Down goes Stanford! (Merged thread)

[TheFarmFan]

Thankfully was unable to watch this stinker, but I felt like a trap game was coming after the UCLA win. U$C is gritty, and our outside shooting and ball movement have both really fallen off lately. The team feels a little low energy and not playing with much urgency. We could use more guard strength at the 1 and 2, but we had more than enough talent to win this game. They were just much, much hungrier.

Only other thing I'll note is the free throw disparity - did we really commit shooting fouls 2.5 times as often as U$C did?

Hopefully this is a wakeup call, because hosting Utah and Colorado next weekend ain't gonna be a picnic...

 

[HuskyNan]

Thankfully was unable to watch this stinker, but I felt like a trap game was coming after the UCLA win. U$C is gritty, and our outside shooting and ball movement have both really fallen off lately. The team feels a little low energy and not playing with much urgency. We could use more guard strength at the 1 and 2, but we had more than enough talent to win this game. They were just much, much hungrier.

Only other thing I'll note is the free throw disparity - did we really commit shooting fouls 2.5 times as often as U$C did?

Hopefully this is a wakeup call, because hosting Utah and Colorado next weekend ain't gonna be a picnic...

I didn’t see the game but a lot of time players foul when they don’t move their feet on defense. If the team is tired, as many are this time of year, they may not have had the energy to play good defense

 

[ochoopsfan]

Uconn played bad.
23 turnovers
G-Town scored the last 9 points of the game.
Only 22 points in the paint vs that team.
I dont think UConn deserves to go ahead of Stanford.
If the AP voters do make UConn #3 they obviously dont watch enough games.

Stanford shot bad vs an okay team, UConn played bad vs a 1-7 BE team.

Oh yeah Fight On!!

 

[HuskyNan]

Uconn played bad.
23 turnovers
G-Town scored the last 9 points of the game.
Only 22 points in the paint vs that team.
I dont think UConn deserves to go ahead of Stanford.
If the AP voters do make UConn #3 they obviously dont watch enough games.

Stanford shot bad vs an okay team, UConn played bad vs a 1-7 BE team.

Oh yeah Fight On!!

UConn was up by 24 points when Nika and Aaliyah left the game with 2:12 left. Ines and Amari came in, gave up a jumper the and Ines turned over the ball. Amari gave up a layup and missed a jumper. The Georgetown kids hit their shots and, boom, the lead is cut to 15

The voters don’t watch all the games and, believe it or not, most would consider a 15 point win a pretty wide margin.

Really, people are getting a little unglued

 

[Redux]

Yes, that double digit win will probably make the Huskies a 3 seed in the tourney too.

They can still make the tourney, anyway, not too late to come back from that. Hey, once you're in anything could happen.

 

[Redux]

If the pollsters were watching our game they will move us down not up

I've been critical of this game too, and annoyed some people in doing so. But that's not the way it works. UConn moves up. The St Johns game makes it easier but even without that it happens. It was a terrible game by UConn standards given the capabilities of the players who were on the floor. But they won convincingly and Stanford lost. No question.

EDIT: I just looked at the poll results here. Pretty close. I think this forum moves down a notch in the rankings!

 

[EricSD]

I'm not sure why anyone thinks Stanford will only drop to 3. They lost to an unranked team. Period. Pollsters won't look at USC's record, or their SOS, or anything like that. Nor will they pay much attention to the stinker UCONN played today. My prediction - SC, OSU, UCONN, LSU, Stanford... or maybe Stanford drops one more.

UCONN ended up 9th in the polls after losing to ND and Maryland...

 

[Happydad745]

At this time, in the season, moving up a little in the rankings means almost nothing...I'm much more concerned with how this team is going to come together by March.

 

[cferraro04]

Uconn played bad.
23 turnovers
G-Town scored the last 9 points of the game.
Only 22 points in the paint vs that team.
I dont think UConn deserves to go ahead of Stanford.
If the AP voters do make UConn #3 they obviously dont watch enough games.

Stanford shot bad vs an okay team, UConn played bad vs a 1-7 BE team.

Oh yeah Fight On!!

