FSU Postgame Thread

[Ex Nutmegger]

I am appalled(appalled, I say!) that Florida State had 12 steals on UConn. Add those to our turnovers and it is very clear we are not handling the ball well enough. By the way, according to the box score, we only had three steals.

 

[MSGRET]

Seton hall??

I just finished the Seton Hall Prognosticator's Predictions before posting this. Man, I think I'm done for today.

 

[JordyG]

You didn't like her aggressiveness? Nine of 10 times, Dorka gets fouled and gets free throws on going to the basket. FSU is a very athletic team, most teams will foul her...

Again. It was a joke. Perhaps poorly executed, but still. I blame myself for being neither clear or using the appropriate . I guess you can teach a very old dog new tricks. @HuskyNan got the jab right when she said Dorka was +2 though.

 

[pvdoggy]

Just watched the replay of the game.

Not sure what to make of Ayanna Patterson as a player when she can only stay on the floor for 2 min in a game where Uconn has a super short bench. There were some people who were calling for her to be a starter before the start of this season, I just don't see it.

I wish someone would do a mind meld between Lou and Aubrey so Aubrey can get over the hesitancy when she has the ball.

Wish CD finds her shot soon because it is really not even close when she shoots the ball right now. Her misses are all over the place, left, right, short, long, no pattern to them at all. Other than that she played OK.

A lot of the turnovers seem to be from very lazy passes and it happens over and over.

 

[SLY63]

Someone commented that AE is back to her freshman form. I have to respectfully disagree. She is miles ahead of where she was freshman year

 

[Boreifs]

Just watched the replay of the game.

Not sure what to make of Ayanna Patterson as a player when she can only stay on the floor for 2 min in a game where Uconn has a super short bench. There were some people who were calling for her to be a starter before the start of this season, I just don't see it.

I wish someone would do a mind meld between Lou and Aubrey so Aubrey can get over the hesitancy when she has the ball.

Wish CD finds her shot soon because it is really not even close when she shoots the ball right now. Her misses are all over the place, left, right, short, long, no pattern to them at all. Other than that she played OK.

A lot of the turnovers seem to be from very lazy passes and it happens over and over.

UConn won several championships using only six players.

 

[Redux]

Someone commented that AE is back to her freshman form. I have to respectfully disagree. She is miles ahead of where she was freshman year

I suspect what was meant was that she was back to the mode of confidence, aggressiveness, purpose she had fallen away from last season. No question her skills and performance have advanced miles.

 

[hookshot]

Just watched the replay of the game.

Not sure what to make of Ayanna Patterson as a player when she can only stay on the floor for 2 min in a game where Uconn has a super short bench. There were some people who were calling for her to be a starter before the start of this season, I just don't see it.

I wish someone would do a mind meld between Lou and Aubrey so Aubrey can get over the hesitancy when she has the ball.

Wish CD finds her shot soon because it is really not even close when she shoots the ball right now. Her misses are all over the place, left, right, short, long, no pattern to them at all. Other than that she played OK.

A lot of the turnovers seem to be from very lazy passes and it happens over and over.

Other people recognized early on that she was very raw and not likely to contribute much this year, but I actually felt that she gave a pretty good 2 minute account of herself today - driving to basket, getting her foul shots, and a rebound or two, as I recall. She still has time to develop more this season but hard to tell if she will develop a shooters touch anytime soon. But look at Jackson on the men's team - he may never develop a shooters touch but still making major contributions with his athleticism and defense (which Patterson hasn't mastered yet)

 

[ctchamps]

This was an important win in that it kept two streaks alive - CD’s coaching win streak without a loss and the streak where the team has not lost two games in a row.

Lots of things stated I agree with but my focus has been on the three unknowns of Brady, Aubrey and Carolyn. I felt this was Carolyn’s best game by far. And for me she’s ahead of where I expect her to be after concussions, hip surgery and a stiff upper neck/upper back.

Hopefully this progression continues and she returns to the level she was last season.

Aubrey still needs development working with team schemes on offense and defense. Seems to get lost at times. But her bigger issue is confidence. When she has it she’s a major contributor. When she lacks it her play is severely impacted. She lacked it this game.

Brady is a freshman learning that there are a lot of opposing players that she just can’t physically intimidate like she did in high school.

 

[ThisJustIn]

WE'RE DOOOOOOOOMED.

Also, it's fans saying that, not the players.

 

[hookshot]

This was an important win in that it kept two streaks alive - CD’s coaching win streak without a loss and the streak where the team has not lost two games in a row.

Lots of things stated I agree with but my focus has been on the three unknowns of Brady, Aubrey and Carolyn. I felt this was Carolyn’s best game by far. And for me she’s ahead of where I expect her to be after concussions, hip surgery and a stiff upper neck/upper back.

