense last night.

 

[huskyjawz]

It would have been nice to see them win one, where they had to make a play at the end, but it's certainly impressive to avoid that by blowing the opponenet away.

 

[60'sfan]

Okay I get that....but then tell him you can't play or hopefully Geno sees she can't because she was dreadful and ND didn't make a shot outside of 12 feet for most of the 1st half it was a lay up line........I'm all for playing hurt but hurting your team playing isn't a good choice.........hope she gets better

I agree that Dolson did not have a very good game and several times I was begging Geno to take her out but I also noticed that our offense seemed to fall apart when she was on the bench. I think Notre Dame's game plan was to focus on Dolson and KML. The result was the Stewie was able to dominate.

One more to go.

 

[intlzncster]

Okay I get that....but then tell him you can't play or hopefully Geno sees she can't because she was dreadful and ND didn't make a shot outside of 12 feet for most of the 1st half it was a lay up line........I'm all for playing hurt but hurting your team playing isn't a good choice.........hope she gets better

To be fair, she did have 5 blocks and along with Stewart, was a big reason for rushed/altered shots on the interior. She also had 3 ass, 4 reb, 9 points. But the 7 TOs is where she the bed, and absolutely crushed her stat line. The 4 reb and 9 points tells me she was struggling. Doris Burke (or whoever that was) made a good point in saying that Dolson's footwork on the interior, normally one of the best in the country, was completely shot.

 

[intlzncster]

I thought it was a great win, with a few reservations. Faris and Stewart were both incredible doing what they do best. Faris' defense on Skylar and the way she assumes ownership of every loose ball, and Stewart's well, Stewart is good at pretty much everything you can do on a basketball court.

Stewart looks slow, but I think that is only her 6'4 height and lanky Inspector Gadget frame that is throwing off perception.

 

[CL82]

Faris ruined Diggins last game in an Irish uni and for that she's my hero for the night.......dislike ND women and Diggins......

Moving forward it would seem they are in great hands with Jefferson, Stewart, KML and hopefully a bounce back year from Hartley.........and Dolson healthy a 2 peat is in sight!

Yeah, well let's get the 'peat' before we start talking back to back.

 

[ctchamps]

Yup- Stewart and Kelly were the two best players on the floor last night. Breanna looked like the best player in wbb last night, while Kelly was absolutely nasty- blocking shots, steals, HUGE offensive rebounds.

I thought KML played within herself and within the offense well. She had a couple of big baskets (I guess all of the baskets were big!).

I agree with you about Hartley. She just gets that bulldog, tunnel vision mind when she's on the fastbreak. She just never passes the ball on the break.

But, she played lockdown defense on McBride- who really was ND's biggest weapon in the previous three meetings. This balanced things out.

Stokes' playing time is indeed perplexing. When she's in there, she plays great- athletic, runs the floor well, rebounds. My guess is that Geno felt more comfortable with Dolson because she is better at the high post and that is how Geno wanted to run the offense last night.

Agree on every point. In this game in every fast break by Bria there was no one to pass to. Diggens just hard her number. Bria also had a nice block on a Diggens break away that the ref blew a call.

Stokes is having back problems. They took an xray two weeks ago. The results were negative. She might be suffering from a stress fx however. Just a guess on my part.

 

[ctchamps]

Yeah, well let's get the 'peat' before we start talking back to back.

I agree. Louisville is playing really confidently right now. I want the Ville men to lose tonight but if they win the UConn women's team will not only be fighting for an 8th NC but the preservation of UConn being the only school to win a men's and women's NC in one year.

 

[Dove]

ND does a better job than anyone else at taking her out of her game. They put an athletic forward right on her to harass the ball and take away her passing angles. She's usually pretty good at running a Princeton-style offense out of the high post, but even if we run a good cut, they pressure the pass really well and make it less successful.

Her ability in the high post is why I gave us a fighting chance against Baylor - we could draw Griner away and maybe get players moving to the hoop.

The refs really jobbed Dolson in the past v. the Damers. She may have limited her movements in order to stay in the game

 

[Waquoit]

In this game in every fast break by Bria there was no one to pass to.

Not true, there were a couple times where she had options.

 

[blackbird]

Yup- Stewart and Kelly were the two best players on the floor last night. Breanna looked like the best player in wbb last night, while Kelly was absolutely nasty- blocking shots, steals, HUGE offensive rebounds.

I thought KML played within herself and within the offense well. She had a couple of big baskets (I guess all of the baskets were big!).

I agree with you about Hartley. She just gets that bulldog, tunnel vision mind when she's on the fastbreak. She just never passes the ball on the break.

But, she played lockdown defense on McBride- who really was ND's biggest weapon in the previous three meetings. This balanced things out.

Stokes' playing time is indeed perplexing. When she's in there, she plays great- athletic, runs the floor well, rebounds. My guess is that Geno felt more comfortable with Dolson because she is better at the high post and that is how Geno wanted to run the offense last night.

A healthy Hartley has an easy time scoring on even a 3 on 1 fast break. She's usually too fast for the defense to set up, so she scores pretty easily. (Last season, for instance, Diggins couldn't even catch her in that situation.) I do wish, after it became obvious what Skylar was going to do, that Bria had pulled up for her free throw line jumper. I also think, had it not been Skylar Diggins, a foul would have been called on at least one of those fast breaks.

I actually thought, especially because of the defense, it was easily Hartley's best game this season. She she turned the ball over 6 times, but she also stole it 4 times..and she's not a point guard playing point..and she's naturally turnover prone. Against a defense like ND, be happy if her turnover number is under 5. 6 is about average.

Stewart was really incredible though. To me, the greatest Huskies in both programs are Diana and Kemba. (They've even got a similar accomplishment in defining their greatness. Taking a "rag-tag" group of freshman and sophomores to the tournament and winning it all. ) Both of them threw up stinkers in their first final four games. And that's understandable. Stewart just put up 30 and won the game..Unbelievable performance from her.

 

[HuskyNan]

KML talked about needing to look for her shot more pregame, then seemed to look for it less, once the ball was in play. And it wasn't because she was covered that well. But her lack of daggers was made up for by McBride's apparent inability to put the ball in the hole, so that was kind of a wash.

Stewart was hot so they kept feeding her the ball. That and the fact she was being face guarded and Geno most likely told the team to stop making risky passes and turning over the ball. But she's smart, KML is, and she dragged her guard defender into the paint where there were all kinds of mismatches. She did have 16 points, 6 rebounds (2 offensive) and 3 steals.

 

[intlzncster]

Stewart was hot so they kept feeding her the ball. That and the fact she was being face guarded and Geno most likely told the team to stop making risky passes and turning over the ball. But she's smart, KML is, and she dragged her guard defender into the paint where there were all kinds of mismatches. She did have 16 points, 6 rebounds (2 offensive) and 3 steals.

Plus the mismatch Stewart was working was automatic. Couldn't guard her inside or out.

 

[Danzz]

They definitely found a way to avoid the late game collapse - put a boot on Notre Dame's throat and keep it there until a horn blows.

Oh, and having Breanna Stewart turn into Kevin Durant in a pigtail helped.

She's going to be here for three more years? Egads.

Yup this isn't the same Stewart we saw earlier in the year.