How does UConn beat Creighton Tenn and SC

[HuskyNan]

It is hard for me to agree that the" loss of Ayanna is a serious set back." Only because she has barely played since she arrived and, when she did, she did nothing on offense at all. You all love her because she is athletic, strong and can jump. Or could do so before her latest three surgeries. I know she was a top recruit, but what did you ever see in a UCONN uniform that supported that? She barely got minutes her freshman year. And was mostly injured. Her breakout game was likely three points and 2 rebounds. Seriously, what did you see other than a resume? And a kid worthy of admiration.

Ayanna played 30 games and averaged 10.1 minutes.

So, you equate playing well with scoring a lot of points?

 

[CL82]

It is hard for me to agree that the" loss of Ayanna is a serious set back." Only because she has barely played since she arrived and, when she did, she did nothing on offense at all

I understand where you're coming from, but her athleticism in high school was off the charts for a female athlete. She actually has a functional dunk. Not that half finger roll half dunk thing that you sometimes see in the women's game. Certainly, at a minimum, I doubt we would lose many jump balls. But more importantly, we've needed an extra body in our front court. She, potentially, would add significant physicality, and five more fouls, the need for which I suspect will become readily apparent during the South Carolina game. A fully healthy Ayana, is something we've yet to see.

 

[Bone Dog]

It is hard for me to agree that the" loss of Ayanna is a serious set back." Only because she has barely played since she arrived and, when she did, she did nothing on offense at all. You all love her because she is athletic, strong and can jump. Or could do so before her latest three surgeries. I know she was a top recruit, but what did you ever see in a UCONN uniform that supported that? She barely got minutes her freshman year. And was mostly injured. Her breakout game was likely three points and 2 rebounds. Seriously, what did you see other than a resume? And a kid worthy of admiration.

I’m with @HuskyNan on this one. It’s not just about scoring. And it’s not a matter of having a breakout game. Incremental improvement from Ayanna would have meant plenty to our title hopes. She’s bigger and stronger than Morgan and had quicker feet than Jana or Ice She boxed out well and defended well. 10 or 15 minutes per game from Ayanna could have made a significant addition to our frontcourt. With her we had one more strong body and 5 more fouls to give. Counting Morgan and Aubrey that would make six frontcourt players. Now, until and if Aubrey returns to full strength we really only have three. Morgan could be a 4th, but we can see from yesterday’s game that Geno isn’t ready to give her a lot of minutes in a close game.

So, yes, the loss of Ayanna is significant for our title hopes.

 

[The CDR-Ret]

I’m not sure this is accurate. Tessa and Milaysia are talented scorers, as is PaoPao. Tessa even played against Paige a few times in high school back in Minnesota and she was a bright talent even then. Joyce and Chloe are also talented and intense players. Bree and Raven may not be scorers at the same level, but they are excellent defenders and rock solid players.

I think our Big Three is slightly better than Dawn’s Fab Five (I just made that name up), but they are five. That’s a lot of talent on a very athletic, quick team. And Dawn believes the same thing as Geno, that offense comes from defense, and they are a great defensive team.

We’ll have a chance to win this game. But it won’t be from exploiting weaknesses. This will be a strength vs strength rock fight. Paige has been in a few of those and knows how to win them. So has Azzi. And though she’s still a bit of a project and somewhat rough around the edges, Jana has been in a few rock fights in her career.

Think about the game against SC 2 years ago. That was exactly this sort of rock fight and Nika almost engineered an improbable victory against an even stronger version of SC with no Paige or Azzi. Or the game 4 years ago, another rock fight and freshman Paige almost single-handedly won that game in overtime. This year’s version promises to be another one, and these are great games even if you don’t win them.

I like the metaphor of a "strength vs strength rock fight."

Brings to mind the immortal words of Rip Torn: "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!"



I like this edition of the UConn Huskies vs USCarolina.

Go Huskies!!!

 

[The CDR-Ret]

Not a bad prediction.

UConn beat the Blue Jays by 11; will beat UTenn. by 13; will beat USCarolina by 4 in OT.

Final Answer!

Go Huskies!!!

