Georgia Tech Postgame Thread [Merged Thread]

[Littlemin]

No real comment on the game, poor by the players, poor by the coaches.

But I will comment on the players not talking to the media after the game; after all the times opposing teams had to face the media after getting thrashed by Uconn, and those times are measured in YEARS, I think it is a horrible decision, whoever made it. It is a GAME and you lost, face it and move on. And no I don’t think it will build character, etc., etc.; it is just the right and standup thing to do.

 

[Happydad745]

I've done hundreds of Lasik pre- and post-op exams. Give me your reasons why she needs Lasik

1-8 3 pt range...missed the rim 3 or more times.

 

[UcMiami]

Yes.
Kim Barnes Arico

That would be 350 games between losses to unranked teams - though I suspect, GT may be ranked soon as they have beaten two ranked teams in a row. I believe St John's ended ranked as well. St. John's moved to 20 after the win and to 14 in the last AP poll on Mar 12th and were a 3 seed in the NCAA.

 

[D J B]

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

So, please fill us in. Or are you just 'drive-bying' to stir something up?

 

[ccwarrior]

Maybe they need a moment to focus their energy elsewhere. Maybe they want to focus forward. I'm sure they have a good reason. I'm reading these comments from "fans" and I probably wouldn't do a presser either. Tough loss. Move on. Not the time to lose their confidence.

How many times have we absolutely destoyed other teams and seen them address the media? It certainly isn’t a good look.

 

[uconnfan68]

away from home and not able to watch. Checked score occasionally. UConn is down the number 1 player in the college game who is also the primary ball handler, not to mention scorer. It’s only been a few days to adjust. The second ball handler type I suppose is Evina then Nika who is more of a ball handler than Evina. And of course Anna left. That’s 3 of 4 possible ball handlers GA recruited not available right now. Missing Aubrey the best on ball defender and Nika also a pest on D. Not to forget what Paige brings to D. Not too hard to project issues with those absences from the backcourt where O and D are usually generated. Based on my look at the box, throw in horrible shooting by Aliyah, Caroline and Dorka and Azzi also unavailable and it becomes near impossible to win against decent competition. I don’t care what rank the recruits have been in high school, it matters a lot what their individual skills are. The D wasn’t that bad but we are what we are right now and it’s unlikely to be easy when several players aren’t shooting well. Getting some of the wounded back should help.

“Not able to watch” was the best outcome. The box score won’t do it justice.

 

[LwrcasefaN]

How many times have we absolutely destoyed other teams and seen them address the media? It certainly isn’t a good look.

And who has kept track of how many of those teams didn't show up? I haven't. I don't even look at pressers. Don't see the need. If it's what the TEAM needed...I'm good.

 

[victor64]

I just read ESPN's review of the game. It included Geno's post game comments. I thought they were honest and right on target.

One comment of note and I am paraphrasing: "I get really good players that normally get better and better. That has not happened with this group."

As disappointed as he with his team, he is most certainly beating himself up too. His quotes indicate full ownership.

 

[uconnever]

Wow AE, what is up with her. She has a mental thing going on but she looks out of shape to me also. Slow and sluggish. Dorka really stood out to me when we played Ohio state, but she looks so awkward out there and doesn’t even look like the same player. She runs weird and looks uncoordinated like she isn’t cut out for this level of basketball. This surprises me a lot. I hope Geno works his magic and we grow into the team we all expected to be and these are growing pains, but I don’t think it’s in the cards this year. These seniors just aren’t good enough. I’ve stood by them and believed that this was their year and it still may be, but Geno should go young and get the youngins ready for the tourney and let the seniors play their role but not expect much anymore. I think it’s an awkward year because our young girls are the better players but it’s hard to bench the seniors. The biggest thing as Geno said is this is one of his worst shooting teams and it shows. They can’t shoot so they aren’t as difficult to defend. On our best night we can beat anyone, but unlike past UConn teams those nights are rare and I believe it’s because we can’t shoot consistently enough.

 

[Boreifs]

Can ANYONE make a shot?

Rhetorical question

 

[Longtime fan]

Some thoughts on the Georgia Tech game:

• This was a tough game to watch tonight, but not completely unexpected with UConn shorthanded against a good GT team. UConn is going to be a work-in-progress for a while as new players step in, injured players return, and everyone adjusts to their new roles on this team.
• UConn has had their fair share of injuries through the years, but I cannot remember another game when the Huskies took the court down four key players.
• It appeared that Paige did not make the trip, which I expected. Traveling on planes and through airports on a pair of crutches is not particularly easy or safe.
• This was “Liv’s Home Coming Game” and she played very well until Geno was forced to sit her in the 3rd qtr after a questionable foul call on what appeared to be a clear block.
• Rebecca described Aaliyah’s shooting woes as the yips. I guess that’s as good an explanation as any.
• I didn’t even realize Amari had entered the game until she scored. She gave UConn some quality minutes in her very first PT with the Huskies.
• I know this one hurts. Everyone needs to hang in there until the cavalry arrives.

