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Message: [QUOTE="Littlemin, post: 4277143, member: 10363"] They were better but the fact remains Auriemma benched two players who were an integral part of the team all year. How much that factored in, we’ll never know. But why are Fudd and Williams given such a pass; both played alright at best throughout the tournament yet Auriemma never even attempted to try something else. Bueckers shot the ball terrifically from 2, lousy from 3 and outside of the 5-1 assist to TOs against Mercer had more TOs than assists. Did he ever consider moving her off the ball to get her more shots since she was the only dependable scorer on the team? No, because that would have meant taking minutes from players he had evidently decided we’re going to get the minutes no matter what; so Bueckers, much like against Arizona last year, got off only 13 shots, way too few for a team that was starving for points. And I am not necessarily talking about minutes last night, he cut Muhl and Ducharme‘s minutes drastically all tournament so the possibility of having contingencies, plan B’s if needed had not even entered into the planning. Auriemma has certainly more than earned all the praise he has gotten as a coach, but if the goal this year was to get to the championship and be only quasi competitive he had a great tourney; if the goal was to win it all, he had a lousy one IMO. And this is not hindsight, I posted criticism of his decision to change the team when he did it against Mercer. [/QUOTE]