DePaul Postgame Thread

[Zinethar]

Sorry to post again but I had a thought about the complaints about the announcers. I had no issues mostly with them. Remember this game was targeted to an audience that had never had a women's backetball game in the network before. More explanation was needed and deserved. I got a bit out of sorts when they missed substitutions or who created the fouls but that was rare this time. The SNY crew speak to the SNY audience which are ardent UConn fans and don't need as much information. I understand that announcers today talk way more than in the good old days but todays TV watchers have many more choices of what to watch, have little patience, and move along quickly if left to their own devices.

 

[jazz]

I hope you are right P&L. We need her to play like a AA to have our best chance this year!

 

[jazz]

I’m at that point in the season where l’m looking for consistency from our team and certain players. I won’t mention any names, but I’m particularly concerned about two. Unfortunately we missed a golden opportunity to measure our core players against the elite top 8 teams in Baylor, Mississippi State and Louisville. These are the caliber of teams we will have to play and defeat to just get to that final weekend. Only 4 of them will play that final weekend. The others will get sent home before then. Geno has said many times that the hardest game of the tournament is the regional final. You're going to see an elite top 5 team in that game. All of the pretenders and hopefuls will be gone by then.

I expected this team to do well against the teams they’ve played to this point, but it doesn’t tell or indicate to me where we are as a potential top seeded tournament team. I just reviewed our schedule. The only teams we've played that we MIGHT see in the tournament is DePaul and Tennessee, and that would probably be in the first or second weekend. The South Carolina game is it folks. We don't play another top 5 team the remainder of the season.

This is a BIG game!! I want to see who shows up and how well they play. We all know what happened last year against the 3 BIG teams we played. I want to see if history will repeat itself, or have our players grown beyond those tendencies. What a player does against unranked and lower top 25 teams does not tell/show me what they can/will do against the elites. I'm very impressed with Paige. She has proven to this point to be an exceptional player and the leader of this team. But....................I need to see more.

Skip Bayless tells his co-host Shannon Sharp (on their morning TV show "Undisputed" on Fox) "I need to see more" when Shannon is trying to make a point. I want to see Paige and others do what they've been doing against an elite top 5 team. I fully expect she will, but I need to see it.

We need Liv to play well and CW to play like an AA. I will say those are the two I'm most worried about. Even more than the freshies.

SC scares the hell out of me now because I'm not sure if Liv can hold up. SC has one dominate player and 3 good role players with good size. Their guards worry me only because of who CW might have to check.

 

[Carnac]

Respectfully disagree, this is not rec league or high school freshman basketball. I have to remind myself at times of Geno's mind set, this is division 1 ball at the highest level. The goal and only goal is a NC. He wanted to learn just what Saylor might be able to do down the road to help the team. I was surprised he put Paige back in against his good friend in a beat down, but that is not how Geno looks at the game. He explained my question in the post game presser with Saylor already close to Paige and under her wing.
I think every fan has a heart string for Autumn but being a walk on she is going to have to be very impressive in practice to see PT. The dynamics of the team missing out on so many games does not help her cause this year.


With all due respect your honor I disagree! You obviously have knowledge of the game and I agree the outside shooting or lack of has not helped Olivia. Her problem and has been is simply putting the ball on the floor to gain position when it is not needed. She is not being double teamed or trapped until she starts to dribble. I was actually surprised tonight when she had a rebound put back without gathering the ball and bouncing it. ( We used to call it a tap in in the day) Then she had another with defenders way out of position wide open right under the basket and she still had to bounce the ball once. She made that one but the time it took to dribble once gave defenders time to be in rebound position should she have not.

I'm rooting for Liv, seen her up close working down low and she works hard. Having said that bigs not keeping the ball high or kicking it back out when the D collapses are doomed to what we see happening. This is a high school fundamental bad habit not sure why it has not been changed yet.

Thanks to Wolf 101, I've amended this post. It contained some language that was not accurate.

The thing fans should understand and take note of is most of us have never coached at the high school level or above. There are some members here that are coaching now, or have in the past. Most of us think like fans.
When I watch a game, I do so as a fan. I enjoy the game much more that way.

In Geno I trust. Geno knows what he is doing, and is always thinking ahead. One very important thing that must be mentioned here. We watch the game on TV. There are things that happen on the court that you will see if you're in attendance that you won't see on TV.

Also, sometimes players are out of position or not where they are suppose to be, or they make a mental or physical error that results in a turnover or a basket for the opposition. Geno sees that and most of us don't. HE knows how the offense is suppose to run, most of us don't. HE knows who is doing what they are suppose and who isn't. Something to think about.

