Guess who was at the game

[Tonyc]

Well some Boneyarders met by section 217 at the half. We chatting and 3 girls walked by and one was really really tall and I said Hi what are your names. Amari DeBerry, Caroline Ducharme(41 on Hoopgirls) and Azzi Fudd. Azzi said Paige was still sitting behind the bench and she was. So it was great to see them there. Deberry is really tall. Like wow tall.

Some thoughts on the game. ND has Sam Brunelle at 6'2 and Cosgrove at 6'3 and everybody else is around 5'10. Not a good situation and imo for the next couple of years it will be tuff to rebuild even with who they have coming in. There is no nucleus to lead their team and MM will have to build a nucleus but she needs more players and that takes recruiting time and building experience. I would expect their schedule to be filled with cupcakes next season. The problem at ND and why so many transferred out is because there was lack of playtime and I know that as fact. MM played the starters almost the entire game even in blowouts. Kids got tired of sitting and saw the writing on the wall and left.

With Tenn and MSST loosing yesterday and UConn winning again I think its fair to say we are better then advertised. We are really good but we are not invincible. I think alot of fans look at UConn this season and dont see what we've seen the past few seasons. They dont see a team that is invincible. We look for the dominance we had and it doesnt appear to be there....yet. We do have the talent and we do need more experience. We are building a nucleus for future seasons to lead our incoming classes. When I look at where Megan ONO Molly and Kyla were and where they are today as players I like to think that Big Mak and Griff will aspire to that level before March. That will carry us. I also look at how Megan Kyla are performing and I think the UConn coaches see that 8 deep is something they need to maintain especially next season with 5 top recruits coming in.

Geno played 8 deep and that is huge. I believe it will show those thinking about coming to UConn that they wont be sitting they will see playtime. One thing Ive learned in sports. You can practice all you want but if you dont play the game you will never get better and just be a player who practices really good. I remember watching Diana shoot in the gym with my daughters. She would stand in one place and shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and I lost count at around 30. She didnt miss very often but in the game she did miss shots and under pressure in the most intense part of the game she came through and thats why she is DT. So by playing 8 deep kids know they have a chance even with all the stars at UConn. They know they will play. IMO this is where the game has come.

So where are we at? We are undefeated and preseason many didnt think we'd be there. Heck back in April many thought we would look like ND looked yesterday. Some thought Geno lost his touch? Look at yesterday and look at those who have commited and verbaled and with the kids that were their yesterday Im really optimistic that we are looking at teams in the future that will give our 111 game win streak a challange. So our next challange is @ Depaul after a long layoff. That game will be a measure of where we are. DePaul will be a good test.

You know I look at this team and the potential and I am confident Geno will bring it out. ONO has to much potentical, so much talent its just a matter of time. CW shows us at moments she is a tremendous scorer, dont forget shes only a soph. Megan is a first team AA. Who in the country is playing as good as Meg? CD played well yesterday and is still not at 100%. Kyla and Molly are not so much a surprise this season. Theyve been locked up for so long and now given the chance and they are responding in a great way. We've already seen what Mak and Griff can do and how they are matureing as the season progresses. We are truly in a good spot right now. One last note. We are getting better on defense. In the first half ND got it down low with backdoors, in the second half they didnt . We are young and learning and stuff like that shows me we are making progress.

 

[Teacherdeb]

Spot on Tony!

 

[warbler1055]

Lots of great insights Tonyc. Actually MM played their starters even in blowouts was not so different from Geno's past practices. I used to get so worked up when Geno kept his starters in so many blowouts. But Geno has evolved and adjusted and has found playing 8 players or more is better than just 5. Coach Hurley is playing 10 men rotation and is playing a bunch of freshmen successfully.

 

[CL82]

I was going to start a thread "How good are we?" to solicit everyone's thoughts but Tony summed it up well.

The biggest reason that we are better than anticipated in my opinion is that Meg, who I expected to be good, has emerged as a star. The irony is it hard to notice, because her play is so effortless and undemonstrative, but she is a force to be reckoned with.

Liv's soph jump is everything that we hoped for, but I get the sense it is only the beginning. I expect her to continue to grow a lot over the season as she becomes more confident in her decidedly bad ass role with the team.

Christyn surprisingly has not been as dominant as I expected but she is a extraordinary talent. Look for Geno to figure out how get her more involved.

Crystal wasn't healthy last night, but she had the Huskies doing whatever they wanted. Great court vision plus near unlimited range is nice combo to have in a point guard.

I think Geno and CD just might have something here. I look forward to tougher tests on schedule as they'll give us an better understanding.

