How can we beat South Carolina

[Huskiefan23]

Interesting stat: Louisville actually had more offensive boards than Sc and were only outrebounded by 3 despite being severely undersized.

 

[TeamFirst!]

Everyone needs to rebound. Paige was at her absolute peak last time we played them but if we are honest probably at 80% of that now, especially on defense. We need others to step up as well. Azzi and Caroline can hit pull up jumpers and score in a variety of ways. We need players who can score against a top defense. We all know who those players are.

 

[UofCT]

We have Paige and they don’t. That’s how we win.

 

[MSGRET]

This team is much better than the one that won last year and the one that lost in Nov. If they play like they have since the loss to Villanova then I believe that they will get #12. They have had 3 very physical games in a row, winning each of them with tough defense that helps create their offense. South Carolina has not played a team like UConn in this tournament and I believe that they will rely on what they did in the Bahamas and not be ready for what happens on the court.

 

[Conndog]

I want UConn to win obviously and think they can and will, but whatever the outcome is, I'm sure it will be a hard-fought and competitive game. But honestly, I'll have a hard time accepting the result, win or lose, if we don't give Caroline a real chance to contribute. She deserves to play and is skilled enough in multiple ways to have a shot. It upsets me when she gets just a few minutes and gets pulled if she doesn't score right away. What starter gets pulled after a short time if they aren't scoring right away? What other guard roams around the basket and creates the kind of mismatch she does? Her teammates need to look for her when she is there. Play all your weapons, Geno!

 

[Pharos]

I don't know about BB stats. But I've been fiddling with "points per shot" for 2s and 3s. And UConn was "more efficient" against Stanford than SC was against LV. Efficiency plus number of shots taken is where differences appear. So shooting well and rebounding. Who'd a thunk?

 

[Pharos]

Interesting stat: Louisville actually had more offensive boards than Sc and were only outrebounded by 3 despite being severely undersized.

Weirdly SC - even with Boston's efficiency near the basket - didn't shoot especially well inside the arc. Outside in the last 3 quarters they did well. And 10 more foul shots and higher percentage. So limiting Boston's touches is worth striving for. Stopping her once she gets the ball, not worth fouling for. She'll get hers. Better to strive to limit 3-point success by SC... and not foul.

 

[Farney]

Just want to point out the usual UConn bias. I won’t even address how unfair it is they play their first 2 games at home. Or that Bridgeport had the audacity to bid for the regionals.

But the nerve of the NCAA to schedule the final four in Minnesota knowing it was possible UConn might have a player from that state by the time the game was played.

And now it’s snowing in Minneapolis? Absolute unfair advantage to UConn. Entire tournament is rigged and I hope teams and fans complain wildly. I wouldn’t be shocked to learn ESPN bought a snowmaking machine and is orchestrating the weather!

 

[baggerbob]

Boston has been called for 3 fouls this entire tournament.

Thinking she will be in any sort of foul trouble is laughable. She is absolutely pampered by the officials.

Boston playing 35 minutes with no fouls is a joke. Not even Wilt could go 35 minutes without a foul, and he never fouled out of an NBA game.

 

[MSGRET]

Just want to point out the usual UConn bias. I won’t even address how unfair it is they play their first 2 games at home. Or that Bridgeport had the audacity to bid for the regionals.

But the nerve of the NCAA to schedule the final four in Minnesota knowing it was possible UConn might have a player from that state by the time the game was played.

And now it’s snowing in Minneapolis? Absolute unfair advantage to UConn. Entire tournament is rigged and I hope teams and fans complain wildly. I wouldn’t be shocked to learn ESPN bought a snowmaking machine and is orchestrating the weather!

I hope that this sarcasm and that you just forgot the emoji.

 

[fomalhaut]

For everyone who predicts rebounds, turnovers, and fouls will be key in this game; the most important question, with the largest affect on these variables, has not been asked (I don't think).

Who are the officials for this game?

It should be three of the five who were chosen but did not work the semifinals:

Tiffany Bird, Bountiful, Utah
Maj Kazuko Forsberg, Honolulu, Hawaii
Michael McConnell, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Michol Murray, Chandler, Arizona
Angelica Suffren, Atlanta, Georgia

 

[ClifSpliffy]

Just want to point out the usual UConn bias. I won’t even address how unfair it is they play their first 2 games at home. Or that Bridgeport had the audacity to bid for the regionals.

But the nerve of the NCAA to schedule the final four in Minnesota knowing it was possible UConn might have a player from that state by the time the game was played.

And now it’s snowing in Minneapolis? Absolute unfair advantage to UConn. Entire tournament is rigged and I hope teams and fans complain wildly. I wouldn’t be shocked to learn ESPN bought a snowmaking machine and is orchestrating the weather!

