Ft Hays State Postgame Thread

[D J B]

She was wearing a boot

Anytime you are wearing only one boot, it's a problem.

 

[Boreifs]

Well well whatddyaknow ? A thread already created after an exhibition game of Liv vs Dorka. I guess "we're doomed" until Dorka starts and Liv comes off the bench . . .

Well, Dorka has offensive moves that Olivia will never have because she is faster, more athletic and makes her move as soon as she gets the ball. I have never seen Olivia do that. I’m glad we have them both, but offensively they aren’t even in the same league. Olivia is a great defensive presence; they will make a great tandem five.

 

[CL82]

Not a sky is falling post, but next week will tell a lot more about everyone. ARK size and athleticism will be an order of magnitude higher the Ft Hays.

Ya think?

 

[Stymie]

as I wrote earlier, this was a no win situation for Olivia. Either she would have a great game but it would just be another exhibition vs an inferior opponent, or she would struggle and the calls for Dorka to start would come. Not going to overreact to one exhibition game. Dorka still has horrible ft % and other teams will be sending her to the line if she does not improve.

They’ll have to send her to the line because the won’t be able to stop her in close.
You saw her inside work ( granted, against shorties), but the footwork and spin moves are undeniable. And with both hands.
There is NO WAY she doesn’t get major minutes.

 

[Boreifs]

By the way, Azzi is built like a solid granite rock. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a shooter look like a strong side safety. No one is going to push her around.

 

[Heytherego]

 

[CL82]

I think initially Caroline had "deer in the headlights eyes" but settled down in the fourth quarter and displayed her complete game. And I second your emotion relative to using Caroline in lieu of the Caroline Ducharme moniker which is to me disrespectful. She is her own person. It is a lazy way referring to her.

Personally, I like the history and continuity behind the Caroline Ducharme nickname though I haven’t used it yet. I’m sure Caroline would be happy to be referenced with any of them. She looks to be a very good player.

 

[CL82]

Good obs as usual OD. I want to add one more obs (kudos) on the game. One that no one has touched on. The production quality of the broadcast, in light of the complete and utter failure of their last effort, that being first night. A flawless broadcast today. Not once did I experience a freeze frame.

The reason for my appreciation for the quality of the broadcast is because I’m a moving target. I’m on a cruise ship off the coast of Mexico (out of Long Beach) headed south to Puerto Vallarta doing about 21 kts. Lots of opportunities for freeze frame or loss of signal.

I was extremely surprised and pleased with the quality of the picture, as well as the overall play of our team. I enjoyed reading all of the comments shared here. A tip o’ the turban and two thumbs up to UConn’s audio visual department.

Humble brag

 

[Charliebball]

I DO love Liv.
Always working hard and a real team player.
With her tools and her experience-I THINK SHE NEEDS A SHOT OF AGGRESSION!
By that, I mean she needs to play more with a chip on her shoulder, show more aggression, stake out her Real Estate.
Gonna foul? Foul hard.
Want that rebound? RIP it down.
A hard foul costs just as many foul shots as a soft one.
I really, really want her to do well.
Is she hearing footsteps? (Dorka, Aayliah?)
If I were a confidant of hers, (and I’m not) I’d tell her to let it all out, play unafraid, leave it all on the court.
And while you’re in there- take no prisoners.

there's going to be plenty of court time for ONO and Dorka and some of it will be together.........say what you want about ONO, her defensive presence in the lane is missed when she's not in the game and I'm not sure even Dorka can replace that......

 

[Dokey]

The second team looked pretty good. I think 49 bench points today.

Of course what exactly is the second team? I think we have the luxury to start thinking in terms of rotation, not starters. I could see ONO starting but being pulled within a couple of minutes, the way we play bench seniors on senior night, but re-entering whenever we needed to go with a big (as in length) line-up. Given that, I would be shocked if the starting five in this exhibition started a Final Four game. My starting rotation would be Paige, Dorka, CW, Evina, Azzi, Caroline, AE, Nika, Ono. We will see if the others can improve and/or get healthy to break into that rotation. Constantly putting fresh players on the floor could run opposing teams ragged.

