Kitija Laksa Has Her Say About Tonight

[RockyMTblue2]

USF's Kitija Laksa looks to thwart history against UConn

“Of course we want to mess up their celebration party,” Laksa told Excelle Sports.

 

[oldude]

Looks like bulletin board material to me.

 

[bags27]

USF's Kitija Laksa looks to thwart history against UConn
“Of course we want to mess up their celebration party,” Laksa told Excelle Sports.

While I'm sure fans will go nuts if UConn wins tonight (and wish I could be there, but....), I'm also sure that the team won't celebrate too much. Geno will allow them to appreciate it, but not bask in it...even if they win #91. The big prize is still out there in April.

 

[BigBird]

Looks like bulletin board material to me.

Though we should expect her to say what?

 

[HuskyBandDad]

Though we should expect her to say what?

"Yea we are going to lose by 20"

 

[BigBird]

"Yea we are going to lose by 20"

Yeah. I was thinking, "I put down a C-note that says we don't cover."

 

[oldude]

Though we should expect her to say what?

If she said exactly the same thing in Latvian, or whatever language they speak in Riga, it would have been far less useful as bulletin board material for the Huskies.

 

[chrissaran]

Courtney Williams promised a victory once, and USF lost by forty points. Say it's going to be a challenge and that we are going to give everything we have. Promising a victory is not smart. Do you see UConn promsing that they'll win tonight? They celebrate at the end of the year. If beating UConn is their ultimate goal, then they have the wrong goal. Also, they haven't played one ranked team. Mighty boastful.

 

[huskeynut]

I would expect nothing less from a competitor. USF should not back down.

That doesn't mean they are going to stop the party - they won't. But I like the swagger.

UConn by 23 - at least.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

While I'm sure fans will go nuts if UConn wins tonight (and wish I could be there, but....), I'm also sure that the team won't celebrate too much. Geno will allow them to appreciate it, but not bask in it...even if they win #91. The big prize is still out there in April.

I'm not so sure about the "No Basking" part. A few times Geno has expressed a desire to see more emotion, including victory celebrations. Remember his mockery of their tepid fist bump celebrations after ND and Baylor? I suspect Mo, Stewie and Morgan (bet she'll be there) will jump up and down and whoop it up a bit.

 

[HoopsFan21]

Huskies by 65.

 

[USFMB]

Courtney Williams promised a victory once, and USF lost by forty points. Say it's going to be a challenge and that we are going to give everything we have. Promising a victory is not smart. Do you see UConn promsing that they'll win tonight? They celebrate at the end of the year. If beating UConn is their ultimate goal, then they have the wrong goal. Also, they haven't played one ranked team. Mighty boastful.

Laksa did not promise a victory, in the article I read.

Of course the USF WBB would want to win.

As a psychology major, I don't believe she would guarantee a win over ANY team.


Player Profile: USF Forward Kitija Laksa

 

[JoePgh]

The other semi-provocative comment is this statement referring to the impact of last year's graduation on the two teams: "We lost a couple players; they lost a couple players."

As the article notes, the USF players who graduated were Courtney Williams, Aleshia Jenkins, and Shalethia Stringfield. The UConn players who graduated were Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck.

Fairly comparable losses, so no big deal, right?

 

[bags27]

Laksa did not promise a victory, in the article I read.

Of course the USF WBB would want to win.

As a psychology major, I don't believe she would guarantee a win over ANY team.

1. She may have declared a psych major, but there's a big difference between a sophomore declaration and a completed major!
2. And maybe she takes after Joey, who also seemed to get ahead of himself bragging-wise (see Fav TV Show).

 

[USFMB]

The other semi-provocative comment is this statement referring to the impact of last year's graduation on the two teams: "We lost a couple players; they lost a couple players."

As the article notes, the USF players who graduated were Courtney Williams, Aleshia Jenkins, and Shalethia Stringfield. The UConn players who graduated were Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck.

Fairly comparable losses, so no big deal, right?

Relatively speaking, the loss to each team is fairly comparable.