If I were a Stanford fan...I would be worried about what Stanford is going to do about the point guard spot...come tournament time it is all about the guards....

 

[socal613ws]

not sure why this is "a bad loss" Usc has lost to all really solid teams: Texas, Oregon, Ucla. guess Goetlieb shouldn't be fired yet?

 

[donalddoowop]

Uconn played bad.
23 turnovers
G-Town scored the last 9 points of the game.
Only 22 points in the paint vs that team.
I dont think UConn deserves to go ahead of Stanford.
If the AP voters do make UConn #3 they obviously dont watch enough games.

Stanford shot bad vs an okay team, UConn played bad vs a 1-7 BE team.

Oh yeah Fight On!!

But UConn won.

 

[TeamFirst!]

I didn't see the Stanford game but the point guard had the best numbers on the team today. Brink and Jones tried to be the solution and both failed miserably. At least offensively.

 

[Littlemin]

Uconn played bad.
23 turnovers
G-Town scored the last 9 points of the game.
Only 22 points in the paint vs that team.
I dont think UConn deserves to go ahead of Stanford.
If the AP voters do make UConn #3 they obviously dont watch enough games.

Stanford shot bad vs an okay team, UConn played bad vs a 1-7 BE team.

Oh yeah Fight On!!

One of my many pet peeves, when coaching one of my mantras is when you step between the lines, FORGET RECORDS.
A team is as good or bad as they play that day, not remotely dictated by the way they played before that.
Gtown came to play, took the game as an opportunity, not a mail it in trip. They played hard, were active on defense, ball hawked all game, played very physical. They shot pretty well from 3. They probably had one of their better in conference games, although that is pure speculation.
The entire Uconn team was off, probably played their worst game of the year. As Husky Nan has pointed out, this is the time of year these things frequently happen, the “dog days” of basketball, to steal a baseball phrase.
You win and move on. And I for one, think concerning oneself with rankings is just for bar talk. Like every year, Uconn will get their opportunity to define how good they are the only place it counts, on the court. The rising and falling emotionally, game to game, quarter to quarter, play to play, of many fans is rather silly IMO.

 

[mbr33ct]

I agree. A 15 point win over a 8-9 team that is ranked 125 by the NCAA will seriously bode well for UCONN's ranking.

Georgetown at 8-9 and ranked 125, that's much better than what LSU has been working with all season long and look how it turned out for LSU.

 

[HuskyFan1125]

Interesting reading some of the comments. I did watch the game as I’m fortunate to get Pac-12 network.

I don’t think Southern Cals defense gets talked about enough. They have been a tough defense team all season. They packed the paint and forced Jones and the PG to shoot from the outside and chased Jump and ran her off the 3pt line. It was a smart defensive strategy.

I said on here during the UCLA game that Southern Cals issue is offense. They don’t score enough points. They just have to score more than the opponent. Last night they did. And over the #2 team.

Also it was getting to Stanford as some of the layups that brink or even Jones normally make around the basket they missed. It was just enough misses by the Cardinal and makes by Southern Cal that got them the win.

Gottlieb gets slack on here but with her getting Juju Watkins next season she will move the Trojans in the right direction.

 

[SVCBeercats]

Georgetown at 8-9 and ranked 125, that's much better than what LSU has been working with all season long and look how it turned out for LSU.

Look at LSU's MOV against such teams. Not 15 points.

 

[hoopsnloops32]

I didn't see the Stanford game but the point guard had the best numbers on the team today. Brink and Jones tried to be the solution and both failed miserably. At least offensively.

The point guard wasn’t even in at the end of the game because she’s a bit of a liability on both ends of the court. She had a big turnover and the defense just sags off of her on the perimeter.

 

[HuskyNan]

Look at LSU's MOV against such teams. Not 15 points.

So what?

 

[DEpup]

If I were a Stanford fan...I would be worried about what Stanford is going to do about the point guard spot...come tournament time it is all about the guards....

Right on..that seems to be their challenge. I've watched a little bit of them and the ball gets stuck and bad shots are put up for periods of time.

 

[Carnac]

….but, but she said that their schedule was already set in stone in advance of her hiring.

