Fort Hays St @ Connecticut - GAME THREAD

[Carnac]

Rebounding needs a lot of work. Z very versatile, can score inside, block some shots. If you ignore her roll to the inside, you're toast, especially with the number of players who can make that pass. Crystal looked good but didn't penetrate enough. KLS was rusty from three but looked a bit better on D. Pheesa was Pheesa. The Canadian knocked off the rust and drained her threes. Gabby had one of her "Did you see that?" moments when she skyed to grab a rebound and put the basket in in the same motion. Irwin hustled but missed a ton of rebounds. Bent has big trouble moving laterally on defense, which lead to a couple of penalties.
Freshmen looked OK, flashed then flopped a lot.

They all need more game time to work out the cobwebs.

Wonderful just to be able to watch them again.

The link had a tiny screen, couldn't maximize it. Any suggestions?

There were two arrows at the right hand corner of the screen. Click on those, the screen will grow to full screen. Click them again, the screen returns to the original size.

 

[SVCBeercats]

1. Crystal started the game. Congratulations on all of you that called that.

Starting in exhibition games doesn't count. Has to a "real" game!

 

[augustaTC]

This will probably sound kinda dumb, but I remember when I saw Gabby enter games early in her freshman year - she screwed up a lot, but man, there was just something special about the way she moved. Felt sort of the same way watching Walker. She stood out, at least to me, without doing anything special. How's that for insightful analysis!

 

[YellwJcket999]

She was the best on the team last year by quite a bit.

I know....

 

[HumblePie]

KLS was rusty from three but looked a bit better on D.

They've been practicing for months and played most of the summer. So being "rusty" isn't the problem. She's still not setting her feet and squaring her shoulders ... just like last year! Grrrr.

 

[Huskee11]

I was there, was most impressed by the defense, getting into passing lanes and trapping. Especially in the first quarter. Their play seemed to level off in the second quarter but was solid again in the second half.

Outside shooting was not good except for Kia.

Minor scare in the first quarter, Lou came down funny on her ankle making a layup. She stayed in for a few more minutes but went to the locker room when she was taken out around the five minute mark, possibly to get retaped. Came back a few minutes later and seemed fine. Whew.

Looks like in effect a starting six. Walker looks strong defensively as number seven. Was expecting a bit more from Coombs, but its only one game. Bent came in ahead of her.

Crystal looks stronger physically, Irwin trimmer.

A good start, overall.

 

[rvwsleep]

Try the gametracker link in the first post

Thank you.
Lou played 31 minutes, which was more than I expected any of the starters to play.

 

[YellwJcket999]

Here are the stats! Have at it Guys!!


So from my read it looks as if Gabby's mins will suffer the most as she and Azura share time. I get the logic but it will be near impossible for her to post AA numbers with low output/min. (I'm hoping she just had a bad game -missed layups and fouls).

We will see.

 

[BigBird]

I won’t repeat the several accurate critcisms of the team’s play tonight. But I do question just how much we can really learn from this one. I am tempted to suggest that the Huskies are deeper than last year, but not all that much deeper. But even that, I am not so sure.

It seemed as if our faves were stuck in 2nd (or 3rd?) gear. Yet, there were flashes of very high-level play.

CD said it was a mix of good things and not-so-good things.

 

[YellwJcket999]

I won’t repeat the several accurate critcisms of the team’s play tonight. But I do question just how much we can really learn from this one. I am tempted to suggest that the Huskies are deeper than last year, but not all that much deeper. But even that, I am not so sure.
It seemed as if our faves were stuck in 2nd (or 3rd?) gear. Yet, there were flashes of very high-level play.
CD said it was a mix of good things and not-so-good things.

I agree with you. I think that we all wanted them to come out and pick up right where they left off (FF team firing on all cylinders). I think we have some very high and unrealistic expectations.

Practice is practice, game time is an all together different animal.
We will see how we look versus Standford. The main thing is how we look come March. I don't care about the regular season - Hoist another banner.

 

[MilfordHusky]

View attachment 25837
Here are the stats! Have at it Guys!!


So from my read it looks as if Gabby's mins will suffer the most as she and Azura share time. I get the logic but it will be near impossible for her to post AA numbers with low output/min. (I'm hoping she just had a bad game -missed layups and fouls).

We will see.

I think Z takes minutes from Lou, Pheesa, and Gabby about equally. Tonight's minutes were affected by Gabby's recent injury, in my opinion.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I won’t repeat the several accurate critcisms of the team’s play tonight. But I do question just how much we can really learn from this one. I am tempted to suggest that the Huskies are deeper than last year, but not all that much deeper. But even that, I am not so sure.

It seemed as if our faves were stuck in 2nd (or 3rd?) gear. Yet, there were flashes of very high-level play.

