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Message: [QUOTE="YKCornelius, post: 4543233, member: 9864"] Cferraro04, thanks for your thought-provoking analysis. I always look forward to your previews! Have a safe trip! As far as the match-ups go, I think Nika will guard Mimi Reid, since Reid is the one who will be bringing the ball up the court; I'm thinking LLS will guard Bailey and AG will guard Everette when the Huskies are in man-to-man coverage. What a topsy-turvy season it has been for the Red Storm. They started out strong in the first half of the season largely because they were an unknown commodity: an interesting blend of athletic, experienced players from the portal who loved to run and create havoc on offense. At first, teams had no idea what to make of them and really had no “scout” to plan to. Hence, what WBB saw was a bunch of quick, athletic portal players coming together and winning, albeit against a very weak non-conference schedule. Narrowly defeating Creighton at home in early December caused some AP pollsters’ heads to turn since it was, after-all, a win against largely the same team that went to the Elite Eight last year. Hey everybody, isn’t this an example of how the portal could turn around a program? Well…not really. The home win against Creighton was the game that exposed them as team that doesn’t have any depth, and simply ran a NYC playground offense: setting screens and picks to create a favorable match-up that their athletes would try to exploit one-on-one. That has been their identity throughout the entire season, and it is reflected in their stats and in their game results. Against under-sized teams (Xavier and DePaul) that chose to run with them, the Red Storm fared well. However, Big East teams with more deliberate offenses (like Marquette, Creighton and Villanova) made adjustments after their first games, and won decisively in round two. St John’s isn’t a team that spreads the floor, nor works the ball in and out to find the open three (although they have a few players who will gladly shoot from behind the arc). They are athletes whose bread and butter is their ability to create their shots off the dribble. The Red Storm rely heavily on getting the ball to Bailey and Everette, and one of these two will usually end up shooting the ball when the clock is winding down. The key to limiting their offensive productivity centers on Everette, their leading scorer. She is very quick and long, and loves the ball in her hands. However, she HEAVILY favors going to her right, which makes her easier to guard even if the defender is slower than her. I think the Huskies will defend St John’s even more effectively than they did in the first game. I am thinking UConn holds the Red Storm to under 50. I also think that The Red Storm’s style of play will allow for UConn to transition more which will result in a comfortable margin of victory. Finally, I see the bench playing more which will likely limit our offensive productivity, but save our legs for the track meet in Chicago on Saturday. I’m going to go with UConn 71, St John’s 46. Go Huskies! [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach