Geno likes to experiment

[pap49cba]

Deliberately did not press in the 2nd half because he wanted to see how the team did playing straight up man-to-man.

Geno Auriemma
On the team’s performance tonight
Every game you play this early in the season you find a lot of positives and you find things that you need to get better at as the season goes on. Last night we didn’t defensive rebound the ball. Today on defense in the first half, as long as our pressure was there, we thought we could control the game and we did. But in the second half, we didn’t want to press them. We just played them straight up man-to-man.

Some of our young guys got beat on the same thing time after time. So we could have pressed them the entire game but I don’t think we would have learned as much.

 

[Tonyc]

What a great observation and teaching lesson by Geno. Always going with the teams strengths and working on their weaknesses when time permits. Great coaching.

 

[Kibitzer]

The experiment that I like (and would never have dreamt of) is putting Breanna out front, matched up with smaller opponents' guards, when UConn puts on a full-court press. Here's how I see it:

UConn scores. As the other team has someone try to inbound the ball from the end line, she is confronted by Breanna and her formidable wing span, making a straight-ahead pass difficult unless it is a risky lob. (Amazingly, most players forget or don't know that after a made basket they can either run laterally along the end line or even pass to a teammate who is out-of-bounds along the end line, then let her pass it in without being harrassed by Breanna.)

So the safest option is an inbounds pass to either flank. The poor girl who takes this pass is immediately pinned against the sideline by Breanna (swooping in from the end line), plus another defender (usually Caroline, Kelly, KML, or Bria).

However the situation develops, Breanna continues to put pressure on whichever guard has the ball, to the extent that this is possible. And smaller players (that's about everyone not named Griner) have a challenge making a pass (or, later, a shot) over her or taking a long detour to dribble around her.

The Geno-ious in this is in not doing the logical thing (having 6'4" Breanna back there with Dolson, deterring cherry-pickers) but, instead, having an athletic player with a 7'1" wing span making life miserable for 5'8" guards.

Once the opponent gets into the fore-court (often after using a lot of shot-clock time), Breanna will switch to defending a forward/wing.

Anyhow, that's how I see it. And the announcers/analysts repeatedly say, "That Breanna Stewart -- she's EVERYWHERE!"

 

[arch]

The experiment that I like (and would never have dreamt of) is putting Breanna out front, matched up with smaller opponents' guards, when UConn puts on a full-court press. Here's how I see it:

UConn scores. As the other team has someone try to inbound the ball from the end line, she is confronted by Breanna and her formidable wing span, making a straight-ahead pass difficult unless it is a risky lob. (Amazingly, most players forget or don't know that after a made basket they can either run laterally along the end line or even pass to a teammate who is out-of-bounds along the end line, then let her pass it in without being harrassed by Breanna.)

So the safest option is an inbounds pass to either flank. The poor girl who takes this pass is immediately pinned against the sideline by Breanna (swooping in from the end line), plus another defender (usually Caroline, Kelly, KML, or Bria).

However the situation develops, Breanna continues to put pressure on whichever guard has the ball, to the extent that this is possible. And smaller players (that's about everyone not named Griner) have a challenge making a pass (or, later, a shot) over her or taking a long detour to dribble around her.

The Geno-ious in this is in not doing the logical thing (having 6'4" Breanna back there with Dolson, deterring cherry-pickers) but, instead, having an athletic player with a 7'1" wing span making life miserable for 5'8" guards.

Once the opponent gets into the fore-court (often after using a lot of shot-clock time), Breanna will switch to defending a forward/wing.

Anyhow, that's how I see it. And the announcers/analysts repeatedly say, "That Breanna Stewart -- she's EVERYWHERE!"

See UConn men circa 1989/90.

 

[Wonkster]

.
I got news for everyone. Experimentation is all the early season is about to Geno. Always has been. The only difference this and some other seasons holds is that there are more combinations to try.

 

[Wbbfan1]

I'm not sure I like Breanna out front matched up against a guard. O'Connor scored most of her points when Breanna was guarding her. Kelly was holding her in check, but Breanna was losing her in her motion which allowed her to get the Wide Open 3's which she made.

 

[meyers7]

See UConn men circa 1989/90.

Or Quincy IL High School circa 1980-82