The 5 players he has on the floor at any given time are out there at HIS discretion for a reason. While we are emotionally involved with certain players, and want to see them get minutes, he is not. He's not concerned about the optics. He's looking for certain things from certain players given the current situation of that game.

There was a reason Autumn didn't play yesterday and Saylor did. He has plans and expectations for Saylor that he does not for Autumn. Many many times over the years (during the course of a game) Chris Dailey has had to tell or remind Geno of something because he was so focused on game action, he's was not conscious of it. Coaches know who they want in the game at any given time.

They know what each one of their players can and can't do. When Geno puts Mir (or any other player) into the game, it's because he needs what she brings and can do at that particular time in the game. He's not thinking.........oh, I need to let Mir get some minutes because she hasn't played yet.

It's easy to coach from our living room recliners. It's much different being on the sidelines and not have to be accountable for the end result. As long as Geno continues to coach, he will have his detractors. That's OK. That's what fans do, and that is what this forum is for. None of us have answer some of the "clown questions" or redundant questions he is often peppered with during post-games pressers. Walk a mile in his shoes. It's not as easy or s simple as it looks.

 

[jazz]

I don't agree with this as of today. Though the word "consistently" is a bit of a misnomer. One can use that word to define it in any manner that fits their narrative. Not every game will they shoot well but even the combo of Bird/DT had clunkers.

But imo UCONN continues to revise before our eyes.
As we feature more our two best outside shooters (Paige and Evina) to shoot the most of the 3's and less 3's from CWill, Liv and Griff - we become a pretty good 3pt shooting just as UCONN ahs shown in it's last 2 games.

Also Nika is improving from 3.

As Paige takes more of the 3pt shots - and overall shoots more - overall the team becomes a better shooting team. And Evina probably going to take more.

I hear ya hoop but CW has to be able to keep them honest from 3 pt land or she will have trouble getting to the hoop against top teams with rim protectors.

Bird and DT were fantastic shooters and very consistent. It doesn't mean they hit them all, but they were damn consistent.

I believe in PB, I am starting to believe that EW has it too. Other than that, not so much. I think to take it all this year, we need consistent shooting from most our players and a great game by PB. If we can get close to or even over 40% from PB, EW and CW,...I think we have something then.

 

[Vowelguy]

We need Liv to play well and CW to play like an AA. I will say those are the two I most worried about. Even more than the freshies.

SC scares the hell out of me now because I'm not sure if Liv can hold up. SC has one dominate player and 3 good role players with good size. Their guards worry me only because of who CW might have to check.

More important for Liv to play well. And they are linked. If Liv isnt a factor then Boston guards the basket all game and CW has no chance to drive.

 

[jazz]

UConn has no problem shooting from the outside. They have a problem hitting from the outside.

hahahah...I do stand corrected!!!

Nice one donald!

 

[jazz]

More important for Liv to play well. And they are linked. If Liv isnt a factor then Boston guards the basket all game and CW has no chance to drive.

You are probably right but CW has to make the most of her opps and that means play like an AA in the big games.

 

[Longtime fan]

My 2 cents on the First Qtr:

Not much has changed really. We are late on the 3 pt close outs but Depaul just missed them whereas Ark made them. We gave up 22 pts and it could have been 30 if Depaul makes their open threes. Defense is a working progress for this group.

CW starts with an airball from 3. Gets beat once but gets the charge later. Beat again but saved my Liv’s help defense. Hit the 3 coming off the pick. Maybe this is what she needs. Standing around wide open and then shooting is not her strength. She needs to be in motion and then take the 3….hmmmm…

AG – as usual, starts out with high energy. Got the tie up, freed herself for he easy two, got the block, nice recognition pass to EW for the open three look. Four different positive outcomes in a three minute span. Had a nice back down take later on.

EW looks to be in pain.

Liv -nice passing out of the double team and backdoor to PB. For the most part, doing what she needs to do against a smaller team

PB – active and moving really well.

NM beat badly at the buzzer.

I recall that the first quarter found DePaul in the lead because they were hitting their threes ( like Arkansas). The difference was; Arkansas hit threes all day long, and DePaul fizzled.

 

[jazz]

I recall that the first quarter found DePaul in the lead because they were hitting their threes ( like Arkansas). The difference was; Arkansas hit threes all day long, and DePaul fizzled.