 

[CONN78SEJ]

All we have to do is outscore them. It's that simple. We have a team shooting percentage of over 50%. We have 3 superstars. No team in WCBB has a Paige Azzi and Sarah. Its that simple

Right Tony. UConn needs a starting five where all five players can make a jump shot. My starters would be Paige, Azzi, Ash, Sarah and Ice. First off the bench KK, Morgan, Kaitlyn, Allie, Jana, and not necessarily in that order but maybe. Of course Aubrey and Caroline if both are available could make a big difference also. My sense is Geno would ease both back into the rotation especially if UConn has at least a 10 point lead.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

Wow So SC scored 66 pts and 18 were free throws that 48 pts from the floor. If we have to face that, that will be a problem. I dont think UConn will score less then 70 pts against Tenn or SC however we could very well end up without a player on the floor if they win because they will need foul shots to beat us. Just sayin LOL This is what I mean about Southern Cookin.

When you see a referee driving a Maserati it makes you wonder.

 

[Fossil]

Creighton - show up.
Tennessee - guard the 3 pointer. If Tennessee has 10 or more. UConn could be in trouble.
South Carolina - need another snow storm in the south to cancel the game.

I feel like the Tennessee and South Carolina games are like Hoosiers where you have solid fundamentals against athleticism. Both teams have size and length and speed which could definitely give us fits. Let’s hope the family Chitwood’s show up.

 

[Stagnant]

I have always felt kind of good about Tennessee because I thought they were reliant on turnovers. And one thing UConn doesn’t do is turn the ball over. But that was early-in-the-season Tennessee. They have looked competitive against good teams that don’t turn the ball over recently. It’s a dangerous game for sure.

 

[AmeriConn]

UConn beat the Blue Jays by 11; will beat UTenn. by 13; will beat USCarolina by 4 in OT.

Final Answer!

Go Huskies!!!

I’m circling this prediction.

 

[Bone Dog]

Just as a way of gauging SC and Tennessee, the game this evening is quite revealing. SC looks mostly like they are a cut above, as expected, and especially in terms of sound fundamentals. By contrast, Tennessee looks quite ragged in terms of fundamentals. It may be inevitable for a pressing team that their half court defense is not very good, and especially their defensive rebounding. Little in the way of boxing out on that end of the floor, and very undeveloped help defense, which means they get beat off the dribble frequently. They get a lot of O-boards, but don't convert them very efficiently. That said, it's worth noting that SC's offense could occasionally look stagnant. It also seems like they are not used to being pressed and struggled on some inbounds plays.

It looks like Caldwell's game plan is to run as hard as they can and hope to tire opponents out and knock them out of their comfort zone. And if this doesn't work, they struggle with half court defense and offense. If they don't get their 3s to fall, they don't have much to fall back on. In effect, it's transition offense or nothing. A sign of this is that they took over 70 shots but only had 8 assists. Other than transition scores, it's all clearcuts and 3s. That is too narrow a style of offense to play at this level.

The one thing in Tennessee's favor is their depth. They can play like crap for long stretches, and then do a hockey line substitution and suddenly have a new energy. After an abysmal first 7 or 8 minutes in the 3rd, they subbed and went on a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to 14. The new energy helped the transition offense get SC a little off balance for much of the 4th quarter. The thing is, this was pretty exciting, but it wasn't enough to make up for the dry scoring stretches through much of the rest of the game. SC was able to collect themselves just enough to hold them off. It was a 7 point win for SC and it was as close as this suggests. Fatigue seems to have caused SC the most difficulty.

All in all, I think this bodes well for our game against Tennessee, assuming we can play at our pace. And one way to ensure this might be to press them for stretches. This would tend to disrupt their perimeter shooting. The main thing is to expect a 4th quarter surge in energy from them that will power a renewed full court press. This may mean that Geno wants to sub more in the first half to make sure Paige Azzi and Sarah are not tired out at the end. Admittedly, all of Tennessee's weaknesses are on display against the #1 defense in the country. But UConn is probably the #2 defense, so I think the analogy is fair.

 

[adc]

If Jana continues to start (big "if"), she needs to be able to produce 15 to 20 points per game. I watch a lot of TCU, Texas, Kansas St. games.... We need a dominant post scoring plus two of the others main three scoring..... Then really good things will happen and the season last much longer.... The teams mentioned have set plays to get the ball to the post player that almost guarantee a score or foul when shooting... Why can't UConn do the same....??

 

[ABCDFE]

I’m not sure this is accurate. Tessa and Milaysia are talented scorers, as is PaoPao. Tessa even played against Paige a few times in high school back in Minnesota and she was a bright talent even then. Joyce and Chloe are also talented and intense players. Bree and Raven may not be scorers at the same level, but they are excellent defenders and rock solid players.