 

[mrmojack]

I always enjoy sitting at the game and looking over to the bench
and seeing Ms Fudd sitting there with Paige. We can only dream of
watching the two of them together at Uconn. Wow!!!

The good WBB teams are getting bigger now, Ore, Ore St, Baylor, even
Tenn are big teams. So Paith and DeBerry are needed additions.

When Baylor shows up on Jan 9, it will give us an indication of exactly
where this team stands in terms of dealing with big teams. It will
be crucial for ONO to stay out of foul trouble. Hopefully, the Seton
Hall foul trouble will be corrected for future games. I like seeing ONO
going into half time with only one foul or less. GO HUSKIES

 

[huskyd]

I was going to start a thread "How good are we?" to solicit everyone's thoughts but Tony summed it up well.

The biggest reason that we are better than anticipated in my opinion is that Meg, who I expected to be good, has emerged as a star. The irony is it hard to notice, because her play is so effortless and undemonstrative, but she is a force to be reckoned with.

Liv's soph jump is everything that we hoped for, but I get the sense it is only the beginning. I expect her to continue to grow a lot over the season as she becomes more confident in her decidedly bad ass role with the team.

Christyn surprisingly has not been as dominant as I expected but she is a extraordinary talent. Look for Geno to figure out how get her more involved.

Crystal wasn't healthy last night, but she had the Huskies doing whatever they wanted. Great court vision plus near unlimited range is nice combo to have in a point guard.

I think Geno and CD just might have something here. I look forward to tougher tests on schedule as they'll give us an better understanding.

"How good are we?" Good enough so far. There are more, tougher tests ahead, but, for now, we should be pleased. On the NOT PLEASED side of the ledger, I hated all those TOs yesterday--15 in all (9 total from Crystal and Meg). Our free throw % was 68; not great. Only Crystal is a sure thing on FTs. Don't know why we're being so casual with our passes or incapable of sinking FTs. The points surrendered by these shortcomings may come back to haunt us. BUT, for now, OK.

 

[Tonyc]

You know we are not as tight as we have been in the past and some of that has to do with we're playing 8 deep and a bunch are underclassman so you have to expect at this point in the season that there will be some hiccups. That will change with more playtime. Yesterday you could see the excitement in Kyla Molly and Griff. Mak cracked a few smiles. Its a process and its all coming together with playtime. In a couple of weeks this will be a different team. Ive read that some think CW is inconsistent. Shes only a soph and she is where Megan was last season. Shes too good to not get better. ONO is another on with so much talent. We need to give it time. Geno is working with them and planting the seeds we just need to be patient for them to grow. Much like a farmer . You plant seeds, you water them, and some grow fast and some grow slow.

 

[Bajan Best]

Lots of great insights Tonyc. Actually MM played their starters even in blowouts was not so different from Geno's past practices. I used to get so worked up when Geno kept his starters in so many blowouts. But Geno has evolved and adjusted and has found playing 8 players or more is better than just 5. Coach Hurley is playing 10 men rotation and is playing a bunch of freshmen successfully.

Geno has not evolved, circumstances have led to the current 8 player rotation.

I recently saw an interview where Geno stated the following, No one wants to play only 6 kids, but that is becoming more common throughout, "because of the lack of Talent" which in UCONN's case I totally disagree with, as there are plenty of teams who would gladly take a few of the UCONN benchwarmers to add to their team. The standard at UCONN is high and rightfully so, but sometimes you have to trust and give players the opportunity to fail and grow in games rather than kill their spirit and confidence sitting on the bench.

I truly believe we could have had 2) more NCAA championships if we had utilized/developed a deeper bench to give our starters a breather. But it is hard to argue with someone who has had that kind of success, especially at that level. With that said, Geno should also remember that because of him, Pat Summit had to adjust her approach to the game, he might need to do the same.

Add to that with players transferring becoming more commonplace, it's added a whole new dimension to coaching/developing a team, For most programs, this is great news, However with UCONN because it generally takes a full year to learn their system, that presents a whole different challenge. It will be interesting to see if UCONN will adjust any of its current philosophies going forward to adapt somewhat.

SO far the only announcement Geno has stated regarding change, is that it is his intention for UCONN to once again become "Bad for women's Basketball" and from his recent recruiting efforts, it seems he is quite ontrack..

 

[CL82]

"How good are we?" Good enough so far. There are more, tougher tests ahead, but, for now, we should be pleased. On the NOT PLEASED side of the ledger, I hated all those TOs yesterday--15 in all (9 total from Crystal and Meg). Our free throw % was 68; not great. Only Crystal is a sure thing on FTs. Don't know why we're being so casual with our passes or incapable of sinking FTs. The points surrendered by these shortcomings may come back to haunt us. BUT, for now, OK.