Well yeah but I think we played better defense in the 2nd, 3rd and first few minutes on the 4th. I think our group deserves that recognition. I'm not ready to say it was great however but I'd say it was good.

Our defense was bad to say the least against Ark, but not by all players. I thought AG and NM held up well for younger players.

 

[mattlow710]

I recall that the first quarter found DePaul in the lead because they were hitting their threes ( like Arkansas). The difference was; Arkansas hit threes all day long, and DePaul fizzled.

from my 1 cent opinion.
if PB still play like ARk game, and get the 5points from 1st half
then the 1st half points with Depaul were 37 - 33 ,Uconn 4 points up
but PB start fired on 1st half then then points become 47 - 33
so when you play a game up 14 points or with up 4points are totally different ,
more comfortable and more relaxing

 

[Carnac]

We need Liv to play well and CW to play like an AA. I will say those are the two I'm most worried about. Even more than the freshies.

SC scares the hell out of me now because I'm not sure if Liv can hold up. SC has one dominate player and 3 good role players with good size. Their guards worry me only because of who CW might have to check.

You say that SC scares you? They should. They easily handled Arkansas (a team that UConn could do absolutely nothing with) by 22 points (104-82). [Box score] They kept Dungee in check, allowing her to score her average of 22 points, while Boston showed up scoring 26 points, grabbing 16 rebounds and blocking six shots. in only 31 minutes. She only needed 31 minutes to get the job done.

Arkansas only scored 8 less points against them than they did against us, but SC was able to feed them a "century" burger......... dry with no condiments, and nothing to wash it down with. Some folks here suggest that Boston is a "plodder" and is not very mobile. Every time I see them play, she looks OK to me. This game will tell us EXACTLY were we are going forward and how we match up against the type of elite teams we'll see in the tournament. We know how we fair against unranked and lower top 25 teams.

We want to know how we match up against top 5 teams. ALL of those questions will be answered a week from today. Last year Williams, Dangerfield and Walker showed up for the Baylor game. Just Dangerfield for the Oregon and South Carolina games. I'll be looking to see how many of our starters show up next week.

 

[jazz]

You say that SC scares you? They should. They easily handled Arkansas (a team that UConn could do absolutely nothing with) by 22 points (104-82). [Box score] They kept Dungee in check, allowing her to score her average of 22 points, while Boston showed up scoring 26 points, grabbing 16 rebounds and blocking six shots. in only 31 minutes. She only needed 31 minutes to get the job done.

Arkansas only scored 8 less points against them than they did against us, but SC was able to feed them a "century" burger......... dry with no condiments, and nothing to wash it down with. Some folks here suggest that Boston is a "plodder" and is not very mobile. Every time I see them play, she looks OK to me. This game will tell us EXACTLY were we are going forward and how we match up against the type of elite teams we'll see in the tournament. We know how we fair against unranked and lower top 25 teams.

We want to know how we match up against top 5 teams. ALL of those questions will be answered a week from today. Last year Williams, Dangerfield and Walker showed up for the Baylor game. Just Dangerfield for the Oregon and South Carolina games. I'll be looking to see how many of our starters show up next week.

Hard to argue with much of that. I don't look to much a the comparison of Ark games but I do look at them and they can tell us something. I do think Ark hit a lot of tough shots and we didn't player very well defensively.

Boston doesn't run hard down the court but I don't think she is asked to do that. As long as she is good in the halfcourt, that is all they want or need from her. As much as I want to say otherwise, it is hard for me see how we contain her. But as you say, we will get a look at it in a week or so.

 

[Bald Husky]

More important for Liv to play well. And they are linked. If Liv isnt a factor then Boston guards the basket all game and CW has no chance to drive.

I'm sorry, but Liv isn't the answer. In last years 3 losses and this years big games, she is overmatched. Boston will push her around. AE needs to start to try to contain her early on, and hope she doesn.t foul out. Just saying

 

[Jingo]

Good observation. It did work well Jingo. But.....Liv is not a great passer and this team had a lot of little guys that she could see over to make the easy pass. I'm not as optimistic that she can do this against bigger more athletic teams. I'm not saying she can't, just not sure she can either.