Hopefully this progression continues and she returns to the level she was last season.

Aubrey still needs development working with team schemes on offense and defense. Seems to get lost at times. But her bigger issue is confidence. When she has it she’s a major contributor. When she lacks it her play is severely impacted. She lacked it this game.

Brady is a freshman learning that there are a lot of opposing players that she just can’t physically intimidate like she did in high school.

You mean Patterson; Brady who was ready to contribute right out of the box, never got that opportunity due to season ending injury

 

[ctchamps]

You mean Patterson; Brady who was ready to contribute right out of the box, never got that opportunity due to season ending injury

Yep Patterson. Thanks for the correction.

 

[JoePgh]

Yep Patterson. Thanks for the correction.

While we're correcting, you also referred to Carolyn when you meant Caroline. The only Carolyn in the building was Ms. Peck.

 

[OldSchooler]

With all due respect to the greatest and most successful assistant coach in WCB history -- AND THIS IS MEANT AS NO CRITICISM -- CD is a very conservative coach (bless her heart). She likes to go with her winners. That's why we saw no Amari, no Ines, and only 2 minutes of Ayanna. That's OK. Her proven winners got her the victory. But when you go with your top 6 players for all but 2 minutes of a game, you have to expect them to get tired, no matter how good they are. Exhaustion leads to a late-game dropoff in accuracy, from the field and the foul line, and in the crispness of your passing (resulting in TOs and seemingly sloppy play). IMHO, that's what led to this nail-biter of a finish.
CD is probably the best observer of who's performing in practice. The 3 benchwarmers need to earn a few minutes of PT, not just for their own stats, but for the good of the team. That means putting out and executing in practice, and earning the trust of the coaches.

On another matter, just curious -- does this game count as a W in Geno's career record?

 

[Papa33]

Well many fans wanted bigs and now we have them. What we need are shooters and ball handlers. We still have over 50 pts sitting on the bench. We get Azzi back at some point which will be huge. Im hoping before the South Carolina game. I believe Christmas is about 3 weeks out for Azzi. We were told 3-6 weeks before she can come back. Im not so sure about that based on everybody else coming back later then expected. First we need to get healthy and hopefully the Christmas break helps. Until then we have to figure out a way to not put ourselves in positions of picking up our dribble, which has led to poor passes, and TO's. I expect defenses to pressure the ball against us and key on Lou and Edwards. That means we need to run plays for Caroline Aubrey and everybody else. Setting pics and screens for Lou will help too. Next up Seton Hall and that wont be easy . When you look at our rebounds and shooting percentage we look really good. I would expect Geno will call Chris and tell her how to run practices and then the Christmas break. Get Well Geno.

"Until then we have to figure out a way to not put ourselves in positions of picking up our dribble, which has led to poor passes, and TO's."

Right on, Tony. And picking up the dribble often comes from aimless movement on offense without seeing openings and teammates movements, screens, etc.

 

[uconnfan68]

I was at the game, with a good seat fairly close to the court where UConn was shooting in the first half. I love that venue.

There was a skeleton crew for the UConn band, four tubas and not much else. The National Anthem was sung by a woman named Aaliyah, nice job, looked her up and found that she died in 2001. So I will have to check that out further. Rizzotti was courtside, and a flashy young woman in pink sitting near her was Dijonai Carrington of the Sun, formerly Baylor, I think. Hopefully she has gotten over that non-call.

It seemed to come very easy in the first half, open look after open look especially on the interior. It just seemed to be clicking. In part it was because Florida State was missing their threes and their mad dashes to the basket were coming up empty. We were controlling the boards and able to get out in the open court where we tend to flourish.

I think Nika had nine assists in the first half and I got a close up view of how she does do an amazing job through slight movements, perfect timing, accuracy, and touch, of subtly "setting up the chessboard" so that the player gets the ball in perfect position to score.

She lost her cool though, twice, in the first half. Once, after being fouled by one of the interchangeable and pesky FSU guards, she threw an elbow that was reviewed. I was shocked that nothing was called, I was hoping at best for a Flagrant One. Maybe she got lucky and the elbow did not land, I couldn`t tell from being there. A second time was when she picked up her second foul, trying to run over someone setting a pick. Reminded me of Geno`s comment about how she hit someone because she hadn`t done so in a while.

First time I have ever seen a lane violation twice in a row. Nice that Dorka got some free throw practice in a game situation.

In the second half FSA was making more of their threes (I was surprised to see they were only 8 for 29 overall) and getting to the line more, and as a result we were not getting out on transition. The half court offense struggled in the second half. It seemed stagnant. We controlled the pace in the first half, FSU did in the second half. Aaliyah and Lou made some critical plays, largely on individual effort. We did play some zone at times in the second half and I think that was largely effective - took away some of their driving ability and helped keep our fouls down.

