Given the team is decimated with injuries, we showed grit.
We ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. The reason is we have no bench right now.
The team will be different when Azzi and Nika return, which I think will be soon.
Things could be much, much worse.
82, I completely agree with your take. That game showed us EXACTLY where they are, and exactly what Geno needed to see. Allow me to share a couple of observations here.........
1. Our girls DID show some grit! They played hard and never quit. That's all you can ask of any player (team). Again, I remind everyone that the gap that used to be there between UConn and the rest of WCBB is gone.....probably forever. It's gone whether you choose to accept it or not. There are other teams that are RIGHT NOW as talented as UConn, and in some cases with a deeper bench that the coaches are not reluctant to use. Look at the box score from yesterday. Look at the minutes the 5 reserves got.
[Box score]
2.
Our starters OUT SCORED Louisville's starters 60-47. Our starters did their job. The difference is they got no help and Louisville's players were able to make plays in the closing minutes of the game. Walz's bench scored 22 points, ours = 4. We lost by 5. Walz played 10 players, Geno played 7 with DeBerry only getting 3 minutes. Three of Walz's reserves got double digit minutes, yet his team was able to stay in the game. That "deep" bench we spoke of everyday during the summer has completely disappeared. During the game, the camera panned over to the UConn bench. I commented in the chatroom that our bench looked like a "MASH" ward. Most of the players on the bench were injured.
3. Only 1 LV starter player over 31 minutes. Ducharme and Williams played 40 minutes, Westbrook 38 and Juhasz 36. ONO would have played 36+ except for foul trouble. I think her prolonged absence was the difference in the game.
4. Our girls were tired in the 4th quarter, as opposed to the RESTED players Walz had on the floor.
5. Another disparity...LV went to the FT line 20 times making 17. We went only 10 times making 7. That's 10 points right there. Again, we lost by 5. We only turned the ball over 1 more time (14) than they did, but were unable to convert many of those TO's into points.
When you look at all of the variables, our girls really didn't play that badly. They were simply out-maned. They did the very best they could. Yes, they lost, but I'm very proud of them, and proud to call myself a UConn WBB fan!!! The sun rose this morning, and things will get better as the season progresses. I don't worry about Amari. She's a rose bud that has yet to bloom. Like all rose buds, she'll bloom when she's ready. When she does, Geno will play her. Everyone's timeline is different.
Geno tells us every year that on average, it takes most freshmen a full year to understand his system, and be able to function in it. She's still got 5 months left. Almost 1/3 of the season is already over. Now comes conference play. Time to get healthy and healed and get our wounded warriors back on the court, and more game experience for our newbies. Like the Somali pirate kept telling Captain Phillips throughout the movie
"Relax, everything is going to be alright." 
