First game thread of the season: UConn v. Stanford

[Charliebball]

Geez you guys are a tough crowd...............UConn overwhelms a top ten team in the first game of the year and yet I'm reading as much bad as good.................it's a long season, they gotta start somewhere............

 

[Bleed Blue-XY]

First Game of the long awaited season:
1) Too many missed lay ups and free throws
2) CD, Lou, and Gabby did their thing
3) As others have already stated Kia and Pheesa offensive games were missing in action ( Kia is so streaky one game she seems like the best player on the court and the next you wonder if she is even playing).

Overall good first game but it seem a little mailed in around the third quarter or whenever it was when Molly came into the game.

 

[chrissaran]

Geno must see something in Molly Bent that I'm not seeing. She's a guard who gets rid of the ball as quick as possible. Also, on offense she stands outside the 3 point line and rarely moves. AEH may not have made a shot, but she is willing to shoot, and she plays aggressive defense.

 

[donalddoowop]

49–14 at halftime verse a top 10 team. Stanford looks awful. Ratings for 2nd half will be awful too. What a shame WBB can’t keep up with UConn. Games like this aren’t worth watching unless you’re a huge UConn fan. No one else will watch a one sided game like this. Bad for WBB and it’s not UConn’s fault but it’s true. I turned it off. Get some competition. What a snooze the rest of the season is going to be for UConn.

If you think Stanford will look this bad two months from now you underestimate their coach. Uconn needs a LOT of work also, so don't think that they will be beating all teams like they are beating Stanford. There will be some close games and maybe even a loss or two if they are not playing to their potential. Stanford bottled up Collier and Nurse and othe teams will try to do the same. If it had not been for Dangerfield, Uconn would have struggled offensively because the only help she got was from KLS. Also, they missed far too many free throws and lay ups. Those things can and will be fixed. You say get some competition Geno scheduled some of the best teams in the country. Stanford was ranked number 10. What more do you expect the coaches to do? Their schedule is much tougher than some of the other top teams. Have you seen Uconn's schedule?

 

[rvwsleep]

Geez you guys are a tough crowd.....UConn overwhelms a top ten team in the first game of the year and yet I'm reading as much bad as good.......it's a long season, they gotta start somewhere..

Bingo.
When the game was close (0-0 first quarter), UConn overwhelmed Stanford. Did they play great in the second half ? No, not at all.
But I find a 25 point win, in a game that wasn't nearly that close, against a preseason top 10 ranked team, satisfying.

 

[hoophuskee]

If you think Stanford will look this bad two months from now you underestimate their coach. Uconn needs a LOT of work also, so don't think that they will be beating all teams like they are beating Stanford. There will be some close games and maybe even a loss or two if they are not playing to their potential. Stanford bottled up Collier and Nurse and othe teams will try to do the same. If it had not been for Dangerfield, Uconn would have struggled offensively because the only help she got was from KLS. Also, they missed far too many free throws and lay ups. Those things can and will be fixed. You say get some competition Geno scheduled some of the best teams in the country. Stanford was ranked number 10. What more do you expect the coaches to do? Their schedule is much tougher than some of the other top teams. Have you seen Uconn's schedule?

I agree with your tone - but the beauty of today shows they don't have to play to their potential and still completely wiped out Stanford.

And for your comment "If it had not been for Dangerfield, " -- well how many players do you want to be off? And it seemed like Gabby could have scored more if pressed and with the 40 point lead they were more realized to take more 3's. etc. Anyways, how many players need to be off offensively if you also expect Danger to have a bad game? UCONN does have Boutaly coming back too. So in this game 2.5 (I'm counting Gabby as a half because she had no need to exert herself offensively instead working more on passing.) out of their top 7 were good to excellent. If Danger also was off that would be 1.5 out of 7. How often will that happen?

 

[Papa33]

I adopt Geno's working conviction that the margin of victory is utterly beside the point; he focuses on the quality of his team's effort and execution. In this case, yes, UConn missed a bunch of relatively close-in shots which would have widened the margin, and that might be a function of inadequate focus. I will bet, however, that he will demanding better rebounding— defensive and offensive— and better screens and player movement off the ball. But, hey, it was game one and against a team that has in the past found ways to disrupt UConn's offense.

Defense: A, especially in first half.

On the other hand, the lack of timely info from the ESPN announcers was disappointing, especially given two former players who usually add information and comment ON THE GAME.

 

[Charliebball]

I love it when Kenny K rants

 

[MilfordHusky]

Regarding the missed shots, Lou just said they don't have their legs back yet.

From what? Flying to Ohio?

 

[HuskyNan]

From what? Flying to Ohio?

They aren't in game shape and giving 110% effort to playing defense is going to have an effect on the players' stamina.

 

[UConnDan97]

Great performance by the Huskies today. A lot of energy from the very beginning. The defense was definitely there. The shooting wasn't as crisp, but its the first game of the season and that will improve as always. But that first half defense was stifling!

A very nice win today...

 

[bschwartz]

Huh, for some reason I thought it was Ah-zur-uh.
KLaw just said Ah-zur-ey.

Via the media guide, it is azu-rey

 

[MilfordHusky]

They aren't in game shape and giving 110% effort to playing defense is going to have an effect on the players' stamina.

Ok, still getting in shape. The defense was really good.

 

[Golden Husky]

Geez you guys are a tough crowd.....UConn overwhelms a top ten team in the first game of the year and yet I'm reading as much bad as good.......it's a long season, they gotta start somewhere..

I once reflected that if these guys were married to Jennifer Lawrence they'd expect her to cook and got photos of JL slaving over a stove. So, yes, I'm being critical that your criticism of the critics lacks creativity, Charlie.