I think our Big Three is slightly better than Dawn’s Fab Five (I just made that name up), but they are five. That’s a lot of talent on a very athletic, quick team. And Dawn believes the same thing as Geno, that offense comes from defense, and they are a great defensive team.

We’ll have a chance to win this game. But it won’t be from exploiting weaknesses. This will be a strength vs strength rock fight. Paige has been in a few of those and knows how to win them. So has Azzi. And though she’s still a bit of a project and somewhat rough around the edges, Jana has been in a few rock fights in her career.

Think about the game against SC 2 years ago. That was exactly this sort of rock fight and Nika almost engineered an improbable victory against an even stronger version of SC with no Paige or Azzi. Or the game 4 years ago, another rock fight and freshman Paige almost single-handedly won that game in overtime. This year’s version promises to be another one, and these are great games even if you don’t win them.

I put their as fab nine. Any moment any one of her nine player rotation can score double digits. Noodle on that. Just ridiculous the bevy of options for Dawn. We have maybe 4 players if you believe Shade is up to the challenge against top teams. Huge difference. Only thing we can potentially hang our hat in is that Paige/sarah/azzi HAS the potential to score 30.

 

[packwrap]

I put their as fab nine. Any moment any one of her nine player rotation can score double digits. Noodle on that. Just ridiculous the bevy of options for Dawn. We have maybe 4 players if you believe Shade is up to the challenge against top teams. Huge difference. Only thing we can potentially hang our hat in is that Paige/sarah/azzi HAS the potential to score 30.

True. Amazing to me about SC is their 3 best players Fulwiley, T Johnson and Edwards all come off the bench, but play big minutes. Dawn really practices what she preaches about loyalty, team, family and seniority keeping her starters in place.

A big challenge we have is that the players we hope will step up are all still very young: Ash, KK, Morgan, Jana and Ice. The rotation players at SC and ND are more experienced.

 

[Bone Dog]

Amazing to me about SC is their 3 best players Fulwiley, T Johnson and Edwards all come off the bench, but play big minutes

Fulwiley played 9 mins today, and seemed mainly out of control. I take your point about Dawn’s rotation. But I don’t think Fulwiley is one of her best players. She is an outstanding athlete, but only so-so as a basketball player. By contrast, Tessa is a tremendous basketball player, one of the real gems of that recruiting class.

 

[uconnfan68]

Watched some UT-SC, and not sure we can run with either. We’ll need to play our game, and we’ll need a much bigger contribution from our bigs.

 

[Cuango]

If Jana continues to start (big "if"), she needs to be able to produce 15 to 20 points per game. I watch a lot of TCU, Texas, Kansas St. games.... We need a dominant post scoring plus two of the others main three scoring..... Then really good things will happen and the season last much longer.... The teams mentioned have set plays to get the ball to the post player that almost guarantee a score or foul when shooting... Why can't UConn do the same....??

Well, one reason is that the teams you mentioned all have tremendously experienced post players! Jana is a freshman who is very inexperienced and who plays on a team where the post is a complementary piece, not the main focus! She will get there and be a good to great player for us but she is simply not ready to play that role yet. I do believe she is getting better but she’s just not there yet!

 

[Viet Vet]

1. Boards
2. Boards
3. Boards

 

[JellyBean]

After watching the SC/Ten game, my thoughts have not changed. We can win against Tennessee, but we have to finish our shots on layups and make good shot selections and make our shots. We like to settle for the pull up jumper. Nothing wrong with that, as long as we are making those shots, and we have decent rebounding to put back the missed shots.

I worry about players like Jana and Sarah in the track meet against the Lady Vols but then I figure we have Morgan who is a decent rebounder and Ice. Will Sarah and Jana be able to handle that pace? Will Morgan and Ice, if they miss an assignment or a shot or two, will they get pulled and have to sit the bench putting more pressure on Sarah and Jana. Will Coach go deep with the bench? We have capable players. Just a matter of how confident those players in the heat of the battle and we won't know for sure until we see them in the heat of the moment. The same with South Carolina. To be honest, I don't see us beating South Carolina because of their depth and how Coach Staley uses her bench vs the way we use our bench.

 

[Jonathan14]

After watching the SC/Ten game, my thoughts have not changed. We can win against Tennessee, but we have to finish our shots on layups and make good shot selections and make our shots. We like to settle for the pull up jumper. Nothing wrong with that, as long as we are making those shots, and we have decent rebounding to put back the missed shots.

