I can understand the OP's point of view, but don't much agree with it. Doesn't matter how important the game was, the fact is that UConn did not perform, in a variety of ways. At least some of that was due to a Stanford team that, encouraged by a great crowd, played out of its mind for most of the night. I don't think UConn is that bad, nor do I think that , on most nights, Stanford will be that good. But on this particular night, Stanford was the better team for much of the night.
They tied many of UConn's players in knots. They neutralized MoJeff, and who do you know that's fast enough to do that? Their offense scored 88 points on the vaunted UConn defense. They made KML look like she had the speed of a land slug, and that is not because she suddenly got slower. It's because they had a defense to take care of her. They decided to make a punching bag out of Breanna, and UConn did not have a counterpunch. They slacked off Kiah, and it turned out to be the right thing to do. They deserve a great deal of credit for a great game plan and the ability to get players, including some young ones, to execute it. UConn, it seems, had young ones who, in the coach's judgment, were not even ready to try.
Point is, is was not just that UConn's players did not show up -- which is true. It's also that they played a team that was ready to take the win away from them.
