Yes oldude, it seems anyone is less lethel than Caitlin. But we know from the past that others have stepped up in these situations, and the rest of their team is not bad. She will get her shots, we can hedge and double team also, but we cannot afford to acknowledge what the other players did to Kentucky. We don't know how good their big is, if their other 3 point shooters are really as good as they have shown. The first quarter may be like the Syracuse game, or we can attack the paint immediately. I don't think Paige will be aggressive early, depending on if Nika plays, and if she is effective. The key to this game other than slowing down Caitlin is Paiges mindset. Stay on point, don't get caught up in Caitlins game, and stick to the game plan. Be Paige Bueckers!
Exactly. Lots of in your face defense from, hopefully, Nika, Christyn, and Aubrey. But everyone will be aware of her if she gets by the first wall someone will be quick to pick her up and also there will be adjustments to cover the player the second wall has to leave. It's going to be an interesting game. We don't have to stop her, just slow her down and prevent the easy assist. Statistically we can score with them.
Patterson gave up 7" to Clark and KY's help defense was non-existent. Clark had no problem getting off her jump shot over a much shorter Patterson. Now consider Aubrey with her long arms contesting Clark's shot with a hand in her face, and it's a different ballgame.
Length is almost more important than quickness against Clark because she’ll just shoot over you. I’m sure this is a matchup Kia would have looked forward to.
I don't remember him ever using a box-in-one defense. He usually has a stopper like Nurse or Jefferson. He always uses a lot of switching defense against an opposing star player which is hard but when you well coached it works...
Concur with your assessment of KY's defense. Frankly, I was very disappointed with KY's approach to the game vs Iowa. It didnt appear they brought emotion, fire, or drive to the game.
Sure if Clarke is standing still but she'll be moving and my point is Patterson is extremely quick and couldn't stay with Clarke..She''ll fake one way or the other drive and stop on a dime with no hand in her face..Don't you think other teams have tried using a taller guard against her.Clarke has seen it all and just like Paige not one person is going to contain her.You have to guard her close or she shoots from 27'..get close and she drives by you..IMO Uconn plays the same defense they have been using with a help "D' and Clarke gets her points..limit the other players and just outscore them which should not be too hard
Sorry, but it sounds like you are making Clark out to be 'superwoman'. She is no different than any other good player. How many good teams has she come up against that have a good defense, like UCONN? Even Paige can't shoot great all the time, especially with a good defensive team. Paige was limited to 38% shooting against Syracuse. True Clark is a great shooter, but not unstoppable.
Griffin! Several early steals will impact Clark a lot.
thanks.. good memory.
Is there some reason that you continue to misspell C Clark's name? Have you not noticed in the hundreds of references to her on The Boneyard or in outside articles ,that her last name is Clark? I ask this because I think an intentional misspelling of someone's name is a sign of disrespect.It's kind of like the one Boneyard poster who continues to spell Paige's name as Page.
Love your posts generally! But you mentioned it!!
I think he put a box and one on Candace Parker too as part of a junk defense. I remember that after the game CD was quoted as saying that UConn tried to slow her down by using a junk defense on CP and some in the Boneyard went bananas thinking CD was throwing the UConn defense under the bus. Incidentally, some Tennessee fans were offended too, thinking CD was making a personal comment about Parker 🙄
That must have been in the 2015-16 season when South Florida had Courtney Williams, who was a first-round WNBA draft choice who played several years for the Connecticut Sun -- very successfully. She was and is an unbelievably fast guard with a very good jump shot. My recollection is that Geno had Nurse, Gabby Williams, and possibly Moriah guarding her at different points in the game. When they guarded her, they had no help responsibilities, so it amounted to face-guarding. The fact that he had three different defenders on her at different times kept any of them from running out of energy, while taxing C. Williams's stamina to the limit.
