Some of you guys don't seem to understand the focus of these European trips. It's not about playing "high stress" games against top notch teams. Geno puts it into easy to understand terms in the last paragraph of this article that came out 10 days ago. It's baout getting a feel for YOUR team and how they interact. You can do that without playing an Olympic contender.
Why UConn women's European tour is about more than basketball for Geno Auriemma: 'You learn'
Why UConn women's European tour is about more than basketball for Geno Auriemma: 'You learn'
That's a great point.
As a side note, for me, I love watching blowout games. I love seeing our team play, even an overmatched PC or Xavier, when we are all clicking and running crisp offense while playing smothering defense.
But from a "top view" perspective, I think it was probably great for the team to have 3 nice and easy games where they could all get PT, feel good about what they were doing on both sides of the floor, and then to have a more challenging 4th game. You can see, at least from the box score, how they figured things out at halftime - up by 3 but won the game by 19.
Not only was it a great experience for the team - chemistry, some seeing foreign countries for the 1st time, etc., but also actually playing games vs. just practicing, doing so in an organized setting with shot clocks, refs, coaching, subs, etc. If not for the European trip, we'd have just 1 exhibition game before the regular season.
Having a bit of a challenge in the 4th game, even for a super young team with lots of new pieces, playing without Paige, Carol (for the most part), Amari and Ayanna (not forgetting Jana, but she's out for the year), I think it was incredible experience for the 4 newbies (including Ice). Aside from Carol's continued issue with her head being a magnet for all things hard, it was a win-win-win for everyone in so many ways...