 

[oldude]

Laksa did not promise a victory, in the article I read.

Of course the USF WBB would want to win.

As a psychology major, I don't believe she would guarantee a win over ANY team.

Yes, but she does want to, "mess up our celebration party." I am sorry, but given her attitude, there will be no cake & ice cream for Kitija tonight. More likely she'll receive a large helping of Gabby.

 

[UcMiami]

She didn't promise a victory - thought it was a very good interview and straight forward. They are a 'rebuilding' team in the same sense that Uconn is, and have done better than most expected after they lost their three seniors. Kudos to them.
Should be a fun game.

 

[Carnac]

“I was hurt. I was just out of an ankle injury and playing through pain,” Kitija Laksa recalled. “But now, with everything that we’ve done [this season] and the way we’ve practiced, we’re ready. I’m ready.”

I assume that there will be no excuses offered/given if they lose to UConn tonight. "We're ready, I'm ready". As poster Chrissaran (above) pointed out, they have yet to play a ranked team. They have not played any team that has prepared them to play UConn. A string of "mid-majors" with a sprinkling of cupcakes thrown in to add a bit of flavor. That's been their schedule to date. They lost to Long Beach State 73-68 during a tournament in Las Vegas last month.
If their top 5 scorers score their season average tonight, that's 66 points. I don't believe that will happen. USF will need more than 66 points to beat UConn.

2016-17 Women's Basketball USF Combined Team Statistics (as of Jan 07, 2017) All games
RECORD: OVERALL HOME AWAY NEUTRAL ALL GAMES 13-1 6-0 3-0 4-1 CONFERENCE 2-0 1-0 1-0 0-0 NON-CONFERENCE 11-1 5-0 2-0 4-1

## Player gp-gs min avg fg-fga fg% 3fg-fga 3fg% ft-fta ft% off def tot avg pf dq a to blk stl pts avg
33 LAKSA, Kitija 14-14 463 33.1 107-252 . 4 2 5 54-126 . 4 2 9 34-36 . 9 4 4 11 51 62 4.4 24 0 13 27 2 10 302 21.6 ppg
12 JESPERSEN, Maria 14-14 456 32.6 73-159 . 4 5 9 23-67 . 3 4 3 33-39 . 8 4 6 44 90 134 9.6 25 1 28 36 4 9 202 14.4
11 PUJOL, Ariadna 14-14 467 33.4 67-138 . 4 8 6 13-48 . 2 7 1 51-71 . 7 1 8 30 59 89 6.4 30 1 47 32 2 15 198 14.1
22 FLORES, Laia 14-14 491 35.1 43-108 . 3 9 8 7-33 . 2 1 2 40-52 . 7 6 9 7 49 56 4.0 20 0 99 26 1 16 133 9.5
10 FERREIRA, Laura 9-0 131 14.6 17-44 . 3 8 6 11-26 . 4 2 3 9-9 1.000 3 22 25 2.8 9 0 13 11 1 4 54 6.0
23 HENSHAW, Tamara 14-5 316 22.6 38-65 . 5 8 5 0-0 . 0 0 0 5-14 . 3 5 7 36 67 103 7.4 23 0 10 8 13 10 81 5.8
13 NAGY, Dorottya 13-0 199 15.3 29-57 . 5 0 9 3-5 . 6 0 0 11-15 . 7 3 3 14 21 35 2.7 23 0 14 23 5 11 72 5.5
03 BOND, Jazz 13-0 99 7.6 13-32 . 4 0 6 5-16 . 3 1 3 2-2 1.000 2 15 17 1.3 6 0 3 6 6 2 33 2.5
14 CASHIN, Paige 5-0 25 5.0 5-6 . 8 3 3 0-0 . 0 0 0 0-0 . 0 0 0 0 3 3 0.6 1 0 1 0 0 0 10 2.0
45 WEBER, Katelyn 11-9 101 9.2 6-10 . 6 0 0 0-0 . 0 0 0 2-2 1.000 14 20 34 3.1 9 0 2 7 2 0 14 1.3
32 WARIOBA, Nancy 6-0 27 4.5 3-5 . 6 0 0 0-0 . 0 0 0 1-4 . 2 5 0 2 7 9 1.5 4 0 1 2 1 2 7 1.2
20 DE JESUS, Nachalie 5-0 26 5.2 0-2 . 0 0 0 0-0 . 0 0 0 0-0 . 0 0 0 1 4 5 1.0 2 0 1 2 1 0 0 0.0

