Everybody Happy Now?

[Charliebball]

if the bench players were tentative before the Tulsa game exactly how are they going to feel the next time the see the court? Coach Geno is really taking the tough love route.............sure hope it works..............

 

[Longtime fan]

But Stevens or Collier was always in there as well, and they scored almost all the points.

Not only that, but what the 4 substitutes did was feed the ball to either "Z" or Collier for the shot/score.

 

[temery]

Geno is a great coach, but he cannot make his players confident. You either have it or you don't.

True confidence is earned through experience. I know of no other way.

 

[Charliebball]

the more I think about it the worse I feel for the bench players...............it looked to me like they were giving their best effort in a really tough situation...............if the varsity had come back in as they usually do and built the lead back up to 30-40 points this would have been just a blip on the radar...............the fact that two starters went down and the other starters didn't really play to their usual standards turned this game into a real ---- show.................hopefully the injuries and the embarrassment are short lived.................

 

[Sluconn Husky]

"The guys that don't play much? There's a reason they don't play much," Auriemma said. "I'm not looking anymore. There's no place to look. In fact we might go from six to five rather than six to seven or eight. You can't give up more layups than Z gives up. It's not possible.


"I'll keep giving them chances. We need a lot more close games. I'll give them as much time as they need. I'm trying to save them from themselves. This is what they do every day in practice. I'm trying not to expose them on the court."


Auriemma blasts 'disgraceful' Huskies' effort in win over Tulsa

 

[DaddyChoc]

did he make them walk home too?

 

[HuskylnSC]

Some of you are wondering how the scrubs confidence can be built back up. These ladies have been told for the last 8-10 years that they are the greatest. And they have succeeded with bad habits and an incomplete understanding of the game. Once they understand that they are in a paradigm shift, that what they believed to be the gospel is not true, then they will be adaptable to learning.

I believe Geno understands basic behavior modification. First you impress people that they really do not know what they think they know, i.e. how to play basketball. Then when they do something right in practice he will tell them "Good job" and then reiterate what they did that he liked to reinforce positive reactions. That is coaching. And Geno/CD/Shea/Marissa is the best coach in the country.

 

[Siestakeyfan]

Honestly they look terrible...the subs I mean. I am glad he let them play, but they just showed why they don't play much, if at all. The terminology which comes to mind is self-confidence. Geno is a great coach, but he cannot make his players confident. You either have it or you don't. I really hope Meagan can finally breakout at some point and become that seventh player in the rotation.

Cell phones, ipads, social media Major changes, that are hard to watch unfold ! Do whatever you feel like doing shoot whenever you want ! A VERY Disappointing display last night.

 

[veryolddog]

Think of it this way: you were asked to attend the prestige women's basketball program in the USA because you demonstrated potential skills in your high school years. Now, there is difficulty in accepting the "system of excellence" that has become the UConn program. Those skills are not automatic; they have to be earned and demonstrated. How that is done, I certainly don't know how to do that in College Sports especially in today's society. Are we looking at the future of Connecticut? Is this the mediocrity that we should expect? And, these are suppose to be young people with high potential. I certainly understand what is going on in Geno's head. But, then again, that is why he gets paid the big bucks.

 

[Soxx]

Agreed.

It was weird. I thought in the first 2-3 minutes, there was some continuity and good post entry passes and Z held them together. Then it all started to break down as Tulsa made some shots (3's _ penetration) , you could see whatever confidence they have just melt and they went into quick shot HS mode. You need to put the best bench players in 1 or 2 at a time with the starters to try to get useful integration.

 

[meyers7]

Can they still play without uniforms?

Without game uniforms? Yes, I believe they had to play in practice uniforms a few years ago when some luggage got lost on one of their road trips.

 

[meyers7]

I don’t agree. I think he has a lot to with their confidence. Maybe he should stop putting them down in the press; that surely does not instill confidence.

Yea, your missing the idea of UCONN confidence. It has to come from inside the player. Such that it is not affected by outside pressure. Regardless of what the fans say, the coach says, or the scoreboard says, they know who they are and what they can do.

