Jeff Jacobs: ND shows its tough side and UConn doesn't

[UConnCat]

Afterward, coach Muffet McGraw did everything but scream, 'We've got Diggins and you don't!"

There's no way McGraw would say that. That statement will forever be reserved for one player's name. Still, even reading the suggestion of it is salt in the wound.

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn...-column-0106-20130106,0,4160535.column?page=1

 

[tomcat]

I like most everything Jacobs writes, and this column is well-written, but I disagree with the initial premise. Sure, in the end, it was the KML shot that did not fall, but it was so many other things that are more important than a well-set-up clear shot that the team's best long-rang shooter generally makes. There was, in the end, nothing wrong with anything that happened except, obviously, that the ball did not go in.

Wish I could say that about other things, because the game was just as much about the defensive stop on Mabry that should have happened -- whose assignment was she, anyway? -- the Stewart layup that should have gone in, and again, and again. It was about the ill-considered threes that Stewart and others jacked up with lots of time left on the clock.

Yes, it's about mental toughness, but it also appears to have been about judgment, too. And as much as anything else, that is what the UConn women are going to have to learn.

 

[bruinbball]

Diggins' and McBride's swagger has obviously rubbed off on the newcomers. I would love to see all of our players have that level of confidence -without the annoying factor.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Skylar Diggins is no Diana Taurasi. Very simply.

 

[UConnCat]

Yes, it's about mental toughness, but it also appears to have been about judgment, too. And as much as anything else, that is what the UConn women are going to have to learn.

Mental toughness = good judgment
Mental toughness = good decisions on offense and defense
Mental toughness = making big plays in big moments

I think Jacobs is referring to all the things that go in to making a team mentally tough. There's much, much more to making a player and a team mentally tough than the things I mentioned and ND had more of them today.

 

[blackbird]

Skylar Diggins is no Diana Taurasi. Very simply.

She's not in the sense that she's not as good.

She is in the sense of how she likes to torture one particular team. It just so happens to be us.

 

[UConnCat]

She is in the sense of how she likes to torture one particular team. It just so happens to be us.

Exactly. I'm beginning to understand how LV fans felt back in the day. And Geno maybe understands how Summitt felt.

 

[MilfordHusky]

She's not in the sense that she's not good.

She is in the sense of how she likes to torture one particular team. It just so happens to be us.

She started poorly against us as a frosh, but she now has won 5 of 6. Like Diana vs. the LVs.

Where is Barb Turner when you need her? She was an Irish killer.

 

[ScarlettB]

I know many on this board don't like Skylar and I will agree she whines a bit too much, but IMO she always plays hard and she makes her teammates better. She may not be Taurasi, but she has a lot of confidence, is mentally tough and she gets the job done.

 

[tomcat]

Let's face it: It terms of TV coverage, Skylar is this year's Maya, and we just have to get used to it. Not in terms of quality as a player, but in terms of being attractive, tough and articulate. Right now she has the title of TV WBB queen, and it's hers to lose.