'And now it’s snowing in Minneapolis?'

im glad that u told us this, cuz it's icing at my hut, and,.... umm.... well,
we come from the land of the ice and snow.
the other team comes from the land of the rice and hoe (the farm kind).
ergo..................home game for us, and paige and the gang are gonna look like they're flying around on winged skates.

 

[Blue Huskie]

I have a feeling that SC is going to face guard Paige a lot and try to make her life a misery like they did to Van Lith. Paige is much better than Hailey Van Lith but that will still make things very difficult. I think Christyn and Azzi may have to bring the ball up in the begining before Nika and Evina come in. I know Geno says he doesn't want all the pressure to be on jump shots but we will have to hit more than we did on Friday. Not expecting much offensive production from our posts as they will be so busy concentrating on defense. It would be nice to see AE get a couple of those steals and runs to the basket. Fingers crossed as we can't allow a slow start and get behind as much as L'Ville did. SC is too tough to play catch up against. Please keep it close.

 

[browns]

Name min. pts rbs Asst 3pts 3pt avg. year

Christyn Williams 34.2 14.6 3.5 72/32 50 .345 Sr. 5’11”

Paige Bueckers 28.6 14.6 3.9 65/16 17 .354 So. 5’11”

Azzi Fudd 28.4 12.5 2.8 24/24 57 .429 Fr 5’11”

Caroline Ducharme 20.9 9.8 3.3 39/30 33 .287 Fr 6’2”

Olivia Nelson-Ododa 27.3 9.3 7.6 115/32 11 .273 Sr 6’5”

Evina Westbrook 27.7 9.0 3.7 111/35 38 .309 Sr. 6’0”

Aliyah Edwards 24.6 7.9 5. 2 4 9/35 2 .400 So 6’3”

Nika Muhl 21.8 3.9 3.1 84/32 24 .426 So 5’10:

Gabriel Piath 4.9 3.0 1.9 3/13 0 .000 So 6’5”

Amari DeBerry 5.3 1.7 0.7 12/15 3 .214 Fr 6’5”



Team

Pts. - 74.5 Opponents - 54.7 Margin - 19.8

FG/G 29.0 Opponents - 20.5

3pt/G 6.9 Opponents - 5.6

FT % .693 Opponents - .720

FT/G 9.5 Opponents - 8.1

RBS 39.0 Opponents - 31.7

Asst 18 Opponents - 10.6

TOs 14.0 Opponents - 16.1

STLs 9.1 Opponents - 5.9

Blks 4.6 Opponents - 2.4





Name Min. pts. Rbs. Assist. 3pts 3pt. avg . year

Aliyah Boston 28.4 17.0 12.4 72/36 14 .292 Jr. 6’5”

Destanni Henderson 30.9 11.1 3.2 129/33 52 .394 Sr 5’9”

Zia Cooke 27.2 10.7 2.0 60/35 45 .294 Jr. 5’9”

Laeticia Amihere 17.0 6.4 3.7 37/30 5 .455 Jr. 6’4”

Victaria Saxton 21.4 5.8 5.9 43/36 0 .000 Sr. 6’2”

Kamilla Cardoso 13.5 5.5 5.2 30/31 0 . 000 So. 6’7”

Brea Beal 23.9 5.1 5.1 46/36 15 .246 Jr. 6’1”

LeLe Grissett 12.5 3.4 2.0 14/24 1 1.000 Gr 6’2”

Bree Hall 9.1 2.7 1.4 1/35 14 .326 Fr 6’0”

Destiny Littleton 9.3 2.7 1.3 7/30 21 .344 Sr 5’9”

Eniya Russell 8.0 2.4 1.4 19/22 5 .417 So 6’1”

Saniya Rivers 13.2 2.3 1.7 38/26 1 .033 Fr 6’1”

Sania Feagin 4.4 1.9 1.5 6/30 0 .000 Fr 6’3”

Team

Pts. 71.1 Opponents 50.7 Margin 20.4

3pts. 4.9 Opponents 3.7 FT 13.3 / g Avg. .677 Opp. 7.8

Rbs 47.8 Opponents 30.4 Assts 14.1 Opponents 8.9

Stls 6.5 Opponents 6.3

Blks 7.5 Opponents 4.1

TOs 14.4 Opponents 13.6

3pts Avg. .309 Opponents .267

*While I expect UConn to play a lot of zone...player by player match-ups are for the purposes of comparisons to see where each team will have their advantages and disadvantages.

