EricLA
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- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
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After a 50 point blowout of Cinci, I expected to come on the board and see happy smiling faces. Cincy, after all, is a team who was 9-4, brought back most of their core group from last season, and after lackluster games going back to SJU, I thought people would enjoy seeing UCONN look smooth and on point.
Not so much apparently. First, let me say that the point of my post is not to criticize anyone, or discourage people from posting, but rather to point out the reality of this team. I saw numerous comments in several threads regarding "unwatchable - not pretty UCONN basketball" and "bench brick after brick" and "in love with jumpers - no post play" and many variations thereof.
This team starts a 6'1" "center". The best shooter in the nation is 6'3" so she's not going to spend the entire game posting up in the paint. Geno is a master at masking weaknesses and playing to strengths. The strength of this team is NOT in the paint. Even the announcers got caught up in it ("UConn outscored in the pant 50-10 vs. Baylor. Concerted effort to get the ball inside blah blah"). Against big teams that pack it in, UCONN will have almost zero success in the post. Especially against a team like Baylor with multiple mobile bigs.
So what are our strengths? There are others who are better analysts than I am, but spacing, ball movement, screens, pick and rolls, back door cuts, motion offense, quickness and size of our guards and ball handlers, 5 legit scoring options, and yes jump shooting. And by the way, there is not a single team out there who doesn't have flaws. Of ALL the top 25 teams, only L'ville and NC State are unblemished at this point. L'villes only top 25 tussle was a 5 point win over Kentucky. NC State's best win was by 4 over Michigan State. News flash - parity is here.
As for the bench, as Dennis Green (HC of the Arizona Cardinals) said "they are what we thought they were". Most of them look competent when playing with most of the starters, but when we get all of them in at the end of games, they usually end up playing against the other teams' starters. Not a good recipe for success. But these are kids who were not recruited to play 20 MPG at UCONN. They are great kids, teammates, and representatives of the University and WCBB program. In big games, UCONN probably won't go any deeper than 6 right now.
Even in the national championship game of 2016 - the blowout vs. Syracuse, UCONN only went 6 deep with Collier coming off the bench. Chong played 3 minutes, Butler 2 minutes, and Pulido, Ekmark, and Lawlor all logged 1 minute each (Lou was injured that game). UCONN has never been that deep in big games anyway and the expectation that the bench "needs to get better so they can spell starters in big games" is simply not going to happen.
In years past, during UCONN's most dominant runs, the rest of WCBB discussed ad-nauseam of UCONN was "bad" for WCBB. They lamented the uncompetitive blowouts especially in the American. Continually went on and on about how we needed to get out of the conference blah blah. The reality is the American is the home of UCONN sports. NOT going to change any time soon, if ever. That's one reason we play such a challenging OOC schedule. This is a team with flaws. We've had a remarkable ride. I don't see it coming to an end yet, but you think this year is tough - just wait till next season with Lou and Pheesa graduate. The bench and reserves are never going to be more than they are - some improvements of course are possible - but they will not suddenly become Gabby Williams or Kia Nurse or Morgan Tuck.
UCONN fans in general are uber-spoiled. 11 NC's, 6 perfect seasons - it's not possible to maintain that forever. Are we fans of UCONN, or just fans of winning? Given the limitations of this team, can we enjoy what they do? Good luck to the team the rest of the season - may it be injury free. Play hard, have fun, and go get 'em...
Not so much apparently. First, let me say that the point of my post is not to criticize anyone, or discourage people from posting, but rather to point out the reality of this team. I saw numerous comments in several threads regarding "unwatchable - not pretty UCONN basketball" and "bench brick after brick" and "in love with jumpers - no post play" and many variations thereof.
This team starts a 6'1" "center". The best shooter in the nation is 6'3" so she's not going to spend the entire game posting up in the paint. Geno is a master at masking weaknesses and playing to strengths. The strength of this team is NOT in the paint. Even the announcers got caught up in it ("UConn outscored in the pant 50-10 vs. Baylor. Concerted effort to get the ball inside blah blah"). Against big teams that pack it in, UCONN will have almost zero success in the post. Especially against a team like Baylor with multiple mobile bigs.
So what are our strengths? There are others who are better analysts than I am, but spacing, ball movement, screens, pick and rolls, back door cuts, motion offense, quickness and size of our guards and ball handlers, 5 legit scoring options, and yes jump shooting. And by the way, there is not a single team out there who doesn't have flaws. Of ALL the top 25 teams, only L'ville and NC State are unblemished at this point. L'villes only top 25 tussle was a 5 point win over Kentucky. NC State's best win was by 4 over Michigan State. News flash - parity is here.
As for the bench, as Dennis Green (HC of the Arizona Cardinals) said "they are what we thought they were". Most of them look competent when playing with most of the starters, but when we get all of them in at the end of games, they usually end up playing against the other teams' starters. Not a good recipe for success. But these are kids who were not recruited to play 20 MPG at UCONN. They are great kids, teammates, and representatives of the University and WCBB program. In big games, UCONN probably won't go any deeper than 6 right now.
Even in the national championship game of 2016 - the blowout vs. Syracuse, UCONN only went 6 deep with Collier coming off the bench. Chong played 3 minutes, Butler 2 minutes, and Pulido, Ekmark, and Lawlor all logged 1 minute each (Lou was injured that game). UCONN has never been that deep in big games anyway and the expectation that the bench "needs to get better so they can spell starters in big games" is simply not going to happen.
In years past, during UCONN's most dominant runs, the rest of WCBB discussed ad-nauseam of UCONN was "bad" for WCBB. They lamented the uncompetitive blowouts especially in the American. Continually went on and on about how we needed to get out of the conference blah blah. The reality is the American is the home of UCONN sports. NOT going to change any time soon, if ever. That's one reason we play such a challenging OOC schedule. This is a team with flaws. We've had a remarkable ride. I don't see it coming to an end yet, but you think this year is tough - just wait till next season with Lou and Pheesa graduate. The bench and reserves are never going to be more than they are - some improvements of course are possible - but they will not suddenly become Gabby Williams or Kia Nurse or Morgan Tuck.
UCONN fans in general are uber-spoiled. 11 NC's, 6 perfect seasons - it's not possible to maintain that forever. Are we fans of UCONN, or just fans of winning? Given the limitations of this team, can we enjoy what they do? Good luck to the team the rest of the season - may it be injury free. Play hard, have fun, and go get 'em...