 

[D J B]

Gotta love Geno.

 

[Ron and Vida]

Quintessential Geno

 

[Ron and Vida]

Went to the game and loved it
Leave the evaluations to the BY experts but I saw an exciting team today
and from what I saw we don’t have to speculate when Geno is going to retire for the next four years

 

[Charliebball]

Because I hadn't seen her play. By the same token, people have said "Azzi doesn't miss" - she was 3-3 in H1, and 0-5 in H2. So her shooting was not as good as anticipated. IMHO.

Are you really going to determine how good or CD are based on the results of one meaningless exhibition game?.......who did shoot well from three in the second half on UConn? Nobody............I don't think they made one three as a team........Azzi was 3 for 8 from three, that's .375%.........based on last year's shooting stats that would place her at number two on the team behind PB and ahead of CW and NM (.343) and EW at (.339).......Ducharme was 0-3 from three.........is she going to go 0 for the season? BTW Diana Taurasi's UConn career three point shooting average was 3.92%...........

 

[ccwarrior]

She was not in uniform. Back problem?

Didn’t I see soft boot on her right foot?

 

[SVCBeercats]

Personally, I like the history and continuity behind the Caroline Ducharme nickname though I haven’t used it yet. I’m sure Caroline would be happy to be referenced with any of them. She looks to be a very good player.

More than likely she would want to be referenced with her own legacy.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Are you really going to determine how good or CD are based on the results of one meaningless exhibition game?.......who did shoot well from three in the second half on UConn? Nobody............I don't think they made one three as a team........Azzi was 3 for 8 from three, that's .375%.........based on last year's shooting stats that would place her at number two on the team behind PB and ahead of CW and NM (.343) and EW at (.339).......Ducharme was 0-3 from three.........is she going to go 0 for the season? BTW Caitlyn Clark who everybody thinks is the best shooter of them all in college ball shot .406 from three last season.....

I believe Azzi was 3-6 and Caroline was 0-4 from the arc.

 

[EricLA]

Are you really going to determine how good or CD are based on the results of one meaningless exhibition game?.......who did shoot well from three in the second half on UConn? Nobody............I don't think they made one three as a team........Azzi was 3 for 8 from three, that's .375%.........based on last year's shooting stats that would place her at number two on the team behind PB and ahead of CW and NM (.343) and EW at (.339).......Ducharme was 0-3 from three.........is she going to go 0 for the season? BTW Caitlyn Clark who everybody thinks is the best shooter of them all in college ball shot .406 from three last season.....

No and that wasn't the point of my post. I was replying to @SVCBeercats .

In my first post in the thread, I talked about each player . I said I was surprised to see (IMHO) that Dorka was even better than expected. He (SVC) asked "why - Geno has heaped praise on her - why were you surprised" or something like that.

So my answer to him was that I hadn't seen Dorka play in a full game before in a UCONN uniform, and even tho Geno had praised her pre-season, I felt she was even better than I thought she would be.

Then to make my point, I added that even tho Geno said Azzi rarely misses, she shot 0-5 in the 2nd half, and 3-8 for the game. Given her rep as a lights out shooter, in this game, her shooting was not as good as expected.

BUT bottom line - I must have missed where I said "I am going to determine how good and CD are based on the results of one meaningless exhibition game". I'm guessing you didn't read the back and forth between SVC and myself, and if you read my original post on the game thoughts about 3 posts into this thread, you will see what I thought about Azzi THIS GAME (as well as the rest of the team).

FYI here's what I said about the freshmen:

Azzi – didn’t notice her defense much, and she missed a few shots. Mostly I saw was her knocking down 3 point shots. Tremendous shooting in the 1st half. 2nd half, not so much.. And some nice court vision for a great pass to Liya in Q4.

Caroline - ragged early on - missed everything, but really put together a terrific Q4 and showed a lot of what she is capable of doing.

 

[D J B]

Went to the game and loved it
Leave the evaluations to the BY experts but I saw an exciting team today
and from what I saw we don’t have to speculate when Geno is going to retire for the next four years

That's awesome. Everything you said.

