Louisville Postgame Thread

[PacoSwede]

first game, so i don't expect a FF performance.

however, i was unhappy to see three things that were carried over from last season, and i hope they will be fixed this year:

1) the universal bad day on OPEN treys. and individually i see a recurring dilemma with ashlynn and azzi. we shall see if monday's was simply an off game that won't repeatedly return. but it definitely was a flaw last season, and therefore something to cause pause.

Ash continued a tendency to be an extremely streaky shooter (yet a terrific 'glue' player). she'd be absolutely awesome if she gets some consistency shooting (and not just from beyond the arc). there was some discussion here early last season about some technical problem with her shooting form. that wasn't pursued much, but could be an issue. i'm also baffled that she has failed to bring her extraordinary midrange game displayed in high school (it now might be muffled by taller and athletic rivals, or maybe confidence in the midrange has departed, or maybe the staff wants her to focus elsewhere, which would be stupid).

Azzi has been inconsistent routinely. this is not a good thing for a potential POY. i sure hope whatever causes it can be resolved. being red hot and then icy cold is a weakness the W won't like, despite her other virtues. husky fans won't either.

2) we don't have a bunch of EDDs in gampel. but at least they should be capable of sinking 75-80%. they have done so at times, but missing free throws drives me nuts (even when the other teams does it). monday had too many misses and not enough opportunities. AGAIN!

3) geno continued his obsession with limiting playtime for some. i know that this is a way to make the team super-efficient through cohesion, building chemistry among the favored few. If winning is the sole goal, it makes sense. i don't believe in that. in the long run, it can be counterproductive. uconn had an almost 30-point lead in the 3rd Q, and some very talented players who saw little or no time on the court. that's not supportive of allie, the backup bigs (including ayanna) or Kelis. and what happens when, hopefully, morgan and blanca are available? I say play these kids whenever you can, especially when the favored begin underperforming -- maybe one might be a revelation. and if they flop and it causes a loss (before the tourneys), is that so bad, considering the potential benefits, including more rest for uconn's best.

4) on the good side monday: the game could be viewed live on a major network, not just streamed. YAY!

 

[huskeynut]

During the POST GAME Pressor, Jeff Walz said that in the second
half Louisville switched to a ZONE defense. Any Boneyarder thoughts
about that??

No one should have been surprised Louisville went to a zone.

First, UConn was not hitting their 3's. Two, UConn was ripping apart Louisville's
man defense with our guards driving the lane for layups.

A zone defense is much harder to drive on. You breaka zone defense by hitting your 3's.

 

[Rowdy831]

Defensively the team looked really good. Pressure was good, help was a little slow to get back but at this point seeing a defender get too far from their primary isn't surprising. Offensively I thought the big guns were average considering almost every three they got was wide open. I love the hustle that Ash puts into her game but she really struggles with her three point shooting at times. I really like her in the drive and pull up game to get herself going.

The new center was what I expected from a player from the Big Ten. She is way behind the players that have been at UConn for a while but her athleticism and size will be a huge asset once she is 100% comfortable with her new team and how they operate. She did a good job rebounding and was a much better passer than I was expecting.

Like every year UConn is loaded from top to bottom and they not only have depth, they have it at every position and other than Sarah and Azzi they don't really drop off too much when they sub. I have said several time they would go undefeated and was wrong because of injury so this year I am just going to say they will have a great opportunity to win 13.

 

[Gael]

What happened was Louisville got hot . . .

Sort of. The Cards still were still cold from the field in Q3, shooting 4-15 (26.6%). They did get hot in Q4, shooting 9-15 (60%) and 5-7 on three-pointers (71.4%).

. . . and we started making a few dumb fouls.

Yes, absolutely. L'ville drew 11 FTAs in the second half and made all of them.

L'ville deserves credit for making adjustments and playing better in the second half, but the #1 team in the country and defending national champions shouldn't be outscored in any half by the #20 ranked team. I attribute both the hot L'ville shooting in Q4 and the excessive UConn fouling in H2 in significant part to UConn's work-in-progress team defense, which must improve—and, historically, has always done so.