That may be true, but........this season’s weak/soft preseason schedule for LSU bears a strong resemblance to the preseason schedules Kim had at Baylor. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Weak preseason schedules never hurt Baylor, they won’t hurt LSU.

 

[MSGRET]

….but, but she said that their schedule was already set in stone in advance of her hiring.

I thought that was her excuse for last years schedule, not this years.

 

[Carnac]

I looked at the ESPNW box score and USC started five guards against the size of Stanford?? USC had only two bench players one of which was a forward. Stanford had eight

That would suggest that it was simply not Stanford’s day. What Nan said is true. Sometimes it’s just not your day, and your team is out of sync. A lot of top 25 teams lost yesterday, some to unranked teams.

There were a number of UConn fans that posted their displeasure in great detail after the game. I can only imagine what the tenor of those comments would have been had we lost to an unranked Georgetown team mired at the bottom of the conference standings.

The chatroom was smoking during the game. That’s why I like going there. Comments made are unfiltered. It was difficult to watch yesterday. I almost turned it off.

Hopefully they shake it off and take the floor ready to play tomorrow at Seton Hall. Hopefully Azzi can play as well.

 

[MD#12Fan]

I'm not sure why anyone thinks Stanford will only drop to 3. They lost to an unranked team. Period. Pollsters won't look at USC's record, or their SOS, or anything like that. Nor will they pay much attention to the stinker UCONN played today. My prediction - SC, OSU, UCONN, LSU, Stanford... or maybe Stanford drops one more.

UCONN ended up 9th in the polls after losing to ND and Maryland...

Yes, good points. I don't really care about polls except for what they can do for the kids. It'll all come out in the wash.
What about the 2 losses by UConn being greatly affected by players out with injury.
A point about the Trees- garbage in, garbage out. A computer takes the data it's given and computes it according to some algorythm. What data went in that positioned Stanford #2. Compared to UConn- UConn better OOC schedule, results versus common opponents?- Creighton?, point differential, and other stats. Where the heck is Stanford better?

 

[SVCBeercats]

So what?

If you have to ask no amount of explaining will help.

 

[Blueconn]

As I’ve said numerous times, if teams are going to have a WTF game, it’s probably going to be at this time of year. Stanford lost, So Carolina won a game 58-51 last week, UConn scraps out a close 15 point win… it happens every single year.

On edit: #3 Ohio State had 18 turnovers against Nebraska (11-7, 1-3) in an 11 point win yesterday. They shot 36.8% (28-76), 18.5% (5-27) from three. It’s that time of year

Spot on.
It’s why they play the games. Whole bunch of ‘em…for weeks and months ! Ain’t over til it’s over.

 

[Notyetready]

If you have to ask no amount of explaining will help.

"So what?" In this context is more of a statement than a question. She was not really asking. Rather she was challenging.

 

[faithfulfan]

Stanford and LSU are both playing cupcake schedules, LSU is more like a 'giant' cake, as most of their opponents give them no way to prove themselves, or get better!

 

[dabears17]

Stanford and LSU are both playing cupcake schedules, LSU is more like a 'giant' cake, as most of their opponents give them no way to prove themselves, or get better!

Stanford plays in a league that has 6 teams in the Massey top 25 and 8 in the Massey top 36. 6 PAC-12 teams are in the AP top 25 and 5 are in the Coaches top 25. 4 of their non-conference opponents have been in the top 25 at some point this season.

Stanford’s projected strength of schedule according to Massey is 6th and has the PAC-12 ranked as the #1 conference and projected #1 conference SOS.

Sure, they could have played a couple stronger non-conference teams. A coaches job is to play a schedule they feel best prepares them March, not necessarily the strongest schedule in the nation.

Their latest loss was to a team that 2 of their losses were to a top 10 team by a total of 4 points.

 

[Longtime fan]

With Stanford's loss to USC, does UConn move ahead of them in tomorrow's AP Poll? I believe that they will, what say you?

That USC result is a shock. It is like Clemson WBB beating South Carolina ( which they did not ). But is should have no impact on UCONN ranking. And UCONN ranking is meaningless anyway. If we have to play the rest of the year with the seven players who suited up against Seton Hall, how high should we be ranked?