This is the first time memory where I feel it is justified to criticize the coaching. I think UCONN showed up with nothing. The team was rudderless, had no clear offensive plan, and lacked passion. The coaches don't seem yet to have recognized who can do what. It is clear that Dorka cannot shoot, and isn't much of an inside presence. She has poor hands and is slow as a turtle, It is clear that Edwards has collapsed. This is the most shocking element of the year. We all expected her to elevate her game and become star. But she should not be on the court. She throws the ball away. She misses put backs and lay-ups, and her outside shot is a waste of time. Williams cannot be turned loose as the new Paige. She can do certain things well, but she can be out of control when she believes, " it is all on her." And Westbrook is a capable, but limited guard who cannot play 40 minutes. Anyone who thinks she will be selected in the WNBA draft is daft. I do give the coaches credit for letting DeBerry play, and she showed some skills. Is she ailing or weak, somehow, because she was our best player and yet limited to about 5 minutes ? Mir should either be given a chance or not appear. She gives a look of a person who has zero confidence in herself or what she can do. Is this what the coaches have done for her in the past year plus? Everything was predictable, dog slow, and unimaginative. We have no outside shooters at all. I know that Caroline can be, but she cannot create her shot yet. And when she rushes...she misses. This group has no chance of beating anyone. I expected the coaches to come up with something exciting, imaginative and aggressive. They get an "F". Maybe they are out of ideas. We are going to lose a lot of games. This was not a game to encourage top recruits to sign on. We'll see how they respond. But everyone could see, that this group has nothing.

 

[Huskyfan63]

If we play like tonight? We could lose to any team. There is no excuse for the way they played. Can’t blame it on youth or lack of talent. They played tight. The shooting was atrocious. They looked poorly coached.

You're right. What you can blame it on is a group of players who haven't played much as a unit, especially without one very important court general. Not all that surprising, but time to start developing cohesive execution without Paige the security blanket in the mix.

 

[Stymie]

Biggest problem was offense. No creativity, few if any player screening, turnovers galore, even when open many shots didn't even hit iron. Where were offensive plays run by UConn? GT looked like a good team that knew what to do, and they could execute as well. Not sure Geno can create some basic offensive plays in short amount of time but that is what's needed.

 

[Cornell Lt]

Does UConn have a psychologist on staff ? If they don't they should get one. This team is completely lost right now.

 

[Longtime fan]

the starting line up is not the move. Dorka is not consistent with her outside shot. Aaliyah has only made one 3 (that I can remember) since she arrived. The way Aaliyah and Dorka are playing, they don't deserve to start either.
CD on wing needs to start. Amari was good today. I hate that she was pulled so quickly. She got lost on defense a few times but she was rebounding.
I made a comment last week that losing Shea may be bigger than expected. Some have even made the same claim too. Only for us to be mocked as if Shea was a player and could score from the bench. But after today's guard play, don't tell me these are typical UConn guards on the floor. Especially when our guards (E and C) are the most experienced on the team.

After today's play, i hope they don't try to rush anyone back. In spite of how badly the team looks. Depending on how they do the next few weeks, if it continues to be a total disaster, i think you rest Paige and Azzi until next year. So they can fully heal and recover. It's clearly South Carolina's year.

Dorka is " not consistent with her outside shot?" She has yet to make one at UCONN. That is the ultimate in consistency.

 

[hoophuskee]

As I said before - of course they need Paige. But --

This team needs Azzi Fudd.
This team needs Azzi Fudd.
This team needs Azzi Fudd.

 

[Aluminny69]

No real comment on the game, poor by the players, poor by the coaches.

But I will comment on the players not talking to the media after the game; after all the times opposing teams had to face the media after getting thrashed by Uconn, and those times are measured in YEARS, I think it is a horrible decision, whoever made it. It is a GAME and you lost, face it and move on. And no I don’t think it will build character, etc., etc.; it is just the right and standup thing to do.

I may be in the minority, but I have never been a fan of press interviews of losing coaches or players, especially college players. What's the point? What do you expect them to say? I don't like it when UConn opponents are forced to do it either. The players look so uncomfortable.

As a former player, I would just say, congratulate the other team, and then move on. Why humiliate them further?

 

[donalddoowop]

Nothing is going to get better unless the offense is changed. There seems to be something wrong with the coaching as far as coaching these players up. Westbrook looked better at Tennessee, Williams has not played consistently well over a full season, Dorka did not make Big10 first team twice playing like she has been playing, and Edwards is a mystery. GT adjusted in the second half, but it seems UConn did not adjust to what GT was doing. Adjustments must be made with the offense. Even lesser teams are running their offense more efficiently than UConn. The UCLA game may be uglier than this game.

