Just for the record

[tomcat]

I'd never try to rain on the unabashedly positive post that was started earlier. It's a fine idea. But I do have to say I am offended by the first responsive post, which was from someone who opined that those of us who from time to time appear critical of the team are doing so to prove our chops as serious students of basketball.

Hogwash.

I, for one, freely admit I know little of the technical side of the game. I watch UConn WCBB because ....wait for it...I actually enjoy seeing these really good players do well against all sorts of competition. Despite having done this since 1995, I still don't know enough of the Xs and Os to consider myself anything more than conversant with the basics.

But like all of us, I do have opinions. Sometimes they are well thought out and sometimes (as fellow BYers point out), they are not. And because I'm a fan, I occasionally worry about various aspects of the team's play, as in, for example, early in the year when I wondered if the coaching staff would be able to get the chemistry right, particularly when it came to Azuras's integration into the team. And I was one of many who noticed that when the freshmen and sophomores got in the game, the level of play did not merely decline, it plummeted.

I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks that such observations are an attempt to prove the speaker is a hoops expert is really off the rails, because those observations are nothing more than what any sighted person could see. Those of us who have commented in this way can perhaps be criticized for stating the obvious, but not for overreaching.

 

[UcMiami]

We all follow a team and coaching staff that 'strive for perfection' and we all see them fall short on a daily basis. To comment on those 'failures' either in a general way or with specifics of Xs and Os is what fans do, so no need to defend yourself.

I have found this year a little strange as we seem to have a higher level of negativity for so early in the season. I wonder if it is maybe based on higher expectations coming into this season than last year, or maybe even a higher general angst in our society?

Every year is a learning curve for the team and a much larger one for the freshmen and things start to gel around the start of the new year. Last year with only one freshman expected to contribute and the two sophomores being pretty special players the gelling occurred quickly while the expectations were for the team to suffer multiple losses before the NCAAs - so maybe people just forgot what it was like watching sophomore, junior, and even senior Moriah throwing up bricks from the arc through Christmas as she struggled to manage each year's new team.

 

[MSGRET]

I believe that it is that many people are afraid of not winning the NC again because of the loss in the FF, even though Geno had said all year long that the team needed to have their backsides beat so that they would believe that they are beatable. I think some of the players (reserves mostly) are still a little nervous from the defeat.

I have watched UCONN Basketball as much as possible since watching my first game live while stationed in The Netherlands, it was the 95 Championship game, the first live broadcast of a Woman's Championship by AFN. I went to my first game just this year when UCONN came to Reno, met a great couple from CN at the hotel, took them to the game and had a great dinner afterwards. It was Bob that turned me to the Boneyard thread.