 

[Suebird10fan]

It’s game one. BUT…for the most part that was a low energy affair. Almost as if there was a bug going around. Yet…they casually controlled the game.

The idea of a bug going around did occur to me. They seemed to get tired maybe mid way through q2

 

[BBallF]

Fair, on offense; the high energy D off the bench though is KKish.

Fair, on offense; the high energy D off the bench though is KKish.

Fair, on offense; the high energy D off the bench though is KKish.

In the sense of high energy yes, but they are different defenders. KK is in your pocket, physically right next to you, whereas K9 plays more of a team defense, tight but much less of a touching, physical defense and is more of an anticipatory defender.

Kayleigh is much more of a true point, moves as well as anyone on the team without the ball, understands the slots, the development of a play, has a pull up jumper, drive moves left and right, and is a good three point shooter although you didn't see it yesterday. KK scores with the ball with very strong drive moves this year and is not getting lost when she penetrates, has new form on her 3 (so much better), while K9 scores playing off of the ball with classic cuts and flashes to the ball and hoop. They both complement each other well and play well together also. They were on the floor together in one of Geno's small ball combinations last night and I thought they looked very much in sync. The combined speed is high level.

What one has to remember is that when KK comes out the defender has to now change her defense to cover Kayleigh. It's not an easy crossover because of different skill sets. I think Kayleigh really grew in the U19 tourney over the summer. She was the starting PG and she is very comfortable out there with this team. This may sound like heresy, but in the long run she may prove to be as valuable as Serah this year.

 

[donalddoowop]

The idea of a bug going around did occur to me. They seemed to get tired maybe mid way through q2

If they got tired, that would be a good reason to substitute in one of the supposedly highly talented bench players.

 

[Superhuskies]

There were no UConn chants done at the game, or did I miss that ?
I kept waiting to hear something ... ..
"UConn, Huskies, Woof !.... " - no ?
There musta been lots UC fans there....
Paige Madison B didn't start one ....herself..??

 

[REB1094]

Shamefully I wasn't able to watch a replay until now. General thoughts -

1. Game was over within 8 minutes against a top 20 team. This team, as expected, is gooooooooooood
2. 4Q was ugly. But you can get outscored by 8 in one quarter if you win the other three by 20. No worries
3. Azzi/Ash/Sarah were high volume shooters that shot 39+% each last year. Don't think we'll see 3-18 again

Individual player thoughts -

1. I said it the last few years too, but a version of KK Arnold that can shoot is a DANGEROUS player
2. lol Sarah Strong. NPOY potential
3. Not a great debut for Serah, looked uncomfortable with the ball. But she had some really good moments passing and crashing boards. Not concerned long term, I'm sure the scoring will come
4. Azzi's three was off but the rest of her game was very on. Solid game and a quiet 20
5. Welcome aboard Kayleigh! What a great game 1 from her. So good at finding open space
6. Not many minutes for Jana and Ice and not much to talk about. They need to produce. Jana definitely did look better than Ice did but we'll need one of them to step up at some point this year

I've missed basketball, let's go Huskies!

 

[boontonbomber]

first game, so i don't expect a FF performance.

however, i was unhappy to see three things that were carried over from last season, and i hope they will be fixed this year:

1) the universal bad day on OPEN treys. and individually i see a recurring dilemma with ashlynn and azzi. we shall see if monday's was simply an off game that won't repeatedly return. but it definitely was a flaw last season, and therefore something to cause pause.

Ash continued a tendency to be an extremely streaky shooter (yet a terrific 'glue' player). she'd be absolutely awesome if she gets some consistency shooting (and not just from beyond the arc). there was some discussion here early last season about some technical problem with her shooting form. that wasn't pursued much, but could be an issue. i'm also baffled that she has failed to bring her extraordinary midrange game displayed in high school (it now might be muffled by taller and athletic rivals, or maybe confidence in the midrange has departed, or maybe the staff wants her to focus elsewhere, which would be stupid).

Azzi has been inconsistent routinely. this is not a good thing for a potential POY. i sure hope whatever causes it can be resolved. being red hot and then icy cold is a weakness the W won't like, despite her other virtues. husky fans won't either.