I worry about players like Jana and Sarah in the track meet against the Lady Vols but then I figure we have Morgan who is a decent rebounder and Ice. Will Sarah and Jana be able to handle that pace? Will Morgan and Ice, if they miss an assignment or a shot or two, will they get pulled and have to sit the bench putting more pressure on Sarah and Jana. Will Coach go deep with the bench? We have capable players. Just a matter of how confident those players in the heat of the battle and we won't know for sure until we see them in the heat of the moment. The same with South Carolina. To be honest, I don't see us beating South Carolina because of their depth and how Coach Staley uses her bench vs the way we use our bench.

I agree with almost all of your points, but I think Sarah will be OK with the pace vs. Tennessee. She's so poised with the ball in her hands, and her conditioning is excellent. I don't think she'll wilt under their pressure. (Fingers crossed!)

 

[Bone Dog]

but then I figure we have Morgan who is a decent rebounder and Ice.

Now you have me wondering if Tennessee could turn out to be Morgan’s breakout game. It’s not just about rebounding. She’s also a good ball handler who runs the court really well. That could be important against Tennessee.

we have to finish our shots on layups and make good shot selections and make our shots.

It’s interesting how certain elements always seem to appear on pressing teams. Cooper, Spearman and Whitehorn get blocks not because they’re tall (though Spearman is) but because they run the floor well. This is a good bunch to run a press with because they’re athletic and quick. The opposing team, when they break the press is vulnerable to blocks from behind if they try to get a quick score.

What does this mean for UConn? Well, UConn is also a pressing team (though not on the scale Tennessee is) and knows how to make those same blocks and also knows how to finish in transition. Paige and Sarah are masters at using their bodies to score on the break and force a foul. Aubrey is supreme at this, and Ash is pretty good at it, too.

Whatever happens, UConn has to break their press and score against it to discourage it. One way is to force Tennessee to play half court defense. Another is to press them back. But you can’t press if you don’t score. And some of our players have experience in pressing defense — I’m thinking particularly of Kaitlyn and Azzi, but also Sarah Ash and Morgan, each of whom played the ’tip of the spear’ on their HS team’s press. Sarah is especially good at trapping at midcourt. And of course, Paige is really good at forcing turnovers on inbounds plays.

 

[Bigboote]

I agree with almost all of your points, but I think Sarah will be OK with the pace vs. Tennessee. She's so poised with the ball in her hands, and her conditioning is excellent. I don't think she'll wilt under their pressure. (Fingers crossed!)

Plus, Hollingshead and Spearman are Tennesse’s only players taller than 6-2. They’re good, but I think Jana and Ice will match up pretty well.

ETA: Regarding pressing and Morgan, UConn should have four good ball handlers on the floor at all times. There should be three of the guard corps of Paige, Kaitlyn, Azzi, KK, and Ashlynn. Kaitlyn is the only one of those averaging much more than one turnover per game, and she’s reduced that recently. Add some length with Sarah and Morgan. And Ice, with some length and who is a very good passer, can be somewhat up the court to receive a pass and hit a cutter or an open three-point shooter.

 

[Steelerone]

Rebound, rebound, rebound. Offensively and defensively. I don't know what the answer is, perhaps Geno does, but we do not have a true rebounder on our team and when you play athletic teams like South Carolina that proves to be the glaring weakness.

 

[CONN78SEJ]

After watching the SC/Ten game, my thoughts have not changed. We can win against Tennessee, but we have to finish our shots on layups and make good shot selections and make our shots. We like to settle for the pull up jumper. Nothing wrong with that, as long as we are making those shots, and we have decent rebounding to put back the missed shots.

I worry about players like Jana and Sarah in the track meet against the Lady Vols but then I figure we have Morgan who is a decent rebounder and Ice. Will Sarah and Jana be able to handle that pace? Will Morgan and Ice, if they miss an assignment or a shot or two, will they get pulled and have to sit the bench putting more pressure on Sarah and Jana. Will Coach go deep with the bench? We have capable players. Just a matter of how confident those players in the heat of the battle and we won't know for sure until we see them in the heat of the moment. The same with South Carolina. To be honest, I don't see us beating South Carolina because of their depth and how Coach Staley uses her bench vs the way we use our bench.

I don’t think Jana is going to play all that much especially against Tennessee and maybe South Carolina. There’s only one month left in the regular season and she still has not adjusted to playing college ball in the United States. Last two games her time on the court has been in the single digits. I think Geno will go with a combination of Ice Brady and Sarah down low, and may even some hi/low between the two.