Georgia Tech Postgame Thread [Merged Thread]

[BobbyJ]

View attachment 71714 I never thought I’d see UConn WBB athletes unable or unwilling to discuss a game with the media, tough loss notwithstanding.

Smart move. Those kids would have a tough time trying to answer the questions they'd be asked after a game like that. Nothing to be gained.

 

[jdote33]

its interesting everyone is saying the fun is gone. that definitely happens when there are a lot of expectations. also happens when there is so much competition no one feels comfortable in their respective roles. this team knows its the last hurrah for the seniors and also still have the stain of last years upset. even Paige has mentioned just winning a national championship is all thats missing and is the only goal. But u cant win one in December. More importantly they r kids living out there dream. I wish they could enjoy it more and set smaller goals. Its not that serious, just playing the game they love. I really do think the team will be fine though by end of the month.

 

[SECbbfan24]

UCONN isn’t my primary team but I follow them because I respect Geno a lot but what the heck happened to Edwards? Feels like she has regressed a bit.

 

[eebmg]

Smart move. Those kids would have a tough time trying to answer the questions they'd be asked after a game like that. Nothing to be gained.

and maybe CD should handle the presser.

 

[Martin]

Might be a little harsh. They really needed another point guard so EW and CW can play off the ball.

There is an exponential negative affect on each of those players without a quality point guard. That’s the whole game really. Geno can’t teach anyone not named Paige to be a quality PG in 2 weeks.

 

[Veteran]

I think it's time for a serious discussion about just punting this season. Have Paige not comeback because she feels she needs to rush. If this is how the srs are going to play with no drive then what is the point. Not one sr ever steps up in the biggest moments.

Just out of curiosity, how many of the players do you think want to give up competing and punt?

 

[boontonbomber]

The coaches have got an unbelievably challenging situation facing them. Going to be really interesting to see how they handle it. The players can't be in a very good place, don't see any of the players as the type to shake things up, so it falls to the coaches. Hope they're up to it.

 

[Postie]

Thanks for pointing out something that should be obvious to anyone who understands the game, but still seems to be difficult for a lot of folks to grasp. HS rankings mean nothing in the college game. Dominating 16-17 year old kids, most of which are basically rec league level talent does not equate to having 18-22 year olds who take the game seriously up in your face competing. College coaches don't care how many points you scored in HS. As soon as they see you're not that good they're going to expose you. As for your comments on recruiting and also on development, have at it. It's a fair question that HS rankings can't answer.

CW has a thick body and was able to over power girls in High School she is a slasher scorer who is at her best in transition.Taking 3 pt shots is not her strong point.CW was ranked #1 in HS is she now the #1 senior? Westbrook was#2 in her class is she a top senior?Players must keep improving every year.

 

[JBK]

Do you think the fans that have fits over every missed layup, every win less than 40 points, or every player’s scoreless game have anything to do with added pressure? Maybe Christyn has seen all the posts calling for her to get pulled for some freshman? Could it be constant drip, drip, drip of fans’ complaints about the lack of, well, perfection that‘s adding to the stress?

The weight of expectations is enormous for UConn players.

Well said. Way too much pressure for most —-

 

[baggerbob]

Other than Amari giving some good minutes, and a pretty good game from Liv - the rest was just embarrassing. There were 4 returning players who started in the freakin' final 4 last year, plus one all Big 10 veteran player. I'm sorry, don't blame the injuries - most of those who played considerable minutes tonight just did not get it done. No excuses!

Anyone who says Dorka is comparable to Cardoso should now understand there is none.

 

[BobbyJ]

Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor??

***rudderless

So when did the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor?

 

[JBK]

Anyone who says Dorka is comparable to Cardoso should now understand there is none.

The only excuse is they look lost on offense. Did you see their offensive movement tonight ?
One field goal in the 4th Q
Great leaders make adjustments.

 

[RPM101370]

I wish everybody could just take a breath here. Losing your do-everything player of the year is tough. Also losing her backup is devastating. Point guard is the most important position. No, the offense didn’t look great even with Paige playing. But they had only four practice days to adjust to her absence and to Nika’s absence. How good would Tampa Bay look in their next road game if Brady went down? How good would Golden State look in their next road game if Curry went down?

Please, everyone, give them the time and space to adjust. None of our high-school all-Americans are true point guards. We can’t expect Evina to play power forward one minute and then be a point guard the next. Uconn runs a very complex read-and-react offense. You can’t just change that to “plays” for specific players in four days. You also can’t manufacture guards out of thin air to spell the starters. Of course the fourth quarter results are going to suck, the same players have been run into the ground. And this isn’t a ”Geno” or “Saylor” issue. We are down our THREE best guards.