 

[donalddoowop]

Dorka is " not consistent with her outside shot?" She has yet to make one at UCONN. That is the ultimate in consistency.

Get your facts straight. She has hit a three this season and some short jumpers.

 

[Huskyfan63]

They were scrappy for a while under the most difficult of circumstances. But the end was not surprising. The goal needs to be to get healthy by the tournament. Seeding doesn't matter. Making the big dance does. So welcome to the next few weeks.

I think the announcers were a little overboard in praising GA Tech under the circumstances. But I will give GA Tech credit for having the best ladder-on-the-chin balancer in the world.

I think GA Tech should be congratulated, they earned the win down the stretch by playing better team basketball.

 

[Aluminny69]

As I said before - of course they need Paige. But --

This team needs Azzi Fudd.
This team needs Azzi Fudd.
This team needs Azzi Fudd.

I respectfully disagree. So far, the only skill I've seen from her is a really good three point shot. And she doesn't seem to miss layups. While that puts her ahead of the rest of the team, I haven't seen a great assist, I haven't seen her create her own shot and she hasn't taken a pull up jumper yet. And her defense is suspect. Taller guards easily post her up. Maybe when she is 100% healthy, she will live up to expectations, only time will tell.

 

[Boreifs]

Who said anything about "forcing" anyone to do anything? I'm talking about voluntarily taking responsibility. It's something adults do.

OK, you win.

They are kids, not adults. Your criticism seems very harsh to me.

 

[Boreifs]

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.

Long post, but your best point was the fact that everyone playing for UConn tonight is a supplemental player. One doesn’t win a lot of games that way. Is Azzi also a supplemental player? Let’s hope not.

 

[LoTrader]

w


I was thinking that too...and it may not matter
I'm not saying its surely the scenario...but we could lose 4 or 5 games
(really not unlikely)
and when the walking wounded return; be a final 4 team

Something to think about……how many Big East teams could we beat playing like we did tonight? What are our chances of going undefeated again this year in conference play? UConn may drop out of the top 25 with another loss to an unranked team. Massey has GT ranked #40.

Massey is wrong. GT is a TOP 25 team

 

[DrummerDee]

I think this team's biggest loss was Shea Ralph. There, I said it.

 

[Boreifs]

Massey is wrong. GT is a TOP 25 team

They may be that tomorrow.

 

[hoophuskee]

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?

Because UCONN doesn't lose "all the time" in some seasons. And overall they rarely lose. Since 05-06 have they have never lost more than 4 games in a single season and only twice lost 4 while winning a title in one of those years.

Ohhh the horror -1 college postgame was missed over the past 20 - 30 years. The horror. Who can sleep tonight knowing this tragedy has happened?

 

[cohenzone]

“Not able to watch” was the best outcome. The box score won’t do it justice.

Maybe. But not having watched, the questions I have are what is a reasonable expectation for the players we have and how they will “look”. Right now Evina is the only kind of ball handler and she is really a combo. As a senior + was her leadership ok? There were a lot of missed shots. Were they the right shots in the flow by the right people. If so, there isn’t much a coach can do to make a shot go in. Seems like the defense was generally ok. In Paige, Nika and Aubrey we are missing our best perimeter defenders. I guess my question is, what can we realistically expect this group to do. Making shots is a start and that always helps the “look’” of a team. Were the players moving ok and/or were we missing the passers who can use the movement the right way. We are missing an awful lot of key pieces. The running score makes it look like CW was trying to do her part. Was she a problem? Anyway right now, it is what it is.

 

[RSHERMVIKES]

IMHO this looked like what Custer's Last Stand must have been!
What upset me most was the lack of enthusiasm and aggression by the most experienced players on the team!
I would expect juniors/seniors to have the mentality that we may lose but we're going to fight you till the final buzzer! You'll have to "kill us to beat us mind-set" And that was never there.
Because of the numbers problem I would have to start the following line-up for UCLA:
PG EW
SG CW
C ONO
Wing Caroline Ducharme
F Amari
With out other players to fill in at PG/SG we have to start EW & CW! If we had Nika, Azzi or Griffin healthy I would bench the 2 seniors!
Something radical has to happen to shake up the team, some of them thinking Geno HAS TO play us because there's no one else!
I would have the coaching staff sit down with Dorka and Edwards, individually, and talk out what's on their minds because they're better than what their showing!
Geno and staff will have to coach their butts off to get the team to finish the season on any successful results!
Don't allow the season to go down the drain!

 

[X conn]

Hard to watch, especially late in the game....makes me wonder if CW needs lasik for her eyes, I don't think she sees the rim clearly from the 3 pt line. AE missed too many bunnies. It has to be a tough loss...everyone knows we were way under staffed. I liked seeing Amari Berry on the floor.

1-8 3 pt range...missed the rim 3 or more times.

haha!