They are a consequence of tempo. Geno has said that we are not a great defensive team this year, so we will need to beat people with scoring. If you think that you have an advantage on the offense end then you want to have more possessions and you create that with pace. Hopefully we will get better at it, but this is our look this year.

Agree though, that we're "good enough" so far. The Baylor game will tell us a lot about this teams strengths... and its vulnerabilities.

 

[PacoSwede]

only thing that irks me -- every year -- is slacking off from the free throw line. with very few exceptions, they are all capable shots, be simply slack off at times.

and all should take note of the techniques of elena and sue and maybe try to give em a try

 

[meyers7]

Christyn surprisingly has not been as dominant as I expected but she is a extraordinary talent. Look for Geno to figure out how get her more involved.

What did you expect? I kind of expected her to be one of the top scorers on the team. She is. And she gets the 2nd most shots on the team, so I'm not sure how Geno's gonna get her "more" involved. What are you looking for?

 

[DefenseBB]

A few items to keep in mind:
1. Being undefeated at 8-0 is not surprising as we haven’t played the top teams on our schedule. We are good as evidenced by OSU beating Louisville and the games Virginia, Dayton and Cal are giving other teams.
2. Chrystal was very rusty yesterday and you could tell in warmups she had a lay-off. She did ok from my view but we need that to get better in a hurry.
3. All season long Meg has had too many turnovers and it is her one weakness that she can improve upon.
4. Batouly was on the court with Evina and she was getting rebounds and passing the ball back out to the team to shoot. I hope her status improves soon as she can help us significantly on the boards.
5. Cristyn has a tendency to “disappear” while deferring to Meg and Liv too much. She needs to assert more.
6. We are in the mix with Oregon, Baylor, SC, Louisville and Stanford. Whether NC St and Florida Stare are for real as a Final Four contender is still unknown.

 

[CL82]

What did you expect? I kind of expected her to be one of the top scorers on the team. She is. And she gets the 2nd most shots on the team, so I'm not sure how Geno's gonna get her "more" involved. What are you looking for?

Good question. That comment was more of an eye test/gut thing. Let's look at the stats:

You are right, by any reasonable measure she is doing well. The volume of shots looks good too, just a bit behind Megan.

I think I expected more flashiness, which is utterly meaningless. Like I noted above regarding Megan, Christyn's points sneak up on you as they are within flow of offense. Things like last night's steal and going end to end stand out but most of her points less so, which again is meaningless.

16.4 points is impressive for a sophomore but feel like she can do more. I think Geno said as much after the game.

TL;DR: You are right. She's playing well.

 

[Blakeon18]

Tony: I just LOVE your recruiting mentions....thanks.

 

[chrissaran]

I was going to start a thread "How good are we?" to solicit everyone's thoughts but Tony summed it up well.

The biggest reason that we are better than anticipated in my opinion is that Meg, who I expected to be good, has emerged as a star. The irony is it hard to notice, because her play is so effortless and undemonstrative, but she is a force to be reckoned with.

Liv's soph jump is everything that we hoped for, but I get the sense it is only the beginning. I expect her to continue to grow a lot over the season as she becomes more confident in her decidedly bad ass role with the team.

Christyn surprisingly has not been as dominant as I expected but she is a extraordinary talent. Look for Geno to figure out how get her more involved.

Crystal wasn't healthy last night, but she had the Huskies doing whatever they wanted. Great court vision plus near unlimited range is nice combo to have in a point guard.

I think Geno and CD just might have something here. I look forward to tougher tests on schedule as they'll give us an better understanding.

Now Crystal can rest for awhile, until the 16th.

 

[Jingo]

Geno played 8 deep and that is huge. I believe it will show those thinking about coming to UConn that they wont be sitting they will see playtime. One thing Ive learned in sports. You can practice all you want but if you dont play the game you will never get better and just be a player who practices really good. I remember watching Diana shoot in the gym with my daughters. She would stand in one place and shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot and I lost count at around 30. She didnt miss very often but in the game she did miss shots and under pressure in the most intense part of the game she came through and thats why she is DT. So by playing 8 deep kids know they have a chance even with all the stars at UConn. They know they will play. IMO this is where the game has come.

No, Geno is not playng 8 deep. For example, Molly only played 9 minutes against ND. Is that any way to reward a kid after her monster game vs the Hall? Did CD, coming off an injury, need to play 3 1/2 quarters in a blowout? Why is Megan playing 40 minutes [every game] in a blowout? Is she padding her stats? Is she Geno's designated AA?

