Impressions after the Temple game

[CocoHusky]

Very slippery floor. Kia fell twice in the first 5 Minutes of the game. I was hoping they would mop the floor at half time but they did not. The team was clearly lacking energy, Morgan especially, even one of her made layups barely crawled over the rim. The Temple guards Fitzgerald and Butts did a nice job of getting into the lane and finishing-Eerily reminiscent of Stanford last season. The best on ball defense was played by Gabby. Geno is definitely cooking up something for this year or next. At one Point had a line up of Butler, Tuck, Stewie, KLS and Moriah on the floor playing a 2 X 3 zone. The Doghouse seems to be intermittently crowded. Kia spent quite a bit of the first half there and Saniya spent the whole game there & Collier visited. Saniya looked physically ok in warm up, so I'll have to check the replay to see if I can spot the reason for the quick hook.

 

[chrissaran]

You can't expect Natalie to be a world beater when she gets thrown into games for just a few minutes. She rarely plays with the first team, which makes it difficult to develop chemistry. This is not Gabby getting a lot of minutes with the starters.

 

[hardcorehusky]

Look at the contributions through the season. Not today against Temple. Gabby has improved but remember last year, she was given sporadic minutes. Napheesa and Natalie are in their first year. It is also not easy to be the new kid on the block with Stewie, MoJeff and Morgan. They have been playing together for almost 4 years. Let's enjoy this year as the team has more than a few options to win any game en route to number 11. Let's worry about next year's team after the Final Four!!

 

[Gus Mahler]

I think Gabby is talented enough to be THE player in every game situation, her ceiling is enormous. I also think it's very hard for underclassmen to be consistently aggressive when your team has all-time seniors on it.

Yes. This point is often lost on critics. It's got to be even harder when you're in for only a short time.

 

[Carnac]

I think the team starts slowly in noon games. They play better at 1 or 2 PM. Seriously.

Also, they must have had cheesesteaks for breakfast. They were slippery-handed much of the game.

Geno also said that for some reason, UConn dose not play well in that area. That coupled with the early start time and the pasta dinner may be factors for the team's sluggishness today. It would not surprise me if a couple of home cooked meals and two good night's of rest doesn't shake off the funk they were in today. I'm sure we'll see the UConn Huskie team of old come Tuesday against Cincy.

 

[HuskyNan]

I think we're better with Gabby on the floor.
We're spoiled with Mo and Stewart. They are really good.
I wish Butler was as good as Sauer. Very slow. No quicks. No strength.
Collier is getting the Chong treatment.
Kia is everyone's golden child. Everyone is always making excuses for her poor play. 3 turnovers in the first five minutes against SC. 6 turnovers today. Chong 4 min.
Tuck did not look right today.

Temple was playing 5 guards and Napheesa can't defnd guards. Natalie at least was able to occupy the paint and slow down the dribble drives. And Saniya's IT Band Syndrome inhibits her abilty to move laterally to defend the quick Temple guards.

Basketball is a game of matchups and Geno went with the players he thought could do best this game. The lineups will change as the team's needs do.

 

[MilfordHusky]

My only "complaint" about Natalie is that she gets her hands on balls that she doesn't corral. I'd like to see her stronger, more sure-handed, and more aggressive. She can reach a lot of balls; she needs to hang on to them.

 

[bags27]

I think Gabby is talented enough to be THE player in every game situation, her ceiling is enormous. I also think it's very hard for underclassmen to be consistently aggressive when your team has all-time seniors on it. The only thing that concerns me about Gabby is her knees, other than that I think she leaves this program a great player.
.

I agree and am a huge Gabby fan. But watching her today, it seemed that her greatest plays came from when Stewie got double coverage and she got a pass in open space. Gabby could still improve hugely over the summer, but she will be a marked woman next season, drawing maybe the most athletic defender (if that doesn't go to Lou). No question that she's got the toughness to compete, but she will be marked.

 

[Kibitzer]

When Nat entered the lineup, Ward and Peck commented that UConn changed D to a 2-3 zone for some imaginary strategic reason. I think Doris Burke would have realized that Geno automatically goes into a zone D when Nat is on the court cuz she can't chase those itty-bitty guards.

 

[vtcwbuff]

" . . . a couple of home cooked meals"

Home cooked Ramen noodles?

 

[Ozimoto]

My take from this game is that if you want to attempt to beat UConn this year, you play a four or five guard lineup. Playing helter skelter throws off the UConn offensive machine because the pace and on ball harassment created by the four or five guard lineup messes up the offensive flow in the forecourt. You can see this from the games where they have been challenged where the point production is down and the turnovers go up. Notre Dame and Maryland both ran essentially four guard sets and they gave UConn competitive games. UConn has great players, but with the exception of Moriah, the guards aren't what I would call lightning quick.

There were several occasions when Natalie was in the high post and she tried to force the ball to Stewie instead of taking a shot from the foul line area. I think the better play would have been to take a foul line jump shot (in general she seems to be reluctant to shoot the past few games). She may be guilty of "deferring to the upper class man" or it may be that the coaching staff wants her to concentrate on passing skills ala Stephanie instead of scoring. If that is the case, what we are sometimes frustrated about may be a result of the coaches taking the long view of things. This team doesn't need Natalie to score. For now, it is more important that she distributes the ball within the offensive scheme.

As for her hands, I have had torn thumb ligaments and it takes time to get comfortable and confident in your ability to hang on to the ball and it affects your touch as well. I would not be surprised if she still has some pain or discomfort in the thumb if she really tries to "squeeze" the ball when pulling down a rebound. She was being swarmed when she got the ball as were Stewie and Tuck. Tuck looked slow too compared to the guards that were harassing her as she tried to drive and score. Natalie did have one very pretty play where she cut to the basket for a layup when I believe it was Stewie in the high post. I think it came from a roll after she set a high screen on the wing.

 

[Tonyc]

• This is only one game. How many games in a row did UConn win by double digits? The offense is set up to go through Stewie Mojeff and Tuck. Geno said we need to make 3 pt shots thus we have Tuck Lou and Nurse taking outside shots. We need to make 3 pt shots not including Stewie and Mojeff. We can afford to have Lou and Nurse on the perimeter trying to get their shots to fall as our big 3 can handle the scoring punch. IMO both are better from inside the arc but that's not what Geno sees we need. Saniya is hurt or I think we would see a lot more of her and her outside shot is really good. So for the rest of the season I think we see a lot of combos to experiment and see where we are and where were headed.

• I hear a lot of concern about next season without Stewie and Mojeff and maybe Tuck. Well next season we will be a different team with a different strategy. We wont be running plays through Stewie or Mojeff and maybe not Tuck. We will be running plays that compliment our roster. We will lack a lot of upper classman experience but we wont lack much experience at the guard positions and we wont lack height. We don't know where we will be. until we see the team execute next season.

• UConn graduates a lot as does every other top team. We are in better shape then most teams next season. We have Lou number 1 in her class we still have Collier a top 10 player in her class and we bring in Dangerfield top 3 in her class to go along with our roster that does have experience. I really don't think there is a lot to worry about next season. I don't expect us to win every game by 40 and I don't expect us to lose a lot of games either. We have the talent height and some experience and we've got......Geno and his coaching staff. Lets see how it plays out.