 

[meyers7]

did he make them walk home too?

Considering they played a Gampel, I imagine they did.

 

[PhanTom]

You can speculate all day on what Geno's strategy was, but IMHO the best move may have been to just work Megan in, to get that one more player in that he needs. Of course there's the injury factor that even got worse last night, so maybe a little time for Molly would have helped. Throwing all five players out there at the same time didn't seem to work out so good, though it may have worked a little better if they had made a few shots that just didn't drop. My personal gripe has been giving Azura the green light from the outside, whether it's a two or three. When she takes her threes it seems rare that anyone gets an offensive rebound, especially since you can almost count on one being there for the asking. Apparently she makes them in practice, but for now I'd rather see anyone else take that shot.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Subs in early. Never saw Geno do this. Ever.

I'm more than Happy---so many POSITIVE things to take away from that game---the bad and ugly was predictable---you can't compare 7 months of Div exposure to 4 year, 3 year,18 months of playing together--thats an unfair comparison but one made--wrongly.\ Any one any where who expected the frosh left to sink or swim--to look like Gabby, KLS, Danger, Kia, --don't live in the real world.

To me it was a fun game--I only wished the new kids got to work their way out of the hole dug---with a time out to coach them to the win. I like Geno coaching Coombs on the side line--big plus.
I'd like to see more of this--but with coaching from the sideline for the whole second string in the game.
Great fun game. Lets do it again and again throughout the AAC.

 

[BroadwayVa]

Can they still play without uniforms?

Only if they paint their number on their skin---have to identify them for the scorer table.

 

[terif831]

You can speculate all day on what Geno's strategy was, but IMHO the best move may have been to just work Megan in, to get that one more player in that he needs. Of course there's the injury factor that even got worse last night, so maybe a little time for Molly would have helped. Throwing all five players out there at the same time didn't seem to work out so good, though it may have worked a little better if they had made a few shots that just didn't drop. My personal gripe has been giving Azura the green light from the outside, whether it's a two or three. When she takes her threes it seems rare that anyone gets an offensive rebound, especially since you can almost count on one being there for the asking. Apparently she makes them in practice, but for now I'd rather see anyone else take that shot.

It didn't work out great in terms of making spectacular plays during the game. Whether it works out well in terms of what is learned from the experience, remains to be seen.

 

[vtcwbuff]

Not only that, but what the 4 substitutes did was feed the ball to either "Z" or Collier for the shot/score.

Not so - the bench (less Stevens) took 13 shots - and missed 12 of them! That's a FG % of <8.

 

[vtcwbuff]

did he make them walk home too?

Game was at Gampel - not much of a walk. Besides, half the team are walking wounded anyway.

 

[hussybulldog]

They got enough film, it would not be fair to the starters to take a loss for no real reason. Geno once again being Geno proved his point.

He had to prove a point not only to the bench players(prob enough proof already during the practice) but also to some of the BYers here who want his job (quite a few of them, I suppose)

 

[HopJim]

Not only that, but what the 4 substitutes did was feed the ball to either "Z" or Collier for the shot/score.

They got open. Would it have been better to NOT pass it?

 

[HopJim]

I don’t agree. I think he has a lot to with their confidence. Maybe he should stop putting them down in the press; that surely does not instill confidence.

Curious for those who were there. Unlike the starters, didn't seem that Geno coached the subs, just made faces. Normally Geno and other coaches coach spacing, defensive assignments and other aspects of game that affected flow. From what I saw, he just let them play.