Latson is very talented and fortunately she fouled out with plenty of time left in the fourth. Lou really got clobbered taking the charge on the fifth foul, great job on her part to stand in there and I think she had four fouls herself. On that score, all of our players in foul trouble were able to stay on the floor while two key pieces for FSU fouled out.

I have seen all of our home games (Texas, NC State, Princeton) and I think FSU was as tough an opponent as any of them. They are certainly the quickest team we have faced at home. Their offense is largely to shoot from three, or to have one of their guards take it north to south and try to make the shot or draw contact. It did not work in the first half, but it did in the second.

I was close to their offense in the second half and it seemed to me that FSU benefitted from the referees going from a let them play approach to the exact opposite. Hate when that happens. One ref in particular. There were numerous times where there was at most incidental contact that was created by FSU guards throwing themselves at the defender. How is that a foul on the defender? Having said that, I think Caroline in particular has to do a better job to avoid silly contact.

I have never seen a team get whacked in the face more than this team. We must have had UConn players on the floor holding their faces at least six times today. Fortunately, nothing that appeared serious.

So great first half, mediocre second half, but take the win and everyone emerged healthy. Great games from Aaliyah and Lou, very good Dorka, good Nika - we needed all four - and so so from everyone else. In fairness, Caroline did have her moments, especially a layup in traffic late. She is clearly a gifted offensive player, just a bit out of sinc at the moment.

I watched a little bit of Iowa State - Villanova. Villanova didn`t show me much, but Iowa State looked good. Soares is enormous.

The UConn band is in Myrtle Beach for the football game. I’m sure most of the pep bands are in that group.

 

[hoophuskee]

We get Azzi back at some point which will be huge. Im hoping before the South Carolina game.

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Redux]

when you go with your top 6 players for all but 2 minutes of a game, you have to expect them to get tired, no matter how good they are

There shouldn't have been substantial fatigue in the third quarter. There were lots of factors, many of them UConn's fault, that the game so drastically changed character during that period, but the single biggest change was that FSU upped its game and, uncharacteristically, started hitting from the outside.

...does this game count as a W in Geno's career record?

Yes, the game counts as a W in Geno's career record.

 

[npignatjr]

I thought our beloved coach CD made a strategic error by pulling Dorka and Caroline and putting Aubrey and Ayanna in. Aubrey reverted to two years ago and just stood on the perimeter; Ayanna couldn’t handle the slapping at the ball and got flustered. Florida State went on a run, then was able to regroup mentally and settle in.

Good analysis. I thought the same thing, when it happened.

 

[sun]

With all due respect to the greatest and most successful assistant coach in WCB history -- AND THIS IS MEANT AS NO CRITICISM -- CD is a very conservative coach (bless her heart). She likes to go with her winners. That's why we saw no Amari, no Ines, and only 2 minutes of Ayanna.

In the post game presser, Dailey mentioned that Ines sprained her ankle in practice "yesterday" - the day before the game. (see below)

Yes, the game counts as a W in Geno's career record.

IIRC from preciously looking up the rule, the game doesn't count towards Geno's W-L record. it counts towards Dailey's W-L record.
It's the official record in the UConn record books.
When the Assistant Coach runs the team, I believe that person becomes the coach of record for that game.
The coach has duties such as submitting the line up card and making game time decisions that leads to the team winning or losing.
Dailey was designated to be the UConn coach for the game by Geno.

 

[npignatjr]

Everyone covered the main points already. I was glad to see Dorka back (happy birthday) and she had solid numbers. However, at 6'5'' she needs to finish stronger and better at the rim, and not get her shots blocks by smaller players! This was an issue last year as well. I will give her a break today because of the injury and layoff, but this stuff will come back to haunt the team. Also, did anyone else see "poor D" by Aubrey. forget the fouls, I thought she played soft on defense, gave up too much of a cushion. How was Florida St. 11-1 and not ranked? Did they play that bad of competition to date?

Yes on all points

 

[Redux]

When the Assistant Coach runs the team, I believe that person becomes the coach of record for that game.

Not usually. The NCAA guidelines say "Generally, if a coach misses a game or limited amount of games due to a temporary illness ... the wins or losses by the team in his or her absence will usually go to the head coach." However, the guidelines also say that the specific school can make that determination, but I have been under the impression that all the wins during Geno's tenure have been credited to him (the 1,000 win achievement, for example, included Dailey wins). I can be wrong; it has happened (on some incredibly rare instances).

 

[Boreifs]

Wouldn’t it be nice if a reporter would ask for an Azzi update. It’s almost like she’s not on the team anymore. If the 3-6 week estimate was correct, she might be available for the Creighton and Marquette games. IMO, that is a legitimate question for our press corps to ask, even if the answer is “no comment”.