Total.......... 14 2801 401-878 . 4 5 7 116-321 . 3 6 1 188-244 . 7 7 0 192 447 639 45.6 178 2 232 185 38 79 1106 79.0
Opponents...... 14 2801 299-860 . 3 4 8 96-308 . 3 1 2 109-150 . 7 2 7 129 311 440 31.4 294 - 152 178 41 70 803 57.4

Score by Periods 1st 2nd 3rd 4th Totals
USF 266 239 318 283 1106
Opponents 182 202 209 210 803
Date - Opponent Score
11/15/16 North Florida 78-42
11/21/16 Jacksonville 64-52
11/24/16 North Carolina 83-55
11/26/16 Georgia 81-65
11/30/16 FIU 91-41
12/02/16 at Butler 74-59
12/11/16 at Arkansas State 78-59
12/14/16 St Francis 129-80
12/19/16 Long Beach St. 68-73 (L)
12/20/16 Santa Clara 63-54
12/21/16 UNLV 77-42
12/30/16 Stetson 74-60
1/4/17 at Tulane 62-53
01/07/17 Tulsa 84-68

 

[jimazee]

“It’s a privilege to play them on such a big night.” A very "respectful" interview. Nothing to complain about.

I hope they give the Huskies a good game, but expect UConn to win comfortably.

 

[JavaMan]

Should be interesting. But UConn is still (3:30pm) favored by 30.5

​

 

[Ozzie Nelson]

If she said exactly the same thing in Latvian, or whatever language they speak in Riga, it would have been far less useful as bulletin board material for the Huskies.

"or whatever language they speak in Riga,"

Since you brought it up...Riga is a very international European city, so many languages dot the verbal landscape. Latvian, of course, is the native language, and the denizens are very proud of such. A great deal of Russian is heard, as you might expect since they took over the country by military force. Imagine how that might be similarly experienced/felt/perceived in USA....

 

[JavaMan]

Should be interesting. But UConn is still (3:30pm) favored by 30.5

View attachment 18457 ​

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And it just went to 31+. Wonder what the money knows that we don't.

link won't hold (must be some type of restriction - am I violating a Boneyard rule/regulation?)​

 

[alexrgct]

I was a psychology major as an undergrad myself. Geno, regardless of his academic accreditations, is a master psychologist. I hope he's spurring his kids to victory tonight.

Maybe we just need to use The Force. There is no try; just DO.

Tonight is such a huge night. Our girls need to respond! They did against Baylor, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and UMD. And FSU- let's hold on to that tight game, move some letters around, and turn the win over FSU into a win over USF!

 

[Shorty Dee]

I have watched enough games to know that Laska motivated UConn even more. We already know she won't have the game she had against Tulsa, but after that statement, she might have a Nina Davis (vs UConn) type of game. The more opponents talk, the more motivated the ladies are. UConn might score more than we imagined. We could see more than 5 in double figures tonight. So for that, I say keep talking .

 

[oldude]

I have watched enough games to know that Laska motivated UConn even more. We already know she won't have the game she had against Tulsa, but after that statement, she might have a Nina Davis (vs UConn) type of game. The more opponents talk, the more motivated the ladies are. UConn might score more than we imagined. We could see more than 5 in double figures tonight. So for that, I say keep talking .

I tend to agree with your sentiment. I also have the thought that the Huskies have not played in almost a week. The holidays are over. School isn't back in session, so they really don't have anything to do but practice. It's also that time of year in Storrs where the weather is cold and gray. Could be a lot of frustration building up. I actually fear for the Bulls that they might be headed for something similar to Depaul..........actually I really don't fear for the Bulls.