I think Liv is MORE than an adequate passer; she catches extremely well too, gr8 hands!
I loved the back-to-back sequence that Liv had with Paige, where Paige hit Liv with a 30-foot hard pass in transition which Liv converted for a layup .. and then, a moment later, Liv, from the hi-post, hit a cutting Paige for another layup.
Liv's catching and passing contribute mightily to ball movement which showed up in the Depaul game where she got a lot of touches. Depaul, then, was arguably our best game of the season because of good ball movement made possible by our bigs getting a lot of touches.
In the Tennessee game, where Liv [and AE] got few touches, our offense was stagnant, a lot of one-on-one, with CW dribbling aimlessly on the perimeter. In lieu of CWs horrid shooting from afar, CW deserves less minutes in favor of a facilitator like NM, who doesn't slow down the offense, like what happened in TN. If Nika can hit her treys, she just might be a better choice at the two-spot.
On the other hand, I think that CW benefitted the most from the improved ball movement in the Depaul game, and had her best game of the season, eh?

 

[oldude]

Hard to argue with much of that. I don't look to much a the comparison of Ark games but I do look at them and they can tell us something. I do think Ark hit a lot of tough shots and we didn't player very well defensively.

Boston doesn't run hard down the court but I don't think she is asked to do that. As long as she is good in the halfcourt, that is all they want or need from her. As much as I want to say otherwise, it is hard for me see how we contain her. But as you say, we will get a look at it in a week or so.

For what it’s worth, in UConn’s 3 losses last season, Liv’s best game was vs SC where she was able to use her length and athleticism reasonably well in battling Boston. While the Huskies still lost by 18, the problem had more to do with Crystal’s struggles to match up with Ty Harris.

This year Ty Harris is gone and UConn has a whole new backcourt. It should be interesting.

 

[ME Husky Fan]

Near impossible to add anything of value that hasn't been touched upon in one way, shape or form so I'll just say I'd love to have Lexi Held on my team.

 

[peace & love]

I think Liv is MORE than an adequate passer; she catches extremely well too, gr8 hands!
I loved the back-to-back sequence that Liv had with Paige, where Paige hit Liv with a 30-foot hard pass in transition which Liv converted for a layup .. and then, a moment later, Liv, from the hi-post, hit a cutting Paige for another layup.
Liv's catching and passing contribute mightily to ball movement which showed up in the Depaul game where she got a lot of touches. Depaul, then, was arguably our best game of the season because of good ball movement made possible by our bigs getting a lot of touches.
In the Tennessee game, where Liv [and AE] got few touches, our offense was stagnant, a lot of one-on-one, with CW dribbling aimlessly on the perimeter. In lieu of CWs horrid shooting from afar, CW deserves less minutes in favor of a facilitator like NM, who doesn't slow down the offense, like what happened in TN. If Nika can hit her treys, she just might be a better choice at the two-spot.
On the other hand, I think that CW benefitted the most from the improved ball movement in the Depaul game, and had her best game of the season, eh?

We don't win against Tenn without christyn scoring 20 and "dribbling aimlessly on the perimeter."

 

[hoophuskee]

I hear ya hoop but CW has to be able to keep them honest from 3 pt land or she will have trouble getting to the hoop against top teams with rim protectors.

Bird and DT were fantastic shooters and very consistent. It doesn't mean they hit them all, but they were damn consistent.

I believe in PB, I am starting to believe that EW has it too. Other than that, not so much. I think to take it all this year, we need consistent shooting from most our players and a great game by PB. If we can get close to or even over 40% from PB, EW and CW,...I think we have something then.

Overall, I don't think CWIll needs to be consistent in terms of being good (she just needs to be "good enough")from 3 if Paige and Evina are consistent. And Paige and Evina overall have been pretty consistent. I guess it depends on what each person defines as consistent.

Paige and Evina have been terrific. That's enough to open things up for CWill. It's not like the elite teams have 5 all-american DPOY's on their team. CWill had shown vs Tenn to still be able to score in a good efficient manner in a tight game vs a good, tall, athletic team even when one of her two counterparts (Paige in this case) couldn't hit a thing.

*** Sue Bird and DT missed every single 3pt shot in the title game vs Oklahoma. If it weren't for Cash, Tamika, and Jones UCONN would have lost in the finals. Thus going into DT's jr year- no titles and two of 3 big games in FF she went 0FOR from 3.-- Would the narrative have been in that FF Texas game that she is "too inconsistent?"

Just bringing up sometimes maybe we over-analyze? Paige is the go-to player and a terrific shooter. This year Evina is shooting at over 43% from 3 which is terrific. OFC they can have clunkers but overall isn't two in which one is super, super while the other is very, very good while both a terrific passers and both can see over smaller guards - is CWILL that "awful" that we think stating that "we have a pretty good perimeter scoring team" is wrong?