CD said it was a mix of good things and not-so-good things.

I told Eric that I though Geno would say it was a mixed bag.

We are deeper, but 5-6 of the bench players need to get up to speed and may be several games or a season away. We didn't have anyone the caliber of Azura Stevens or Megan Walker coming off the bench last year. Maybe no team in history had bench players like that duo.

 

[JoePgh]

Yup, she got in.

Not only did she (Andra Espinosa-Hunter) play; she played virtually the entire second half. Didn't play in the first half. She didn't score, but looked athletic and not out of place. Still, I think she is near the end of the bench this year.

 

[UConnCat]

Opposing coaches last year wanted to get in to UConn's bench. The bench this year has Azura Stevens.

The team will look better on Sunday and then even better a week from Sunday.

Geno said Batouly is still about 2 weeks away from practicing.

 

[eebmg]

Could not watch the televised game but caught the game with 4 minutes left in the first half. From a listening perspective, they did not seem to play very well. So many quick 3 pointers and missed layups Only Kia sounded like she played at her level. The BY assessment seems very conflicted with opinions all over the spectrum. Don't recall that happening very much. Still, glad to see there are at least some who are optimistic. My thought was if we play the way it sounded to me, Stanford would give us real problems. Will be interested to see the video when it is posted.

 

[Vowelguy]

A stat that I expect Geno to mention to Azura a few hundred times:

Defensive Rebounds
5'11 Gabby 7
6'6 Azura 3

 

[ladybird]

Exhibition games are always a little rusty but for Collier and Gabby they almost looked bored. But solid. I think those two are heads and tails above most all opponents as well as their team
Next Kia and Katie Lou - Kia was the shooter tonight KLS looked bad front the arc but you know she will knock them down eventually
Crystal and Z seemed to connect well both will play huge roles
Irwin and Bent just need to do more. They seem way more comfortable than last year just have to do things on and off ball.
The freshman. Although meg didn’t seem to do a lot of scoring her passing was good and she nor AEH looked like freshman they seemed to run at the right pace defend etc.
Coombs I honestly didn’t notice.
Gordon make a good head fake at end but seems very out of pace. Let a kid drive baseline and seemed to have a hard time rebounding against this level of kid. I can’t imagjne Geno will go more than 8 deep and we still have a player we haven’t seen.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

The freshmen did not impress. Just 4 points among the four of them and 3 assists. Thought they would play with more fire.

Puzzling.

 

[TitleTown]

A stat that I expect Geno to mention to Azura a few hundred times:

Defensive Rebounds
5'11 Gabby 7
6'6 Azura 3

Stevens also had 4 offensive rebounds in 16 minutes of play.

 

[MilfordHusky]

The freshmen did not impress. Just 4 points among the four of them and 3 assists. Thought they would play with more fire.

Puzzling.

I think they were nervous and unsure. I saw positives from all of them, though not making shots.

 

[YellwJcket999]

I think Z takes minutes from Lou, Pheesa, and Gabby about equally. Tonight's minutes were affected by Gabby's recent injury, in my opinion.

KLS 2016-17 min/g = 32; Tonight = 31 min (~same). NaPheesa 2016-17 min/g =30.2; Tonight = 26 min. Gabby 2016-17 min/g = 29; Tonight = 17 min.

KLS 3.1% decrease. <<< Gabby 41.3% decrease.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Here's a stat I liked, though I recognize that Ft. Hays has a small line-up:

Blocks

Gabby--4

Napheesa--4

Azura--4

Geno had said that Z had 2 blocks in 12 practices. I think he got her attention.

 

[MilfordHusky]

KLS 2016-17 min/g = 32; Tonight = 31 min (~same). NaPheesa 2016-17 min/g =30.2; Tonight = 26 min. Gabby 2016-17 min/g = 29; Tonight = 17 min.

KLS 3.1% decrease. <<< Gabby 41.3% decrease.

Yes, for tonight, that was the case. I can do the math. I don't expect that to be an ongoing pattern. I think Gabby's injury last week limited her minutes. Gabby will NOT average 17 minutes per game this season. I think the Core 4 will be at 25-28 minutes. I expect that Crystal and Z will be close to that as well.

 

[donalddoowop]

The freshmen did not impress. Just 4 points among the four of them and 3 assists. Thought they would play with more fire.

Puzzling.

Scoring points is not the only important thing a player can do.

 

[RowdyFan]

Enough is enough...

All I will say is that it's a good thing this disgrace of a feed was free. 3 different machines and nothing but freeze after freeze. Complete unwatchable. If I had paid for this joke, I'd be on a mission to get a refund even if I had to drive to Storrs and spend $25 in gas to get $10 back.

Same here. I relied on the game thread.