Best.

 

[D J B]

Are you really going to determine how good or CD are based on the results of one meaningless exhibition game?.......who did shoot well from three in the second half on UConn? Nobody............I don't think they made one three as a team........Azzi was 3 for 8 from three, that's .375%.........based on last year's shooting stats that would place her at number two on the team behind PB and ahead of CW and NM (.343) and EW at (.339).......Ducharme was 0-3 from three.........is she going to go 0 for the season? BTW Diana Taurasi's UConn career three point shooting average was 3.92%...........

You need to be careful here. At some point, Lucy is going to show up and try to take your ball away.

 

[D J B]

They’ll have to send her to the line because the won’t be able to stop her in close.
You saw her inside work ( granted, against shorties), but the footwork and spin moves are undeniable. And with both hands.
There is NO WAY she doesn’t get major minutes.

You're trying to play violin for a water buffalo here.

 

[Charliebball]

No and that wasn't the point of my post. I was replying to @SVCBeercats .

In my first post in the thread, I talked about each player . I said I was surprised to see (IMHO) that Dorka was even better than expected. He (SVC) asked "why - Geno has heaped praise on her - why were you surprised" or something like that.

So my answer to him was that I hadn't seen Dorka play in a full game before in a UCONN uniform, and even tho Geno had praised her pre-season, I felt she was even better than I thought she would be.

Then to make my point, I added that even tho Geno said Azzi rarely misses, she shot 0-5 in the 2nd half, and 3-8 for the game. Given her rep as a lights out shooter, in this game, her shooting was not as good as expected.

BUT bottom line - I must have missed where I said "I am going to determine how good and CD are based on the results of one meaningless exhibition game". I'm guessing you didn't read the back and forth between SVC and myself, and if you read my original post on the game thoughts about 3 posts into this thread, you will see what I thought about Azzi THIS GAME (as well as the rest of the team).

FYI here's what I said about the freshmen:

Azzi – didn’t notice her defense much, and she missed a few shots. Mostly I saw was her knocking down 3 point shots. Tremendous shooting in the 1st half. 2nd half, not so much.. And some nice court vision for a great pass to Liya in Q4.

Caroline - ragged early on - missed everything, but really put together a terrific Q4 and showed a lot of what she is capable of doing.

I got you.........no, I didn't read all of the posts........I was a bit surprised that you would be so concerned so i'm glad that was not the case........I expect to shoot above 400% from three at a minimum over her career and she may very well challenge KML's career .447% three point average if she can stay healthy.........players with superb form like that rarely go into long shooting slumps.......the same applies to her back court mate who's hardly chopped liver either.....

 

[EricLA]

I got you.........no, I didn't read all of the posts........I was a bit surprised that you would be so concerned so i'm glad that was not the case........I expect to shoot above 400% from three at a minimum over her career and she may very well challenge KML's career .447% three point average if she can stay healthy.........players with superb form like that rarely go into long shooting slumps.......the same applies to her back court mate who's hardly chopped liver either.....

WOW I would love to see that!!!

 

[eebmg]

I think Paige will never reach 30 pts again.

“I’m excited just because I can get more into my passing game this year,” Bueckers said. “I’ve loved passing way more than I have scoring, so anytime that I can pass, I’m going to pass.”

 

[UCONNRPh]

So happy to have a live video feed on this out here Providence way - added so much over audio alone being able to see faces of the, greatly expanded, roster.

Wow - what fun & what potential for the season.

Thanks a ton Geno for letting us get a look at so many recruits we've heard about.

Very different team IMHO than in recent years:

1) depth
2) height in numbers
3) 14 on the roster
4) experience in varied shapes & sizes from grad transfers to Olympic, etc.

Long time fan since the 1990s and soo happy to have on the computer to watch besides my live trips to Mohegan and the like. Will try for Arkansas in Hartford - but more difficult drive from the Providence area than Storrs.

Have fun all.

* SAME HERE IN RALEIGH---WAS AWESOME TO SEE IT!!

CAN'T WAIT FOR TUESDAY GAME