Aliyah Boston vs Ododa - Too much size for Ododa, Ododa needs to stay out of foul trouble and stay on the floor. In UConn's first match-up Boson had 22 points, 15 rebounds, 2 blocks and 3 fouls; Ododa's stats were 6 points, 5 rebounds, 5 blocks, and she fouled out. Dorka gave us 2 points and 3 rebounds while Aliyah Edwards gave us 6 points, 3 rebounds and she also fouled out. As you can see...if UConn has an army of bigs it won't be enough to stop Boston. We need both Aliyah and Ododa to stay on the floor...I repeat they must not get into foul trouble. In any case: Huge Advantage - South Carolina

Destiny Henderson vs Christyn Williams - Christyn Williams did not play well in the first match-up. Being that this is her last game I don't expect a repeat performance. In the first match-up Christyn had 10 points was an 0fer from 3 point land. Henderson on the other had, while she fouled out of that game...still managed to have 15 points, 6 steals, 6 assists and was 1-5 from three. While I expect a better match-up from Christyn this time I still have to call it a Slight Advantage South Carolina

Zia Cooke vs Paige Bueckers - In the first match-up Paige had 19 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and was 1 for 3 on 3 pointers while Zia had 17 points, 1 assist, 1 rebound and went 1 for 4 on three pointers. Point wise they managed to cancelled each other out but Paige assisted on at least fourteen of UConn's other points to Zia assisting on only 2 of South Carolina's other points. Advantage UConn

Bree Beal vs Azzi Fudd - Here is where I think it gets interesting. Essentially Azzi Fudd was a no-show in the first match-up... Evina had a pretty good game scoring 14 points, 3 assists and going 2 for 2 for three pointers. Azzi is averaging 12.5 points, 1 assist and 2.2 three pointers / game. Geno can pick his poison here...I think he goes with Azzi Fudd and brings Evina off the bench. Geno loses nothing with either of them with this match-up. Beal had only 6 points and 4 rebounds in the first match-up which is just about at her average. I am going with a Sizeable Advantage for UConn here

Victoria Saxton vs Aliyah Edwards - In the first match-up Saxton had 2 points, 2 assists and 3 rebounds...she only averages 5 points and 5 rebounds per game. Aliyah in the first match-up had 6 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist. She averages 7.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. Additionally, she is playing better of late. I am of course, concerned that Aliyah stay out of foul trouble and stays on the floor. If Aliyah can do that then I give a Slight Advantage to UCONN

Bench: South Carolina vs UConn - South Carolina could bring off the bench Laeticia Amihere, Kamilla Cardoso, LeLe Grissett, Bree Hall and Destiny Littleton who collectively average 20.7 points and 13.9 rebounds; UConn could bring and probably will bring in off the bench Evina Westbrook, Nika Muhl and Caroline Ducharme who collectively average 22.7 points and 9.1 rebounds. Bench - EVEN

Coaching: EVEN

Intangibles: Neutral Court, however...Bueckers grew up 10 miles away from the tournament site. While this makes for a good back story...it does nothing to create an advantage. EVEN

In the first game Henderson guarded Paige a lot..Also they don't expect Beal to score but to shut down Azzi..like she did Van lithe...if she does it's unlikely Uconn wins whether Beal scores any points

Dawn said Beal was going to be on Paige, she shut down Hailey Van Lith. Also very good analysis.

Well that's interesting...Beal is a great defender and long but Paige is much quicker

 

[browns]

I want UConn to win obviously and think they can and will, but whatever the outcome is, I'm sure it will be a hard-fought and competitive game. But honestly, I'll have a hard time accepting the result, win or lose, if we don't give Caroline a real chance to contribute. She deserves to play and is skilled enough in multiple ways to have a shot. It upsets me when she gets just a few minutes and gets pulled if she doesn't score right away. What starter gets pulled after a short time if they aren't scoring right away? What other guard roams around the basket and creates the kind of mismatch she does? Her teammates need to look for her when she is there. Play all your weapons, Geno!

Ever think she's not doing what she's supposed to be doing on defense and it has nothing to do with her not scoring..Geno obviously see's something he doesn't like

 

[TeamFirst!]

Going into this tournament a lot of people thought Stanford looked to be the best team. No doubt SC is still heavily favored but on any given night it wouldn’t be considered a huge upset if UConn won. Bring on the Geno mojo!

 

[NU2BY]

Years ago Jim Calhoun had 3 bigs, 2 who played very regularly and one that came in to clean up. His name I cannot forget: Soulyman Wan. Calhoun kept substituting Soulyman in and out taking fouls against Christian Laetner of Duke. By absorbing all of those fouls and containing Laetner inside,, UConn men won the first National Championship.

His name was Souleymane Wane and Duke's center that year was Elton Brand.

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