 

[eebmg]

The Defense was great in the first half but at the start of the second half, Stanford was a little better with the back cuts leading to some easy baskets and I think we mistakenly stopped the pressure for that reason. The offense from the bench was disappointing with no one taking advantage of the opportunity. MW seemed to take a step back from the last game as well although I think she will get it together by the end of the year.

 

[Golden Husky]

It was expected that Stanford would have a slow start given their new scheme and new players, however they look like a D2 team against Uconn today. They just do not seem to have the athletes required to score with out the open looks a scheme provides. Still it was really silly to rate a rebuilding team as high as they have had Stanford- Tara or not.

Right on, Will. And yet, when the matchup first was announced, there were a bunch of posts and much hand-wringing regarding "Tara having months to prepare for UConn." At least those folks now can exhale.

 

[oldude]

Right on, Will. And yet, when the matchup first was announced, there were a bunch of posts and much hand-wringing regarding "Tara having months to prepare for UConn." At least those folks now can exhale.

Didn’t Geno also have months to prepare for Stanford?

 

[Blueballer]

Great to have UCONN B-Ball back! Nice win. Awesome seeing Azura and the other new players.
Exciting to see CD poised to explode in her Sophomore campaign the way MoJeff did!

 

[HopJim]

Geno must see something in Molly Bent that I'm not seeing. She's a guard who gets rid of the ball as quick as possible. Also, on offense she stands outside the 3 point line and rarely moves. AEH may not have made a shot, but she is willing to shoot, and she plays aggressive defense.

Likely payback for hard work and good practice habits. Reserve your judgement until the tougher games.

 

[Carnac]

Let's play 40 minutes of UConn basketball and live up to all the hype. As usual, it's one possession at a time.

Go Huskies!!

Finally...........it's game day. That was a l-o-n-g summer. My favorite time of the year: the start of college basketball and Christmas time.

 

[Sluconn Husky]

Via Adamec:

The second half was one to forget as Stanford (0-2) outscored the Huskies by one in the third quarter and nine in the fourth quarter. UConn's biggest lead was 42 and the closest the Cardinal got was the final margin.


It won't be forgotten when the Huskies get back to practice.


"Going in, everyone was excited and had all the adrenaline going," Williams said. "In the second half, with the score being what it was, we relaxed so much. That's not what great teams do."


"Like most kids, the game's over so why do we have to kill ourselves," Auriemma said. "And I think we were tired. Well, how can you be tired first game of the year? We're tired, I can tell. I can feel it. This week we didn't have a great week of preparation and it showed up. This week will be better."

 

[Golden Husky]

Via Adamec:

The second half was one to forget as Stanford (0-2) outscored the Huskies by one in the third quarter and nine in the fourth quarter. UConn's biggest lead was 42 and the closest the Cardinal got was the final margin.


It won't be forgotten when the Huskies get back to practice.


"Going in, everyone was excited and had all the adrenaline going," Williams said. "In the second half, with the score being what it was, we relaxed so much. That's not what great teams do."


"Like most kids, the game's over so why do we have to kill ourselves," Auriemma said. "And I think we were tired. Well, how can you be tired first game of the year? We're tired, I can tell. I can feel it. This week we didn't have a great week of preparation and it showed up. This week will be better."

This game may turn out to be more an aberration than a harbinger. Despite a facile victory, UConn notched only 15 assists on 29 field goals, well below the team's norm of over 70%. Part of that was based on the unusually high number of steals (13), leading to many unassisted baskets. The Huskies also shot poorly from both the floor (41%) and line (61%). A satisfying result but lots of work to be done. I expect UConn will show significant improvement against Cal, Friday.

 

[Carnac]

But it wasn't just the young players missing shots in the second half. They lost focus around the rim. Pretty easy to do when you're creaming the other team.

This game was over at the half at 49-14. Stanford only scored 4 points in the 2nd qtr. Don't think that fact was not brought to their attention in the dressing room during halftime. Their 2nd half let down today is why Geno tells them NOT to look at the scoreboard. Play like you're down 10 with 2 minutes to go.

This year's bench is too deep for Geno to leave players on the floor that are not playing with the sense of urgency and intensity that he wants and demands. One of the late UCLA coach John Wooden's euphemisms was "The bench is an excellent teacher". Players that don't/can't perform for Geno as expected will find reservations on said bench. Brianna Stewart can attest to this.

 

[LasVegasYank]

Night and day, first half second half. Loved the first, hated the second.

Outrebounded for the game and outscored in the third and fourth quarters.

It was almost like they rested on their laurels after a sterling first half.

Many speculated that with the deep bench, Geno would press more but I only saw that once and it seemed half-hearted.

I agree with an early post about Bent. Their offense all but disappears when she's in the game.

 

[Carnac]

Via Adamec:

The second half was one to forget as Stanford (0-2) outscored the Huskies by one in the third quarter and nine in the fourth quarter. UConn's biggest lead was 42 and the closest the Cardinal got was the final margin.


It won't be forgotten when the Huskies get back to practice.


"Going in, everyone was excited and had all the adrenaline going," Williams said. "In the second half, with the score being what it was, we relaxed so much. That's not what great teams do."


"Like most kids, the game's over so why do we have to kill ourselves," Auriemma said. "And I think we were tired. Well, how can you be tired first game of the year? We're tired, I can tell. I can feel it. This week we didn't have a great week of preparation and it showed up. This week will be better."

When we watch replays of this game over the next few days, we won't have to bother watching the 2nd half, there's nothing to see.