2) we don't have a bunch of EDDs in gampel. but at least they should be capable of sinking 75-80%. they have done so at times, but missing free throws drives me nuts (even when the other teams does it). monday had too many misses and not enough opportunities. AGAIN!

3) geno continued his obsession with limiting playtime for some. i know that this is a way to make the team super-efficient through cohesion, building chemistry among the favored few. If winning is the sole goal, it makes sense. i don't believe in that. in the long run, it can be counterproductive. uconn had an almost 30-point lead in the 3rd Q, and some very talented players who saw little or no time on the court. that's not supportive of allie, the backup bigs (including ayanna) or Kelis. and what happens when, hopefully, morgan and blanca are available? I say play these kids whenever you can, especially when the favored begin underperforming -- maybe one might be a revelation. and if they flop and it causes a loss (before the tourneys), is that so bad, considering the potential benefits, including more rest for uconn's best.

4) on the good side monday: the game could be viewed live on a major network, not just streamed. YAY!

first game, so i don't expect a FF performance.

however, i was unhappy to see three things that were carried over from last season, and i hope they will be fixed this year:

1) the universal bad day on OPEN treys. and individually i see a recurring dilemma with ashlynn and azzi. we shall see if monday's was simply an off game that won't repeatedly return. but it definitely was a flaw last season, and therefore something to cause pause.

Ash continued a tendency to be an extremely streaky shooter (yet a terrific 'glue' player). she'd be absolutely awesome if she gets some consistency shooting (and not just from beyond the arc). there was some discussion here early last season about some technical problem with her shooting form. that wasn't pursued much, but could be an issue. i'm also baffled that she has failed to bring her extraordinary midrange game displayed in high school (it now might be muffled by taller and athletic rivals, or maybe confidence in the midrange has departed, or maybe the staff wants her to focus elsewhere, which would be stupid).

Azzi has been inconsistent routinely. this is not a good thing for a potential POY. i sure hope whatever causes it can be resolved. being red hot and then icy cold is a weakness the W won't like, despite her other virtues. husky fans won't either.

2) we don't have a bunch of EDDs in gampel. but at least they should be capable of sinking 75-80%. they have done so at times, but missing free throws drives me nuts (even when the other teams does it). monday had too many misses and not enough opportunities. AGAIN!

3) geno continued his obsession with limiting playtime for some. i know that this is a way to make the team super-efficient through cohesion, building chemistry among the favored few. If winning is the sole goal, it makes sense. i don't believe in that. in the long run, it can be counterproductive. uconn had an almost 30-point lead in the 3rd Q, and some very talented players who saw little or no time on the court. that's not supportive of allie, the backup bigs (including ayanna) or Kelis. and what happens when, hopefully, morgan and blanca are available? I say play these kids whenever you can, especially when the favored begin underperforming -- maybe one might be a revelation. and if they flop and it causes a loss (before the tourneys), is that so bad, considering the potential benefits, including more rest for uconn's best.

4) on the good side monday: the game could be viewed live on a major network, not just streamed. YAY!

Part 3 is right on. But he'll never change.

 

[Bigboote]

I think it was a poor coaching decision by Lindsay Gottleib. We're seeing evidence now of what Kayleigh could have been at USC if von Oelhofen hadn't been signed out of the portal at the last minute. In the end, TVO didn't add much that Kayleigh and Malia couldn't have supplied. In Lyndsay's defense, though, it would have taken a lot of nerve to go with a rotation that relied so heavily on 4 freshmen -- Smith, Heckel, Howell and Samuels. But if she'd chanced it, she might not have lost half of them after the end of the season, and her roster this season would have been a lot stronger for it.

Didn't Heckel say something like, she came to UConn to be coached up to her potential? I like Gottlieb, but something doesn't seem right when she lost half of her hyped-up best in the nation freshman class. And it wasn't Juju, because K9 and Howell transferred out after it was clear Juju would miss this season.

 

[RedStickHusky]

This may sound like heresy, but in the long run she may prove to be as valuable as Serah this year.

You could certainly make that case last night.