Saw a Law and Order episode in which the prosecutor told the jury that having "reasonable doubt" isn't the same as having "any doubt." How much do we want to doubt what Paige and Evina are doing when the stats are showing they are doing very, very well?

 

[jazz]

For what it’s worth, in UConn’s 3 losses last season, Liv’s best game was vs SC where she was able to use her length and athleticism reasonably well in battling Boston. While the Huskies still lost by 18, the problem had more to do with Crystal’s struggles to match up with Ty Harris.

This year Ty Harris is gone and UConn has a whole new backcourt. It should be interesting.

yes and when I am unable to sleep at night, I think of how Liv played in this game....

 

[jazz]

I think Liv is MORE than an adequate passer; she catches extremely well too, gr8 hands!
I loved the back-to-back sequence that Liv had with Paige, where Paige hit Liv with a 30-foot hard pass in transition which Liv converted for a layup .. and then, a moment later, Liv, from the hi-post, hit a cutting Paige for another layup.
Liv's catching and passing contribute mightily to ball movement which showed up in the Depaul game where she got a lot of touches. Depaul, then, was arguably our best game of the season because of good ball movement made possible by our bigs getting a lot of touches.
In the Tennessee game, where Liv [and AE] got few touches, our offense was stagnant, a lot of one-on-one, with CW dribbling aimlessly on the perimeter. In lieu of CWs horrid shooting from afar, CW deserves less minutes in favor of a facilitator like NM, who doesn't slow down the offense, like what happened in TN. If Nika can hit her treys, she just might be a better choice at the two-spot.
On the other hand, I think that CW benefitted the most from the improved ball movement in the Depaul game, and had her best game of the season, eh?

I agree with you except I'm not so sure Liv is anything more than adequate at passing. She was a lot taller than the defenders in this game, making it easier to pass. She got it done though.

 

[Rocket009]

Jewel Loyd is a student coach for DePaul. She is finishing her degree there.

Wonder why she chose to finish there and not at ND?

 

[ME Husky Fan]

Wonder why she chose to finish there and not at ND?

It's in her backyard, home-wise...

 

[jazz]

Overall, I don't think CWIll needs to be consistent in terms of being good (she just needs to be "good enough")from 3 if Paige and Evina are consistent. And Paige and Evina overall have been pretty consistent. I guess it depends on what each person defines as consistent.

Paige and Evina have been terrific. That's enough to open things up for CWill. It's not like the elite teams have 5 all-american DPOY's on their team. CWill had shown vs Tenn to still be able to score in a good efficient manner in a tight game vs a good, tall, athletic team even when one of her two counterparts (Paige in this case) couldn't hit a thing.

*** Sue Bird and DT missed every single 3pt shot in the title game vs Oklahoma. If it weren't for Cash, Tamika, and Jones UCONN would have lost in the finals. Thus going into DT's jr year- no titles and two of 3 big games in FF she went 0FOR from 3.-- Would the narrative have been in that FF Texas game that she is "too inconsistent?"

Just bringing up sometimes maybe we over-analyze? Paige is the go-to player and a terrific shooter. This year Evina is shooting at over 43% from 3 which is terrific. OFC they can have clunkers but overall isn't two in which one is super, super while the other is very, very good while both a terrific passers and both can see over smaller guards - is CWILL that "awful" that we think stating that "we have a pretty good perimeter scoring team" is wrong?

Saw a Law and Order episode in which the prosecutor told the jury that having "reasonable doubt" isn't the same as having "any doubt." How much do we want to doubt what Paige and Evina are doing when the stats are showing they are doing very, very well?

consistent is reliable to hit say 40% from three in against top 5 teams.

I said that I feel great about Paige and starting to feel good about Evina. CW, I just don't know what we will get on offensive and we will probably give up a lot defensively. We need her to shoot it very well also to make up for her poor defense. We need them all to be good.

We don't have one player even close to the talent or presence to Cash, Tamika or Jones and they had three of them. They were physical and tough and this year, we are not. They were consistent in their defense and offense, we are not. You knew what you would get every game and this year, even against lesser talent, we do not. There is no comparison.

We don't have enough low post presence to thrive there so I think we need great shooting to help open the middle up and give room for Liv, AE and PG.

I do hope we put it together as the season goes on. But I think it starts with consistency or reliability in all phases. The way this team is built, I think our best chance is to hit the outside shot at a high and consistent percentage to which will open the middle for Liv who isnt the most physical player.

 

[UConnCat]