Geno successfully recruited the #1 high school recruit to solve our outside shooting woes. Oh yeah, she’s also injured. This is a road game against a great/experienced coach, against a good (not great) team. We SUCKED (offensively) and we lost. Life goes on. This was Georgia Tech’s SuperBowl. Credit to them, they were amped and they won. Sometimes the other team wins. We’re so spoiled. Give our team the time and space to work through this. I’m not saying don’t be disappointed. But I am saying don’t lash out and don’t trash our coaches and players. Support your team. They clearly need that support most right now.

Note, on the men’s side #1 Purdue lost tonight to un-ranked and lowly Rutgers (blech, lol). On the women’s side Stanford also already has two losses this year. Neither of their seasons are “over“ and neither team is now considered a pushover borderline tournament team.

 

[huskiemaniac]

GEEZ..It's one of the most famous comedic cinematic lines, from Animal House.

 

[JBK]

This is not the time for the coach to be critical or dismissive of his kids.
Aside from one player this isn’t the most confident group of players he has ever assembled.
Even if he has to fake it, Geno needs to pump them up and applaud their good plays.
”You can do it Kippy!”

He can - he is the best of all time, but must go back to the days that he built this program - I hope he can remember those days.
He still did not have similar talent and yet won.

 

[TeamFirst!]

I was wrong in my projections. I thought they were Notre Dame without Paige but maybe at least temporarily that is a stretch. Overall though this game was to be expected. Georgia Tech had over 7000 fans and this might be their biggest game of the year and they smelled blood in the water. They were "up" for the game. Uconn lost by far their best player and now have had a series of lost players making endurance and depth an issue. Uconn was not "up" for this game and that's coaching as much as anything. It's no surprise they got discouraged and tired and tanked in the 4th quarter. They have been overplaying their starters all year. They also have been under too much pressure.

Overall I think Liv and Evina had decent games. Deberry had a solid game but you could see lots of confusion in the defensive assignments when she was in there. We had next to no dribble penetration because we have no penetrating guards. We have fast break guards and perimeter shooters and some that are not even good perimeter shooters. It's a weakness. They are supplementary players overall, not players who can make plays against top competition. They are all role players but Paige is the play maker. The person who can score against top competiton. The pressure they are under only magnifies the problem. So what do they do now? Reducing the pressure should be job one.

Just being the #1 rated recruit does not mean you are the #1 player in college. I think Paige was and I think Betts will be next year and Haley Jones was to a degree and Boston was but recruitment should not be about recruiting by a hoopgirls rating. It's about projecting the player at the college level. I think South Carolina got 2 recruits this past year better than any we recruited. We are not necessarily recruiting the best players currently. With Paige though this is still a very good team and as we go through this period I think it only makes this team better for March. We certainly have enough good players to maybe win it all.

Geno needs to do something about the pressure and maybe he is already starting that with the no press conference tonight. Few players thrive under that sort of pressure. Look at MLB. The Yankees sometimes choke under pressure while the team with the relaxed coach has his team playing loosely. I would say Paige is the only Uconn player able to deal with it well overall. These players worry about missing shots and messing up a pass and ...bingo, it happens. They are freaked out about screwing up.

I think the game plan tonight was to get the ball in the paint but with that high post offense the big players rarely receive the ball in a position to do a normal post move. Liv finally made some set shots but those were not good shot opportunities for her. This team is flawed in many areas without Paige. Lack of dribble penetration from the Point guard ( why not try CW there? ). If our guards do penetrate the opposing players just say go ahead and shoot because we have to get all the way to the basket to convert. We have a consistent lack of good positioning to receive the ball in the post area. Lack of outside shooting. Too many turnovers. Paige helps all of those areas and they do not have a replacement.

They need to try something else because tonight's lineup wasn't going to get it done even in an average night. Might as well keep throwing Caroline out there for similar PT and find some PT for Deberry too ( 10 minutes? ). At least both should improve from the experience. Sink or swim with Caroline. Having even a limping Azzi would help some.

 

[Orc]

Amari did more in a few minutes than Edwards and Dorka in many, many minutes. Edwards is clearly having some kind of mental block. Dorka is just not a player for this level of competition. I can't see how she succeeded in the Big 10. Amari must get much more opportunity.

Impressed with what I saw from Amari tonight. I hope she gets more minutes but doubt it with Genos stubborn ways

 

[huskiemaniac]

My thought re: the shirking of their postgame presser responsibilities is: if you revel in the confetti and the trophies and caps, etc., when things are going your way, you should face the music when they aren't. It was a poor choice, imo.

Here's hoping tonight was rock bottom.

 

[SCGamecock]

GT is a REALLY good defensive team. This was a trap game for a UConn team still figuring out things without Paige. Not dismissing the L because you all still have A LOT of talent and probably should've won, but this result doesn't surprise me. GT took us to the wire last year in the S16 and they pretty much returned that entire team. They are unranked, but you didn't lose to scrubs.

