Fascinating Geno Comment About Louisville Offense

[JoePgh]

Geno made one very interesting comment about Louisville's offense in the "preview" press conference which does not seem to have been noted. He was asked how UConn would stop Antonita Slaughter from firing up 3's, and he said (approximately), "He (Walz) must be a genius. I've watched all of their games in the tournament, and even in Game 5, every time that girl catches, she is wide open for a three. You would think that by Game 5, the defenses would have figured out that they have to guard her. Tomorrow night, if she makes all those shots with a hand in her face and we lose, I'll give her credit. But if she is as wide open as she has been, that's on our defense. If I figure out how Jeff is doing it, I'm going to do the same thing with Kaleena."

He has a point -- after Slaughter made 10 (I think) 3-point shots against Baylor, you would think that Cal's smart coach would have figured out that she has to be guarded. But she was still putting up wide open threes in the semifinal game. I didn't try to figure out if the offensive sets were somehow working miracles to make that happen, but I will be interested to see if it happens tomorrow night.

Obviously, you have to guard Schoni Schimmel also, but it shouldn't be beyond the capabilities of Final Four teams to guard two perimeter shooters.

 

[huskyharry]

Switching man to man where a guard covers Slaughter from 17 feet and out and a big takes her inside could work.

 

[baggerbob]

Tell you what if it ends up Breanna and Slaughter guarding each other game over favors UConn. Most of the time they like to play 6-2, 6-1, 5-10, 5-9, 5-6, if that happens they won't be in the game long. Slaughter at 6-1 can't guard either Breanna , or KML, those 2 are a nightmare for Louisville no matter what defense they use.

 

[cohenzone]

Methinks Geno was not impressed by Cal's defense. Cal overall didn't float my boat. I will be astounded if a stand still shooter like Slaughter has an easy time getting open against UConn's D.

 

[Icebear]

Methinks Geno was not impressed by Cal's defense. Cal overall didn't float my boat. I will be astounded if a stand still shooter like Slaughter has an easy time getting open against UConn's D.

But it was the best defense Shonni saw all year? ;-)

 

[OneTrickPony]

But it was the best defense Shonni saw all year? ;-)

She must have been referring to Layshia Clarendon individually...

 

[CL82]

It was an interesting moment and Geno was more energetic when he spoke about it. It seems to me that hates the pressers this go round, I'm not sure why.

 

[semper]

Yeah, why does he do all that strange stuff in pressers, like clean his glasses and pick his ears, as if he's at home and nobody's there and he doesn't give a hoot. I haven't seen any other coach in presses like him, and he's been worse that usual this time. It's too bad because he has so much great stuff to say!

 

[DobbsRover2]

Slaughter has not been universally shooting lights out from the perimeter in the tourney. Ignoring the first game for Louisville against Middle Tenn (both because Cards kind of breezed without much need for 3s and also because it meanly does not support the data in my hypothesis), Slaughter has been sinking the 3s in the odd number (3rd and 5th round games) contests at 13-19 for 69% (wowza!) but shooting pretty poorly at 4-15 for 27% in the even number (2nd and 4th round games). Tonight is an even number game, so UConn should get the non-slaughtering Slaughter version who goes maybe 2-8. Can live with that.

 

[intlzncster]

Yeah, why does he do all that strange stuff in pressers, like clean his glasses and pick his ears, as if he's at home and nobody's there and he doesn't give a hoot. I haven't seen any other coach in presses like him, and he's been worse that usual this time. It's too bad because he has so much great stuff to say!

He's getting older. Get used to it! Old italian men.

 

[Deadrody]

Slaughter has not been universally shooting lights out from the perimeter in the tourney. Ignoring the first game for Louisville against Middle Tenn (both because Cards kind of breezed without much need for 3s and also because it meanly does not support the data in my hypothesis), Slaughter has been sinking the 3s in the odd number (3rd and 5th round games) contests at 13-19 for 69% (wowza!) but shooting pretty poorly at 4-15 for 27% in the even number (2nd and 4th round games). Tonight is an even number game, so UConn should get the non-slaughtering Slaughter version who goes maybe 2-8. Can live with that.

Its possible that is because in the 1st and 3rd round games nobody had seen her play in a week. In the 2nd and 4th round games, her red hot shooting was on display with their next round opponent in attendance and the next game just 2 days away.

I doubt you will see very many wide open shots available for Slaughter. Probably at the expense of open shots for someone else. Only matters if they make them.

 

[Hongster]

Against UCONN and the tenacious defense we've been showing, Slaughter can't even buy a basket.
If UCONN can keep up the defense, making stops, playing UCONN's basket ball we will win.
I wouldn't looking for Stewie to give me 20+ points neither, I would just play the game like we did against ND, let the game flow to her.