You're absolutely right, "if you don't play the game you will never get better". AG and AM combined played less than Megan vs ND. Why? AG and AM need minutes to get better for March. IMO Geno needs to distribute the minutes more evenly and let the chips fall where they may, nicht wahr? So far, certain kids have earned minutes, but unfortunately are not getting them!

Speaking of development, IMO our most pressing need is backup for Liv. If it [obviously] is not going to be Adebayo or Touly [injured], then why not groom Aubrey for the job. She is not going to take away minutes from Megan [who plays 40 minutes/game], so why not get her some minutes behind Liv?

 

[soxfan23]

Good question. That comment was more of an eye test/gut thing. Let's look at the stats:
View attachment 48997
You are right, by any reasonable measure she is doing well. The volume of shots looks good too, just a bit behind Megan.

I think I expected more flashiness, which is utterly meaningless. Like I noted above regarding Megan, Christyn's points sneak up on you as they are within flow of offense. Things like last night's steal and going end to end stand out but most of her points less so, which again is meaningless.

16.4 points is impressive for a sophomore but feel like she can do more. I think Geno said as much after the game.

TL;DR: You are right. She's playing well.

Williams is just one of those players that doesn't necessarily stand out, but when you look up at the scoreboard at the end of the game she gets her stats. I also agree that her 3pt shooting needs to, and also should, get better as the season moves on.

 

[MilfordHusky]

I’ve seen Azzi in person 7x in the past year, in D.C., Maryland, and New York. I’ll see her again when she has a fully recovered knee. She is a great kid, more than a great shooter or player.

I hope to see Mir and/or Saylor over the next month or so.

I’m loving the way Meg is playing. We need another player from Virginia, and Azzi fits perfectly.

 

[Pre-3]

I’ve seen Azzi in person 7x in the past year, in D.C., Maryland, and New York. I’ll see her again when she has a fully recovered knee. She is a great kid, more than a great shooter or player.

I hope to see Mir and/or Saylor over the next month or so.

I’m loving the way Meg is playing. We need another player from Virginia, and Azzi fits perfectly.

Would really be interested in any first hand report on Mir. She sounds very interesting.

 

[Huskygamble19]

Good question. That comment was more of an eye test/gut thing. Let's look at the stats:
View attachment 48997
You are right, by any reasonable measure she is doing well. The volume of shots looks good too, just a bit behind Megan.

I think I expected more flashiness, which is utterly meaningless. Like I noted above regarding Megan, Christyn's points sneak up on you as they are within flow of offense. Things like last night's steal and going end to end stand out but most of her points less so, which again is meaningless.

16.4 points is impressive for a sophomore but feel like she can do more. I think Geno said as much after the game.

TL;DR: You are right. She's playing well.

what I noticed in that graph was how often AG went to the free throw line. She does a good job in drawing fouls. the only problem is she has to make them count more.

 

[JoePgh]

Speaking of development, IMO our most pressing need is backup for Liv. If it [obviously] is not going to be Adebayo or Touly [injured], then why not groom Aubrey for the job. She is not going to take away minutes from Megan [who plays 40 minutes/game], so why not get her some minutes behind Liv?

To my eyes, that is exactly what Geno is doing. When Olivia is not in the game, Aubrey plays in the post just like Gabby did, and defends the opponent's post player.

 

[Jingo]

To my eyes, that is exactly what Geno is doing. When Olivia is not in the game, Aubrey plays in the post just like Gabby did, and defends the opponent's post player.

Hmm .. mebbe I missed this .. I'll look harder and respond... thanks!

 

[Yorkeez4]

I know this will not be a popular opinion but I am not convinced Geno has an eight player rotation. Yesterday 7 players played more than 10 minutes. Molly had 9 minutes in a rout and in the first game Danger returned from back spasms. When I see eight players in a competitive game I will change my view.

 

[CL82]

I know this will not be a popular opinion but I am not convinced Geno has an eight player rotation. Yesterday 7 players played more than 10 minutes. Molly had 9 minutes in a rout and in the first game Danger returned from back spasms. When I see eight players in a competitive game I will change my view.

Fair point. I'm just enjoying seeing Molly enjoying herself on the court. If she's happy, I'm happy for her.

 

[Tonyc]

You have to put players in position to be successful. You play them in games where they can build their confidence and get better. When we play Oregon and Baylor maybe South Carolina and Tenn I dont expect 8 players to play over 10 minutes. These are games we have to win and we have to play our best players to win those game. That could be 5 or 6 or 7 or 8. What ever it is we need to do to win those games. You have your stars and you have your role players. When the stars get in foul trouble or hurt or tired your role players take over. I would not expect Oregon to play their non starters or role players for over 10 minutes in the UConn game unless they had a big lead or somebody was tired or hurt. I would expect nothing less from Geno.