I still expect UConn to figure it out. Not sure when, but they will. Hold serve, no need to abandon the season. Huskies still in my final four.

 

[Newfie]

So when did the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor?

It was pointed out already, but it’s a line from Animal House, I think it was John Belushi. Great movie.

 

[D J B]

What a weird take to think answering meaningless questions from the media somehow teaches young athletes about accepting defeat and accountability. So they'll feel less bad about the loss if they don't answer questions from the media? They won't be accountable to their coaches and teammates (all that matters btw) unless they answer a question from Alexa Phillippou? Seriously?

Yes, seriously. They signed up for this by accepting a basketball scholarship from UConn for being one of the best basketball players in the country, which brings with it the the responsibility of taking credit for the outcome of their performance, good or bad, If a question from someone like Alexa Phillippou (whoever that is) or anyone else in the sports media is too much to handle, how are they going to handle what real life (outside of what sports throws at them, since that doesn't seem to be real life) throws at them?

 

[meyers7]

Some thoughts.

Some good

We rebounded...Ok. Not great but ok. Even total and got more offensive rebounds (but there were a lot of offensive rebounds to get)
Defensively we were pretty good. Only gave up 57 points. 38%/28% isn't bad. (even the FT defense was pretty good)
Deberry got some minutes and looked good offensively and rebounding
Double double for Nelson-Ododa
ONO, Williams, Westbrook all scored in double figures

One of the worst offensive games we've seen in many years. Soooo, it probably can't get any worse. And will probably get better with more time to adjust. (Hopefully)

Some bad

The biggest was shooting 31%/13%. If we just shoot our normal 48%/32% we win. (67 or 66 to 57)
2 pts 1-10 from two starters doesn't get it done.
6 pts from bench doesn't help much either.
16 TOs isn't horrible (not good either) but a 0.69 A/TO ratio......not good
Deberry defensively. Now I think we see why her minutes have been limited. But if she can get some points and rebound, might be worth it for what we are getting offensively from Edwards/Juhasz right now.
Losing to an unranked team. Always bad.

Honestly think they will play better against UCLA on Saturday. Not sure they will win. But I think they'll at least shoot better.

 

[Heytherego]

If you think forcing two sobbing players to face a room full of reporters somehow makes them better people or players, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree

Were they sobbing? Teams lose all the time and have to face reporters, this shouldn’t be any different and is kind of ridiculous they weren’t expected to do just because what? They aren’t use to losing and played bad?

 

[pvdoggy]

My thought re: the shirking of their postgame presser responsibilities is: if you revel in the confetti and the trophies and caps, etc., when things are going your way, you should face the music when they aren't. It was a poor choice, imo.

Here's hoping tonight was rock bottom.

I have seen Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and other top-ranked professional golfers skipped out of their post-round press OBLIGATION after a terrible round of golf. Sometimes you just have to flush it down the toilet and move on to the next game.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

Before the UCLA game I wouldn't bombard the team with...oh, there's so much to fix. Quite honestly, I don't see this huge hill to climb. It comes down to running an offense that exposes your strengths. I would focus on spacing in the half court. Driving is difficult because the preceding passes between players are too close. That means the defenders are also close and the driving lane is clogged. Or recovery on a shooter is a short distance. Longer passes...create more room to operate. And you can't fix all these injuries...so it's simply gut it out time.

 

[ccwarrior]

This is a team playing its first game since losing its starting point guard and backup point guard (who started at PG half their games last year). When a team is missing its point guards, I expect a lot of turnovers and a lot of crappy shots. Turnovers weren't much worse than usual. There were more possessions than usual, though, with prayers lofted or players shooting threes just because they couldn't think of anything else to do.

The outcome was worse than I expected, but the flow was about what I expected. What I didn't expect was all the missed bunnies. I agree with Rebecca that something has gotten inside Edwards's head.

I thought Ducharme played pretty well other than not shooting well. I liked the little bit of DeBerry that we saw.

The problems are far deeper thab this and have been brewing for years.

 

[STLCardinal]

The announcers were pretty good tonight, except for their obsession over UCONN losing to an unranked team. ESPN drowns itself in stats without context.

Glad they were good. For me, they are always a distraction, like people talking in a movie theater.

 

[Aluminny69]

So when did the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor?

I believe that's a line from Animal House

 

[cohenzone]

By that time when Bueckers gets back and that a big "if" the season is over. Bueckers will be too rusty to help for what little time is left to the season.

I don’t think players at her extremely high level are too bothered by rust assuming she gets to shoot some before she plays in a game. Her other skills won’t disappear.

 

[Vowelguy]

lol. The BY never disappoints. At 9:01, who would've guessed that the main complaint/criticism would be "the players aren't facing their loss."