 

[scubadog]

I was not as disappointed in the bench play as some on this board are. What I did see is a team that is mentally and physically beat up. Frankly, I am most concerned about the mental aspect. The substitute plan last night was designed for " the coach " to get a point across, not to help players who rarely have played to develop confidence. There are 2 players in the starting 5 who are capable of creating their own shots, KLS and Danger. Everyone else relies on ball movement , screens and transition to score. I really liked the few glimpses of MW earlier in the season. She is athletic and create her own shot. Z can score at will in the lane, but do we really need her taking 3's 10 seconds into the shot clock? Gabby , as fun as she is to watch, just has not put in the gym time to improve her shooting nor confidence in shooting beyond 8 ft. of the basket except for the occasional shot. KLS is getting beat up, Phees is being pushed farther away from the rim. At this point what I see is a glaring problem is the husky defense. Certain players keep hunting for steals instead of playing lock down man defense. So far this season I give Coach Geno a C- . He recruits the players, runs the practice. How about coaching during the game , instead of just turning around and showing dissatisfaction to the rest of the staff. Last night , it was mentioned that because of the schedule certain drills have not been employed because of time constraints. And who exactly makes out the schedule ?

 

[dogged1]

Curious for those who were there. Unlike the starters, didn't seem that Geno coached the subs, just made faces. Normally Geno and other coaches coach spacing, defensive assignments and other aspects of game that affected flow. From what I saw, he just let them play.

First the disclaimer, I wasn't there, I just saw it on TV. Like you I thought that he was not actively coaching the subs. And I think that was the point. To project what may have been in Geno's mind, "OK, you guys think your so smart. I"m gonna let you do it your way. Let's see how that turns out for you."

Again, only surmising, I haven't developed any telepathic powers.

 

[Rocket009]

I was not as disappointed in the bench play as some on this board are. What I did see is a team that is mentally and physically beat up. Frankly, I am most concerned about the mental aspect. The substitute plan last night was designed for " the coach " to get a point across, not to help players who rarely have played to develop confidence. There are 2 players in the starting 5 who are capable of creating their own shots, KLS and Danger. Everyone else relies on ball movement , screens and transition to score. I really liked the few glimpses of MW earlier in the season. She is athletic and create her own shot. Z can score at will in the lane, but do we really need her taking 3's 10 seconds into the shot clock? Gabby , as fun as she is to watch, just has not put in the gym time to improve her shooting nor confidence in shooting beyond 8 ft. of the basket except for the occasional shot. KLS is getting beat up, Phees is being pushed farther away from the rim. At this point what I see is a glaring problem is the husky defense. Certain players keep hunting for steals instead of playing lock down man defense. So far this season I give Coach Geno a C- . He recruits the players, runs the practice. How about coaching during the game , instead of just turning around and showing dissatisfaction to the rest of the staff. Last night , it was mentioned that because of the schedule certain drills have not been employed because of time constraints. And who exactly makes out the schedule ?

Wow, a lot of points to address in one paragraph!

I disagree that the substitution plan was designed to get a point across. There were many different variations tried, not one. If you watch you'll see that Molly got a lot of time because she was getting more done than most of the others. He mixed in different starters to try and find something that would work - there was just not a lot of good execution. They were out hustled a lot - look at rebounding - almost even, watch which team were down on the floor for loose balls first. These are effort types of plays that you don't coach.

Geno's offense relies on ball movement, screens etc. to score. They do not want to rely on individuals having to create their own shot. That's what teams like OSU do with predictable results. The problem was the poor execution on both ends.

I think of all the players, Gabby once again stood out as bringing the most energy. You can put down her shooting (although I think the stats will prove you wrong - she's hitting a lot more from the foul line range this year) but she is devastating on drives to the basket where she is almost unguardable. In Geno's system you always look for the high percentage shots and Gabby going to the basket is the high percentage shot.

Regarding players hunting for steals - Geno wants an aggressive defense, so yes they do want to hunt for steals. This is nothing new, the big difference between now and previous years is that there is no big shot blocker waiting if the guard gets beat going for the steal.

Blaming the coach who has proved year over year that he can find ways to motivate players and turn out one great team after another, year after year seems a little biased. They are one of only three unbeaten teams and have played almost all the top teams in the country.

Schedules are dictated primarily by TV, other teams schedules etc. If you want to work in marquee games, then you need to find ways to fit them into the schedule. Thinking that Geno sits back and decides he wants to play this game on this day is a little unrealistic.